roaming around Macau
I have spent one night in Macau and I'm going to spend one more before moving on into mainland China. Internet access has been hard to come by here, it doesn't seem like they are quite set up for budget travelers or backpackers as HK was. There are numerous guesthouses and hostels with dorm rooms in HK, here there are decent cheap hotels, but I couldn't find any hostels.
This is a strange place, and in many ways different from HK. Macau is a former Portugeuse colony and I didn't realize the extent to which that would be obvious walking around here. The architecture and design of the city is very European. The streets have a similar cobblestoned look to many older European cities I've visited. The city is littered with buildings which wouldn't be out of place anywhere in Europe. The signs all have Chinese of course, and below them usually Portugeuse more often than English. Despite that influence, the people are all pretty much Chinese with various other Asian immigrants from Indonesia, Malyasia, and the Phillipines, and probably other places. Maybe I've just gotten lucky here, but it seems like more people speak Mandarin than in HK, though still Cantonese seems to be the predominant language. Around the tourist destinations there are of course westerners, but they disappeared pretty quickly as I walked through the winding old streets of the city. The city has a more rundown look in many parts than Hong Kong, although there is an incredible amount of construction going on in certain areas, mostly near the casinos. That stretch of Macau is a lot like Las Vegas. There are apparently just under 20 casinos, and at least several more on the way. I walked through a bunch of them. The scale isn't quite of Vegas in my opinion, but the concept is exactly the same and walking through the casinos here is basically the same as there except for the Chinese games and people. Oh yes, and the prostitution here is way more out in the open than in Vegas. The girls are everywhere and very forward and the police don't seem to care. I don't think it is legal here, just something that everyone accepts. I saw it in Hong Kong as well, though compared to here that was very tame and generally limited to the entertainment districts of the city, Wan Chai and Lan Kuai Fong. Here, pretty much anywhere there is a hotel there are a number of ladies standing out front and in the lobby soliciting people as they walk in and out. They all seem to get a kick out of it when I speak Mandarin at least, so that has been entertaining. And the answer to all of my friends' next question is NO and I don't know how much.
By the end of my week in Hong Kong, I had settled in and ended up liking the city quite a bit. It was sort of an adjustment, but I think that was more Asia than HK and being so far away from everything. It's a good city and I'd definitely go back and spend time there again. I liked the mass transit, it is very easy to get around. There is an incredibly efficient, clean, and inexpensive subway that runs reliably and quickly. I never waited more than 2 minutes for a train, usually less than 1. Trains usually cost about $1US or slightly more, unless you are going far in which case it might cost $2-3US. Other choices are buses which are easy enough, minibuses which are small 16 seater buses with a fixed route but that will make requested stops, and then the double-decker electric trams, which cost $2HK and go along a fixed route. $1US is about $7.7HK btw, so it's a pretty good deal. Also available are the ferries between the islands, which are also very cheap. So the city is easy to get around which is important. It is also pretty walkable and I went all over each island by foot quite a bit, except out in the New Territories which become more and more spread out as you go farther. Getting around those by train and bus was easy enough. HK really is a city that doesn't sleep. It is kind of remarkable how many things are open late at night. The choices for food are extensive. Small noodle shops, stores, restaurants, and food stands, all seem to be open until the middle of the night. The entertainment districts also seem to go forever, way past my bedtime here, though perhaps on New York time I might get to see one of them close. So there are people out and about at all hours, which actually seems to make the city pretty safe. There must be some neighborhoods maybe where you don't want to walk around late at night, but I didn't see any of them.
The pollution in HK is kind of bad. There was no day when I could see the skyline unobscured by a layer of smog. The pace of the city is somewhat dizzying, so that may not be for everyone as well. Most areas are extremely urban like New York, with smatterings of greenery and parks. There is traffic and the people on the sidewalks are everywhere and can move unpredictably. It seems space is at a premium. There also seems to be a certain dearth of art and music, though perhaps if I stayed longer that would change. A friend in HK described it as a fast-food culture with a short attention span, so at least I can use her words instead of my own limited perspective based on a short visit. I did have a lot of trouble finding live music here, contrasted with New York where any night of the week you can find original music in a dozen places. The only music you'll find in HK or Macau as well is cover bands playing for bars filled with expats being hit on by prostitutes. I met a musician today in Macau who plays jazz at a hotel nearby and asked him why that was. He told me that hear he guesses people like to hear music that they already know. Go figure. To sum up though, HK is in terms of the pace and style of the city, maybe the most like New York I've encountered. You can walk everywhere and get around easy, things are open all night, and there is a lot going on. It is actually fairly international, with seemingly large groups of Indian, Pakistani, Phillipino and English, Australian and American expats, though nowhere near as diverse in my opinion as New York. Someone can look that up and tell me if I'm right or not about it. Either way, it was fun to spend a week there, and there was certainly a lot more I could've done without getting bored.
I walked around a bit yesterday after arriving in Macau and a whole lot today. I won't say everything I did, but yesterday I was proud of myself for not being able to find a vegetarian restaurant, because I ended up going to this five story market filled with food stands at which I finally located some vegetarian food at a food stand which defies description. The lady there spoke no English, in fact I'd wager nobody in entire building spoke English, but the meal was decent and I was pleased and entertained. I also much to my chagrin so my first live chickens in cages at a market, but thankfully didn't have to see them slaughtered. Hopefully that can wait or be avoided altogether.
Another interesting stop was the Protestant cemetery, where all these people were buried in the mid 19th century very far away from their homes. The gravestones tell their tales and it is kind of amazing to imagine people striking out into this region under various circumstances at a time when getting here meant 3-6 months on a ship without any certainty of arrival, few defenses against diseases, no knowledge of the languages, and other hardships. Clearly quite a few didn't make it. I took a few pictures, including one stone of a guy from New York who apparently took a fall on the ship from whatever you call that place up on the mast...crow's nest? Something like that. I'm going to go back to the hotel and relax a bit, I've been out all day. I did have a spectacular meal at what I think is the only vegetarian restaurant in Macau. They were very friendly and gave me the super-size when I clearly asked for the small. I think the whole meal was about $6US for this giant bowl of noodles with veggies and fake meat, and spring rolls. They also got some good laughs from the foreigner's Chinese and watching me struggle with the noodle soup and my chopsticks.
So tomorrow when I arrive, I head for the border into Zhuhai, a special area of China which isn't quite China, like HK and Macau. Things have become progressively more Chinese and I'm speaking more and more, but I'm excited for the places where the English drops out altogether and I really need to use the Chinese to survive, without the option of bailing if I run out of words. Hopefully internet will be easier to find there and I can upload pictures and write a bit more as I remember things. Hope everyone is well.
This is a strange place, and in many ways different from HK. Macau is a former Portugeuse colony and I didn't realize the extent to which that would be obvious walking around here. The architecture and design of the city is very European. The streets have a similar cobblestoned look to many older European cities I've visited. The city is littered with buildings which wouldn't be out of place anywhere in Europe. The signs all have Chinese of course, and below them usually Portugeuse more often than English. Despite that influence, the people are all pretty much Chinese with various other Asian immigrants from Indonesia, Malyasia, and the Phillipines, and probably other places. Maybe I've just gotten lucky here, but it seems like more people speak Mandarin than in HK, though still Cantonese seems to be the predominant language. Around the tourist destinations there are of course westerners, but they disappeared pretty quickly as I walked through the winding old streets of the city. The city has a more rundown look in many parts than Hong Kong, although there is an incredible amount of construction going on in certain areas, mostly near the casinos. That stretch of Macau is a lot like Las Vegas. There are apparently just under 20 casinos, and at least several more on the way. I walked through a bunch of them. The scale isn't quite of Vegas in my opinion, but the concept is exactly the same and walking through the casinos here is basically the same as there except for the Chinese games and people. Oh yes, and the prostitution here is way more out in the open than in Vegas. The girls are everywhere and very forward and the police don't seem to care. I don't think it is legal here, just something that everyone accepts. I saw it in Hong Kong as well, though compared to here that was very tame and generally limited to the entertainment districts of the city, Wan Chai and Lan Kuai Fong. Here, pretty much anywhere there is a hotel there are a number of ladies standing out front and in the lobby soliciting people as they walk in and out. They all seem to get a kick out of it when I speak Mandarin at least, so that has been entertaining. And the answer to all of my friends' next question is NO and I don't know how much.
By the end of my week in Hong Kong, I had settled in and ended up liking the city quite a bit. It was sort of an adjustment, but I think that was more Asia than HK and being so far away from everything. It's a good city and I'd definitely go back and spend time there again. I liked the mass transit, it is very easy to get around. There is an incredibly efficient, clean, and inexpensive subway that runs reliably and quickly. I never waited more than 2 minutes for a train, usually less than 1. Trains usually cost about $1US or slightly more, unless you are going far in which case it might cost $2-3US. Other choices are buses which are easy enough, minibuses which are small 16 seater buses with a fixed route but that will make requested stops, and then the double-decker electric trams, which cost $2HK and go along a fixed route. $1US is about $7.7HK btw, so it's a pretty good deal. Also available are the ferries between the islands, which are also very cheap. So the city is easy to get around which is important. It is also pretty walkable and I went all over each island by foot quite a bit, except out in the New Territories which become more and more spread out as you go farther. Getting around those by train and bus was easy enough. HK really is a city that doesn't sleep. It is kind of remarkable how many things are open late at night. The choices for food are extensive. Small noodle shops, stores, restaurants, and food stands, all seem to be open until the middle of the night. The entertainment districts also seem to go forever, way past my bedtime here, though perhaps on New York time I might get to see one of them close. So there are people out and about at all hours, which actually seems to make the city pretty safe. There must be some neighborhoods maybe where you don't want to walk around late at night, but I didn't see any of them.
The pollution in HK is kind of bad. There was no day when I could see the skyline unobscured by a layer of smog. The pace of the city is somewhat dizzying, so that may not be for everyone as well. Most areas are extremely urban like New York, with smatterings of greenery and parks. There is traffic and the people on the sidewalks are everywhere and can move unpredictably. It seems space is at a premium. There also seems to be a certain dearth of art and music, though perhaps if I stayed longer that would change. A friend in HK described it as a fast-food culture with a short attention span, so at least I can use her words instead of my own limited perspective based on a short visit. I did have a lot of trouble finding live music here, contrasted with New York where any night of the week you can find original music in a dozen places. The only music you'll find in HK or Macau as well is cover bands playing for bars filled with expats being hit on by prostitutes. I met a musician today in Macau who plays jazz at a hotel nearby and asked him why that was. He told me that hear he guesses people like to hear music that they already know. Go figure. To sum up though, HK is in terms of the pace and style of the city, maybe the most like New York I've encountered. You can walk everywhere and get around easy, things are open all night, and there is a lot going on. It is actually fairly international, with seemingly large groups of Indian, Pakistani, Phillipino and English, Australian and American expats, though nowhere near as diverse in my opinion as New York. Someone can look that up and tell me if I'm right or not about it. Either way, it was fun to spend a week there, and there was certainly a lot more I could've done without getting bored.
I walked around a bit yesterday after arriving in Macau and a whole lot today. I won't say everything I did, but yesterday I was proud of myself for not being able to find a vegetarian restaurant, because I ended up going to this five story market filled with food stands at which I finally located some vegetarian food at a food stand which defies description. The lady there spoke no English, in fact I'd wager nobody in entire building spoke English, but the meal was decent and I was pleased and entertained. I also much to my chagrin so my first live chickens in cages at a market, but thankfully didn't have to see them slaughtered. Hopefully that can wait or be avoided altogether.
Another interesting stop was the Protestant cemetery, where all these people were buried in the mid 19th century very far away from their homes. The gravestones tell their tales and it is kind of amazing to imagine people striking out into this region under various circumstances at a time when getting here meant 3-6 months on a ship without any certainty of arrival, few defenses against diseases, no knowledge of the languages, and other hardships. Clearly quite a few didn't make it. I took a few pictures, including one stone of a guy from New York who apparently took a fall on the ship from whatever you call that place up on the mast...crow's nest? Something like that. I'm going to go back to the hotel and relax a bit, I've been out all day. I did have a spectacular meal at what I think is the only vegetarian restaurant in Macau. They were very friendly and gave me the super-size when I clearly asked for the small. I think the whole meal was about $6US for this giant bowl of noodles with veggies and fake meat, and spring rolls. They also got some good laughs from the foreigner's Chinese and watching me struggle with the noodle soup and my chopsticks.
So tomorrow when I arrive, I head for the border into Zhuhai, a special area of China which isn't quite China, like HK and Macau. Things have become progressively more Chinese and I'm speaking more and more, but I'm excited for the places where the English drops out altogether and I really need to use the Chinese to survive, without the option of bailing if I run out of words. Hopefully internet will be easier to find there and I can upload pictures and write a bit more as I remember things. Hope everyone is well.
posted by Dan at 3:37 AM
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