The only thing wrong with the night’s sleep was that it wasn’t long enough, even tho’ we were allowed to stay on the boat till 5, having docked at around 3. Immigration was the merest formality, followed by what seemed to me, in my current weakened state, a long walk into the centre of town. Once we got there, I collapsed onto a bench, a wet puddle of humanity, while Val went off to search for a place to stay. I was soon joined by other puddles when the rain began to fall, so I dragged myself off to the shelter of a shop doorway + collapsed again. Val returned, her mission unsuccessful – it was still very early – so we set out together to find a café in which we could eat breakfast + while away some time. This wasn’t easy either, for those that were open were jam-packed with people. When we eventually found a place that had a free table, they didn’t have any tea, let alone coffee, so we made do with a couple of cartons of orange juice, plus a plate of noodles that Val ordered by mistake.
After this, we went to a China Travel Office that Val had spotted, + made some enquiries about getting into China. We’d been able to find out virtually nothing about it in Hong Kong, except that we’d heard it was only possible to go across the border by bus. The people at CTS were very much inclined not to allow us to pay the student price, so while I took advantage of the comfortable chairs in their office, Val went off, first to find us a hotel – at last successful – then to try the student ploy at another CTS office in the city. Our room was a pokey hole, not much bigger than the double bed within it, but it did have its own bathroom attached, + was rather cosy. I went to sleep, while Val went off to continue her negotiations + do some shopping. She was partly successful in her major mission, not being able to obtain the cheapest price, but managing to get a healthy reduction.
In the afternoon, we set out to do some sight-seeing around the city – we only have one day in the city, so we didn’t have much time to mess about. It was certainly a very different city from Hong Kong, one wouldn’t recognise it as a near-neighbour. There are far fewer high-rise buildings, what ones there are are more scattered, less tall, less impressive. And the older parts of the city reminded us far more of the Spanish-style cities of Central America, most notably Colon, than of any Asian city. Except that it was full of Chinese, of course. Our first target was the ruined cathedral of St Pauls, but we got a little lost, + found ourselves at an old Portuguese fort, built at around the same time by the Jesuits, Sao Paolo de Monte. It was still in reasonable repair, + is now used as a weather station. From there, the Cathedral was but a couple of hundred yards. Only the façade is left, so it looks like a Hollywood film set – the original church must have been very impressive. A kind old local lady, Portuguese not Chinese, pointed us from here to the Protestant cemetery, our next target. This was a green + peaceful spot, + not without unintentional humour in the inscriptions on some of the gravestones, as well as a degree of poignancy. Next door was the old East India Company building, now used as a museum, but the outside of the building looked far more interesting than the inside sounded, so we contented ourselves with a photograph.
We were both feeling fairly tired by this time, so we strolled back down towards our hotel, exploring various shops + narrow lanes along the way. We dined in our room, a splendid feast – ham rolls washed down with Mateus Rose (very cheap) followed by Weetabix + coffee, all accompanied intelligently by the BBC. We should have been surveying the nightlife of the city, I suppose, but we were too tired, or too sick, or too both.
In terms of a lightning visit to a particular place, this was probably the most lightning – just one day to appreciate the delights of Macao. And since, once again, I have been very sick, and that a good part of the day was given over to admin (on Val’s part) we really were not able to do the place justice.
