2006 Have a warm Christmas in Macau

A silly me accompanied two friends on a journey to Macau for Christmas 2006. I nearly do not know the places because I have not been backed to Macau for Christmas for over 10 years after Grandparents moved to Hong Kong. I never memorized the routes when I went out with others, but this time I had to walk around with my friends, got on and off buses without any idea, and we could get to the destinations. Hey, we have lucky stars over us.

This trip was mainly for eat and walk, ate from day to night, walked from morning till dark, our stomach were full, feet were with corns.

My favourite still is the very delicious Pork Sandwich of Oi Kei, behind the Antigo Posto de Bombeiros (Old Fire Station) of Taipa Village. My friends questioned how special Oi Kei Pork Sandwich is? The specialty is: the pork is fresh and soft with bones, and is fried lightly, unlike Dai Lei's oily deep fried.

O Santos Comida Portuguese at Rua do Cunha still keeps its' very best standard, very tasty. My friends all agreed that the food and service there are the best.

Casino is everywhere in Macau, but can find no one on the streets. We went sightseeing the 12 casinos, the outlook design of Sands and Wynne are very plain, all in brown, nothing a bit of the Las Vegas. The constructing new Casino Lisboa looks exactly like a font. For the residential, they are match box with 99% brown outlook. There is nothing impressive even it is called a Mansion.

We also went to the new hot "must visit" Macau Fisherman"s Wharf. However, it is the most disappointing one. They tried to rebuild the Volcano, Coloseum, Vatican City and European style housings to show the different cultures and styles of countries they chose, but they failed. The work is too slack. I can see there were no strict inspections over the work.

* Coloseum at Fisherman's Wharf


In addition, the atmosphere in restaurants and shops isn't pleasant. There were a few customers but gave us impolite and slow service, we had to wait for ages for a tea or rice.

Lifestyles are so different. Live in Macau is leisure, while in Hong Kong is a hurricane. Hong Kong people see time as money so that everything has to be quick. On the contrary, Macau people enjoy leisure and carefree mood that everything is unhurried. THIS made us sick.

Initially I wanted to have a boat trip at inner harbour again, but sadly the pier next to the Maritime Museum has been constructed into a road connecting the Sai Van Bridge. So we went to S. Francisco Garden, through a path to Guia Hill Municipal Park. On the way we passed and played some facilities for health, did a little exercise, then went straight to Guia Fort & Lighthouse for some photo shootings. I like the western style architecture, though it is not very outstanding, it is a very romantic place for seeing sunset. Unfortunately, the beautiful scene was destroyed by constructions sites around.



* Guia Lighthouse


After 1999's reunion, Macau has become stronger and wealthier. She is experiencing a boom in economics. Infrastructure, real estates, casinos and tourism are all developing rapidly; this change is much larger than in 2003: flooding in new mainland immigrants, construction sites, imbalanced social development and the green caused air pollution. For example, the brook in Taipa Village is now covered by buildings, Taipa became a manmade basin… it was a sunny day with temperature 20 degree Celsius, but I felt it's hot like a summer.

Even a gentle wind breeze over my face at inner harbour, trees and grasses dance with me at Guia Park, fresh air leaves me forever.