Macau adventures

Hope you are all well and enjoying Spring in Australia. Well, it's Monday again here and we are back at school once again.

We had a great weekend - we got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and hopped on the bus to HK. It takes about 3 hours, so it's not too bad, and it's broken up by lots of hopping on and off the bus for the border crossing. We arrived in HK and headed for our hotel - I searched the Internet for ages and found a great deal at a hotel on HK Island...so we were very excited when we arrived and saw the fantastic view we had of the harbour and all the ships and ferries going by.

Our plan was then to go straight to the Macau ferry terminal and get on a boat for Macau -we hadn't booked - just goes to show we are still not used to just how many people there are here....we naively turned up at the ferry terminal, and thought we'd be able to get on the next ferry (just like we do in Sydney!!)....so it wasn't to be...we had to book for Sunday instead.

So, what to do? Well, shopping, of course!! Poor Andrew - I did suggest he could go and sit in the Irish pub while I made my way happily around the shops, but he decided it would be safer to accompany me (mainly for our bank balance I think).

So, we had to get up early again on Sunday and be down to the ferry terminal, ready to go through customs etc. We went on a hydrofoil thing, so it was fast (took an hour) and smooth (no need for those ginger tablets)!

We hired a pedicab in Macau - I don't think we got too ripped off, as we managed to get them down to less than half the price that the guy originally wanted to charge us!! So we had an hour trip around seeing the sights - lots of casinos, but then we reached the centre of town and started to see the prettier Portugese architecture and cobblestones, and Churches. People zoom around on little motorbikes, so there is always a hum of them to be heard. We walked around the streets for a while and took in the sights....took lots of photos, so we'll put those up.

We thought we had plenty of time to get back to the ferry - we weren't entirely sure how to get there but we decided, over our yummy lunch of foccacias and chips (mmm, haven't had a foccacia for ages!!), that 45 minutes should be ample time to get back. We headed off....our pace increasing as we watched the minutes ticking away and we didn't seem to be seeing anything familiar from the pedicab ride....hmmm...little bit of panic sets in...we run a bit....we realise we don't really know where the hell the ferry terminal is...there are no taxis to be seen....it's hot....my feet hurt....we are going to miss the ferry....we are going to be stuck here!!! Andrew says 'let's just cut through on this street" for about the 5th time...we go past a Casino and I have a brilliant idea - let's ask someone where to go...gee, that's a good idea. So we talk to the bellboy of a hotel...he says the ferry terminal is 2-3 kilometres away. Andrew says in horror "23 kilometres"!!! I interpret for him. I can see Andrew working out in his mind exactly how fast we have to run to cover that distance, and I say "can we get a taxi". Bellboy says there are no taxis but we can get a limousine for 30 HK dollars. Now you're talking. I picture a stretch limo, but it turned out to be just a normal car (a nice one though, and I was so happy to get into it!!!)....Our panic was not quite over as we had to be at the terminal 15 minutes before departure and it was already 2.15pm...our boat was leaving at 2.30pm....

But, in the end we made it (after running through the ferry terminal). Not quite the relaxing end to a nice relaxing day, but I was so glad to get on the ferry!!

We didn't have time to go over to the island at Macau (we just stayed on the peninsula), so that is on my list of things to do still.

Anyway, that's all the excitement for now. I'll be in touch again soon. Ruth

written by  arterra on November 11, 2007 from Dongguan, China
from the travel blog: China Adventure
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