The next day, I walked around the tourist sites, old town, just walked around and took photos...
The next day, I walked around the tourist sites, old town, just walked around and took photos...
Cycling should be banned!!!
My hotel was in a small square with a little garden in the middle.
Now for some food and drink shots.
My hotel breakfast was terrible, the worst variety of buffet small hotel breakfast one could imagine; I didn't bother eating it the three days I was there. In fact, I felt that the famous cafe and food culture of Macau was somewhat average, and that's being kind. I suspect it has changed a lot since the mainland Chinese have moved in on masse, and there are also a huge amount of Philippinos both working in Macau and touring in large family groups; I saw a lot of Philippino restaurants and even tried one.
Just next to my hotel was a smallish cafe/restaurant which was by far the best food I tried in Macau. Having said that, although I toyed with the idea of going for lunch or dinner at the best hotels, I never bothered to get around to it because I didn't really fancy being surrounded by Chinese folk in a casino hotel restaurant - I did go to them, looked in, but just didn't like the atmoosphere (I much prefer the Vegas casinos to the Macau ones; I've been to Vegas 3 times).
My hotel can be seen in the top right hand corner in the above picture. I ate my breakfast while looking at it after I'd walked past the hotel free buffet breakfast...
Below, I was walking through the alleys early one evening and spotted Corona, so thought I'd have a couple. It was in a very cheap Philippino restaurant, and I thought it'd be interesting to try some fried checken - I didn't eat it...
Picked up a few local beers one day, just to try them out, didn't much like them.
My favourite place had a big menu, one day I tried out the hamburger; very nice.
One evening, I looked for a bar on Google maps and found this place, very Portuguese, it was ok.
Some local Chinese food one night:
The Chinese food tasted fine, I think it came to about 9 pounds, and was pretty similar to what you'd get in the UK. The sweet and sour pork was nice. The beef fried rice looked strange, but tasted ok.
On the last day, I had a lot of hours to kill, so ate and drank while doing my research, an hour here, an hour or two there... I started off with breakfast:
That was also about 9 pounds all in. Next I headed to a Starbucks because i wanted to spend a couple of hours making some research notes and not really being bothered by waitresses or anybody. That cost 7 pounds fifty for a bloody coffee and a silly little custard blueberry tart -
I still had about 5 hours to kill before getting to the airport, so popped into this little bar across from Starbucks, an easy place to get a taxi (some places in Macau were not easy to get a taxi; and the taxi drivers did not speak English, so you had to say something very basic like "airport" or show them where you were going written down in Chinese).
I did 10+ of those distinctly average little beers then headed off to the airport.
Dodgy looking wee-dribble stains on those strides Betty...
Maybe get your prostate probed at the next opportunity...!
Don't say 'oh fuck yeah!' while the doctor is going at it with the rubber gloves on
I don't get it either. I sometimes go in to the Crown in Melbourne as a spectator but the punters always have a slightly glazed look in their eyes win or lose.
Although I do love playing poker.
Yes, but, focus on those lovely new Nike Air Max!
Funnily enough, getting cleaning done was a real problem in HK & Macau - they seem to ship the laundry off to large central places rather than the hotels doing it locally, so because I had a Sat/Sun and holiday Monday in the middle of my trip I ended up doing some washing myself; the laundrettes were closed and none of the 3 hotels I stayed in had laundry service (in fact, they seemed shocked when I asked)... Pain in the arse that was.
I also bought new clothes a few times, just because my stuff was dirty and I couldn't find anywhere to get it cleaned.
I can't remember the last time I had a holiday and thought about changing my flights to leave early, but I did several times both in HK and Macau.
Super Bock used to be my beer of choice when living in Portugal.
We called it getting "Bocked up".
Great pics Betts.
Yeah, it tasted ok, better than the Macau beer. It was 3.5 Macau per bottle in that bar, so I spent around 40 dollars on the stuff; helped me sleep on the plane!
I mean it's nice, and with the right group at the right time, could be really nice, but with so many interesting places to visit, there's other places I'd rather try before going back.
I had a few actually, but I drink it in Korea quite often, so tried other stuff whenever it was available - variety is the spice of life. I think the first meal I had in Macau, a yellow fried noodles with beef, had a large bottle of Tsingtao with it; not sure if I got that in the picture or not...
Another quite weird thing in Macau, especially after coming from HK where everyone speaks English, is talking to a European looking person who doesn't understand a word you say then on closer inspection has a lot of Chinese about them and is a Macau local. Almost all the bars, restaurants, everywhere, I went to had at least one Philippino around who did all the English translation. The Chinese/Mecanese are not big on English, and I've always found Portuguese a difficult language - Spanish, French even Yermin, I can get by a bit in, but Portuguese is a tricky language (for me...).
Thanks Betty for the pics and stories, I enjoyed them! Don't worry, I'm not offended by your very polite non-mention of my compatriots as being noisy (but friendly) and having terrible food!
And yes, Filipinos can really be noisy too. Even I use earplugs at work, when I want to concentrate!
Re: the ruins of St Paul Church, it was refreshing to see it in summer, all blue skies. When I visited, it was winter. We were cold, wet and slightly miserable.
Re: Filipinos, yes there are loads in HK & Macau as workers, since those places are near PI. In Macau at a cafe, we started ordering in English then the staff answered us in Tagalog! Loads go on tourism too, for shopping, Disneyland & Ocean Park.
I saw a friend's recent pics of Macau and saw that there's a mini Eiffel tower now, which wasn't there 6 years ago. I'm not in a hurry to visit Macau soon. Re: HK, if I visit again, I'd like to walk/hike the trail in the mountain and reach the Big Buddha on foot, as I went by cable car last time.
Cheers and glad you enjoyed your trip!
P. S. It's Filipino, spelled with an F.
Regarding spelling, it's a regional thing, European, as we get the name on our maps from King Phillips time... I had a little Google, and there are lots of different spellings - I'm not really bothered, I can certainly use Filipino if you prefer that term.
In Macau you have some very flash hotels on the lower island, the Paris type place, the Venice type place and the Studio built in the shape of 8mm film was quite impressive too.
Where do you plan to go next, Katie? I'm thinking about a long weekend in Vladivostok...
Bets, thanks for the thread and piccies, great effort.
You mentioned before all this started that initially you wouldn't go because Mrs Boo wanted to go. I assume you will both take a visit together so what would your itinerary be do you think - miss Macau altogether? and then if HK only any preferences? I think i need to visit again its changed so much, although i worry i'll be disappointed that its been cleaned up too much - not been since 96 and before that spent some time in the Gin Bottle.
I'm not sure. The wife does fancy going would like to eat all that food, and maybe live there a while. I might look at some work there, but no more than a 6 month or 1 year contract - I feel like my time in Korea is coming to an end (I'm bored of the place) although if I work here another 4 years then I get a quite nice pension for the rest of my life wherever I live, something like $700 per month from the age of 61; not amazing, but along with other monies (a small UK pension for example and some savings), it'd be well worth it. I didn't work the full pension term in the UK, so that pension would be reduced (not worth me making the top-up payments) - at 49, I should probably get that 4 years done here, just as a bit of security in the future, and try to get the cash savings up to a decent amount too.
Not that a Thai pension is anything to write home about, but 2 more years at a Thai government uni, and I'd be due that too. 3 different pensions coming in with some savings would be a start to retirement.
I didn't see that much of HK, three areas really: Central, Causeway and Kennedy Town - there's a lot more to explore, several islands, day trips to Macau sometimes might be nice, fast trains to all sorts of places in China, easy flights to SE Asia - I suspect it could be a decent base, but probably need a good job to enable that.
Bets that Xanax is definitely still circulating, you started off replying about the Hong Kong visit and segued into your Pension arrangements. I think it wasn't wasted typing because you've unwittingly sorted your plan for the next 6-8 years; another 4 in Korea, you'd be mad not to and whilst it may be a little dull being tied to the same place you can't deny the travel opportunities are great, then perhaps a year or two somewhere else before getting your 2 years in at a Thai Uni to secure your second teaching pension - job jobbed.
Actually, I forgot about my Equitable Life private pension that I used to pay 500 pounds per month in during my business days; I might get 4 pensions coming back - none of them are big though; I think I remember something about a lump sum at 55 years old from the EL fund - that's only 6 years away.
Yep, a high chance of doing 4 more years here, and that'd get me to: Vladivostok, Saipan, Guam, Bali, Taiwan, maybe a couple of central Asian countries too. How much do I owe you for the consultancy fee?
Bets in all seriousness, 49, now is the time you need to invest a bit of effort into your future - you know this anyway but put the time in, bank the pensions and give yourself an easier ride 60 on. Besides, knowing nothing else about your family life the pooch points to high maintenance
My compatriots and I call ourselves Filipinos. It's because we prefer to use the Spanish spelling - Filipinos, the inhabitants of Las Islas Filipinas, named after Felipe of Spain. Seeing it spelled differently just seems weird. In Tagalog, we call ourselves Pilipino or Pinoy (slang), never "Philippino" - that just seems so wrong!
Would you like to be called Vritish or Pritish? (since in some languages, B and P are interchangeable).
As for future trips, I have some minor day trips, weekend trips and hikes scheduled (all as a "joiner") so that will keep me busy until the next few months! Yesterday, I hiked an easy mountain (2/9) and visited 3 waterfalls in the vicinity. I might update my hiking thread, if there's time & my net cooperates. Cheers!
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