Macau, Again

Years ago, before I was married (a long, long time ago) I went to Macau with my then girlfriend, Aya, and by buddies John and Richard. We were mainly in HK and spent just a day going around Macau, but here we were back again for a bit more time. Again, we didn't stay in Macau, but Zhuhai across the border. Aya was with me again, but this time it was Reed and Nicole who were with us. We spent some time wandering around the casinos and playing a little roulette. When we sat down to play together we each put in about 10usd to play. Interestingly, a fella sat down next to me and start feeding 100dollar (actually1000hk dollar) bills into the machine. He must have been burning through about 1000 HKdollars every 5 minutes. His wife was standing nearby, not looking too amused. Casinos are a big part of Macau's tourism and everywhere we went that was the main advertisement. Something interesting about the island is that there was and still is a Portuguese presence. While most of the people have gone, there is a requirement for signs to be in Portuguese and for there to be a Portuguese speaker at all major businesses.
Gambling and walking around the casinos was enough for us that day, so we decided to head back for the day, but Reed and I would return the following day to climb to the lighthouse and see St. Paul's ruins. The lighthouse was pretty neat as it is a high point on the island and you can see quite far in every direction. It was a bit humid on the day that we were there, so we couldn't see too far, but still fun. Inside the lighthouse grounds there is a chapel and a stone in the floor with the date of construction. The Chapel of Our Lady of Guia was constructed in 1622. Now, the chapel is somewhat sealed and there are dehumidifiers running to keep the interior frescoes in good condition. 

We headed back to Beijing after just a few days in Macau, but maybe next time we will stay in the city itself and explore a bit more. 

Crossing the Border

Macau side, entrance

"arrival" hall

Gate way to Zhuhai

Zhuhai side

Portal to Zhuhai side

Waiting in the foreigners line

Multiple times when we were in Zhuhai/Macau we crossed the border. Each side was packed with people. In fact, the first time we crossed, from Macau to Zhuhai, was at around 6pm and so people were making their way home from work. There was such a stream of people that we got confused and turned around, but eventually made it across. The process is not a difficult one. We averaged about an hour for the whole ordeal, less if we were using or EChannel passes on the China side.

Many of the people crossing were carrying goods for China/Macau. It seemed like a lot of produce was going from China to Macau and electronics on the way back. As our friend would tell us, Chinese people can only cross once ever two weeks, but it seems like people from Macau can do it at any time.

For me, this wasn't the first time I have crossed a border on foot, but certainly the biggest crossing point. Years ago in Thailand I walked across the border to Cambodia. I've flown across many borders, driven across a few as well. I've even gone by ship on the way to Morocco. By bike, not yet, but maybe someday.