Day One

27.3.1999. 6:45 am. The alarm goes up and I get up quite easily. Why? Because I'm going to Macau today! After preparing, I start calling everyone to make sure that they are up: Toshihiro, Yoshiharu, Makiko, Mika, Julia, Chang Ki, Shinichi, James, and Ryuhei. As I began descending down to the KCR station I remembered that I needed a passport and quickly rushed to get it. The meeting time and place was 7:30 at University KCR station. I waited and people slowly came. However I forgot to remind people to bring their passports. Julia went back to get hers just in case the pernament HK ID card doesn't work. However Yoshi forgot to bring his! He was also the last one to come down! While he took the bus back to get his ID, the rest of us went to Sheung Wan. I didn't think Yoshi could make it to the ferry on time so I asked the ticket people if I could change my ticket for one at a later time but they didn't let me. However they suggested that I could sell the ticket to people coming to buy tickets! That way, the rest of my friends could go to Macau first while I wait here for Yoshi and go to Macau later. I sold the tickets and then waited for Yoshi. Yoshi somehow beat my calculation and came before it was too late! I quickly went back to the ticket booth and purchased 2 tickets. We then had to rush to the docking place! I caught my breath and then planned for the trip while riding on the Turbocat. The ride took 55 minutes.

TURBOCAT

Outside the Port

After exiting the port, we changed for Macau money. Macau money is roughly cheaper than HK dollar, with the rate of 100 HK to 104 Macau.

Macau Grand Prix Museum

Yoshi posing in the fountain

everyone except me
Jorge Alvares Monument

Inside the Leal Senado was a small art gallery Central Macau

inside St. Dominic's Church a devout Christian

Mika buys Macau's famous
custard tarts at Bolo de Aroz
The old man balances the water as
he writes and draws

Ruins of St. Paul

The Ruins of St. Paul is the most famous landmark in Macau. Inside at the Main Chapel of the Church of St Paul's College is enscripted "You are about to enter a sacred place. Please remain silent!" The tomb of Father Alexander Valignano lies in there. We then proceeded towards Monte Forte. Monte Forte was built in 1626 and now has been transformed into a park. At the top of the fort is the City of Macau Museum. I highly recommend this museum as it is very new and has lots of interesting information.

Bocarro cannons

City of Macau Museum

side view of the fascade
what's Yoshi doing!?

Church of St. Anthony

Bikes zipping through narrow streets A statue at Camoes Grotto & Garden

Casa Garden & Casa Museum

We went inside the Casa Museum where we looked at the artwork. Actually we really just took a rest inside. There were many hungry people so we decided to go eat at Pinocchio, a famous restaurant in Macau. It was highly recommended by the tour books and some other of my friends. We split into 3 groups, taking 3 taxis. We had crab, lamb, bird, seafood, fried rice, salad, and shrimp. James told me that the crab brain is one of the best parts of eating a crab. I tried it and it was gross. He tried it and he thought it was gross too. Something was wrong with the food...

inside Pinocchio

We later took taxis to our hotel, Hotel Beverly Plaza. We went to our respective rooms. This whole Macau trip was really a great deal - $966 for two people! The boat ride itself costs around $630! The price could have even been cheaper, $868, if we signed up earlier! However we had an odd number of people so Chang Ki, James and I had the same room. We heard fireworks happenning outside and watched...buildings were blocking our view.

For some reason, we all were watching an old Jackie Chan movie in the same room!

Hotel Lisboa is supposedly Macau's best casino. As we walked around on the bottom floor, we saw many woman lurking around. They wore makeup and didn't really have a purpose here - They were prostitutes! I was so surprised that there were so many of them here! Anyways, as we entered the casino, the staff told me that men cannot wear backpacks! Thus I let Julia hold it for me while I held her camera case. Inside there were many VIP rooms, along the sides, which had a large minimum bet - for high rollers. However we went to the center areas where most of the people gamble. Everyone's face was serious and no one laughed. I could really feel the high tension in the room! The place was also crowded. There were many types of games being run, some I never had heard of. Most of my friends were watching one guy play. We never saw him lose! Anyway, some of us wanted to place a bet with that guy. When the dealer changed, the guy lost for the first time but he still won most of the time. My friends placed the bet. They had to pool together to make the minimum bet, and then, they lost. =( That was the only bet that any of us had made because we just really wanted to see how the casino was like. We then returned to our hotel, to the same room.

Ryuhei has not yet been properly introduced to everyone yet. so we decided to give him a Happy Corner! Also, we let him also try it out on someone, someone who never has been Happy Cornered before, Shinichi! We also decided to split into 3 groups because some people wanted to return to Hong Kong earlier the next day.

Onwards to Day 2