Around the World in 330 Days: Brian's Fulbright Journey in China and Elsewhere: Days 109-111: Macau

So this past weekend we went to Macau. Overall, it was a good trip. Lots of travel, though. Friday, we went to Hongqiao Airport: we had to fill out a departure card when going through customs, but, oddly enough, we didn't have to fill out an arrival card when we arrived in Macau. On the plane, I graded response papers from my Short Novels class; the food was decent--beef and rice. When we got to the hotel, (The Parisian), there was a lot to like about it. First, it was close to the airport (and we took a shuttle). Second, it was really easy to find the lobby, and it was not crowded at all. Extreme elegance was the theme: a gorgeous fountain when you walk in, amazing paintings on the ceiling, statues adorning the hallways. The stores sell only the best: Gucci, Prada, etc. It reminded me a bit of the Bellagio in the US. Kerry and I settled down a bit in the room and then went to Le Buffet in the hotel for dinner about 7:45. Amazing food: lobster thermidor, pate de foie gras, black truffle risotto, raw salmon, pork, brie cheese, and roast beef, among other dishes. Tres bien!

We took a lot of pictures in Macau, so I'm going to divide them by day. Here are the Friday pictures:

Fountain in the entrance of The Parisian.

Hotel lobby--breathtaking!

Kerry beneath a chandelier.

Lobster from the buffet.

Saturday Kerry and I slept in more than we should have--we originally intended to get an early start, but c'est dommage! Still, we managed to have a really good day. After lunch at Le Buffet, which was a smaller version of their dinner, we decided to go on a tour of the city--using one of those tour buses. It wasn't a hop-on, hop-off kind of thing: we had to come and go as the tour guide asked us to. Our first stop was a series of museums, but the museums weren't really the major attraction for us as much as a beautiful garden of flowers, which was wonderful to walk around in, especially since it was about 65 degrees there: no jacket! I did manage to pop into one of the museums for a moment, but only for a moment--it had a lot of photographs of people (particularly women) who contributed to Macanese culture. Next we went to a Buddhist temple and climbed all over the place. We burned incense and watched people pray. We even bought a mobile, left it there, and wrote a wish on it: "Wish for a happy and prosperous New Year, Brian and Kerry." After this, we went to a tall tower--the tallest in Macau. We got to go to the 58th floor, stand inside and see the view. There was also a glass floor where we could look down and see the world below. We saw people bungee jump off the 61st floor! We went up there as well, but it was outside and far too cold. For the last part of the tour, we went to a crowded old town area of Macau: we saw the ruins of St. Paul Cathedral (from a distance...we couldn't get too close because they were preparing some sort of Christmas event), St. Dominic's Church, and Senado Square. Kerry and I briefly looked for shopping opportunities, but really didn't find any. Then we got back on the bus to the hotel. We had dinner at Le Brasserie in the hotel, a French restaurant (mais oui!). At first they wouldn't take us, but we said we'd wait, and then a table magically appeared. I had a ribeye steak, and Kerry had a steak as well. Good meal, except we found a hair in the butter and the salad was nothing more than lettuce and vinaigrette. The french onion soup and chocolate mousse were spectacular, though. After dear, we visited the Eiffel Tower at the Parisian. They wouldn't let us go to the top due to the winds, but we walked around the 7th floor. We looked around their store afterwards and bought a few items, including a cute Parisian bear and cookies and Ferrero Rocher candies for my American Lit. students.

Saturday pictures:

Lunch at Le Buffet.

Beautiful garden near some museums.

Kerry at the garden we visited.

Kerry at the temple.

Our New Year's wish, left at the temple.

Shrine at the temple.

Me outside the temple.

View from the 58th floor of the observation tower!

The Ruins of St. Paul.

St. Dominic's Church.

Kerry in Senado Square.

Chocolate mousse at La Brasserie.

La Tour Eiffel at The Parisian.

A view of Macau from the Eiffel Tower.

We began Sunday with breakfast at Le Buffet: they had scrambled eggs, but they were sort of watery. Still, they had ham, croissants, danishes, pork sausage, and other breakfast goodies. Soon after, we did the Express checkout and were on our way to the airport. It's a pretty small airport (Macau International), but the security lines were as long as the US. We did a currency exchange before we left: patacas back to RMB. (As of this writing, 8 Macau patacas=1 US dollar.) They seated us almost in the very back of the plane--only one foreigner sitting behind us--and the plane got off to a late start, almost 40 minutes late. I slept a bit on the plane and graded more response papers. Walking out we were accosted by two different people (one woman, one man) asking us, in English, if we wanted a taxi. And they were both very aggressive and persistent. However, once I said "Bu yao" to which one, firmly, they shut up. Once they see that we know some Chinese, they back off. Deborah told us that they think foreigners are rich, and they will think 300 RMB is reasonable. Our driver was nice--but it was a long way home from the Pudong Airport (for some reason we had to leave from Hongqiao but flew into Pudong). 200 RMB for the ride, partly because the driver got a bit lost on the way home--I hope he wasn't just "lost" to add money on the tab. But we are still vulnerable here and need to trust people to some extent. That was really most of the day, other than some prep I had to do in the evening--plan sheets, mostly. Kerry made a WONDERFUL chicken dish with the apples from Tomasz: he butterflied the chicken breasts and put cheddar cheese and sugared apples on top of them. Great combination of savory and sweet, and he came up with this on his own! Yay!

Sunday pictures: