Entries about macau

Living in Hong Kong for a long time, I have been to Macau countless times. Over the last twenty odd years I have watched it change from a Portuguese enclave to a Special Administrative Region of China. I have enjoyed its historical attractions, great food and relaxing atmosphere. I have used it as a refuse when Hong Kong was a hot bed of SARS. However, I have also been more than a little horrified by Macau's non-stop land reclamation and casinoization ( I'm making up my own words now).

Nowadays for us Macau has become a place to go swimming when our swimming pool in Hong Kong is closed (we know a hotel with an outdoor heated pool there) and a place to take in a show. I had, in my opinion, a very good page about Macau on VT, but my photos of Macau are all over the place. I doubt I could ever re-create it, so I'll just stick to describing current visits.

We visited Macau most recently on the 24th of March 2017. We stayed overnight to celebrate my husband's upcoming birthday. Our current hotel of choice is the Grand Lapa, because of its outdoor heated pool. We go through hotel phases in Macau. At one point we always stayed in the Pousada de Coloane, then the Hyatt Regency, then the Holiday Inn. Plus we have had one off stays in many many more hotels.

The Grand Lapa is a five star hotel. We are not five star hotel people. We look for deals and special offers before we go. We have stayed there three times now. On our first two stays we got free upgrades and ended up with sea facing rooms with balconies. This time we didn't, but the room was still very nice, very clean and very comfortable, so no worries there.

Our Hotel

As I work on Fridays, we did not arrive in Macau until around 6.30pm on the Friday night. After check in, we went off to the hotel's pool area. It is open till 10pm. The Grand Lapa has a beautiful pool with turquoise water, fake waterfalls, a tiny pool at the end of a long slide for the children and a jacuzzi with three fake waterfalls. The gardens around the pool have many plants and flowers, grassy areas, fussball and a pool side restaurant.

At the pool.

Following our swim, we had worked up an appetite. The hotel has several restaurants and, at the moment, they offer a twenty percent discount to guests who charge to the room. As it was getting quite late, we ate in the hotel bar. They have live music on Friday nights so we ate, drank and listened to the entertainment.

Dinner

It is quite hectic rushing to Macau straight from work on a Friday so after dinner I was ready for bed. Next day we were longing to go swimming again.

Back at the pool.

Back at the pool.

We checked out at 12 pm and deposited our rucksack in the left luggage across the road at the Sands Hotel. We took a walk up to Lotus Square to check on Aruna's Indian Restaurant. We had intended to have dinner there, but had heard a rumour that it had closed down. It was all shuttered up at lunch time so not looking good. We did not return in the evening to make certain it was closed. Aruna's was at one point our absolute favourite restaurant in Macau. We watched the Mainland Chinese tour groups posing non-stop with the golden lotus sculpture. This sculpture was presented to Macau by the People's Republic of China in 1999 to mark the transfer of Macau's sovereignty from Portugal to the PRC. We then returned to the Sands Hotel where we jumped on a free bus to the Parisian Hotel on the Cotai Strip, Taipa Island, where we had booked to see a show.

The Golden Lotus.

The Golden Lotus.

The Parisian is relatively new in Macau. It is a great hotel with a French theme and lots of free entertainment going on. We had a wander around and watched some of the free entertainment before heading to the Parisian Theatre to watch 'Three Phantoms'. This turned out to be a very enjoyable show with a pleasant atmosphere.

The Parisian.

The Parisian.

The Parisian.

The Parisian.

A Fourth Phantom.

The Parisian.

When the show ended, we took another free bus (I still remember when you used to have to pay for transport in Macau) back to the Macau Ferry Terminal. There is a shop on the second floor there that still sells Portuguese wine. Portuguese wine used to be available all over Macau, but is now hard to find. We walked along the waterfront from the ferry terminal, complete with our newly purchased bottle of wine, until we reached Fisherman's Wharf. This is a European themed entertainment centre with a fake Colosseum, Portuguese style houses, statues, restaurants, casinos, shops and bars. In my opinion, the new roof which has been constructed to protect this area from the rain has gone a long way to destroying the atmosphere of the place.

Fisherman's Wharf.

Fisherman's Wharf.

Fisherman's Wharf.

Fisherman's Wharf.

Fisherman's Wharf.

We ate in the Talay Thai Restaurant on the waterfront. It was our second visit here. We had an excellent green curry with pork and a chicken cashew nuts. We were pleased to see they were still doing two for one offers on their beers and that they still served Portuguese Super bock. Like the wine, Portuguese beer is now not that easy to obtain.

Talay Thai.

Talay Thai.

After a very delicious and filling dinner, we returned to the Sands to collect our rucksack and take a free bus to Taipa Ferry Terminal for departure back to Hong Kong. On our way there Macau was just starting to light up for the night.

Macau at night.

Macau at night.

Macau at night.

Macau at night.