MACAU
AM I IN PORTUGAL?
Macau, where China and Portugal meet, in a rare and exquisite way. For a Portuguese, Macau is somehow seen as a myth. You hear about it, you hear about the stories of a place where we had a strong role in the past, where nowadays people speak Portuguese in the streets and there are many colonial buildings.
Where there are many immigrant Architects (that couldn’t find a well-paid job back home), Lawyers (Macau was under Portuguese administration for 400 years and the territory’s law and judicial organization are still deeply marked by that past) and other professions in similar situations.
To figure out if the myth was true and to visit my friend Madalena’s city I decided to stay here for one week.
THE FIRST IMPRESSION
The first “funny” moment upon arrival was being crushed at the exit of the ferry Hong Kong-Macau by a horde of Chinese people rushing to leave the boat. Even though the barriers were still on and no one could get out of it.
We went directly to meet Paulo, a friend of Madalena and had dinner in a Macanese restaurant (Chinese-Portuguese cuisine) next to his house. Luckily he offered me his place to stay for the week while he was still moving from his old house. The new apartment was in a set of towers that were harshly hit by the Hurricane Hato in August which could still be seen by the number of broken windows with tape on the neighboring buildings.
In the next morning, we went to have lunch in Fisherman’s Wharf (Doca dos Pescadores) in a Portuguese restaurant with Francisca, another friend of Madalena. This place was exactly the idea of a Chinese copycat place. With a copy of the Roman Colosseum, an amphitheater and many Italian looking quarters. To arrive I had to call a taxi and use a pre-recorded voice message from Madalena with the name in Cantonese because there was no way the taxi driver would have understood the English or Portuguese version of the name. I tried.
CASINOS BIGGER THAN in LAS VEGAS
After lunch, I went to visit the famously known casinos in Macau.
As a curiosity, Macau is full of casinos, and although more than half of them are from the same group as in Las Vegas, the ones in here are twice as big as their Nevada’s relatives.
The reason for such a crazy amount of casinos in this little part of China is, in here, they aren’t forbidden.
Macau is officially Macao Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, an autonomous territory from China, the rules that in China make it forbidden to build casinos, here don’t apply, which makes it the god on earth’s place for all the Chinese mainlanders.
For them going to the casino has a high social status value. Therefore all the Chinese mainlanders come to Macau especially to go to the casino. All these casinos, as in Las Vegas have the best and most expensive shops in the world.
Macau has two regions with casinos. For a Portuguese, the most interesting to visit are the Casino Lisboa and the Grand Lisboa Casino, both in the main peninsula.
In the island of Taipa, I had the chance to visit the Galaxy and the Venetian with almost an entire replica of Venice, with St. Markus square, the canals with gondolas, the Doge’s Palace, the Campanile, and even Rialto’s bridge. There is also the Parisian with a small Eiffel Tower, and many others.
At night we went to dinner “bifanas” (typical Portuguese recipe with a pork steak inside of bread topped with mustard) and drink some beers in Food Truck Company a restaurant owned by a Portuguese that had some problems with Macau’s rules and had to buy a restaurant and put his food truck inside of it cause you can’t sell food in the streets with a truck.
Poor macau and portuguese macau
The next day I visited a bit of the surrounding of Macau, not the fancy center but the outskirts and figured out it isn’t all flowers, people live like in Hong Kong in massively populated blocks, with fenced windows due to insecurity and you see no western face around.
At night we went to have some cocktails 2 for 1 in Starworld Casino where I met some more of Madalena’s friends (Mia, Inês, Pedro, etc (can’t remember all names, sorry)) and went to eat some bad Macanese food with an undercooked egg that could almost be a living chicken for how badly cooked it was… luckily no salmonellas 😀
Day number 4 counted with a lunch in Casa Portuguesa, a great Bitoque with a Sumol and tried to get some information about the location of a social-building from a famous Portuguese Architect Manuel Vicente. Unfortunately, it had been demolished a few years ago so I decided instead to visit the Guia Fortress with an old lighthouse and a church, the Museum of Macau with an incredible exhibition about the Portuguese influence in the Chinese culture and the Lou Lim Ioc Garden.
interview for radio macau
The day finished with a small talk with Benjamin that worked at Radio Macau and contacted me via Instagram to know more about my trip for a possible small interview with me for the radio.
With pleasure that happened the next day and here it is, unfortunately only in Portuguese.
historical places & Taipa/coloane
That day I went to eat with Madalena, Francisca, Sofia and Rodrigo next to the radio station, and went with Rodrigo (a friend of mine that studied with me and went to live in Macau with his girlfriend Sofia) to visit the ruins of St. Paul’s church, and the Temple of A Má.
He started drawing small sketches around the temple and gave me inspiration to actively start a diary, which is helping me now writing so descriptively these adventure.
Friday came and I had for the first time to wash my clothes since the trip started. Thanks for the help Sofia! Went to her massive university campus and washed everything in her dorm’s washing room.
At the evening we went all out to Cais 22, a relatively known restaurant between Portuguese immigrants and to Cubic, a crazy club where everybody warns you about the “strong” altered drinks and incoming hangover, and where you can watch a kind of kinky show with girls in 50 Shades of Grey’s outfits.
Obviously, the hangover came the next day but we still managed to go visit the Houses of Taipa, some colonial style houses and the panda’s zoo in Coloane.
In the evening we went to Wynn Palace and watch the most amazing light-water show I’ve ever seen and where you actually enter the casino through a cable car surrounded by huge dragon statues.
The Show at Wynn's palace
In China for a day!
The final day in Macau was spent in Zhuhai, a Chinese Special Economic Zone, where you can buy a visa for 72 hours and actually be in China. Yes, this was my stay in China apart from Beijing’s airport. It’s a bit cheating but hey, it still counts! China – Check aha, no seriously I will come back it looked intriguing.
We saw a replica of the Beijing’s Summer Palace, a beach over packed with Chinese and finally ate hotpot at Sofia’s favorite hotpot place. Hotpot is basically a hot boiling pot of tomato or whichever sauce you choose to be inside and then you pick the noodles, meat and/or vegetables you want and put it all in the boiling liquid and after some minutes take it out perfectly cooked. In the meanwhile, you can request one of the employees to make your own noodles in front of you in an artistic shaky shaky show.
Am i in Portugal?!
So… after such a “long” stay in Macau was my first question answered?
Does it feel like you are in Portugal?!
I, unfortunately, have to answer – Nop
Although it had a strong Portuguese influence for over 400 years, Macau is still China, and you barely see any western faces during the day. There are a lot of colonial style buildings, especially in the city center, Portuguese stonework on the floor, Portuguese-Chinese (Macanese) cuisine, the street names, and buses have Portuguese writings on it, but you’re usually the only Portuguese on that bus, or on that street that will be able to understand what it’s being said in the speakers. There is always the Cantonese version written below or spoken after.
It is nevertheless an amazing place to visit as a Portuguese and one wonder how incredibly must have been to travel around the world during those times, going to such different places with such different cultures, habits, and religions.
Therefore my next post is not going to be about Vietnam (which was my 3rd destination on this trip) but about famous travelers from the past.. be ready, it’s coming faster than you know it haha.
Hasta Pronto,
The Portuguese Traveler
1 thought on “Macau – Am I in Portugal?”
Lovely blog, I’m glad to see you found our history as intriguing as I do.
Hasta Pronto