Around the World Again

Hong Kong – March 8, 2018

What a long day! My tour left the ship at a little after 8 a.m. (I found out later the ship was not cleared until after 10 and all the other tours were delayed) and I returned a little after 8 p.m. That is why this post is late.

Since I had been to Hong Kong twice before, I wanted to see Macau. Like Hong Kong, Macau became a SAR (Special Administrative Region) in the late 1990s when both were turned back over to China. They were guaranteed to continue to have their own laws, lifestyle, economic system, passports, currency, etc. for at least 50 years although China is responsible for foreign affairs and national defense . Unlike Hong Kong which had been a British colony, Macau had been a Portuguese colony.

Portuguese traders first came to the region in the early 1500s and made a permanent settlement in 1557. It remained a Portuguese colony until 1999 being the last European colony in Asia. Even today the official languages are Portuguese and Cantonese although very few speak Portuguese.

My tour was called “Magnificent Macau” and scheduled to be 9.75 hours. We left the Queen’s Lounge shortly after 8 and started the trek through customs and immigration and the terminal (more about this later) to the bus. We left about 8:30 to go to the high-speed ferry that would take us to Macau. Our tickets were for 10:15 so we waited for over a half an hour to board.

The ferry is supposed to take about an hour to go the 40 miles between Hong Kong and Macau. We had a somewhat bumpy ride but they had excellent high speed internet and I used most of the time to eliminate junk e-mail (which is so slow to do on the ship’s internet), and send a couple of e-mails.

When we arrived in Macau we had to go through immigration again and were finally on the bus and ready to go about noon. Cheryl was our guide. We started with a tour around the area and saw the terminal where an average 15,000 Chinese cross the border each day – many of them come to gamble which is illegal in the People’s Republic of China. Macau is actually a peninsula attached to China although it once had been an island. She told us that the people from Macau can travel back and forth between the People’s Republic and Macau but those in China had to get permission to travel to Macau.

Today, Macau’s main claim to fame are the casinos. There are 39 of them right now and many consider Macau the gambling capital of the world. We passed a number of them as we rode to our first stop – the ruins of St. Paul’s.

The Church of St. Paul (also known as Mater Dei – mother of God) was built by the Jesuits in the early half of the 1600s and was the largest Catholic church in Asia for quite some time. It was built by both Italians and Japanese (who were driven out of Japan due to their religious beliefs). In 1835 a fire started in the neighboring St. Paul’s College that destroyed both. An ornately carved façade is almost all that is left and it has a number of interesting images. While we were there an engaged couple came to have their wedding photos taken. The bride was wearing white for the photos but would be dressed in traditional red (sign of happiness) for the actual ceremony.

Next to St. Paul’s is the first temple to be allowed in what was then considered the “Christian” portion of the city. It is the Na Tcha Temple built in 1888. In 2005 it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We had a slow walk back to the bus and were able to look in some of the small shops as well as getting five minutes in a small souvenir shop. With all the people in there, the best I could do was buy a $4 magnet (luckily they took US$ as I had no Hong Kong dollars or Macau patacas)!

Since it was now 1:30, we drove to our lunch site – the Macau Tower. We rode up to the 60^th floor to a revolving tower where they had an amazing buffet – Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Western foods as well as salads and desserts. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy, rainy day (and only in the 50s!) so the views were not spectacular. The food, however, was fantastic!

When built in 2001, the Macau Tower was the tenth tallest freestanding building in the world. Today, at 338 meters, it is 13^th. While we were eating we saw one person doing the skyjump and a number of people being given instructions on what to do.

After lunch we headed to the A-ma Temple dedicated to the Chinese sea-goddess built in 1488. It is believed that Macau got its name from a misunderstanding between the natives and the Portuguese (not speaking the same language) when the sailors asked the name of the place. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Our final stop was at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. After walking around taking pictures and looking in the windows of the high-priced shops (where, I decided, many items cost more than I paid for the world cruise) I sat and used their amazingly fast Wi-fi. I was even able to catch up on facebook and some of my friends’ blogs.

We took the 5:35 ferry back and it was smoother than the ride over. We had to go through immigration again and then we had to go down a number of flights to get to the bus which was underground. This is where I got into trouble. Throughout the day we had had to go up and down escalators. I can go up one (usually) but those who know we well know I don’t like down escalators. I have escalaphobia – yes, it is a real thing. I had made it down four over the course of the day (more than I have done in the last 20 years put together!) but at the fifth one I totally panicked. I just could not get on. The guide of one of the other ship’s tours saw me and the lady from the Shore Excursion desk who went with us (I need to find out her name) stayed with me to help find a lift. We were given a number of wrong directions and wrong floors but finally made it to the basement and back to the buses.

The buses got back to the ship at about 7:45 but then we still had the terminal to navigate. The Kai Tak terminal (site of the old airport) is in the middle of nowhere (kind of like the one where we were in Sydney) but it is built like a maze. It is fairly normal looking from the outside but once inside you have to continually turn and go up and down a couple of times. Even the walkway from the ship to the terminal has five turns! It has to be the most user-unfriendly terminal I have ever seen. When I was here in 2014 we used the Ocean Terminal which is right in the middle of the action – near the Star Ferry and Nathan Road. It is attached to Harbour City shopping mall and is very convenient.

When I finally exited the maze and made it back onto the ship it was 8:10. I went to my cabin, picked up my knitting and went to claim my spot for the cultural show. There were a number of acts and was somewhat different from the one I saw last time.

I had planned to go to the Lido for a late dinner after the show but I had run out of steam. I ordered a salad, club sandwich, and a piece of cake from room service. I managed to get my pictures processed before I went to bed.

Macau sites…