Macau 1/09

Here is a nice 'street shot' of the central area of Macau. Lights were everywhere for the Lunar New Year celebration going on. You can see Chris in the bottom left-hand corner checking out a famous "Egg Tart" stand (we were scouting it out for the next morning). As you can see from the photo..lots of people/activity throughout our stay in Macau. We took the fast boat from Hong Kong to Macau (about 2 hours I think). For about 10 extra dollars you were upgraded to a premium seat that included a little duck breast/pasta, front of the boat and a little quicker exit (although it was a madhouse...the extra 10.00 was well worth it!) When we arrived in Macao we were met with rows of buses from the various Casinos (Wynn, MGM, Grand Lisboa, etc.) We found our line for the shuttle to our hotel (Sofitel)...we weren't there for gambling...more for the Portuguese cuisine and architecture. When we arrived at the hotel, we were met with a 'wall of smoke' . We have decided that almost every citizen and visitor must have been a chain-smoker in Macao..wow! (Marlboro appeared to be the 'smoke' of choice!) I became friendly with the concierge at the hotel while Chris checked us in. Turned out here roommate was Korean...so we said a 'few' things in that language...then had a good chuckle. We exited the smoke-filled lobby to our room. When we entered the room...we found that someone had taken a little 'rest' on the bed and sipped some bottled water. The bell hop got really excited...called our new 'buddy' in the lobby and shuffled us out quickly. Too bad we had a 'Goldilocks' situation...it was a great room and view. :-) No non-smoking rooms were available (shocking, I know)....so we checked our luggage and decided to browse around the town. We happened upon a Chinese Government Store...which had been recommended to us as a pretty reliable place to purchase items...less room for less than ethical business practices....:-) Chris found a little piece of jade and a little dangle jade with knotting similar to the Korean 'Maedup'...the next thing you know we were whisked to the 2nd floor and entered into a drawing for prizes. We appeared to have 20 entries and these 2 very nice Chinese gals started rubbing our 'entries' with a coin...then jumping up and down as we supposedly were winning prizes! We ended up walking out of their with so many little 'prizes' that we could hardly carry them! None of the prizes were really expensive but really fun...like...eraser sets in the shape of Ramen noodles, tea, drawing sets, little drums, and all types of Chinese bric-a-brac! We did purchase some really great tea...and have found it to be some of the best we have ever tasted. They even went through a mini-tea ceremony with us and I found it quite similar to the Vietnamese Tea Ceremony from a previous blog.

After dragging our 'winnings' back to the hotel, we ventured out for some authentic Portugese food...and we really found it in a place not mentioned in the 'Lonely Planet' reference guide. (Chris said we should send a note to Lonely Planet and let them know about this place.) They served the best mussels followed by a curry chicken that was awesome. After dinner we checked out what appeared to be their 'town square'...lots of firecrackers, lights, displays...and smiles! I will post additional photos.