Day Seventeen - Macau

I'm back! I woke this morning hungry, after two and a half days of flu-ish symptoms it feels very good to have an appetite back. Before leaving for China I had gotten the required (recommended) shots - Tetanus, Typhoid, Polio, and Hepatitis A/B. I also had a prescription made and filled for an anti-biotic which I started as soon as I got sick. That and some serious TLC from Lucie brought me through the illness quickly.
Today we leave for Macau by bus. It will be a couple hours with a short break along the way to let everyone sing (our euphemism for a bathroom break). Our destination is actually Zhuhai, a coastal city on the mainland across from Macau, an island in the South China Sea. We stopped to sing and visited the statue of the "fisher girl", an angel who came to earth, fell in love with the beauty of the land and transformed into a fisher-girl so she could remain forever.

We were soon on our way again to the ferry port at Zhuhai.

 The crossing was a mere couple hundred yards but was very time consuming due to the need to pass through customs and to avoid being trampled by the hundreds of Chinese trying to get to Macau, presumably to work. It was something we noted all through the trip, in China, you don't wait to be let in a line or else you will wait for a very long time. People weren't necessarily pushy or impolite, they were just always on the move, as a pedestrian the rule of thumb was don't stop - for anything.
Our first stop once arriving on the island of Macau was the A-Ma Temple. When the Portuguese first arrived 400 years ago at Macau, landing at the base of a temple, they asked the locals the name of the island, thinking that the Portuguese were asking for the name of the temple they answered 'Ma Ge', which was the name of the temple. The Portuguese referred to the island from then on as Macau. Built in 1488 during the Ming Dynasty, the A-Ma Temple is the oldest structure on the island.

From the Temple, our next stop was Fortaleza do Monte, a stone fortress where the Portuguese defended the island from invasion. The fort afforded us a panoramic view of the city, revealing the ghetto-like neighborhoods that surrounded the multi-million dollar casinos that now make Macau a popular destination for the wealthy mainlanders.

The Grand Lisboa Hotel and Casino.

Continuing our walking tour of Macau, at the base of the fort we were all amazed by the Ruinas de Sao Paulo, a 16th century Jesuit Cathedral destroyed by fire. All that remains is the facade perched precariously atop a steep flight of stairs.

Here we find Jean and Francois-Pierre taking a break before heading down the staircase into the throng of shoppers below.

The narrow shopping market gave us an opportunity to price out souvenirs of every size and type, but it also gave the pick-pockets ample opportunity to shop our wares. Luckily no-one was a victim in our group.

This pastel building with the fountain in front caught my eye as we made our way back to the bus.

Next stop, our hotel, the Westin Resort Hotel Macau. A beautiful hotel on the casino strip with spectacular waterfront views. It was early afternoon and from here on we were on free-time, our first dinner on our own since arriving in Beijing. After check-in, a bunch of us took advantage of the downtime to soak in a gorgeous 9th floor pool. Realizing the trip was coming to a close, the table-five gang decided to go out together one last time for dinner. We started with a tour of the Galaxy Casino. This Ferrari was up for grabs to a lucky winner.

These "China Dolls" were actually real girls.

From the casino, we caught a free shuttle to the old town in hopes of finding a nice Portuguese restaurant for our dinner. In our search we encountered this dragon which was in fact a flower bed.

Dinner ended up being a fine Portuguese meal in a restaurant comically called Cozinha Pinocchio's, apparently in honor of our "long noses." The meal was good but the company was better. The "Table Five Gang", Jean, Danielle, Francois-Pierre, Michelle, Sylvie, Francois, Lucie, et moi.

After dinner we visited the Venetian Casino, very similar in decor as its namesake in Las Vegas. On our walk back to our hotel I snapped this shot of the Galaxy Casino. Tomorrow we catch another ferry to Hong Kong for the final leg of our China Tour.