On the Road Again! The Hong Kong, Kowloon & Macau Wanderings; Part 6 – Macau!
The driving distance from our jumping off point at the SM City parking lot in Iloilo to Hong Kong is approximately 1,570 kilometres. Which translates into a driving time of about 36 to 38 hours. Or, 3 to 3.5 hours by air.
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To listen to: Mendelssohn’s Quartet for Strings No. 1, Op 44 in D click the arrow below
It’s an early start today! We’re off to Macau and the ferry which supposed to leave at 8:00AM has been rescheduled to 7:30AM, so we’re in a bit of a rush. Fortunately, the Ferry Terminal is only about a 10 minute walk from the Kowloon Hotel.
The last time I rode a ferry similar to this was to make the crossing between Playa del Carmen to Cozumel on the Mexican Riviera – that was a 45 minute trip and was in pretty rough seas. A whole lot of tourists got seasick on that trip.
So this time, for a trip of at least 1 hour, I thought I’d be smart, so I upgraded our tickets to ‘Super Class’ which is the equivalent of First Class and it was…there were only 6 of us on the Super Class deck and no one got sick. It was very comfortable and the breakfast served was quite good too! The 66 kilometre trip between Kowloon and Macau was a breeze.
But the weather, as it has been since we arrived, is hellish. It has rained or drizzled almost non-stop since we arrived. So, what do you expect, it is, after all the rainy season!
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We arrived at Macau’s Maritime Ferry Terminal right on time at 8:25 AM, disembarked and I was surprised to note that we have to clear customs and immigration on arrival. I thought this was all part of China now, so what gives? Three words – SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION of China – both Hong Kong and Macau are still treated as independent and still require border formalities. Not a big deal, especially if you’re there only for the day. It all took less that 10 minutes.
And then, we were off to our rendez-vous point for the Macau City Tour (another 6 hours tour) at the Casa Real Hotel and Casino. It is located only about a 5 minute drive from the Ferry Terminal and the Hotel has a shuttle that runs between the hotel and the Terminal on a 15 or 20 minutes schedule between early morning and about 10:00 PM. Naturally, all of the other hotels/casinos have shuttles that pick and drop off their customers. All you have to do is locate the Shuttle Terminal and the correct post for your hotel and you’re OK to go.
The Casa Real is quite a nice hotel (4 Stars) and a smallish more intimate casino. The lobby staff are mostly Filipinos, so when we were trying to locate the tour people – She Who Must be Obeyed handled to enquiries and everything went very well. Although the instructions you get with your tickets are always very vague if you get them at all. Here’s an example. We were told to be at the Hotel Lobby at 9:30 AM to be the tour guide who would pick us up at 10:00 AM and to wait in the Hotel Lobby, that they would find us. Well, they didn’t show up until 10:45 AM and our new Filipinos friend, the Bellman, made sure that we got on the tour.
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The ‘pick up’ van rushed to the Venetian Resort which, I guess from the looks of it is the major hotel, casino and entertainment venue in Macau. And that’s where we met our tour guide for the first time.
Great let’s get going I’m anxious to see all the sights. Whoa, not so fast, “we have a stop here at the Venetian for the next 2½ hours. We will be leaving here at 1:30 PM to go to lunch and the proceed with the balance of our tour”.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen my share of Casinos in my lifetime and having one included for 2½ hours of a 6 hour sightseeing tour seems to me to be a complete waste of time – especially when you consider that of the 40 people on that tour only 2 (SWMbO and myself) were in Macau for only that day of sightseeing. Everyone else was on a multi-day trip, with Macau as their destination and presumably would be visiting this and other casinos during their stay.
I just wanted to get on with it and get to see the important and essential sights of Macau.
Premier attractions such as: Mount Fortress and Museum of Macau, Senado Square and St Dominic’s Church, Guia Fortress and Lighthouse and the Penha Church and most especially the Ruins of St Paul’s Church (which we were in fact able to visit), the A-Ma Temple (which we also had a chance to visit, although very briefly) and the Maritime Museum.
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Now, you have to know that I was a Tour Operator in one of my incarnations during my working career. Organizing and operating tours was our business, both one day and multi-day tours up to and including 23 day tours to Western Canada and to California departing from Montreal…
I know that in a 6 hour tour, those premier attractions in Macau that I have listed above, those that I particularly wanted to see could most assuredly have been properly and comprehensively covered.
“DAMN IT, I CAME HERE TO SEE THE SIGHTS, NOT TO VISIT A $%#*& CASINO FOR OVER 2 HOURS”.
As very unhappy, as I was, we nevertheless, spent sometime exploring the Venetian Resort complex. OKAY so make the best of it…The Venetian Resort Complex consists of over 3,000 hotels rooms in 7 different hotels, with over 300 shops and services being part of the complex. The bus terminal which is something I know about from my days in the Tour and Bus industry. This one at the Venetian is busy, something I have rarely seen. Buses are arriving and departing every 3 or 4 minutes…
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The flow of people in and out of the complex is impressive. There are 4 different lobbies. We were at the west lobby and it was incredible the number of people coming and going, if the same happens in the other 3 lobbies, then WOW.
It was 2½ hours of roaming around, so I’m going to provide a series of photos to give you and idea of the hugeness of the place.
And by the way, this is where Manny Pacquiao will fight on November 24, 2014.
We’ve been exploring for 2 hours and it’s time to start heading back to the group meeting place so that we are on time for the rendez-vous at 1:30 PM. We are hustled onto our bus and we wait and wait and wait some more…finally at 2:00 PM the couple we’ve been waiting for for a half hour finally arrive, for the record they’re from Bangalore and they’re only 30 minutes late, but who am I to say anything? JUAN TIME ANYONE?
We are now rushed to lunch at the Fisherman’s Wharf – a sort of “theme park” is what we are told. OK, if you say so…a whole bunch of abandoned buildings is what it looked like to me…and they reminded me in large part of New Orleans…have a look.
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We’re off! After a deplorable buffet lunch consisting of the leftovers from the regular tour lunch that was served a couple hours ago. We head back into Macau itself heading towards the Ruins of St Paul’s – Mater Dei. To help you get situated here are a couple of maps outlining the major attractions.
On our way through the pouring rain, we pass the statue of: Kun Lam or the Goddess of Mercy, it’s barely visible through the rain but we do get two attempts to get a shot and here they are:
And then, we drove past the Dr Sun Yat Sen Memorial House. Where the Doctor lived for a few years while in exile. He practised as a physician while in Macau and is well remembered for his work in the area.
Known formerly as “Mansion of Sun”, the House was built in 1912 as residence for his first wife, Lu Muzhen. It is located within walking distance of Lou Lim Leoc Garden where Dr. Sun once stay during his later visits to Macau in 1912. Designed in mock-moorish style, the House is a three-storey high building with ornate verandahs and spacious courtyards.
Lu Muzhen settled down in the House in 1913 with their two daughters, Sun Yan, Sun Wan, and son Sun Ke at Dr. Sun’s request. She lived in Macau for 40 years before passing away at the age of 85 on 7 September 1952. A son-in-law of hers and a granddaughter lived over a long period of time and died in Macau too.
Another notable mention is Dr. Sun’s elder brother Sun Mei and his wife moved to Macau in 1913 and settled in together with Lu Muzhen, where he conducted business and organised a fishermen’s association in Macau. Sun Mei died in Macau at the age of 60 on 11 February 1915.
Onwards, we finally arrive in the area of the Ruins. This entire area reminds of the streets and squares of Old Quebec City, narrow, crowded and throbbing with activity.
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For the completion of our Macau visit, you’re going to have to come back and visit in a couple or three days.
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