Because I had class until 4 pm on Saturday, we took the 5:30 pm to Taipa. Taipa is the smaller and lesser developed (for now) island of the Macau SAR. The ferry terminal is only a 10-minute walk from our apartment, and the views of Kowloon outside the terminal are pretty nice:
We took the "Cotai Jet," which is a fancy blue catamaran that leaves every half hour from Hong Kong to the Taipa Ferry Terminal:
JT splurged and spent an additional HK $100 (approximately US $13) for first-class tickets for our 60-minute ferry ride over. Thirteen dollars gets you a MSG-laden instant cup of noodles and a beer (the value of which is actually $3 from the local 7-Eleven):
Our ferry ride was fairly uneventful, and we made it there, as promised, in 60 minutes. Once we got off the ferry, it was about a ten-minute walk to immigration. Because Macau is a separate SAR of China, which is essentially a different country, you have to fill out an immigration form and hand up your passport to get stamped. After we passed through immigration, we boarded a shuttle bus to our hotel. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Macau, which is part of a bigger development called the "City of Dreams." The hotel upgraded us to a corner suite (which was bigger than our current apartment and our apartment back home), and it had great views of the "Cotai Strip" which is where all the new casinos are being built (the Venetian is on the left-hand side of the photo):
We had an 8 pm dinner reservation for Antonio, which was recommended to us as the best place in Macau for Portuguese food. Although it didn't appear that they actually had a reservation under our name, we were seated promptly by the very friendly but sometimes disorganized staff in the very cozy dining room. We had the traditional Portuguese cabbage soup and goat cheese served with olive oil and honey on toast, lettuce and balsamic vinegar to start. Both starters were delicious, but we could have had two more servings of the goat cheese, which was just amazing. We shared two entrees, the Shredded Dried Codfish Baked in the Oven with Creamy Sauce and Cheese and the Tenderloin Steak "Portuguese” Style, Fried with Garlic and White Wine Served with Portuguese Smoked Ham, Fried Egg, Potatoes and Pickles. Again, both dishes were very good, but so much for healthy eating! The great thing about Antonio is that Antonio himself was in the restaurant chatting with all the diners and helping to serve the dishes. So with Antonio buzzing about and the traditional Portuguese decor, we felt like if we were in some local restaurant in the back alleys of Portugal and not in China. After dinner, we walked about Taipa Village, which is where the restaurant is located. The village is a mix of quaint European-style cobblestone streets and colonial architecture with modern-day bars and Chinese restaurants.
We returned to the "City of Dreams," played some roulette and slots and called it a night. The next day (Sunday), we took a shuttle bus to Macau island and had lunch there. Macau is where all the casinos (like MGM, Wynn and Sands) were originally built before the developers decided to descend upon Taipa. The streets of Macau reminded me much of Hong Kong and lacked the charm of Taipa (at least the village). The only noticeable difference between Hong Kong and Macau is that all the store names and street signs are both in Chinese and Portuguese. It's unclear to me how many Portuguese people still live on the island because as far as I could tell everyone was Chinese. After lunch, we returned back to Taipa to catch our 3 pm ferry back to Hong Kong. We played some last-minute roulette before heading home. All in all, it was an excellent trip to celebrate our one-year anniversary.
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