Waking up this morning in Shenzhen, we could easily tell that the temperature outside was cold. And I thought, I would be wearing sandals by now! Jenny was happy to remind me that her heavy coat was once again very useful. We had a great breakfast at small stall restaurant close to our hotel. We took the taxi to the ferry terminal some 20km away in Sekou. I was surprised to realize that going to Macao represented the same border crossing formalities as going to any other country (e.g. exit / entry docs). Macao, an island of 28sq m, was a Portuguese colony until 1999 when it was transfered back to China under a 50 years agreement. Victoria found the 1 hour ferry ride quite difficult as she kept a motion sickness bag close to her throughout the journey. The immigration line was painfully long. It took us almost one hour to get processed. We taxied to a first hotel and we were surprised by their room rate so we visited a few more hotels but quickly realized that we would not be getting the same value for the money in Macao than in Shenzhen. Rooms were quickly being snatched by visitors. We ended taking the last room in one of the hotel visited.
Our first impression of Macao reminded us of Havana (Cuba) but with a bilingual context of Portuguese and Chinese. The traffic flow is reversed here (i.e. drivers are on the right hand side). Sidewalks and streets are narrow. The town is very much in the Christmas spirit with plenty of Festive decoration. The town seems to be overflowing with visitors. The weather is very cold. It is clear that many visitors did not expect this type of temperature. On arrival, we thought that Macao could warrant two nights sleep over but after visiting some of the key tourism attractions and the limited hotel room availability we opted to stick with our original schedule of 1 day in Macao. We changed reminbi (China’s currency) into patacas (Macao’s currency) after my ING ATM card failed to deliver any money.
Although our hotel advertised “WI-FI here”, we discovered that it is only available in the hotel lobby. Up to now on our trip, we’ve struggled a bit getting easy access to the internet from our hotel room – obviously there are plenty of coffee shop offering wi-fi but we’ve not felt that desperate yet!
Before we forget, Macao has plenty of casinos for you all! We learned that temperature lows had not been seen for the past 30 years. Macao’s outskirt islands should be a nice biking destination under improved temperature.