Exploring Macau

After a relatively late night, we got to sleep in a little bit Monday morning. Not a lot, though - the hotel package included a complimentary breakfast buffet, and it was only available until 10:30am. It was a pretty decent spread, eggs, fruit, cereal, congee, dim sum. Unfortunately, something we'd eaten yesterday didn't agree with us, so we couldn't enjoy it as much as we would have liked.

We checked out of our room, stored our luggage, and set out to explore. Our first objective was to visit the ruins of Sao Paulo, which is probably Macau's most famous historical site. We headed up the steep, windy streets, stopping in some shops along the way, not really paying attention to where we should be going. We managed to overshoot our destination by quite a bit, ending up at a fort that overlooked the city as well as the top of the ruins. Daniel was still not feeling well, so we sat here for a bit, enjoying the city views as well as the people-watching.

We started back down the hill, this time keeping a better eye on our destination, and managed to reach the ruins. Daniel was still feeling a bit off, so he sat for a while as I wandered and took photos.

We spent the next few hours wandering the shops and snacking. We next headed over to the nearby casinos, not to gamble, but just to see what they looked like. These were quite the ritzy places! The security was a bit strange, though. There were guards and metal detectors at each entrance, and even signs warning not to take firearms into the casinos. I had my bulging camera bag with me and set off the metal detectors each time I went through, yet no one ever stopped me or asked to see what I was carrying.

We stopped by a shrine and giant statue to the Asian goddess Kun Iam (Goddess of Mercy) just as the sun was starting to set. It was getting late, and we still had some shopping to do before our 9pm ferry. We headed back to the shopping district to pick up some edible souvenirs for everyone who had been so helpful to us here in Hong Kong.

It had been a busy couple of days, and the 9pm ferry was suddenly feeling too far away, so we headed over to the terminal to see if we could catch an earlier ferry. Thankfully there was room on the 8pm, and we were back in Hong Kong by 9. We still had to check back into our room in Mongkok and retrieve some items from Daniel's father. The room we had been staying in was not available for the first night, so they put us in one that was smaller, more narrow, and reeked of smoke. It made us appreciate the non-smoking rooms in the US hotels!