The two faces of macau

I only spent a day here but since I got a new stamp in my passport, so I thought it warranted a new entry. Macau is only an hour ferry-ride from Hong Kong and small enough to do easily in a day. Its like Hong Kong in that it used to be a colony (in this case of Portugal) and was recently ceded back to China though it still enjoys its autonomous rule for 50 years.

Because it was a colony of Portugal, both Portuguese and Cantonese are official languages. Its weird to see everything in both languages though I think like 99% of the people speak Cantonese. But the look of Macau is even weirder than Hong Kong in terms of the mesh of East and West. The big thing that Macau is famous for is the strip of Vegas-style casinos. They probably provide like 90% of the economy here. Since I only had a day, I didn't want to spend it in the casinos so I only saw the casinos from the buses.

Big flashy casinos in Macau.

There are a lot of US casinos out here. They're even building a Wynn.

But there is also this completely different side of Macau. Like Hong Kong, there are still skyscrapers and cramped, gritty buildings but there are also these gorgeous, crumbling colonial style building. Its definitely a weird juxtaposition since the gaudy casinos and classical colonial buildings don't really mix well but that's the character of Macau.

The main square in Macau. No casinos here!

This is actually a fast food restaurant but isn't it gorgeous?

Macau definitely has a tropical feel to it with all the palm trees around.

Chinese and Portuguese, anyone?

More colorful buildings. I couldn't stop taking pictures of them!

The food in Macau is also completely different. There are a lot of Portuguese restaurants and influence here and I had a delicious meal of salted cod and potatoes. It will probably be my last Western-style meal for awhile. My tongue was a like pickled by the end of the meal but it was definitely worth it.

And now I'm heading into Beijing and fully into the Eastern world. I'm a bit nervous since I think adjusting to Chinese will be tough. In Hong Kong and Macau, its been relatively easy since everything is also in English and they definitely cater to Western tourists. Though I also already had my share of stupid tourist snafus. Especially since people here expect me to speak Chinese. Hopefully, I'll hookup with some other travelers in Beijing and we can try to figure things out together. At the very least, it'll be an adventure!!