We had such a great time in Macau back in February that I was looking for an excuse to get back.  I found that excuse in AK, who started at my new office on the same day that I did but is, unlike me, new to Hong Kong.  His employment visa came through and he needed to do a quick visa run so I volunteered us as Macau tour guides and he eagerly accepted.  I outlined a plan for the day and told him that we weren’t into casinos at all but that our last stop for the day could be at the MGM, where my gf and I could relax in the bar (last time we were there they had a pretty decent band) while he could either hang with us in the bar or just go a few feet away and gamble to his heart’s content.   I should also mention that I haven’t been to Macau on a weekend in years, way before the current boom.

We arrived early enough for lunch and I suggested dim sum.  Last time we were there, we had a great lunch at Laurel at the Star World Hotel.  This is the one Macau branch of the Shenzhen-based restaurant chain and I think it’s terrific for food, decor and service.   The Star World certainly knows how to lure in the punters – this is what greeted us when we walked into the lobby.

Yes, look closer, they are probably all transsexuals.

The lunch didn’t disappoint.  We had 11 or 12 dishes.  The wrapper around the har gow was a bit too thick but the char siu bau was amazingly good and in fact all of the dishes were at the very least seriously good.

An hour later we were seriously full and set out to walk off that lunch.   Walking up to San Ma Lo, we took a small detour so we’d pass Margaret’s Cafe e Nata, home of what some people say is the best egg tart in Macau.  This being a Saturday, it was of course busy.

So we gave the egg tarts a pass and kept on walking.   We just missed some sort of kendo demonstration at the Largo do Senado square.

Directly across from that, some sort of protest going on.

As we walked on, it was getting crowded.  Look at how many people are clustered around this stall selling pork chop buns.

And that was just a preview of things to come.  We turned the corner and here’s the street leading up to Sao Paolo.

Sao Paolo itself wasn’t as crowded; I got the impression that the destination for most people was just this street for shopping.

I’ve got a thousand pictures of Sao Paolo so I decided to concentrate on taking pictures of people taking pictures of people – far more interesting to me at this point.

There’s lots more good ones along these lines but for some reason uploading pictures this morning is much slower than usual.  Anyway, after an hour or so, back down the hill.  The Koi Kei bakery has 3 or 4 branches along this single street and all of them were mobbed.

But we braved the crowds because no trip to Macau is complete without getting some goodies from Koi Kei – and as much as we bought, buddy AK bought twice as much.

Further down the hill, I peered in the window of an optical shop and saw some sunglasses from Parasite and I seriously liked the look of one pair.  Went inside, tried them on, loved them.  But they were expensive.  The guy said (of course) that everyone else in town was completely sold out of them and the ones in the window were the last ones they had in stock and they’d give me a 10% discount.  I wavered, hesitated, and asked about 20%.  The guy said he’d ask his boss.  A minute later, he’s back.  ”My boss says he would never discount 20% but you look like a nice guy so it’s okay.”  Oh shit.  It was too easy and this line of bs?  I should have asked for 25 or 30%.  So now I’m looking for a way to back out of the deal.  AK notices a tiny bit of discoloration on the frame – honestly, I could own them for 10 years and never spot it the way my eyes are but now we’re like, “this is no good.”  The sales clerk tries wiping and wiping but it’s still there.  So he takes them in the back, comes out two minutes later, would you believe they actually tried to paint over that spot!!!!  And of course the paint’s not an exact match, so now even I can see the difference.  And so, we left the store without buying anything.  (Got home, looked on eBay, no Parasite glasses there.  The PuYi chain in HK sells this brand, probably more expensive than Macau – so probably do without or wait till we get back there again.)

Further down the hill, a t-shirt shop.   This is where I got my “Obamao” shirt last time.  Is it actually an anti-Obama shirt?  Is it saying he’s a Commie?  The possibility has occurred to me.

AK was shocked that they could sell that Ronald McDonald Hitler shirt.   He doesn’t yet realize that people here have a different take on all that and, as we’ve seen in the past, some shops think that Nazi symbolism is “cool.”   I couldn’t quite explain it to him – the best I could come up with at the moment was, “Hey, the Germans never attacked in this part of the world; the Japanese did all the atrocities here.”

We kept walking and walking.  It was around 6 PM, way too early for dinner, and I wasn’t quite sure what to suggest for the next couple of hours.  So I suppose it’s partly my fault that our day went off the rails at this point.  ”When do I get to see a casino?” AK asked.  And as we were passing the Grand Lisboa, we went inside.  He found the poker tables and said he needed an hour.   Okay, fine.  My gf and I set off in search of massage, but there doesn’t seem to be any in that area, short of ultra-expensive hotel spas and men-only saunas with happy endings.

We end up sitting outside the Grand Lisboa, an opportunity for me to at least grab a few more photos.  Check out the stockings on the girl in the first shot below.

Back inside, 8 PM, AK tells us that he thinks it’s just 3 more rounds to go and then he can leave.   While my gf goes to the toilet, I stand behind a baccarat table and watch a guy play the game, which I’ve never played.  I’m not sure if this is a game for idiots but it certainly struck me that way.  The dealer would give him his two cards and he’d hold them flat on the table and bend the corners up to see what they were, as if it was some huge secret, but then a second later he’d flip them over and toss them to the center of the table.  The dealer would reveal her two cards.  She’d give the guy another card face down and he’d bend it up on one side and study it carefully before tossing it at his other two cards.  That’s all he can do.  If there’s any strategy in playing this game, I couldn’t see it.  (I suppose the option to take or not to take that third card is the only option available.)  Then the dealer took a card and 4 times out of 5, the dealer won.   The minimum bet at this table was HK$500 and I think the guy lost around $5,000 in the few minutes I was standing there.  Not for me.

We collapsed into the Crystal Deli and Lounge, got some tea and coffee and I could see the stage on the casino floor, where three women were alternating between the can-can and pole dancing.  The mega-huge screen on one side of the casino kept telling me about how much money Mr. Chen won at Caribbean stud poker and an upcoming show at the “Rockza” Theatre featuring Japanese AV stars in various states of undress.  And then offers of a “complimentary tour” of “more than 10 unique items” at the Grand Lisboa – including pictures of Stanley Ho holding up various mega-expensive items from his personal collection, with this little Mona Lisa mini-smile that said he’s thinking, “Yeah, that’s right, all you suckers paid for me to have all this.”   All I could think about was this was a seriously seedy affair despite all the pretense to the contrary.

At 9 PM, AK said he was still stuck.  They wouldn’t let him cash out, he had to stay until the end of the tournament.  That he didn’t know it was a tournament when he sat down.  That he’d been scammed.  And so on.  He suggested that we go for dinner and he’d call us and find us once he was done.

At this point, my gf and I were no longer in the mood for the nice dinner I’d originally planned (had been thinking of O Porto Interior or Litoral).  And I didn’t want to go too far away and make it too difficult for AK to find us.  So we went across the street to the old Lisboa and pushed through the hordes of mainland prostitutes in micro-mini-dresses and push-up bras patrolling the basement in search of any punter who wanted to celebrate his victory with a quickie to get to the Noite e Dia coffee shop, which has a huge menu and acceptable food.   (Note:  my gf ordered the ceasar salad with a grilled chicken breast and it was an entire chicken breast, not sliced, and apparently not spiced before it was cooked either – completely bland although the salad itself was quite nice.)

By 10:30, we still hadn’t heard from AK.   We had 12:15 AM return tickets (long story) and I had no idea what we could do at that point to kill an hour.   We walked around, sat where we could, I tried to call him a couple of times but no answer.   Finally at 11:30 we went to the ferry terminal.

Tried calling him one more time, still no answer.  The boat was fairly empty and he definitely wasn’t on it.  All we could do was shrug our shoulders and say, “Well, he’s a big boy, I’m sure he knows how to take care of himself.”   Looking forward to finding out about the rest of his trip when I see him at the office on Monday.

We were both really tired on the boat and I wanted to grab a quick nap.   Just as my eyes started closing, the Australian guy sitting behind me thought it was the perfect time to demonstrate all the really cool ring tones he had on his phone to his teenage son.

Home by 2:15.  Asleep by 2:30.

Tonight we’re going to the Teresa Carpio concert at the HK Coliseum.  I’ve got a photo pass and hope to be able to share some nice shots with you within a few days.

I’ve just uploaded more than 200 photos from our Macau trip to Flickr.  You can view the set here.   There are a lot of photos there that haven’t appeared on the blog, and many of the ones that did have been re-edited or “re-developed.”  Please take a look and let me know what you think!

I’ll be adding some more sets to Flickr soon and re-organizing my Photography page here in the near future.

Been so busy since I got home, I haven’t had a chance to upload a selection of pictures from our final day in Macau, so here they are. I confess there are a couple of pictures below (notably numbers 1 & 3) that are out of focus and I am kicking myself over that but I am sharing them anyway because I think the feeling still comes through in those pictures.

Overall, this was my best visit to Macau in many years and I’m looking forward to a repeat in the (hopefully) near future.  (Of course, now that I’ve had a couple of days to review the pictures, I also know what I’ll do differently and hopefully better the next time I go.)  I also have some new favorite restaurants for those nights when I feel a strong desire for Portuguese food and don’t mind a long night out.  Hope you enjoy the photos!

The only negative in our Macau trip was First Ferry, both coming and going.

I didn’t want to pay $1,000 to park by the ferry terminal for four days.  And didn’t want to deal with dragging luggage through the MTR and the city streets.  I figured that the taxi trip to China Ferry Terminal in TST would be much cheaper than a taxi to Shun Tak Centre.  And so …

Ferry to Macau – the trip there took 75 minutes and it was rough all the way.  Something was clanging loudly in the front of the boat for the entire ride.  And the rough seas in the HK harbor had my girlfriend reaching for the puke bag.

Ferry to TST – the trip back took 85 minutes.  No clanging but the boat was bobbing up and down, back and forth the entire way.  This time my gf managed to keep her breakfast in but people all around me were diving for the puke bags.  It seemed that even the wake from row boats was setting us off.

Talk about your slow fucking boats to China!

In 15 years of going to Macau, this was by far the most uncomfortable, “when the fuck will it be over” trip I’ve taken there.  I will not be using First Ferry again.  I’ll pay the extra $50 or $100 each way to Shun Tak.

Like so many other bullshit second rate services in Hong Kong, First Ferry is owned by a property company, in this case New World.  HKCEC, First Bus, Citybus, Chow Tai Fook and more.  In terms of their ferry service, they’ve accomplished the extraordinary rare feat of making Stanley Ho look good.

I don’t normally get hangovers but this morning I’ve got a whopper.  Waiting for my gf to wake up and let me know where she’s hidden the Panadol.

Yesterday we walked for about three hours, starting off in the Senado square but heading in the opposite direction from St Paul’s, towards the fort and towards the Sun Yat Sen memorial house.  We passed along some amazing buildings on side streets (photos later), some old schools, a collection of buildings in a gated courtyard where there was an exhibition of work by architecture students, another couple doing wedding photos on the street, a huge public square that included the main branch of the library, a cultural center and an art gallery.  Yes, we ran into that same couple from Malaysia again!  I remain stunned by how much of Macau there is to see and explore, how much of it I’ve missed over the years.

Back to the hotel.  We did the buffet lunch – not one of the better buffets I’ve ever had but at $100 per person at least it was a decent enough value.  We slept the rest of the afternoon.

In the evening, we walked back (AGAIN!) to the Senado square – my gf was in shopping mode and wanted to buy a watch she’d spotted earlier and then somehow managed to spend 30 minutes in Bossini.  Some Chinese woman who told us she speaks Tagalog grabbed our palms without asking and told us our fortunes – she said my gf was a good person, I’m bad, and we’d make a better couple if she was the man and I was the woman?  I think that’s what she meant – she may have spoken great Tagalog but I had trouble with her English.  And then as suddenly as she appeared, she waved goodbye and ran off.  Was it something she read?

None of the restaurants along Rua de Felicidade caught our eye but we did stop at a small shop where they were singing Cantonese opera accompanied by 8 musicians – I stood outside taking photos and they invited us to come in, have a seat and enjoy.

Hungry, we walked another 30 minutes until we reached Litoral, a Michelin one-star Portuguese restaurant near A Lorcha.  Started with our now usual plate of grilled chorizo and then went for curry prawns with crabmeat – seemed to me like there ought to have been more prawns in there but no shortage of crabmeat and a definite kick to the curry – also some quail eggs in there and some rice on the side.  And then what was probably the best African chicken I’ve ever had – very rich sauce with a wonderful combination of flavors, served with thick sliced grilled potatoes.  Accompanied by a bottle of, hmmm, Esperao Reserva, I think it was called, very drinkable.  Going to be looking to get more of this wine at the duty free on the way home.

Back to the hotel by 10:30, dropped off the bags, and off to the Lion’s Bar at the MGM Grand.  The Amazonian Filipina hostesses in our hotel told us this was their favorite bar, that it had a good band and they did not lie.  The 7 piece multi-ethnic band would put most of the cover bands in HK to shame and the place also had a world-class sound system.  The bar also charged $70 for a glass of the very average house red wine.  Some of my readers may care to know that after 11, we spotted at least a dozen girls at the bar who appeared to be eager to make friends – both Filipina and Chinese.  By midnight the bar was full, the band was wailing, a nice way to end a good day.

And then, boom!, up this morning, at first just my neck aching but now a full-blown headache.  Must be from that house red.  Check-out here is at noon and we’ll head back to HK at some point after that.

All in all, this trip has been great.  Total relief from stress for a few days, some great food, good long walks in new-to-me areas, lots of photos to process once I get home.

Feeling lazy, not going out yet, here’s a bunch of photos from yesterday, very minor editing and touch-ups.

We were up relatively early and hit the breakfast buffet at the hotel.  Then out the door, back to San Ma Lo and this time started our walk by going through the main square and then up the hill to the ruins of St. Paul’s.  Along the way we passed at least 5 more branches of the Koi Kee bakery – 3 of them on the final street leading up to the cathedral.  Do they have as many branches in town as McDonald’s?  If not, then close to it.

Only a Tuesday but St. Paul’s was every bit as busy as you’d expect.  Lots of Japanese tour groups and a couple on the steps doing their wedding photos, both dressed all in white.  At the top of the steps, we were “found” by the Malaysian couple we’d met the night before at A Lorcha.  “You’re late, we’ve been waiting for you all morning!” the husband said to me.

We went back down the steps, took a quick right and went down that street selling furniture, art and souvenirs, browsing in some of the shops along the way (and buying one of those Chinese-style jewel boxes in red leather with a dragon design).  We found the Camoes Garden, absolutely worth it if you’re into gardens, with some huge ancient trees, a huge modern art sculpture in the center, a lovely symmetry to its design, a very peaceful oasis in the center of the city.

We wandered down towards the Red Market, exploring the side streets.  We were getting hungry but saw no place that looked interesting for food – hundreds of shops selling raw meat, fish, veg but no restaurant that caught our eye or our nose.

Back to the hotel.  For lunch we went to Laurel, a branch of the Shenzhen chain in our hotel.  It gets a “bib gourmand” rating from Michelin while another Chinese restaurant in the hotel, Jade Garden rates one star.  I think Laurel should have received one star as well – perhaps it didn’t because despite an English menu for dim sum and another English photo menu of their special dishes, the main menu seemed to be in Chinese only and most of the staff didn’t speak any English at all.  Nevertheless, the dim sum here proved to be some of the best I’d ever had and I loved the design of the place – all light wood and warm tones.  9 dishes and tea came out to about M$250.

My gf went back to the room to take a nap, I went to look for some nearby massage place and found some foot massage joint where a 45 minute body massage was $118 or $148 for oil massage – prices in Macau have certainly gone up.  My masseuse was a tiny Filipino girl from Mindanao – very strong for her size.  She’d been in Macau for 6 months and doesn’t like it at all.

Back to the hotel refreshed and off in search of Three Lamps, but either the web sites I’d read got this place wrong or I didn’t read those guides closely enough.  Near the Red Market, it’s this area where about 5 streets converge.  I thought it was going to be all outdoor restaurants and snack shops but it wasn’t even close to that, just a round concrete park area where people were sitting, talking, letting the night go by, surrounded by the market streets we’d explored earlier in the day.

So we hopped in a taxi and went to Taipa and found our new favorite Portuguese restaurant – A Petisqueira.  A small restaurant where even on a weeknight it seems one needs a reservation but we got there after 8, there were just two of us and after a short wait they could fit us in.  Our waiter, David, was a young guy born in Portugal who’d been in Macau for four years.  He expertly guided us through the wine list and we went for a bottle of Duas Quintas which was exactly what I was after, something in the middle, lots of body, not too dry, not too sweet, and I found it fabulously drinkable. (They only had 2006, they’d run out of the 2003 which we were told was even better.)  This was one of the more expensive bottles of wine on their list – at M$225.

We started with a plate of grilled chorizo, Portuguese ham very similar to prosciutto though lighter in color and taste, cheese and olives ($75).  Their bread was so much better than A Lorcha’s and at least the equal of the bread at Fernando’s.  For mains, we tried the grilled chicken ($98) – marinated for 24 hours (they said the combination of spices they use is a secret) it was packed with flavor and just slightly spicy.  The real winner came from their list of daily specials – char-grilled loin of boar ($148).  Imported from Spain, pounded thin, just some salt and pepper, the taste was closer to beef than to pork, the texture slightly tough as you’d expect from game,  totally unique.  We met one of the owners of the place, also extremely friendly and promised him we’d be back there on our next trip.  Yes, by this point we’d finished the bottle of wine – I haven’t drank half a bottle of wine in one sitting in almost a year and I was completely schtonked at this point and everyone in the world was my best friend.

Back to the hotel around 11.  Tried to lure out a couple of people I know who live here but they were all settled in for the night.  Just as well – by 11:30 we were both fast asleep.

Photos to follow later.  One more full day here, back home tomorrow.

In 15 years of coming to Macau, I’m guilty of going to the same places over and over again at the expense of trying other well known spots.  I’ve generally come here for one day and perhaps one night, always dinner at Fernando’s, then some specific agenda.  So there’s a long list of famous places I haven’t been to, famous restaurants I haven’t tried.  The main purpose of this trip is to rectify that.  And day one was about as perfect as I could have hoped for.

I chose the Star World Hotel because it seemed to be the cheapest 5 star, with a week-day rate just under HK$1200++ per room.  Then I noted that for 300 more, you get an “executive” room – higher floor, buffet breakfast and internet included, so I went for that.   And the place is great.  Not too big, like the Venetian, 500 rooms instead of 3,000.  Our room is 38 square meters with a 12 foot high ceiling on the 35th floor.  We can see the old fort and lighthouse, the harbor, the Sands, Fisherman’s Wharf, a lot more from here.  A great king sized bed, 42 inch TV, DVD player, one of those glassed-in bathrooms with oversized bath tub and rainforest shower.  Most of the hostesses in the lobby are almost 6-foot tall Filipino women wearing patent leather boots with spiked heels – my gf has made friends with most of them by now.  A small stage in the lobby with energetic dancers performing every hour – they’re mostly Filipino too. Lots of Filipino staff working here but I guess they don’t get too many Filipino guests.

Anyway, we dumped our stuff in the room and then went off to Leal Senado square and further down San Ma Lo, the old main street.  We filled a shopping bag with pork and beef jerky from some of the shops along the way – each has someone standing in front holding a hunk of meat and a pair of scissors offering free samples.

We turned off the main road and found the famous Koi Kei bakery, where you can watch them making almond cookies and egg rolls and again, you can get free samples of everything.  We stuffed ourselves with samples of the various cookies and meats and filled up another shopping bag with goodies.

At that point, I put the map away and we just started wandering the streets.  I found one amazing old building after another.  This was when I was glad that I remembered to bring along my 10-24mm lens.  We found an area filled with Filipino shops, kebab shops, a Thai barbecue place with the cute name Sawadi Cup.  A Filipino lady-boy in a very short dress took a liking to me but fortunately went up to my gf first and asked, “Is that your husband?” and then moved on.

Back to the main road, back to Leal Senado square, where they are finishing up the amazing decorations for Chinese New Year.  The square was packed, even on a Monday.

We found Margaret’s Cafe e Nata and sampled some of their famous egg tarts.  There are some who say these are now the best egg tarts in Macau.  I lined up just as a new batch came out of the oven.  I don’t eat eggs but these were creamy and rich without being sweet and the pastry was amazing – flaky and crisp and buttery just like a croissant.

Back to the room to chill out.  Then out for dinner to A Lorcha, a famous Portuguese restaurant that I’ve never been to.  A pitcher of sangria, a huge bowls of clams cooked in olive oil, garlic and herbs, with some nice bread to dip into the broth, which we also lapped up just like a soup.  Char-grilled pork short ribs, served with french fries and salad, very tasty but not enough meat on them!  And then bacalhau, cod fish chargrilled and covered in garlic and olive oil, served with boiled potato and salad.  The price for all this was M$430, the flavors were completely different from Fernando’s and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

We finished the meal, paid the bill, and suddenly found ourselves talking with the couple at the next table – Chinese Malaysian, the husband a lawyer from KL.  They asked me to take a picture of them and we just got to talking after that.  We sat there talking with them for another hour or more, wonderful friendly people who came here with the same idea as us – walking around, touring, eating, picture-taking, no casinos.

Back to the hotel and asleep by 10:30, believe it or not.  Up this morning at 7:30 and we can’t see out the window because the fog is so thick but hopefully that will burn off soon.  And then more walking, more eating.

Okay, time for breakfast and to get back out there to walk around a different district and discover all the things I’ve been missing all these years.

Yes of course there are photos!  No time to properly process them but here’s a gallery I quickly put together for you.  Click on any image to see larger size.