Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Cath doesn’t like crusts. She doesn’t eat crusts. She will leave toast crusts on her plate when we go out for breakfast. She notes that one of the things about being an adult for her is that she doesn’t have to eat her crusts. Obviously this suggests some type trauma involving bread crusts, but I’ve never asked for details. I think Freud discussed the fear of bread crust syndrome.
On Friday night while waiting for the ferry from Hong Kong airport to Macau we had a ham and cheese sandwich from a 7 Eleven. No crusts!
Next morning at breakfast there was a basket containing a square loaf of white bread virtually crustless. Cath was in heaven. No leftover crusts on the breakfast plate that morning. I had fried rice and stir fried noodles for breakfast. No crusts for me either.
The Chinese of the Ming Dynasty set up a customs station on Macau in the early 16th century but local pirates destroyed it. The Portuguese helped the the Chinese to defeat the pirates and as a reward were given permission to set up a small trading post. The Portuguese did so and stayed for the next 433 years. Talk about guests from hell.
The streets of old Macau are narrow and twist and turn. Many of the buildings from the Portuguese colonial period are now part a world heritage area. The older buildings are now intermixed with concrete blocks of flats built over the last 40 years and now showing the discolouration of humidity and mould. These streets are filled with shops and as the Saturday morning progressed the streets were filled with people. Macau is a big tourist destination for neighbouring countries. We passed a group of women from South Korea all wearing big white bows on their heads with the South Korean flag. Cath noted it wasn’t a good look.
We walked through the streets teeming with people, life and trade. Macau is the gambling capital of the world and thus money flows into it. Chinese and Portuguese are both official languages in Macau. Some speak a bit of English. While it is a magnet for Asian tourists there are not a lot of westerners here.
Four and a third centuries of the Portuguese in Macau left more than architectural influence. We passed people who were a distinct blend of Iberia and south China.
There are many shops selling large rectangular cut slabs of pressed meat. These were displayed along the streets some of it glistening in the sun and heat. It is very industrial looking meat. I had some of this mystery meat for breakfast the following morning. The vulcanisation process made it chewy and tasteless.
We visited the ruins of St Paul’s church, St Dominic’s church, the Macau museum where we had lunch at the cafe, and the Catholic cathedral. In Europe large stone buildings such as the cathedral would be cool on a hot day but not so in Macau. The air was still, warm and humid. We lit a candle for Vince and Mary, said a prayer and sat sweating in the close damp air.
This was really our first day of full contact tourism so after the cathedral we returned to the hotel to watch the Sydney TURKEY Swans lose to the GWS Giants by 49 points at the SCG! I had bought an AFL finals package so we could watch all the games on the computer, The marvel of modern technology. I knew we’d be on holidays but there are priorities in life. We drowned our sorrows with Portuguese tarts and Tsingtao beer.
For dinner we walked to Restaurant Litoral for a late birthday celebration for Cath. We had two traditional Macanese dishes, African chicken (Galinha à africana) and Minchi (beef/pork mince stir-fried with potato and served with a fried egg and rice). The chicken was excellent, but I think minchi is an acquired taste. It had a strong meaty taste and egg put Cath off.
Next morning we walked to the museum of security forces in Macau which was located in the foyer of police headquarters. The special administrative region of Macau allows it to maintain is own police, immigration, customs and local government. The Macau police are based upon the Portuguese colonial police just as the Hongkong officials are based on British colonial models. The museum was some static displays of guns, uniforms and equipment of the police along with some PR/recruitment videos. I think the two constables on duty on a Sunday morning were glad to have the diversion of a middle aged Australian couple look over the exhibits. One of them took a photo of us with Cath’s phone. He thought I was retired cop because I knew all the weapons.
After the police museum we walked across the street to the Grand Lisboa Hotel and casino for a coffee and Portuguese tart. It is a monumental and monstrous erection across the street from the Lisboa Hotel, the original of which was 70s glamour for colonial Macau. The lobby was pure bling interspersed with ancient Chinese art in glass cases including a couple of 3000 year old carved mammoth tusks from the Lin dynasty. Way too much!
In the afternoon we travelled to HongKong by ferry and spent the night at the airport hotel for an early flight to London the next morning.
- comments
Wendy Now Cath , you must have eaten a small amount of crust as a child- under sufferance I'm sure- the result being the wave in you hair ? I feel the same about offal !