We decided an organised day trip with a tour group was the best way to explore Macau from Hong Kong. Macau, like Hong Kong is an autonomous territory or Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China, and whilst having its own currency Hong Kong dollars are widely accepted in most places.
Our day started with a fast ferry from Hong Kong to Macau, the ferry was actually really comfortable and the trip only took an hour. Once we got through customs and immigration in Macau we boarded our coach and commenced our day trip.
As this was a day trip, our itinerary and the places of interest we stopped at were pre-organised for us, our experience and this blog of our time in Macau is limited. We found Macau to be a strange mix of both tradition and the outrageous opulence it’s most known for.
Here are photos of The Kun Lam Statue and Macau Tower. While we had a look around the tower, watching people bungy jumping from the top – it is the highest commercial bungy jump in the world!
The Grand Lisboa Casino and Studio City, James Packer’s Casino. Those circles you can see in the middle of Studio City is a figure 8 ferris wheel!
The Venetian Macao is an incredible hotel, shopping mall and casino. The sky that you can see is actually the ceiling with painted clouds and special lighting. The effect is mind blowing!
A-Ma Temple (Ma Kok Miu). Our tour guide told us a story of how Macau was named. Apparently when a lost Portuguese sailing ship landed here by accident they tried to get help. Not having a common language, the sailors tried to find out their location from some Monks at this temple and mistook what they were saying not as “Ma Kok Miu” but as “Macau”.
The amazing ruins of St Paul’s Cathedral. This church has burned down but the facade has remained as a free standing structure. A great testament to building things properly. Interestingly enough there is a small local temple next to the church ruins that is dedicated to a god that burns everything around them!
The Grand Emperor Hotel is partially owned by Jacky Chan, it has gold bars on the floor at its entrance. Of course the gold bars are encased in unbreakable resin. There is also a Feng Shui mirror on the column in the photo below which is rumoured to have cost a million US dollars! Strangely you are not allowed to take photos of the mirror front on, only from the side.
It was a fabulous day and we’d highly recommend checking out Macau if visiting Hong Kong.
Cool Stuff We Did 