Cold, cold, cold.

OK, so the temperatures never plummet to zero or below here, but the absence of heating in buildings or on transport means that when it gets cold in Hong Kong or Macau, there is nowhere to escape it, except under the bed quilts clutching a hot-water bottle.

We booked our favourite Macau hotel - the Grand Lapa - before temperatures dipped severely. Our intention was to swim in their outdoor heated pool, but that most certainly did not happen. Instead we just relaxed, ate, drank and took in a bit of culture.

We lucked out at the start of our stay, because when we checked in to the hotel, they gave us a free upgrade to a suite as they were not really busy and we are frequent visitors here.

Our suite was bigger than our flat - not that that's hard - with a sitting-room, bedroom, toilet, bathroom and two balconies.

Our cosy sitting-room.

Our even cosier bedroom.

Braving our balcony albeit briefly.

View from our balcony over Fisherman's Wharf.

View from our balcony over the Macau Grand Prix track.

View of the hotel.

We really made the most of our accommodation, enjoying the space and the peace and quiet. We ate that night in the hotel bar, taking in some of the live music being performed there. The beer was good, the food was just OK, nothing spectacular, except for the fantastic cod balls, which we both agreed were the best ones we have ever had - just four plates of these next visit, I think !!!!

The hotel bar.

Best cod balls ever.

Next day after checking out, we hit some of Macau's museums to get out of the cold. We began by visiting the Handover Gifts Museum. This museum displays the gifts given to Macau when it returned to China in 1999. There is a gift from every region of China and each gift reflects something about that region's culture or history. This is a free entry museum and it is very popular with large tour groups from China.

One of the handover gifts.

A second gift.

Gift from Tibet.

In the other half of the same building there was a temporary exhibition on design which was quite colourful to have a look at.

Design Exhibition.

Design Exhibition.

After visiting the Handover Gifts Museum, we headed to the art museum. It had exhibitions mainly connected with Chinese characters. I would imagine these were quite clever, but as we cannot read Chinese characters, they went totally over our heads.

Much more interesting for us was an exhibition about propaganda, featuring some of the art work used to 're-educate' people during the days of Chairman Mao. Typical examples run along the line of 'Ha used to enjoy looking at pictures of movie stars and dream about living in capitalistic and immoral Hong Kong. Then she studied the teachings of Mao Zedong and burnt the movie star pictures and fully embraced her richly fulfilling life within the motherland.

Clutching the little red book.

Dreaming of a movie star lifestyle.

Learning the error of her ways.

Dreaming of Hong Kong, but strengthening herself morally by studying the teachings of Mao.

Those little red books again.

Another aspect of this museum I liked were the elegant Chinese advertisement posters which date back to around the 1930's. I think these are actually really beautiful and would not mind some on my walls at home.

Elegant poster art.

We also took a quick look at an exhibition on Chinese weapons.

Ready for a fight.

Then we walked through Fisherman's Wharf which was nicely decorated in preparation for welcoming in The Year of the Dog. We were pleased to see some of the ducks that had been brought out to welcome the big duck created by Dutch artist Florentine Hofmann were back out and decorated for new year.

Getting ready for New Year.

Those ducks again.

Getting ready for New Year.

We ate in The Talay Thai which we always like to visit as it has a lovely setting, friendly staff and good value Portuguese beer. After that we walked back to the ferry terminal, stopping to purchase some Mateus white wine before boarding. The bad weather ensured a rather bumpy journey back to chilly Hong Kong.

The Talay Thai inside....

..... and out.