Uploaded photos from China trip

Photos have now been uploaded to all the postings for our trip to Hong Kong & Kowloon, China and Macau. I still haven't done the Picassa album yet (and may never get around to that), but the blog photos are finished.

Macau Casinos

Macau reminds me so much of Las Vegas....sans the entertainment and big name shows. The city is filled with large casinos. The most garish is the Grand Lisboa. It reminds Bill of something that should have been in the old Ghostbusters movie. You can just picture Gozer perched on one of the curved gold pinnacles. At the bottom of the tall gold tower with curved pinnacles there is a dome which sparkles with lights at night. And a multi-story large square building that is painted like a Greek nightmare. The square building is the casino; the Ghostbusters tall structure is the hotel; and we never learned what was in the large glittering dome. We weren't curious enough to walk over there to check it out.

Another big casino is the MGM Grand. The curved outdoor video screen on one corner was an interesting touch. Unfortunately, none of our photos came out because of the foggy weather. The multi-level multi-depth curved exterior on the tall building is also a touch of unusual architectural design. Whatever artist designed the large gold lion on the corner must have been high on something. There are muscles that do not exist on lions and the mane looks like rasta braids.

Today we walked through the cavernous Wynn casino. This casino seems to just go on and on, although there weren't many players at 10 a.m. when we strolled through. Upon entry to the upscale shopping mall attached to the Wynn casino, we found The Prosperity Tree rising up from the floor in all its golden glory. The Chinese love anything called prosperity and gold is symbolic to them for success and luck. A closed golden globe built into the floor opens up and a large glittering golden tree rises up as music plays. About 50 Chinese tourists were gathered around taking photos and wearing big smiles like this was a big deal or something. Once the tree was fully erect, it slowly turned to a bright green. When we later walked back out that entry area, the tree was retracted back down inside the globe in the floor. I have no idea how often this tree emerges each day, but the Chinese tourists really seemed to enjoy it. If you are a VIP or big winner at the Wynn casino, then you might get the privilege of pressing the start button for the Prosperity Tree. This tree display is repeated every half-hour for several hours each day. Tour buses stop by every half hour for all the Asian tourists to have their opportunity to watch the tree raise and lower. There was a crowd each time we walked through this area.

Walking around the sidewalks and looking at the casinos reminded us of 2 people from our past. One was Harold Polatschek, a man who was Bill's mentor in business for several years, beginning 38 years ago. Harold loved Las Vegas and was considered a high-roller out there. Harold received comp trips to Vegas. The casinos did that back then. His flights, hotels and meals were all paid for by casinos; so he made at least one trip monthly to gamble in Vegas. If Harold is still alive, he would be about 100 years old. His mother lived past the age of 100 so it is conceivable that Harold is still around, but we lost contact with him years ago.

The other person we knew who loved to gamble was Larry Ballenger. Larry was one of those people that you just had to love. He lived life to the fullest in everything he did. He was on top and bottom many times and he loved Las Vegas. Larry died years ago of a massive heart attack while in the throes of passion with his latest young wife....a perfect ending for him. When Larry went to Vegas his first big winnings on each trip were spent on expensive suits and watches. And when times were bad for him, he sold those expensive watches. But no matter how bad things got for him, he never sold his Cadillac convertibles that he kept in storage. He always managed to find a way to hang onto the Caddies. Anyway, Larry had a pair of bell-bottom jeans with a large yellow Tweety Bird embroidered up to the knee on the right leg. He called these his "good luck pants" and wore them each time he visited casinos in Vegas. He had once made a small winning at a casino when something happened to the pants he was wearing, either they ripped or something was spilled on him; I don't remember that detail. Rather than go to his room and change, Larry went to a hotel shop and spent about $800 for this pair of jeans. This was back in the early 1970s, and $800 was worth a lot more in those days. Then he returned to the casino and won really big. From that point forward, those were his good luck pants and he always wore them when he gambled. When he died, Larry still had those good luck pants.

The hundreds of watch shops and jewelry stores surrounding the casinos here in Macau made us think of Larry. And the Ermenegildo Zegna shop of nice suits in the shopping mall along with Prada and Versace and other expensive clothing lines also reminded us of Larry. So some things must never change. People who win in casinos still must like to immediately buy jewelry or watches and suits.

Friday we took a taxi back to the Fortaleza do Monte and walked the area. We saw the Leal Senado building, Senado Square, the Holy House of Mercy, the Lou Kau mansion, St. Dominic's Church, the Na Tcha Temple and the only remaining section of the Old City walls.

The Leal Senado building was originally built in 1784 and was the first municipal office, a function it maintains today. The name Leal Senado means Loyal Senate and derives from the formal title of the city bestowed by Portuguese King Dom John IV in 1654. The formal title of the city was "City of Our Name of God Macau, There is None More Loyal." Senado Square has been Macau's urban center for centuries. The curving black and white tiles on the ground and the fountain create a Mediterranean atmosphere. The black and white tiles pave the narrow pedestrian streets and alleyways up the hillside to the Ruins of St. Paul's. The streets are lined with shops of all kinds, some new and some very old.

The Holy House of Mercy was established by the first Bishop of Macau in 1569 and was modelled after one of the most prominent and oldest charitable organizations in Portugal. The Holy House of Mercy was responsible for the first western-style medical clinic and several other social welfare structures that still function to this day. The Lou Kau mansion was the home of guess who....Lou Kau. Built in 1889, this prominent Chinese merchant resided near the Senado Square. The home is a 2-storey, traditional gray brick courtyard house with the typical Chinese characteristics.

St. Dominic's Church was founded in 1587 by 3 Spanish Dominican priests who originally came from Acapulco in Mexico. Here the first Portuguese newspaper was published on Chinese soil. It was called "A Abelha da China" (The China Bee) and was first published on September 12, 1822.

The Na Tcha Temple was built in 1888 and is dedicated to the worship of Na Tcha. This was a new religion or god to us; never heard of this one and could find no information about this obscure deity. The temple is Buddhist and Taoist and is a most unimposing small structure located next to the Ruins of St. Paul's. Nearby stands the last surviving segment of the city's defense structures built as early as 1569. This wall segment is a remnant of an early Portuguese tradition of constructing defensive walls around their port settlements, a tradition also followed in Portuguese settlements in Africa and India. Most of the wall is constructed of a compound known locally as chunambo, an elaborate mixture of clay, soil, sand, rice straw, crushed rock and oyster shells compacted in successive layers.

All of these historical sites are within a short walking distance of one another. A good way for non-gamblers to spend a gray day if you are at all interested in history.

One thing that Bill found humorous was the Canadian College of Macau with a kindergarten on the ground level. Every college should include a kindergarten.

And something I found disgusting both in appearance and in appeal to palate was the Green Tea Cheesecake sold in McDonald's. We have seen just about everything flavored with green tea on this trip. Bet the McDonald's back in the States don't sell Green Tea Cheesecake. It really looked disgusting.

Tomorrow we will check out of the hotel at noon. Don't know what we will find to do until our flight departs for Singapore around midnight. When I originally planned this trip, our return flight was scheduled for 10:30 tomorrow morning. But Tiger Airways then changed the flight time until nearly midnight. Wish they had changed our flight to midnight Friday instead of midnight Saturday. Bill and I are both ready to be back home on the boat. As much as we have enjoyed this trip, it is time to go home.

Off to a rocky start in Macau

The fast ferry ride from Kowloon was smooth; and the nice large leather seats were comfortable; and the snacks of cake and Diet Coke for me and sandwich and beer for Bill were an unexpected treat after being on the train for 24 hours. So you could say that the Macau section of our vacation was off to a good start. That did not last.

Clearing into Macau took the standard 15 minutes, so that was quick and easy. Then we walked out to the hotel bus shuttle area.....where we stood in the heat for 1 full hour waiting for the shuttle to the Beverly Plaza Hotel. Upon arrival at the hotel registration desk we were informed that all the deluxe non-smoking rooms with queen size beds were occupied, and that we had a choice. We could accept a smoking room with queen bed; or we could accept a non-smoking room with twin beds; or we could pay an additional 300 HKD and have the last non-smoking room with a queen size bed. People who know me will know what my reaction to that nonsense was....we had prepaid for a non-smoking room with a queen size bed and there was 1 available, so why does this moron think I am going to pay an additional fee for what I have already paid for! They wanted me to pay more simply because there was only 1 such room available when we checked in. Absurd!

I knew I had better shut my mouth and let Bill handle it, and he did just that. Bill kept repeating "I do not accept your solution." After at least the 10th time of going round and round and Bill repeating the same thing, the manager gave us the room. The entire time I was muttering that there is going to be one really bad review on Tripadvisor and Agoda for this hotel stay,

Finally got the the room and it was nice. Okay, 2 negatives so far on this visit: excessive wait for the shuttle and trying to rip us off for the room. Maybe it would get better. We were tired and decided room service for dinner would be nice....until we read the menu. Bill wanted either a good hamburger or a steak after all the Asian food of recent weeks.

The room service menu offered (among other strange things):
Double-Boiled Beef with Green Carrot and Carrot
Stewed Dry Duck Kidney with Vegetable Soup
Double-Boiled Chicken with Medlar and Whelk (What do you think that is?)
Steamed Preserved Meat with Salted Fish (Oh yeah, count on us eating that.)
Fried Lotus Root Mixed with Deep-Fried Dried Codfish Ball
Sauteed Egg White with Frog's Ovary (What!!!)
Marine Delicacies with Con Pay in Basin (Uh.....okay.)
Braised Fish-Air Bladder with Goose's Web and Mushroom in Casserole
Double-Boiled Shark's Fin with Ham and Crown Conchs
Chicken Feet Thai Style
Gizzard with Chili and Sesame Oil
Braised Pig's Ear with Herb Sauce
Fried Pigeon with Fresh Herbs
Braised Pigtail with Lotus Root in Casserole
Fried Shredded Ostrich with Sauce
and Bill's favorites:
Braised Fish's Head with Bean Curd in Casserole
Steamed Fish Head with Pepper

We walked a mile to the nearest McDonald's instead of enjoying room service. Don't think we will be eating in this hotel. By the way, we are the only 2 westerners staying in the Beverly Plaza Hotel, and we are the only room occupants on this floor. So the attempt to get more money from us at registration was a scam.

This morning we checked the Macau Tourism website and decided on a few historic places that might be interesting. We wrote down the names of 2 places from the tourism website and attempted to take a taxi to either place. Four taxi drivers had no idea where these places are located. Finally I asked a taxi driver to take us to the Macau Tourism Center. She radioed her dispatcher and got directions and we headed off. A few blocks later I realized she was going the wrong way because I had seen this office shortly after we left the ferry terminal yesterday. We gave up and told her to take us to the ferry dock, where we caught a hotel shuttle bus to the big Wynn hotel and casino and walked back to our hotel. The taxi drivers all carry a book of the restaurants and hotels and casinos with the names and addresses written in Chinese characters; but they don't know anything about the historic places or museums in this city. By this point I was so annoyed with Macau that nothing was going to make me enjoy this place. I decided to read instead, and Bill got online to further research places to see in Macau. He got the hotel desk clerk to write the name of one in Chinese characters so we could take a taxi, and we tried once again. This trip was successful and we found a lively tourist section of Macau.

The Sao Paulo Ruins, the Monte Fortress and the Macau museum were a great way to while away the afternoon. The museum provided details of the history of Macau from 6,000 years ago through the 1960s. Merchant ships traveling SE Asia and China began calling on Macau during the 5th century. Portuguese sailor Jorge Alvares was the first westerner to arrive in Macau (China) in 1513. Following a ship wreck in 1535, Portuguese traders were allowed to anchor ships in Macau's harbors and the right to carry out trading activities, though not the right to stay onshore. Around 1552, the Portuguese obtained temporary permission to erect storage sheds onshore in order to dry out goods drenched by sea water. They later built some rudimentary stone-houses around the area now called Nam Van. But not until 1557 did the Portuguese establish a permanent settlement in Macau at an annual rent of 500 taels of silver. In 1557 the Ming court gave consent for a permanent and official Portuguese trade base at Macau. Later that year, the Portuguese established a walled village in Macau. Ground rent payments began in 1573. China retained sovereignty and Chinese residents were subject to Chinese law, but the territory was under Portuguese administration. In 1582 a land lease was signed, and annual rent was paid. Portugal administered Macau for 442 years, first as a trading post and later as a Portuguese territory. Macau was handed back to China in 1999. It was the last European territory in Asia. Today Macau is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China. As a SAR, like Hong Kong, Macau cherishes certain rights and freedoms not afforded to citizens of mainland China.

The Sao Paulo Ruins, or the Ruins of St. Paul's, refer to the remaining facade of what was originally the Cathedral of St. Paul. The cathedral was built by the Jesuits between 1582 to 1602 and was the largest Catholic church in Asia at the time. It was destroyed by fire during a typhoon in 1835. Nothing remains except the facade and the many stone steps leading up to it. The site is well marked indicating where the original support columns stood. The tombs along the right side remain and are visible beneath glass panels. The Fortaleza do Monte overlooks the cathedral ruins.

These 2 photos were taken from the second level of a platform erected behind the remaining facade of St. Paul's.



The Monte Fortress, or more accurately the Fortaleza do Monte, is on top of 1 of the 7 hills of Macau. It was constructed from 1617 to 1626 and played a very important role in defending Macao against the invasion of Holland. The Fortress is square shaped; each side is about 100 meters long, with walls around 9 meters high. The four corners of the fortress project out as bastions; its outside wall was built with rammed earth and is still very stable. The fortress became the military center for Macau. The walls had many cutouts which served as supports for the 32 cannons used to defend against foreign attacks. Monte Fortress was equipped with a reservoir, warehouse and barracks. There was sufficient storage space for two years worth of ammunition and supplies. The Fortress was the residence of the Chief of Staff on City Defense and Superintendent of Macao before 1740. Later it became a forbidden military zone. Today it is a tourist attraction and a great place for a view of Macau.

There is a neat shopping/tourist district with narrow pedestrian alleyways leading up from several directions to the base of the steps to the ruins of St. Paul's. One of the most popular items sold along the alleyways are small Portuguese egg tarts. We bought a couple and returned to our hotel room for a treat with afternoon coffee. There was a shop called Ireland Potatoes that would be a big hit in the USA. They sold cups of excellent french fries, served either plain or with many choices of toppings...ranging from a meat sauce to pizza sauce and cheese to sour cream and various seasoning powders. We tried a cup with sour cream. Sour cream is not sold in Malaysia and we have missed that creamy luxury in a few favorite dishes, so a shared fatty cup of fries topped with sour cream was a decadent treat.

Bill found a restaurant online that we hope to try later tonight. So Macau is looking up after a poor start on this segment of our vacation.

Later....we went to a Japanese restaurant near the hotel for diiner. It was great! So good that we might return today or tomorrow for lunch to try their fried oyster sushi.