Macau, Part Two

My mom was really bummed that I didn't post the Macau pictures yet, so here we go. Neither Jason nor I had any desire to gamble, so we decided to try to go to some of the historical places in Macau. We were extremely frustrated because after you get off the ferry there really is no help figuring out how to get anywhere. There was a visitors booth in the ferry building, but basically nothing else to help. We saw buses to get into the city, but the schedules and maps weren't very helpful and we couldn't find out how to get a bus card. For a tourist city that is known as the "Las Vegas of Asia" it kind of sucked, wasn't easy to get around, and left me feeling a bit disappointed. 

So, basically when we were walking around and getting frustrated while trying to figure out the bus system I saw a pedicab and decided that would be our public transportation. We greeted the driver, pointed to a picture on his list of options that looked historical, paid him the money, and hopped on.

We took in the sights around Macau, walked through a historical district, and then walked our way back to the ferry.  Looking at the map and using the powers of the internet it looks as if we walked five miles in 103 "real feel" temps. I don't ever say the real temps because the real feel communicates what it's like here much more than the actual temp. I think it was in the low 90s with 85% humidity or so. It was quite the experience. I drank a 1.5L bottle of water in about 2 hours and had more water later in the day. I peed once at the very end of my day.

We were intrigued when we saw this building and wondered if it was connected to the Water Cube in Beijing.  It turns out it's just a casino modeled after the Water Cube. Yup, Macau is kind of tacky.

View from the pedicab

View from the pedicab

When we were at a stoplight on the pedicab I saw this man and woman with their sleeping child walking on the crosswalk. 

This is the historical area in Macau. Like I said before, the visitors desk wasn't great and we were had a deadline so instead of wasting time at the desk preparing and learning about different historical locations, we just ventured into the city to walk around and see stuff. We were more interested in looking and observing, rather than gaining specific knowledge about the churches and old buildings here. In this area of Macau all of the streets are patterned like this. Sometimes there are sea themed designs that go alone with the wave pattern. It's pretty cool.  

Macau 

I took this pictures of this flower shop for my mother specifically because I knew she'd love walking in there. The whole place was about 10 feet wide. 

This is the only street I've seen this empty the whole time I've been in Asia.  

Can you tell I'm melting?

This sculpture is called the Asian Arch. We were kind of disappointed and thought it would be cooler. It just sits in the middle of a traffic circle and looks rusty. 

Throughout Macau and Hong Kong it is common to see these little things next to entrances to businesses. I've asked a few people what they are and they weren't able to explain them to me, but it sounds like they might be Buddhist or Tao alters/offerings.

I can't remember exactly what this is, but I have a vague memory of maybe it being a church or a chapel.

Panoramic of one side of the water

We randomly came across this time capsule that's built into the ground of this huge plaza. This isn't a great picture, especially since my shadow's in it, but it'll remind me to find out what was in this time capsule when they open it in 2049.

Well, that was pretty much our walk around Macau. It was very anticlimactic, but of course it was good to spend time with Jason before the craziness of camp opening week started.  After we returned from Macau (on what seemed like the longest trip on public transportation) I headed off to the University of Hong Kong to get settled in for the month.