a Trip a Macau

   For our P-day, we, the 4 senior missionary couples, went to Macau for a fun adventure.  The Bishops and the Arnells researched and we were armed with maps, brochures, notes...  We took the famed "turbo jet" ferry across the South China Sea and an hour later we were at Macau.  The city/island previously was ruled by the the Portugal government.

   According to Wikipedia:

Macau was a Portuguese colony and both the first and last European colony in China.^[7][8] Portuguese traders first settled in Macau in the 16th century and subsequently administered the region until the handover on 20 December 1999. The Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of Macau stipulate that Macau operates with a high degree of autonomy until at least 2049, fifty years after the transfer.^[9]
Under the policy of "one country, two systems", the Central People's Government is responsible for the territory's defence and foreign affairs, while Macau maintains its own legal system, police force, monetary system, customs policy, and immigration policy. Macau participates in many international organizations and events that do not require members to possess national sovereignty.^[9][10] According to the CIA factbook, Macau has the highest life expectancy in the world.[1



   

 

   For this adventure, the ferry tickets were the most expensive part of the trip.  It was US$35 round trip for each person.  Upon arriving at the port of entry, we were bombarded with tour guides.  One was more aggressive and followed us around.  The asking price was $1800 HK (US$232) for a van to tour Macau for 4 hours.  It was easy to rationalize that it would save us a lot of time looking for public transportation and all the bad things that came through my mind.  But, Do Not Take the Bait.  Just listen to Elwin...  He was able to get us on free shuttles all over the city and saw all the things we wanted to see.  He was the hero of the day.  Except for one time when we took a taxi to St. Paul's Cathedral because it was misting and freezing, we fared very well.  We even found the highly recommended buffet at the Star World.  It was a buffet to die for.  The food choices were superb, like East meets the West.  For desserts, we found custard pies, coconut tarts, mango and pomello dessert, mango ice-cream, tarts of all sorts with raspberry, just to name a few.  :-)  We rolled out of there.

   Luckily, we had to do quite a bit of walking to go through all the ruins of the monastery the rest of the day.  Earlier in the day, we saw a fabulous dragon show at the "City of Dreams".  It was like a 360-degree IMAX video with dragons, tigers rolling all over the screen.  Our grandchildren would love to see that.  We saw the water dancing show which was fine.  I would say the dragon show and the monastery ruins, museums were on the top of the list.  

   It was a fun day.  Let us know if you need more details for your trip.