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greenbagjosh · 11 months

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Day 3 - 11 November 2003 - ferry to Macau and bus to Coloane to see into China's Guangdong

Tuesday 11 November 2003

早上好 (Zhou sen)! おはようございます/ Ohayogozaimasu! Bom dia! Good morning!

It is the second (or third day if you count crossing the international date line from 9th to 10th November 2003, making 10th November 2003 possibly the shortest day of my life that I remember as an adult).

On the 11th November 2003, I went somewhere where I had no prior intention of going, prior to my arrival in Hong Kong the previous evening. That same morning I took a hydrofoil ferry to the Macau S.A.R. Access from the Novotel (today's Hotel Jen) was possible either by trolley which was accessible at Des Voeux Road, or with the hotel's shuttle bus, to the Hong Kong Macau Ferry terminal at the Sheung Wan subway station. The HKU subway station that is now close to the hotel, was not built in 2003.

The morning of the 11th, I wanted to get a good view of Hong Kong and Kowloon. This was possible by going to the pool level, I think 25th or 26th floor. It seemed a bit chilly to go swimming, as it was about 55 F / 12 C, and also it was cloudy. I did not stay more than fifteen minutes. But the view was very interesting, I could see as far as Tsing Yi and maybe Nathan Road in Kowloon.

It was not yet time for the hotel to serve breakfast. I walked along Queen's Road, and the morning commute was already underway. The local McDonalds and 7 Eleven were busy at the time. I bought a few provisions for the day, a bottle of lucozade and Sprite and curry buns that I enjoyed the night before.

About 7:30 AM breakfast was ready. I was one of maybe three or four people in the entire breakfast room. Breakfast was a buffet of cheeses, bread, cold cuts, hard boiled eggs, and even freshly baked curry buns, that the server highly recommended. It was very delicious, and a good deal for a surcharge of US $ 9.00.

After breakfast, I let the front desk know that I wanted to go to the Hong Kong-Macau ferry terminal, so they put my name down for a space. The shuttle was a Toyota Coaster 15-seater with manual transmission. The ride was about ten minutes along Des Voeux Road to Sheung Wan. Once I entered the ferry terminal, I bought my ticket for about US $ 15.00 round trip. I was assigned a second-class seat for the outbound trip and had a first-class seat for the inbound trip later that evening. Before boarding the ferry, I had to get an exit stamp in my passport, and when I boarded, I had to get to my seat and buckle up. Hydrofoil boats can travel fast and is susceptible to winds along the Zhujiang River Estuary. The ferry boat announcements were in Mandarin, Cantonese, English and Portuguese.

When the ferry left Hong Kong, it went nonstop on the south side of Lantau Island where the Chek Lap Kok airport is located. For those who never visited Hong Kong or Macau, it is difficult to tell the land mass, where Macau begins or the PRC begins. Back then (year 2003), the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge did not exist and it was not even an idea until years later.

The ferry arrived about 11 AM at the Terminal Marítimo do Porto Exterior de Macau, or the external ferry port. This would be the entry and exit point for my travels that day. I had to get an entry stamp into Macau. For US citizens, no entry visa for the PRC was necessary, so all I received was a 30-day leave to enter stamp in Chinese and Portuguese.

The ferry terminal is located in the St. Lazarus Parish, and is also in some ways like "The Strip" that you might remember from Las Vegas, as gambling is legal in Macau but not Hong Kong. I walked along Avenida da Amizade and noticed that there were chain-kinked fences around some of the streets. This was because the 2003 Macau Grand Prix was about to happen in a few day's time.

Trying to change Hong Kong dollars to Macau patacas is a waste of time, and the money changers will simply refuse to change HK dollars for the pataca. Macau accepts Hong Kong Dollar notes at par, not necessarily the coins. There is a slight advantage for the US dollar, you may receive 3% more in Macau than Hong Kong. Coins between Hong Kong and Macau have different shapes, some have odd shapes, and with the Hong Kong $10 coin, there is a single longitudal groove.

I was getting hungry about 11:45 AM, so I tried to find a bus to Coloane, namely Fernando's, located at Hac Sa, but I ended up instead at Parque Eanes on the opposite side of Coloane, and eating at Restaurante Espaco Lisboa - which I think was a better deal. The bus traversed first through Macau, past the Hotel Wynn Macau, then on the Ponte da Amizade (Friendship bridge) past the airport on Taipa. The bus went further south on Taipa along Estrada do Istmo, past Estrada Flor de Lótus. Along the way there were many white statues of the Chinese zodiac, including the tiger, monkey, rabbit, pig, rat, and horse. There was a bridge to Zhuhai in Taipa, which on the Macau side was left-hand running, until Zhuhai when it switched to right-hand running.

Once the bus started after Estrada Flor de Lótus, the bus drove onto Estrada de Seac Pai Van and then Rua de Entre-Campos, and it was in the Coloane district, the furthest south in the Macau S.A.R. The bus stopped at the southeast side of Parque Eanes, corner of Estrade de Cheoc Van. The bus driver said in English "Last stop". I tried to find the bus line to Hac Sa, but I changed my mind when I saw the sign for Restaurant Espaco - Lisboa, and thought maybe this might be a better experience. I could not find the alley way, and not knowing I needed to go along Rua das Gaivotas, in 2003 there were no smartphones and consequently no Google-Maps available, so I used my in 2001 purchased cellphone to call the restaurant, a ++853 number. The owner answered and was helpful. She was very nice enough to come to Parque Eanes and show me the way to the restaurant. I had a table facing Zhuhai. I was served a bottle of Sintra beer. I think at the time, it was already 1 PM Beijing/HK time. I ordered a steak with fried egg and two strips of bacon. I think also it was served with potatoes. I had my radio with me, I was listening to Radio Macao 98.0 FM, the Portuguese-language station. Three songs I distinctly remember being played between 12:55 PM and 1:15 PM that day, "Pandajero" by Cantoma, "Two Fingers" by J J Johanssen and "Island" by Heather Nova, including a top-of-the-hour-em-português news report. Eventually I needed to use the bathroom. The bathroom was not the Chinese kind I had expected, it was a proper European bathroom with sit-down toilet, and the electric outlet was the same as in Hong Kong and the UK, namely the "G" type rectangular pins, bottom two flat and middle one vertical. After lunch, I let the owner know that I enjoyed having lunch there. About 1:40 PM or so, I walked down Rua das Gaivotas and Rua do Tassara, then south on Avenida de Cinco de Outubro, so that I could get a good view of Zhuhai, and that would be pretty much all of the PRC that I would be able to see at the time.

Along my walk, I passed by the Escola Primária Luso-Chinesa de Coloane and turned back to Parque Eanes at the Tam Kong Buddhist temple and along Rua do Estaleiro. The Chinese and Portuguese cultures seemed to jump out at that particular section. For example, there was a painting of a panda eating bamboo, and a block away, was a portuguese Quinta house painted in pink. I walked the rest of the way to Parque Eanes by Rua do Meio. The fare back to Macau was a little more than from Macau, I think somewhere around $ 0.90.

I am not exactly sure anymore where the bus from Coloane to Macau took me, but I think I exited around the Jardim de Sao Francisco, in the Cathedral Parish. I remember a distinct building, painted in pink and white, called the Clube Militar. I took photos of its northwest side along the Avenida da Praia Grande. While walking towards the Ruins of St. Paul's, I saw a display for the Macau Grand Prix, and a 1970's performance edition of the Ford Escort. It is a 3/4 mile walk from Clube Militar to the Ruins, so you would walk along Avenida da Praia Grande, Calcada de Sao Joao, pass by St. Dominic's church, Rua da Palha and on the hill, are the ruins. There exists only the facade of the cathedral, maybe two feet thick at most. When you walk through those streets I have named, those are basically pedestrian alleys and most of the old colonial Portuguese buildings remain. Behind the ruins, is a Buddhist temple, and anyone can enter the grounds on condition that they keep a quiet and calm demeanor.

After seeing the ruins, I think it was 4:30 PM or so. I took a bus to Portas de Cerco, which is physically the closest I have ever been in my life to the PRC. There is not much to see, and the wall that separates the PRC from Macau is so high, that it kind of gives a feeling of being in Cold-War era West Berlin. 5 PM came around and it was time to do some shopping. I walked along Istmo de Ferreira do Amaral, and found some place to buy crispy egg roll cookies. They were half an inch in diameter, about six inches long, and for about 30 of them, in a tin box. I was thirsty and went to a grocery store located along Avenida de Artur Namagnini Barbosa. I bought a few cans of lemon soda.

It was getting around 6 PM and the sun went down. I had to get back to Hong Kong. I took the bus back to the ferry terminal. Buying postcards was a challenge. No one spoke either enough English or Portuguese, so I had to resort to hand gestures. Eventually I was able to buy postcards and Macau postage. Leaving Macau, I had a "saida" exit stamp in my passport. The ferry ride back was a little choppy as it was high tide. I was buckled well into my seat. I was served a light snack as I was in first class going back to Hong Kong.

When I arrived in Hong Kong, I had to declare that I did not have SARS, stand for a few seconds under a temperature sensor, and then had my passport stamped. Due to the proximity of the Hong Kong Macau Ferry terminal to the Sheung Wan subway station, I thought it would be a good opportunity to ride the subway for a little bit. My Octopus card was valid for the journey, unlimited rides up to the 13th. I did not go very far, maybe just to Lai King in the northwest of Kowloon. I would ride more of the subway on Wednesday the 12th. After exiting at Sheung Wan, I took the trolley to Hill Street and walked to the hotel on Queen's Road. The ride cost around US $ 0.30, actually HK$ 2.00. You enter at the back, and at your stop you exit at the front paying the 2 HK dollars. The trolleys are generally slow, going about 20 mph / 30 km/h.

I ate a curry bun and drank Sprite, and then went to bed. I had to make the most of the next day before flying home.

Next chapter, the great Far-East subway adventure, dragon-hole building sighting, buying tea at the Tung Chung Wellcome store and even a train trip towards Sheung Wan, lastly with an evening in Kowloon Nathan Road.

Xie xie, domo arrigato, obrigado and thank you!

Music seen years later on a tape I recorded while in Macau

- "Sounds of the samba" by Victor Davies

- "Happy Here" by Danmass

- "Pandajero" by Cantoma

After the news came

- "Two fingers" by J J Johannsson

- "I am an island" by Heather Nova

and I ran out of tape and had to replace it with a fresh one.

Nice memories of Macau from so long ago.

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