Macau, Macau, Macau. If you’re in Hong Kong and have the time, I’d definitely recommend you pop over to Macau. I wish I’d gone for more than a day trip. The area which I visit was just amazing and I feel you could easily spend a good few days just exploring the laneways. 

While Hong Kong has a bit of a British feel, Macau obviously has a huge Portuguese influence. I’ve never been to Europe but walking through the winding cobblestone laneways, I certainly felt like i’d been transported.

For those who don’t know much about Macau, it was formally a colony of the Portugese Empire. It actually stayed under Portuguese control until 1999 when it was handed back to China. As a special administrative region, it is still a separate political and economical system from Mainland China.

What to see!

Macau seems to have two very different sides. The old and the new. The new is all the shiny casinos, each trying to outdo each other with their pizazz. I’m not much of a drinker or gambler, so they didn’t hold any interest. The old, however, YES PLEASE! This isn’t much of a guide of everything to see because there is so much and I only visited for a day. More of a highlight of what I did and things you should definitely check out. 

The Ruins of St. Paul’s

The beauty of these ruins are breathtaking. Walking up to them I just felt so overwhelmed. Just imagine walking on a cobblestone path and in front of you is a huge staircase leading to the front facade of a 370+ year old church. As you get closer, it just gets bigger and bigger. Its apparently only 68 steps, but it certainly felt like more, but going up and getting a closer look is well worth it. The detail in the stonework is just phenomenal. 

Museum of Macau

Whilst I didn’t actually go IN to the main paid part of Museum, we walked around inside and up to the top lookout area. The inside was a nice air conditioned retreat from the humid heat outside, but the outside grounds was the showstopper. It’s just next to the Ruins of St Pauls on the grounds of Monte Fort.

The Lou Kau Mansion is an interesting (and free) place to visit if you’re interested in architecture. I walked around saying “Wow, oh wow, WOW”. The amount of detail that went into all the woodwork in this house is just jaw dropping.

Food!

Now, I can’t for the life of me find the place that we ate. I took a picture of the front of the restaurant, which says “Datangli Portuguese restaurant”, but can I find any info on it? Nope. It was however the most delicious food & if you’re in Macau, I’d advise you to try some Portuguese cuisine. We had cheesey cauliflower and duck fried rice. I’ve been dreaming about both ever since. 

Getting there & getting around!

We were lucky that our hotel had a shuttle service that dropped us off at the Ferry terminal and from there we caught a TurboJet to Macau. We bought the tickets at the terminal. Macau is a different country, so make sure you bring your passport! You go through all the normal international travel steps on both ends of your journey. It was a quick and easy process. When in Macau, we just hopped in a taxi. There are a lot of tour companies hanging around the terminal to try and get you on tours, which you can do. We knew the few things we wanted to see, so decided to just go for a taxi. Pretty much everywhere accepts HK$. 
Random fact: The taxis don’t have seatbelts in the backseat! 

I honestly think this day trip may have been the highlight of my holiday! I mean, I loved the whole holiday, but Macau certainly was a pleasant surprise!