Macau Macau Macau, where China meets Portugal.
I must say I have always been very curious about Macau, that far east land that seems so close to me due to my Portuguese heritage.
I must say that even tho I spent only a few days in this “region”, I had the best time and kinda regret for not staying longer.
So here is a very short summary of my short but sweet stay in this ex colony.
Also, I dedicate this post to all the wonderful people I have met while in Macau, thank you guys. You were awesome.
Timeline: 22nd til 25th Jan – Only 4 days
Where: Macau baby, like Hong Kong, Macau is an independent region of China.
Temperatures: It was January so was “cold” but nothing severe, being in South China, Macau has lovely weather most year around.
Accommodation: After the success in Melaka, also a Portuguese ex colony, I have decided to do couch surfing again, this time with a Portuguese. I was surprised how big is the coach surfing community in Macau, and after scroll a few profiles I have found a lovely Portuguese vegetarian girl with the sweetest comments. I was extremely happy when she accepted my request and offer me the nicest place to stay. Central, beautiful and the best company…. Sandra, you and your beautiful people made my time in Macau amazing, thank you.
New friends in Macau
New additions in life: Sandra, my host and a bunch of her friends. Sandra really was an awesome host, taking me for dinner with a lot of her friends which I end up seeing pretty much everyday for dinner, party and even sightseeing. They are many and even tho our time together was short, meeting you guys was brilliant and had a great laugh with you all. Can’t wait to see each one of you again around this little world.
Special nights: All of them were special. From crazy, laud, vegetarian dinners all around the town, to nights out dancing the night away in the fanciest casinos in the world or just being silly singing to the Spice Girls in the street, have the best memories from the nights I spent in Macau.
Shows: a haha well, at the Venetian Casino, where we went to party, there was this sort of live singing show going on… was entertaining because it had a lady boy (that pretty much no one else figured out that was a lady boy) Beyonce’s wannabe sort of, and she was fantastic. But apart of that no other shows… unless I count our show in the streets of Macau?
Big Surprise: Right, I have never been to Las Vegas, and yes, I did know that Macau was a gamble paradise, but nothing has prepared me for what I found instead. Forget Vegas, it has been proved that Macau’s gambling industry is now 7 times bigger than Vegas. Shocking but true. Have a look: money.cnn.com
Singing: Yeah yeah, in the street with my new friends, singing spice girls… and all sort of songs I can’t quite remember lol… oh I also remember the USA National Anthem… I know… I know… but somehow was stuck in my head and there was an American with us. Anyway, have it all on my GoPro, so guess I need to go and check.
Food: I would say the best so far. Well, being with a Vegetarian did help too, as she literally took me to the best places in town. Not only the food was extremely delicious, was also quite cheap. And the places were lovely. And eating and sharing with other 10 people make the whole experience even better as you will be trying 10 diffrent dishes instead of one.
Curiosity: Everything is written in Portuguese. That was surreal for me. It all started when I got into the boat in Hong Kong, had to travel in 1st class (no worries, it wasn’t that fancy) in order to get a seat on board, but while I was getting ready to doze off, there was a huge TV screen with portuguese words popping up… I was a bit lost and thought I was sleeping already… I mean, I haven’t seen written Portuguese (apart from online) in a loooong time so that got me excited, but the best was to get to Macau mainland and see ALL the signs in Portuguese. And the street names were in Portuguese ahahah even tho sometimes I would see the weirdest translations, that made me really happy.
Disappointment: Well, because nothing is perfect, I have to say that even tho everything was written in Portuguese, I quickly understood that no one spoke the language, which made it even more disappointing as got my hopes hight ahahah I would go around speaking in Portuguese to people and they would look at me like I was insane… Well that lasted a couple of hours or so, then I stopped making myself looking like a fool, and kept the Portuguese to my Portuguese friends only.
Being Portuguese: Awesome. No one for once questioned if my country was in Africa or South America… they seemed to know about it a haha and Vasco da Gama, Luis de Camoes and Amalia Rodrigues would be topic of conversations instead of only Cristiano Ronaldo!
Portuguese Heritage
Highlights:
- Definitely meeting so many wonderful people. I can’t stress enough how cool they are right?
- Visiting wonderful places such St Paulo’s ruins, Camoes garden or even Vasco da Gama square… Portuguese heritage at its best.
Lowlights:
- I think the only lowlight was staying such a short period.
- Also have to say that the party scene wasn’t really my scene… guess I didn’t appreciate the rich old men vs young girl thing… but oh well, I am in Asia, who am I trying to kid?…. a post about this will be coming soon.
My bucket list:
- Visit Macau.
- Party at the Venetian
- Visit St. Paul ruins
So, this was Macau, for me, loved every second of it and I actually hope to get back someday. Thanks to all of those that made my time there so brilliant.
Emma
xoxo
Cidade interessante, portuguesa sem falar português.
Beijinhos