Racing with Beginner's Luck in Macau

We spent Saturday in what seemed like a mini one-day vacation from Hong Kong: Macau. We caught the 8:45 am hydrofoil ferry, a smooth and picturesque ride and arrived to find the old Portuguese influences still quite obvious in the infrastructure, food and culture. Macau is a most interesting mix of Europe and Asia, quite possibly the best of both worlds. Especially the food.

We started our adventure in Taipa island, wandering the old town as shopkeepers and restaurant owners were beginning to open up for the day.

We gorged on a delicious Macaunese seafood lunch at Pinnochio restaurant. I had bacalhau (codfish) which is an essential part of Portuguese cuisine. Before cooking, the fish slices are soaked in water for 20 hours to get rid of salt. It can then be served baked, grilled, stewed or boiled.

After lunch, we went back to a cafe we passed earlier, as we promised the man (who had helped us tremendously in finding the restaurant), and treated ourselves to Macau's famous desert, serradura. Made of condensed milk and cracker crumbs covered with soft egg white, it comes in different flavors; Sue and i shared the coffee one. It was way too rich for me, but definitely one of those things that is a must-try when in Macau.

We then headed towards Coloane and jumped off the bus right after crossing the bridge where there was a go-karting track. We had 10 short minutes of adrenaline-pumping fun, whizzing around the track in our karts, squealing tires (not me), and being overtaken by almost everyone else (me). Here we are pictured in our finishing positions.

We took the bus back towards the main part of Macau, stopped off at the Macau tower, teased ourselves about doing a bungee jump off of it, and then taxi'd to the famous Domingo Square, the central area where shops and churches abound. It was interesting to see the Body Shop, Esprit, KFC and other major name brand stores amongst traditional herb and tea shops, antique stores, snack bars.. We strolled up to the famous St. Paul's cathedral ruins (see pic), destroyed in a fire, but one can imagine how magnificent it must have looked whole. We picked up some Pastéis de Nata to munch on, Macaunese egg tarts that are truly out of this world!

Of course, no trip to Macau would be complete without a visit to one (or several) casinos. We decided to hit the newest and hippest one first: Wynn Casino. Impressive inside and out, we wandered the entire floor where every roulette, pocker and baccharel table were occupied. We watched for a bit and then wanting to be part of the action, changed some cash for chips. We hit the roulette table since it's a pretty simple game to understand: you put your chip(s) on the number you think the ball will land on. First time gambler Guy put his 2 chips on number 30 (the only one left on the table) and lo and behold - he won! We didn't realize the extent of his win until we cashed it in at the counter. What a great start to the night! See pic of Sue and Guy proudly holding their winnings outside the casino hall.

After visiting StarWorld Casino (not as swank as Wynn) we had a lovely Japanese meal and headed back to HK on the late night ferry, collapsed in bed and dreamt of zooming go-karts and dancing dollar signs.