MOST OF IT, MACAU

2015-12-30, 11:36, JASON

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Right folks. This is the last vacation entry of the year. The tally looks good, traveled to a few countries and 15 cities, and also had a chance to revisit cities. Southeast Asia has been good to us. There's a lot to be thankful for.

BUT, we're not here to be cheesy about it. We're here to talk about Macau, let's go. We ferried over early from HK, and arrived at around 10.

First things first (I'm the realest): Macau history. Owned by the Portuguese for a long time, the last standing European colony in Asia, then returned to China in 1999. They're still their own independent country, like Hong Kong, but they've generally accepted their fate of eventual reabsorption with the East Asian Giant that is surrounding them. China let's them exist. But mind you, the return to China happened in our lifetime. Actually, I had no idea this was even a thing back when I was 9, but, as such, Macau to me exists as an interesting cultural intersection, merged perfectly with European and Asian influence. Generally, the streets are styled in an almost Lisboan way: small, winding uphill stone paths, with some converted to roads. Portuguese blue-tint tiling on some main walks. Shabby houses lined on the side, high-rised to match Hong Kong's urbanistic quality, and yes, the occasional Buddhist temple tucked away in the streets, only to be matched with Catholic Churches down the street, residuals of Portugal's colonization. The street signs are all in traditional Chinese characteristics and Portuguese, so we were able to learn some Portuguese and Chinese words. And, of course, the nouveau-rich colony of massive casinos that shit on any impressive megachurch building architecture (I suppose, both in a moralistic but also in physical feat). The language of choice is some Macanese style of Cantonese, with Portuguese being little-spoken, linked mostly with the older generation. Interestingly, most people don't speak Mandarin too often since that wasn't the language of instruction. The food, a pure blend of Cantonese and Portuguese style. Didn't get a chance to have the bacalhau (famous Portuguese fish dish). The land? Breathtaking in its own way.

Macau is divided into four areas: The main peninsula where we sailed into; Taipa, just below; Cotai, reclaimed land built to connect to the southern part, but also developed to build all the massive casinos; and, finally, Coloane, which Cotai connects to Taipa. We started off in the main peninsula, then took a bus down to Coloane which was a smaller village-style living area.

On the Peninsula, and the initial bits are a bit rough. It reminded me of Reno, with massive hallways, big streets, and a bit empty. The housing was all highrise, low maintenance. It made for a really Gothamish vibe, but maybe that was exacerbated by the cold weather. The few casinos there too were absolutely HUGE. The first thing we do, obviously, is go to the wine museum. We were hoping to pick up some bottles of port wine since Macau was a Portuguese colony. Turns out, it was quite worth it, we had 3 sample tastings for the price of 15 Macanese dollars, which equates to about 2.9 Singaporean Dollars. Cheapest value for wine I've experienced in a while. Afterwards, we walk around to the main tourist bit and go look at the old castle ruins, the old church, as well as some of the smaller temples down the streets. In this part, most of the architecture was Portuguese, with exception of the temples. What was interesting though, was that there was few crossover: no Portuguese/Chinese mixed architecture.

After snaking our way through the city (which reminded us so much of Portugal), we make it to the A-Ma temple located near the sea. Pretty cool, not a huge temple, but I love the vibe when you go into any religious building. It's just an air of peace.

From here, we take a bus to Coloane in the south. You have to drive through Taipa and Cotai, which are bizarre places. When you think of Macau as the gambling capital of Asia, it's true, but it's not in the same way as Vegas. Here, casinos are built to be resort-style, so everything you need is around one casino. You can shuttle in between, but there's no visible strip that I saw, but, we were via bus, so hard to say. As such, these casinos are huge. Another strange thing, when we got to some parts of Cotai that had developed housing, the housing was so.. 'dark.' What I mean is, some points you just had high rises, with nothing around, and people making their way home. It almost reminded me of images of Siberia, where it's so empty, and there's just a block building for shelter. You're passing by housing deserts. It's similar also to business parks, but with highrisers for housing. It's the most fascinating thing, never seen anything like that. Of course, we were so overwhelmed that we passed out for the remaining 10 minutes of the bus ride until we arrived in Coloane.

Landing into Coloane was like being transported to another country. A lot more Portuguese, just with ethnic Chinese folk. It had that feel of a small fishing village, almost reminiscent of the cannery rows (what I imagine, at least) in California. There wasn't much to do, but being there was refreshing it itself. There were small temples scattered throughout that we saw, as well as houses built on sticks above the water. What's cool too, is just over the sea, you can see the huge landmass that is China. If Sarah Palin were there, she would be accurate in saying that she could actually "see Chinese land!" It was daunting in a figurative way: Macau, being a small country, and right over the sea is one of the biggest and powerful countries in the world. Separated only by a sea physically, economically. Cool juxtaposition.

The one thing that was really good? NATA. Portuguese egg tarts. They managed to mix the flakiness of the Asian crust with the custard filling in the more English-style ones, browned off on the top to taste like creme brulee. We walked into Lord Stow's, just randomly, and bought two natas from a small café, small and cute in the corner. Bit into it, and it was probably the best fucking nata I've ever had in my life. And, I don't say that too often about food. But it was the bomb. Would go back to Macau just for that. Yes, take the bus down to Coloane just to have a nata.

Unfortunately, since we didn't want to pay for an expensive ferry, we had to leave to catch an earlier boat back to HK. When we got there, the terminal was flooded with people, and so we ended up getting back late anyhow. But, glad we went to Coloane and saw a smaller side of Macau. BRB now, getting a nata.

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