Macau Day 13

Off to Macau for two days to stay in a bank apartment courtesy of Michael. Macau is a gambling town and has a sky tower just like Auckland so we feel right at home. The apartment has a waterfront view which is spectacular. Like Hong Kong, Macau has been handed back to China but obviously has a completely different history. Zac had a challenge to 'spot the difference' between Macau and Hong Kong. Each difference won him a new letter of the aphabet. He was soon up to Z, spotting telephone boxes, police uniforms, portuguese language, number plates and other observations.


I loved Macau, it seemed somehow more real than the vacuumed packed Hong Kong. Life is lived much more out of doors whereas it seems possible to live completely in air conditioned splendour in Hong Kong, ignoring the external environment. The streets of Macau are full of antique furniture shops, old Chinese herb stores and small cottage industries selling delicious warm almond biscuits. The museum is great and gives a fantastic insight into everyday life in Macau. People in Macau just seemed happier.


Reflections from Hong Kong.

Avoiding germs at all cost, after SARS people have become paranoid about cleaning everything.

A sense of perpetually riding on escalators and going in lifts. Max is now escalator aware and has to be carefully watched as he seems hypnotically drawn to the nearest escalator. Zac has developed a complex set of escalator rituals involving special foot and hand placements and movements to be performed before getting on and off. He is now trying to pass this arcane lore onto us.

The need to shop at all possible opportunities, even when it really pisses martin off.

Martin has been investigating the many different faces of Tofu including Boiled Tofu, Fried Tofu, Dried Tofu, Hard Tofu, SOft Tofu, Stuffed Tofu, Tofu Jelly and, believe it or not, Tofu Ice Cream... Hmmmm delicious.


We can now all say 'mmm goy' (thank you) and 'kang ting pong doh' (our address), not so useful for the rest of our travels.

OK, now it's off to Manchester via Munich. It will be sad to leave, Mike and Kat have looked after us well and it's been great to meet Jack but I am looking forward to seeing my mum.


Bye for now

XXXXX