48 Hours in Macau

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erth coming of age

The City of Lights sheds its sleepy town image

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WHITE WINTERS IN

EUROPE

Spending 48 hours in MACAU Finding a home away from home in VANCOUVER

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MACAU

48Macau hours in

himself completely captivated by Macau’s unique culture words & photography BIJU SUKUMARAN

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images 123RF

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MACAU This page Ruins of St Paul’s Cathedral Opposite 1. A western style garden 2. Golden statue in a Thai Temple 3. Our Lady of Carmel Church 4. Inside the church 5. Money Clock Art in Taipa 6. The iconic striped cobblestones of Senate Square 7. A girl walks along Taipa Street

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ar from the buzz of baccarat tables and slot machines, I find myself in an apartment off a side street of Taipa village, south of the main Macau strip. Aaron, an American expat and performer in one of the area’s many stage productions, is my host for the day. Levi, his shaggy dog with the floppy ears and cheerful disposition of a Cocker Spaniel, pads around the apartment as he describes what it’s like actually living in a town that evokes the sort of mystique found only in James Bond films.

As an expat myself, I know that long-term daily life has a profound effect on first impressions. It’s hard to get to know Macau, but as Aaron prepares for work at a job on the stage, he talks of long 62 escape!

walks with his dog, of potlucks, and favourite neighbourhood hangouts. After mixing a protein shake for an intense practice session involving acrobatics and Capoeira he’s out the door, and I’m left with Levi’s soulful gaze and the feeling that maybe, if I tried, I’d have the chance to see another side of Macau’s glitzy exterior.

I decide to take a hint from my host, and follow Aaron and Levi’s regular route through a back path at the end of their street, a path filled with side avenues leading to gardens. Heading towards the old Taipa Village centre, I reflect that Aaron’s descriptions of expat life are not too surprising. After all, Macau has been a home to many expats over its long history.

The year 1535 marks the date Portuguese traders began anchoring ships

for trade, but in the mid 16th century their presence became more permanent. Houses and churches were erected as a system of tribute was agreed upon for settling the area. But it was only in the 1840s that the Portuguese were allowed selfadministration rights.

Today’s Macau is a result of the “one country, two systems” policy, an arrangement that designates Macau a Special Administrative Region, allowing it a degree of self governance economically and politically while under China’s rule. But to visitors, it’s the culture and architecture where this duality is most keenly felt.

PORTUGUESE IDENTITY

I float along with the general movement of a few tourists through colonnaded squares, local children and families lounging at ease, drifting past out-of-place European-style arches and the more expected local Buddhist shrines and temples. I finally reach Rua Do Cunha, Taipa’s walking street, crowded with Chinese tourists jockeying for position to see and taste. The walking street is crammed with small coffee shops, vendors, and art stores. Every shop seems to have a specialty, with its wares open to the street. One specialises in ginger cookies, another in sweets, while the next store, with racks upon racks of stacked and cut dried meat, focuses on jerky.

But between the busier shops are the easier to overlook eateries, restaurants like Dumbo, a popular establishment that serves Macanese food, influenced by Chinese, Malay, Indian, and African cuisines. With the tourist frenzy on Rua Do Cunha, I almost miss O Santos, a traditional Portuguese restaurant, located right on the walking street.

O Santos is always busy, but it’s a different sort of busy. Peering over grilled sardines, crunchy chorizo, and refreshing homemade sangria, I observe that most of the clients are families, and the chef and owner treats them as such, repeatedly emerging to greet friends in Portuguese, imbuing the restaurant with a close-knit, neighbourhood feel, in odd counterpoint to the studied distance experienced on the more urban Macau Peninsula.

Earlier in the day, I was dropped off at this peninsula, at the Macau-Hong Kong ferry terminal, where I headed to the nearby Fisherman’s Wharf. The cobblestone promenade stretches along the coast, covering an area of roughly 111,000 sq m.

Re-creations of popular world landmarks are spaced evenly throughout. I passed a Roman-style amphitheatre, the Potala

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MACAU

Palace, a Middle Eastern fort, and even a volcano. Restaurants, shops, and rides are interspersed, but the streets were quiet, and the monuments had a ghost town-like feel.

I later realised that the real action was, as always in Macau, inside the nearby casinos.

Continuing along my hosts’ walking path, I stop to take in the Taipa Fortress, a vestige of old Portuguese colonial 64 escape!

fortifications, as well as the Taipa Houses Museum, a series of preserved colonial houses detailing what it was like to live in the Portuguese settlement, when Macau was still making the transition from a fishing village to an international port. The houses march along the shore, tourists and locals alike walking sedately through gardens and relaxing in benches facing the towering new

buildings of the Cotai Strip.

As day fades to a more scintillating light, where the flashing neon casinos and hotels gain ascendency, I grab a favourite Macau snack at one of the many corner shops at the border between the village and the Galaxy Casino. A rich, yet simple dish, it’s a whole fried pork chop in a bun. Not quite Portuguese, not quite Chinese, it’s a

MACAU

uniquely evolved Macanese dish that evokes the greasy satisfaction of fish and chips in a bag.

FOR THE WYNN

Energised by this local favourite, I decide to tackle the casinos that made Macau internationally famous, stopping outside the Wynn Hotel where choreographed jets

of water ebb and surge with coloured lights and gouts of fire to the tune of Broadway hits. Inside Wynn is a labyrinth of corridors and rooms, each with a different specialty.

There are high-end stores, selling clothing and hand bags, restaurants of all styles, bars, and of course, the main attraction.

I head for the slot machines, but the game of choice in Macau is baccarat. The

atmosphere around the card tables is much different than in Las Vegas, emphasising a different mentality of Eastern gamblers. To them, this is serious business, more akin to investment, than having a good time on the floor, and no place is this more apparent than the more private rooms for high rollers.

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SOUTH ISLAND SOJOURN

The next day I find myself in Coloane, the southernmost island, now connected to Taipa by land reclamation. Cotai has a beach town feel, with forested hiking and biking trails, campgrounds, and a stretch of black sand beach within sight of the Westin.

Nearby the popular local restaurant, Fernandos, serves up Portuguese faire and drinks with a relaxed atmosphere.

A stop in Coloane Village is mandatory, both for the churches and architecture, and for a taste of Lord Stowe’s egg tarts, small puff pastries filled with caramelised custard.

Passing by the chapel of St Francis Xavier munching tarts, its bright yellow facade fitting into the multi-hued pastels of houses and restaurant fronts, the relaxed atmosphere is all pervasive.

But it’s the iconic ruins of St Paul’s Cathedral on the Macau peninsula that 66 escape!

draw me now, and I follow hordes past Senado Square after a cab ride to what is considered Macau’s historic town centre.

The square, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is filled with shops selling antiques, and serves as a natural meeting point and rest stop before heading to the cathedral, its stained and worn face reflecting the history of Macau as surely as any of the museums in Taipa.

One block away I find Macau Soul, a small but upscale eatery specialising in wines, tapas, and high-end spirits like single malt scotch and Portuguese wines. I’ve seen the locals’ love of wine, especially in Taipa, while older locals gather for a sip and a bite of grilled sardines. And I learn even more by an afternoon visit to the Macau Wine Museum, where a ticket will not only get you into the museum, but also a complementary wine tasting, and entrance to the Grand Prix

Museum next Door. There visitors can learn about Macau’s love affair with racing, with replicas of the old racing cars, dedications to racing champions, and a model of the old racing course.

People are drawn to this former colony in the Pearl River Delta for the thrill, for the excitement, and the spectacle. I’ve eaten the food, I’ve seen the lavish hotels and casinos and the museums. But at this moment, I’ve placed a bet on a greyhound at Macau’s Yat Yuen Canidrome. The stands are sparsely filled, but the trainers have just finished walking their charges. The dogs are in their starting positions and as the race starts the white rabbit flies, launching streaks of grey across the marked path. A roulette table twirls, a slot machine spins, I’m yelling along with my fellow gamblers, and in these fleeting moments before the finish, I’m drawn into Macau and the thrill of the race.

FACT BOX - Macau LAOS Macau has one of the biggest gambling areas in the world, after Las Vegas

GETTING THERE

GETTING AROUND

Tiger Airways flies from Singapore Changi Airport to Macau International Airport, while AirAsia caters flights from Kuala Lumpur.

Buses and taxis are the major mode of transport in Macau. The construction of a light rail system is currently being planned. Bikes can be rented in Taipa Village.

CLIMATE

Temperature

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JAN Jan

FEB Jan

MAR Jan

APR Jan

MAY Jan

JUN Jan

JUL Jan

AUG Jan

SEP Jan

OCT Jan

NOV Jan

DEC Jan

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Highest Lowest

A humid subtropical climate sees high humidity between 75% and 90%. July is the warmest month while January has the coolest temperature of the year

CURRENCY MOP$10 = S$1.50 / RM4

TIME ZONE GMT +8

CALLING CODE The code for Macau is +853.

LANGUAGE

images HONGKONG TOURISM; 123RF

Macau’s official languages are Cantonese and Portuguese. English language is hard to get by in Macau but service staff at most midrange and top-end hotels, casinos, restaurants and tourist

THE RESIDENT GODDESS

PEARL OF THE EAST

The origin of the name “Macau” comes from the Chinese goddess known as A-Ma or Ling Ma. She is especially popular amongst seafarers and fishermen, who worship her for protection in the sea.

A short ferry ride away lays the effervescent Hong Kong, which is a shopping and food paradise for people around the world. What’s fascinating about this region is the amazing juxtaposition of old and new – lines of stores carrying luxury brands from Louis Vuitton to Burberry; night markets with stalls hawking street food, souvenirs and artefacts.

zones are able to converse pretty well.

VISA Singaporeans and Malaysians are not required to get a Visa for entry into Macau for a period of up to 30 days.

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