Macau 10.1.06

Macau – October 1, 2006. David and I decided to check out Macau. Macau is a small island on the southern coast of china about an hour from Hong Kong on a jet turbo ferry, which skids along the surface of the ocean! It was administered by Portugal until 1999 when it was handed back to China and is a special administrative region like Hong Kong. It is the oldest colony, older than Hong Kong, established by the Portuguese in 1535. We stood in the fortress where a Jesuit priest blew up a Dutch armada with a lucky shot to powder keg! Portuguese was the only official language until about the 1980s but now most also speak Cantonese. Signs and menus are in Portuguese. Most travel to Macau to gamble, lounge in the luxury resorts, sight see and buy furniture. We did lots of eating, a little sight seeing and purchased some furniture. You would have been proud of our team approach to bargaining! See the pictures(notice the much shorter hair too-It’s way hot here!) http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=hggnkpd.5epnazkd&Uy=lyi5ld&Ux=1
We visited Senado Square, very colorful with black and white tiles. Then to St. Paul’s – the only thing that remains is the façade. Then to the fortress. We were on Hong Kong National Day and ran into the Hong Kong Harley Club parade! Then lunch at Fat something something –the oldest restaurant in town – Portuguese. Then some dedicated furniture shopping topped off by a dinner at Fernando’s – we just viewed the pigs but had delicious shrimp in sauce and feijoada (spelling?) a traditional Portuguese bean and pork dish. Yumm!