Day 2 - Testing Times in Macau

Given the late (early?) hour that we managed to get to bed after our flight, it was no surprise that we only got 5 hours sleep as we had to get up early for our flight to Macau. Our trip to the airport (in the Mercedes again) was much more interesting than the night before, as there was so much to see. We noticed that there were pictures of 3 guys posted on billboards appearing often along the whole route to the airport. We asked the driver what they were for, and he let us know that they are having an election soon for what we understood to be the governor of the province.

Seeing Suvarnabhumi airport in daylight emphasised to us how big it really was. The terminals stretch for kilometers, and the control tower is one of the tallest in the world. After stocking up on supplies (including toothpaste as we got our original tube confiscated in Auckland for being to large, and some Fisherman’s Friend for my lingering cough, the result of being sick last week), we grabbed an apple danish-esque pastry each for breakfast from one of the airport bakeries.

Following breakfast, we joined the queues for immigration, finding them to be even slower than they had been the previous night. We waited in line for what felt like an age, always commenting on how they would get people through much faster if they opened up all the lines, rather than only half (it reminded us a lot of the Warehouse back home, which always seems to only have a small percentage of checkouts open, even when there are heaps of customers). Just as we neared the front of the line, they wisened on to the fact, and opened a whole lot more counters, which sped up the final third of our wait.

We wandered down to our yet to be opened gate, which we milled around with the other passengers on our flight. During my trip planning, I had read up on Air Asia and knew that they didn’t allocate seating on the plane rather that it was on a first come, first served basis. Consequently, when the Air Asia staff approached the gate with the intent to start boarding passengers, everyone rushed to form some semblance of a line. This proved to be a bit of a waste of time, as after we passed through the gate, we all had to jump on buses which would take us out to the plane. We figured there wasn’t a need to rush, as we were the first busload so we wouldn’t have any trouble finding an available window seat (as proved to be the case).

The flight to Macau arrived twenty minutes early (not bad for a 3 hour flight) and was notable for the pilot’s tendency to make sharp turns every now and then (we guessed he was trying to avoid pockets of bad weather). The descent into Macau was interesting as we noticed heaps of islands scattered throughout the bay which we hadn’t really envisaged. We could also look east across the mouth of the Pearl River and see the islands of Hong Kong in the distance.

Macau Airport was lovely as there was no one around except for passengers from our flight. By the time we had grabbed our bags and obtained some Pataca’s (local currency, also known as MOP) from the ATM, we were probably the only passengers left in the building.

Knowing that the bus required exact change, I tried to break the 100 Pataca notes the ATM had given me into smaller demoniations, managing to get 10s and 20s from the lady at the currency conversion counter. We walked outside into the sticky heat to wait for the bus which would take us halfway into town. The bus fare for us and our bags was 12.60 patacas, the closest we had to that was a 20 MOP note. When we got onto the bus, the driver was a bit flustered by me trying to give her a 20, as she thought we wanted change. I gesticulated that we didn’t, put the 20 MOP note down the slot and we took our seats. She seemed happy after this. The bus took us from the airport, which is on the island of Taipa, across a long bridge to the Macau Peninsula, where we got off at the ferry terminal. Realising that we would need 5 MOPs to catch our next bus to the hotel we were staying in, we went in search of a vendor where we could get some coins. After picking up some brochures at the Tourist Information Centre, we bought some Tictacs and had the change necessary to catch our next bus, which took us on a bit of a tiki tour of the casino district (which Macau is famous for) before we disembarked outside Largo do Senado (the main square in the centre of the historic district). We wandered off the main road in search of our hotel (the San Va Hotel), which was located on Rue da Felicidade (Street of Happiness), once Macau’s main red-light district.

We found the hotel and clambered up a long flight of stairs to the reception. The lady behind the desk didn’t appear to speak a word of English, but she showed us to our small room. The San Va Hotel is very old, and it shows it, with the walls not quite reaching the floor and definitely not reaching the roof. The room had 2 double beds (with wafer thin mattresses), a small sink, a barred window, and a ceiling fan (plus bedside fan). I guess it has what you’d call ‘rustic charm’.

We threw off our bags and decided to go for a bit of an explore, starting with the Largo do Senado, which appeared to be the tourist hub of the area. Picking up a bottle of water on the way, we explored the side streets branching off the square. These tightly confined streets were packed with either scooters or street stalls selling all manner of things, from foods to t-shirts to bags.

The streets here in Macau tend to be packed with people, especially around the main road and Largo do Senado (which appears to have a number of Chinese tourists). However, we found that venturing ‘off the beaten track’ onto side streets and away from Largo do Senado allowed us to enter slightly quieter parts, which appeared to bear more resemblance to ‘traditional’ street life.

Finding the heat and humidity a bit oppressive, we ducked into the air-conditioned bliss of the Tourism Office building at Largo do Senado, where we waited for about 30 minutes to use one of the 2 computers with free internet. After checking our emails and sending out a quick one letting everyone know we’d arrived, we strolled back to our hotel room, collapsing on the bed in exhaustion.

Following a bit of a rest, we went back to the Largo do Senado in the evening and found a touristy restaurant with an English menu. We ordered fried rice with beef, and sipped tea while we waited for our food. When it arrived we looked down at our cutlery we realised we had forgotten to bring our sporks. Instead we had to rely on our poor chopstick skills to enjoy our meal. We managed to utilise a shoveling technique, although I cheated at the end and used a noodle spoon to finish off the rice.

We showered when we returned to the hotel, then lay on the bed physically and emotionally drained. The culture shock had hit us hard. A combination of the heat and humidity, the mass of people, and the fact that we had only slept about 5 hours in the last 2 days had culminated in us lying on our bed wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. We turned off our lights early and went to sleep with the sounds of the fans overhead and the occasional movements of others in the hotel.