Day 3 Macau
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Macau, China
Day Three started with a subway ride to Admiralty Station, by the ferries on the Hong Kong side. The ferry terminal is in yet another mall. We purchased out ferry tickets and had time to kill so we went across the street to the Western Market.
Found a really good bakery and cloth shops that were to die for. Also some pretty funky, double decker buses that were obviously made for skinny area. The tramcars have been around for ages and are an effiecnt way of moving lots of people in a crowded city.Back to the mall and the ferry. The high speed ferry ake about an hour to get to Macau.
When we got over there, we purchased our return tickets for later in the day and found a driver to take us around to the sites. First stop was Fisherman's Wharf, kinda funky area that was part amusment park, part Atlantic city Boardwalk.
Then a quick drive by the Macau Tower and the Casion area. Having done Vegas at Thanksgiving, we pressed on to A-Ma Temple. It consists of multipe pavilions dedicated to the worship of different dieties including Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and multiple folf beliefs. I liked the coils of burning incence.
Next stop was the ruins of Sao Paulo. The Church was originally bulit in the early 1600's but was destroied by fire in 1835. Only the elabrotly carved facade remains standing today.
Next to Sao Paulo is Mount Fortress. Built along with Sao Paulo, it was the city's primary defense. We drove around some of the city streets, passing the barrier gate to mainland China and headed back to the ferry terminal.After returning to Hong Kong, we took the star ferry across the harbor and found ourselves in a sea of people. The star ferry terminal is in a, you guessed it, a mall. Actually 5 major malls wrapped into one. And just two days before Christmas.After about an hour of being crushed by bodies, we found our way out to the street. Recognizing we weren't far from the Avenue of the Stars and the Intercontential Hotel we headed there, figuring we could grab something to eat or a cab.
The Steak House resturant was full but the wine bar was empty. We had the entire room to ourselves and after having been body to body with more people in one hour than the rest of the previous year, the solitude was a godsend. On top of that, it was one of the best meals I ever remember having. Not a bad day.
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