Macau is famous for its many casinos and the Portuguese egg tarts. Casinos are mainly situated at or around the Fisherman’s Wharf near the ferry terminal. As for Portuguese egg tarts, to tell the truth, we hardly spot any shops selling these at Senado Square. Most of the shops are selling almond biscuits.
Bus Trip
We started our exploration by taking bus no 3 from the ferry terminal to Senado Square which later served to be the central point from which we branched out our walk. All bus trips cost MOP/HKD 2.50 (equivalent to S$0.50) regardless of how many stops one is traveling. Exact change must be paid. The bus was like the bus that used to travel along Singapore roads in the eighties with the metallic floors and low and slim cushioned chairs with metallic handles. The windows were sliding but were sealed as it was an air-conditioned bus. Hmmm, sitting on the bus brought back nostalgic feelings of the times when Singapore first introduced air-conditioned buses. This was exactly the same “converted bus” (converted from non air-conditioned to air-conditioned) during the transition to all air-conditioned buses era.
The bus trip proffered a “sneak preview” to the lives on Macau. There were many shophouses. We have only passed by one department store – New Yaohan, en-route to Senado Square. Yaohan was a well-known Japanese departmental store in the eighties and early nineties in Singapore and has since collapsed. Many people were queuing outside Yaohan before it opened its doors at 11 am. The various shophouses, the haphazard residential blocks and the potholed roads reminded us of Hong Kong in the seventies. Of course, I was speaking with memories of the archived pictures I have seen of the older Hong Kong rather than from personal experience. Please, I was not even born then. *Grin*
We have also passed by the Golden Lotus in Full Bloom (a golden lotus sculpture) – one of the attraction on Macau. Many tourists were standing beside the sculpture and taking photos.
Senado Square
Senado Square was as beautiful as the pictures with the dual coloured mosaic floor. A water feature with lotus flowers in bloom welcomed us at the central of the square. Colourful and cheerful colonial buildings lined on two sides of the road. The square was practically a commercial hub with many shops and eateries.
St Augustine’s Church & Square
With a map in hand, we started our quest of the world heritage buildings. We thought we were following the direction in the map. However, after walking for a considerable distance, we had yet to see any “historic” building in sight. Sensing we were in the wrong direction, we retracted to Senado Square. Finally, we spotted a road sign which pointed us towards a narrow uphill lane. This proved to be the only first of our numerous wrong turns which subsequently caused us to climb downhill and uphill under the afternoon sun.
After a 15-minute walk, we reached St Augustine’s Square and Church. Ah Peng and I were slightly disappointed. Although the Square has a unique mosaic design, it was a mere eight-foot square which paled in comparison to the size of Senado Square. We were tired from the climb uphill and decided to take a respite in the St Augustine’s Church. A handsome guard welcomed us in at the entrance. He even helped us switch on some of the standing fans upon seeing us fanning ourselves rather frantically with our maps. The inside was simple but serene.
Dom Pedro V Theatre
The Dom Pedro V Theatre was opposite the St Augustine’s Church. To our disappointment, it was closed for renovation. This was again the start of a series of disappointment where many World Heritage buildings, which included St Lawrence’s Church, Leal Senado Building, St Joseph’s Church and Seminary and Sir Robert Tung’s Library, in our itinerary were closed for renovation and we could only imagine their splendor from their exteriors.
Sir Robert Tung’s Library
Following the map, we walked a good distance from St Augustine’s Church and still could not locate the Sir Robert Tung’s Library. Adding oil to the fire, we had to pass by a very aromatic almond biscuit shop twice which was a stark reminder of our exhaustion. Finally, we decided to seek help from the Police (known as Policia in Macau). Urghh! The Sir Robert Tung’s Library was only diagonally across St Augustine’s Church. This time, we did not blame it on our idiotic map reading skills. This was definitely the doing of a poor map with poor capturing of the road and scale. When we referred to the map, Sir Robert Tung’s Library was supposed to be as far from St Augustine’s Church as Senado Square. Who could have guessed that it was right at the doorstep of St Augustine’s Church?
St Joseph’s Church and Seminary
We saw the name - Saint Jose. At that time, we still naively believed that the map was the only key to our tour. From the map, St Joseph’s Church and Seminary was a good distance from Sir Robert’s Library. As we walked downhill from St Augustine’s Church, we only passed by road signs which indicated St Lawrence’s Church. No sign for St Joseph’s Church. By now, we had already grown slightly smarter. If we could not find St Joseph’s Church, we would forego it and visit St Lawrence’s Church which was not in our original itinerary instead of wasting time of searching for St Joseph’s Church.
Surprise of all surprise, when I looked at the exterior of the building with St Jose, it had the same feature as the picture indicated in our guide. The only difference was the colour. In the guide, it was a yolk yellow while the building now was a pale green. To think, we had initially dismissed St Jose as the legendary St Joseph’s Church and Seminary solely because the colour of the building was different from that in the guide.
St Lawrence’s Church
It was the third church that we have seen and the second which we could not enter due to its renovation works (after St Joseph’s Church and Seminary).
Leal Senado Building
The building was again a colour of yolk yellow, similar to that of St Augustine’s Church and buildings on Senado Square. The parlor of the building had the same mosaic patterns as that on Senado Square.
We were barred from entry as it was closed for renovation. Then we were back at Senado Square.
Holy House of Mercy
It was a white colour building near the entrance of Senado Square.
Ruins of St Paul’s
It is the famous landmark of Macau with its pictures replicated everywhere Macau was mentioned. It even poises on the plastic bags of the various shops in Macau. It was a stone wall with numerous statues on the wall on a mini hill top. There was a small museum which gave some introduction to Catholicism behind the wall.
Shopping and Eating in Macau
Along the route from the entrance of Senado Square to Ruins of St Paul’s lies many shops selling the famous peanut candy and almond biscuits of Macau. The wafting fragrance from each shop seemed to overpower one another, fighting for the passerbys’ attention. We decided to step into one of the most crowded ones to take a look. Free sampling was allowed before one decided on one’s purchase.
There were numerous boutiques – Giodano, Bossini, etc, nearby. For food selection, there was the famous Gourmet Kitchen founded by Cai Lan, a famous Hong Kong gourmet writer, the ubiquitous McDonald’s and other Cantonese eateries. We decided to try “Huang Zhi Ji” when we noticed a long queue. Ha, this is typical Singaporean mentality – if there is a queue, the food must be good. We waited for about 15 minutes before we were shown to our tables.
I had the wanton noodles soup and the fig honey tea. Wow! The noodles were springy without being tough to chew. The wantons had soft but non-sticky skins. Fresh prawns were used as the fillings. The fig honey tea was cool and refreshing, soothing to the throat on a hot day.
The delicious food was certainly worth the wait!
Bus Trip Back
We went back to the bus stop where we first came and wanted to take a bus back to ferry terminal. We asked around and an uncle pointed us to take the same bus no 3. We took the bus and it took us to the bus terminal at the ferry terminal to Zhu Hai at the Barrier Gate instead of the HK-Macau Ferry Terminal.
(The Barrier Gate)
Alamak! How? At this time, we had already run out of small change to take another bus.
Since visits to the casino was part of our itinerary. We decided to pick a casino which was near the HK-Macau Ferry Terminal and took the free bus provided by the Casino to the Casino before thinking of ways to go back to the Ferry Terminal then. We decided on the Sands.
On the way to the Sands, we pass by Fisherman’s Wharf and the statue of Kun Lam (Holy Goddess of Mercy).
Sands Casino
It was a golden building. Its exterior façade was made out of many golden panels.
There were 3 floors devoted to all sorts of games for different preferences. Inside the casino, there were also food courts, fast food restaurants and restaurants. There were many people from the yuppies to uncles and aunties.
Personally, I did not like the environment as there was too much smoke from the cigarettes and too crowded and noisy for comfort.
It was almost time for our departing ferry, so we took a free bus provided by the casino the Ferry Terminal.
Ferry Ride
The ferry ride back to Hong Kong showed a beautiful sea resplendent in a golden light from the sunset. I spent a good one-hour doing nothing but just looking at the beautiful sea.
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