Hong Kong Day 34: Macau Trip

Today we went to macau. I was soo tired though. We went on a ferry that was more comfortable than the one yesterday and I tried to sleep on it. It was not a long trip. Once we were there we had to go through customs because it is separate from china, even though it is china. Kinda like hong kong I guess. So I got another stamp on my passport woo! Anyways it was fun reading the warning signs about how the boat will have 7 short bursts and then one long burst to signal an emergency. (my dad said that he understands that signal in the bathroom sometime haha=) ) then we will be told by the captain verbally to abandon ship. Do not wear shoes on the inflatable raft. After getting off at macau and going through customs, we got a map of macau and decided to go find this place with supposed “pornographic” pictures of cows and their utters. –at least that is what the tour book mentioned. I was intrigued. We got a taxi and took it to largo street or something –where their town square is with the senate building I think and the ruins of st. peter’s church nearby. As we drove in we passed many casinos which looked like they were trying to act all Vegas-y. I have not been to Vegas, but dad said they were trying to give the same atmosphere as Vegas. Anywho, this island looks a lot more European than HK, which kinda makes sense since it belonged to Portugal for so long. It reminded me of pictures I have seen of spain from my Spanish classes. It was cool to see –even though as a whole there was not much to do at macau ---but really is there anything to do anywhere? –not really! So it was still an interesting experience. We were pretty hot and sweaty as we searched for a small shop with a cow on the door. Finally we found it and it was packed. We found a table though –that had not been cleared yet, but it was the only table so we took it. Now I am used to the HK restaurants and how they do not really clean the tables and in general don’t give the best service. I haven’t really realized that I have somewhat grown accustomed to it…it still kinda annoys me but it is alright. They were busy and the only menu was in Chinese, so we just kinda sat there looking like our typical stupid American tourist selves. Just one look at my mom and you could see she was uncomfortable. She kept getting pushed in the back by people coming into the café and she was a little grossed out by the fact that we were not getting any service, English menus, or our table cleared. I felt uncomfortable because I wanted to make my mom happy but I still wanted to try some of this strange custard milk and flavored milk. My biggest disappointment was the lack of porn in the cow pictures. Sure there were lots of pics of cows, but man none of them were that dirty!! =) anywho after I finally asked the waiter for an English menu, I asked my mom if she wanted to leave and she said yes, so we left as the waiter gave me an English menu, I felt bad as I handed it back and left, but not too much because our seats were quickly re-occupied. My dad and I were a little annoyed, but overall we were just cranky and hot so it was ok. it is hard to be a family in this intense heat =) anywho we walked up and saw the church ruins –that was alright. Dad was pretty hot though so we decided to get a taxi (ac!) and go down to a restaurant called Fernandos which was recommended to us by a man at the airport and the guidebook. The trip there was fun and we got to see a lot of macau as we went through 2 of the smaller islands near macau.

We finally got to fernandos and after a little wait got to eat. I was starved! We each got a delicious looking entrée. Unfortunately we did not really look around us as other people were sharing entrees between at least 2 people. So we definitely felt like huge American heifers! It was funny though and still delicious, we just didn’t finish all of the food. Then we walked over to the black sand beach. The sand seemed blackish but it was so dirty! There was trash everywhere. I felt that if I did go into the water I would have came out of the water covered in tampons, condoms, and diapers. Yyyeeauuuughck! But it was still kinda fun to walk around it and look at all the interesting trash hehe. It made Lake Michigan look like a spa that is for sure. I will quote a little of my sister’s reaction:

“In fact, it looked as if there was a really bad pollution/trash problem that had turned the beach's sand a dark brown color and the people of Macau said, "Oh, no! Our beaches are so dirty! How are we going to get tourists to visit us now?" and another Macau-ian said, "I know! We'll call it 'black sand'! That way it'll be exotic, and even more tourists will visit!" and everyone yelled, "Yay!" and danced about in exuberance.”

Anyways after that we decided to go back to HK. On the ferry ride back, it was so noisy and a baby kept crying, but I got to read some of my book –it seems to be getting more interesting. Right now I am reading Jane Erye. Anyways we didn’t eat dinner because lunch was so late and big, but instead we walked along Temple street all the way up to ladies market just to look around. We did not buy much. My family does not like how they hassle you at the markets, but they enjoyed Stanley market, so that is good. Anyways im exhausted so I better get to sleep. Goodnight all you people.