Day two in Macau
Sunday 2 April was to be a day of serious sightseeing! We headed back across to the Macau Peninsula from Taipa Island. Our first stop was the Ruins of the Church of St Paul. This place was teeming with tourists, many of them "mainland Chinese" with some rich looking Chinese in there too. It felt funny to be a tourist alongside Chinese people, but it was damn annoying later to be in the Church artifacts exhibition and a museum where they'd continously talk (even if there was a silence sign :S) and make a lot of noise! The church has mostly only the three storey high facade left, which was very beautiful with figures carved into it. Built on a slight hill, when you stood on the steps up to the church you could see the blue sky through the facade arches. Very pretty!
The Macau Museum was inside Monte Forte, built by the Jesuits between 1617 and 1626. This museum was fantastic! We learnt all about Macau's unique history as a Portugese settlement, and about life for both Portugese and Chinese people in the town as they tried to get along harmoniously. There was loads of info on Chinese culture, trading, various religions practiced, goods made there (including fireworks that used to be exported to USA and other countries). My favourite display was on cricket fighting, something I'd never heard of before! RB liked the Chinese pillow. If you've seen the new movie, Memoirs of a Geisha, it is just like the small wooden plank with feet that Sayuri rests her head on so that her elaborate hairdo doesn't get messed up.
The Church of St Dominic looked nothing like a church to me until we entered it. From the outside it was an ornate huge building in yellow, while on the inside it was soft white with a big altar, gorgeous glass lights, and lots of religous idol figures. very swish in a 17th century Baroque style!
The afternoon was spent visiting another Fort and a park at Guia Fort, the highest point on the Macau Peninsula, topped with its 15 m tall lighthouse built in 1865. It is the oldest on the southern Chinese coast and we saw its light later in the evening. It was damn weird I thought to see a lighthouse not closeby to the sea. It just couldn't compete with all those flashy light shows on the outside of Macau's many casino's either. Crazy stuff, but the building light shows in China just never did it for me. Gimme a boulevard of trees strung with gentle lighting or a historial building well lit at night any day!
Dinner that night was a delightful dish of Macanese chicken (galinha africana) and some other things. The Macanese chicken was mouthwateringly good. Macanese cuisine apparently borrows from Chinese and other Asian cuisines, as well as from those former Portugese colonies in Africa and India. It has coconut, tamarind, chilli, palm sugar and shrimp paste. Good stuff I tell you! I wish I had had more time to sample other Macanese dishes!
The Macau Museum was inside Monte Forte, built by the Jesuits between 1617 and 1626. This museum was fantastic! We learnt all about Macau's unique history as a Portugese settlement, and about life for both Portugese and Chinese people in the town as they tried to get along harmoniously. There was loads of info on Chinese culture, trading, various religions practiced, goods made there (including fireworks that used to be exported to USA and other countries). My favourite display was on cricket fighting, something I'd never heard of before! RB liked the Chinese pillow. If you've seen the new movie, Memoirs of a Geisha, it is just like the small wooden plank with feet that Sayuri rests her head on so that her elaborate hairdo doesn't get messed up.
The Church of St Dominic looked nothing like a church to me until we entered it. From the outside it was an ornate huge building in yellow, while on the inside it was soft white with a big altar, gorgeous glass lights, and lots of religous idol figures. very swish in a 17th century Baroque style!
The afternoon was spent visiting another Fort and a park at Guia Fort, the highest point on the Macau Peninsula, topped with its 15 m tall lighthouse built in 1865. It is the oldest on the southern Chinese coast and we saw its light later in the evening. It was damn weird I thought to see a lighthouse not closeby to the sea. It just couldn't compete with all those flashy light shows on the outside of Macau's many casino's either. Crazy stuff, but the building light shows in China just never did it for me. Gimme a boulevard of trees strung with gentle lighting or a historial building well lit at night any day!
Dinner that night was a delightful dish of Macanese chicken (galinha africana) and some other things. The Macanese chicken was mouthwateringly good. Macanese cuisine apparently borrows from Chinese and other Asian cuisines, as well as from those former Portugese colonies in Africa and India. It has coconut, tamarind, chilli, palm sugar and shrimp paste. Good stuff I tell you! I wish I had had more time to sample other Macanese dishes!
posted by Polecat at 3:54 AM
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