Macau

My first weekend Sara and crew invited me to go with them to Macau. Macau went through a similar government situation as Hong Kong. The area was first settled by Portuguese and was turned over to China in 1999. The city has a definite European feel.

We traveled to Macau via a Turbo Ferry. The trip took an hour from Hong Kong.

Macau Travelers...Nicole, Sara, me, Derek and Nydia

Statue of Kun Iam, the Goddess of Mercy.

More bamboo scaffolding...it's fascinating to see. It just doesn't seem like it should hold together.

We thought we could walk to Fernando's for lunch. Oops!
It turned out to be on another island we could reach via taxi.

Caption by Sara: good news, there's toilet paper...bad news, you have to pee in a hole. Fortunately there was one stall labeled "western"!!

Ruinas de Sao Paulo
We were fortunate to pick a market street that ended at this landmark. After catching fire during a massive typhoon in 1835 this is all that remains of what was once the city's grandest cathedral.

Aren't we pretty in pink?

From the top of the steps of Ruinas de Sao Paulo

We saw several of these along the market streets. I have no idea what they were serving but the smell was enough for me.

In the evening, we went to the Macau Cultural Center to see a performance of "Waterwall." It was like "Blue Man Group" meets "Stomp" done in water. It was very cool. Great suggestion by Sara.

The entire block, all the way around, was consumed by parked scooters!

We wrapped up the evening by meeting Sara's friend, Tonya, at the Mandarin Oriental. She was in town to attend a volleyball tournament and recruit players for Texas A&M (I think, or some other university in TX).
Derek, Sara, Tonya, Nydia, Nicole and me