It is Tuesday? Then this must be Macau (or Babylonian confusion is near)

Confusion is right. It is OK hearing Asians speak English. I didn't have to come to Hong Kong to get used  to that since that is quite common in Vancouver ;-). But seeing non-tourist Asians in a city that looks very Mediterranean, and then hearing them speak English gets confusing. But not quite as confusing as hearing Asians speak Portuguese.
Anyway, maybe this is just a slight personal trauma reaction in response to the fact that all day I've been pointing at things mouthing the word 'jih', and then getting only one of the things, even though I am fully convinced that I just delivered a perfectly pronounced Chinese TWO.  Then when the salesperson asks in English 'TWO?', I just shrug my shoulders and answer in English "I TRY speaking Chinese!", which is usually rewarded by a big smile ;-)

But then I'm not the fastest in the head these days ;-)
 I took the fast ferry to Macao. The company is called Turbojet. And their little fancy boats are called Jetfoils (They rise on metal foils out of the water as soon as they reach a certain speed).  When one sits in one of these, one feels just like in a plane, only the windows are bigger.







There is a seat-belt, a puke bag, a travel magazine, a fold-down table, food gets served by the stewardess (?), and the noise and vibration feel just like in aplane.









Are you getting it?
It took me until Macau (when I left the boat and saw the big letters BOEING written on the stern ) to realize that I was sitting on top of a Boeing JET ENGINE that was propelling a boat across the Pearl River Delta. Talk about exotic!







In Macau you get dumped at the outer ferry terminal. Whether you want to get to the casinos or to the old part of the city, you will have to choose your mode of transport (prices are to go to the old city, which is further):
Bus              ?                 Next time I will figure that one out?
Taxi            HK$ 40-50 depending on traffic
Rickshaw    HK$ ~200  at least that was the price last year.
The currency of Macau is the Pataca or MOP, but you can use HK$ at par.  Bank machines give you a choice of dispensing HK$ or MOPs. If you're going back to Hong Kong after your visit, choose HK$.

Taxi drivers drive like mad here!  If you take the Rickshaw, which takes the same roads, be prepared to encounter a feeling similar to being in a propeller crop-duster being passed by the most modern jet fighters.

If you are looking for the casinos, Good Luck, but they're not hard to find.  If you are looking for the old city, it starts right at the General Post Office, in this square:

Almost at the end of the square, there is a McDonald's on the right. If you follow the small road right next to it up the incline for about 100 meters, you will be here:

The building on the right is Macau Cathedral. DO go inside!

Colours and brightness of the various windows varies with position of the sun and cloudiness.




































Right in front of the cathedral is this square:

That continuous stone bench is covered by Delft-like blue-and-white tiles. The street signs here are made of blue-and-white tiles. The down-hill (towards McDonadl's) side of the retaining wall (centre) is covered by blue-and-white tiled murals, like this one:

  

Heading down to the McDonald's, and then heading rightish-straightish and following the crowds will get you to the Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral:

 

 Here you will encounter the tourists and will also find this sculpture:             Are the Portuguese insinuating that they were invited to be here?

And where the tourists are one usually can buy all kinds of things. Not sure what this poor guy was advertising:

 Remember the McDonald's?  On the same road up to the cathedral; almost at the cathedral and on the right side is my favourite restaurant. The owner has changed since last May and they no longer have the giant PIG

in front of the door, but the Salada de Polvo (Octopus salad) is still fabulous!















After I finished my wine (;-), I decided to start looking for my favouite clothes sellers that I had visited twice last year.  And here is the main reason why I don't take taxis.  They drop you at a known destination, but you miss out on all the new good stuff along the way. If I had taken a taxi, this post would have probably only 4 pictures in it.
 I briefly considered giving this clothes vendor a brief English lesson, but then kept going.

 The stall of the lovely very old and very dignified lady that let me take her picture last year was closed ;-(

 And in the most dusty shops you find stuff like this (with a price tag of  HK$ 14800!).

 I found it! There it is!  This time I only buy 3 shirts and 5 T-shirts for a total of C$ 35 ;-)

Not really far away (2 blocks) I look into the window of this store.  Please note that the blueish bracelet goes for ~1,000,000 HK$ (Math error corrected: Multiplying by 0.13 this works out to be CAN$ 130,000). Now further note that the GREEN jade bracelets don't even have price tags! 

 And one sees stores and prices like these everywhere!  There is REAL MONEY in China!

I decided that this time in Macau I will visit a site I have missed the last 2 times.  No, it is not a casino!  Come on, just look at the monstrosities:

No, it is a different tower that I have my eyes set on:

And you wondered why my feet hurt every day ;-)

Is it getting closer?

I think so.

Definitely getting closer!

There are no seagulls here to look down upon, so what I am going to do beside take pictures?

 Eat, of course!  Why the Portuguese in China would even consider having HIGH TEA is beyond me. Maybe the HIGH refers to the altitude of ~200 meters.

Regular readers will probably not have to be reminded of my rants about whether in these revolving restaurants one pays for the food, the view, or both.  In this one I paid ~21 CAN$ for a nice view this pyramid of yummy desserts (including Serradura aka Macau Sawdust Pudding, which was TO DIE FOR), meat dishes (I ate the duck), and fruit, as well as a plate with a variety of other dead things dishes (oyster on a shell and other stuff, which I ate but don't remember). You be the judge of the view:

After the jetfoil passes under that same bridge on its departure from Macau it takes an hour to get back to the ferry terminal in HK, where the sun has come out (only to set in half an hour ;-(

And yes: My feet hurt, this time also due to all the stuff I bought in Macau and that I'm lugging around.  It was easy resisting the shopping urge in Shenzhen. But something they do in Macau gets me every time!