Today we are off to Macau to see Zaia/Cirque du soleil at the Venetian….yippeee!! In 1999 Macau was handed back to China by the Portuguese. It is a tiny island, just nine square miles. Even so it gets 10 million visitors every year. Apparently it has changed a lot. It is known as the Las Vegas of the East. Macau itself was awarded a World Heritage site listing in 2005.
We needed our passports and to fill in forms for departing HK and arriving in Macau. We traveled by ferry. Catriona had booked our tickets on the internet.
The ferry was called the Taipa/Cotai Strip ferry and the entire journey took only 45minutes. We had a McDonalds breakfast before boarding. It was like traveling by air as the ferry terminal seemed just like an airport with long queues to board, a stand by line and immigration. We did not need visas because Macau counts as a special region of China.
A free air conditioned bus transported us directly from the ferry to the Venetian hotel. We had a wander around. Inside 
was a mega casino and best of all a fake Venice complete with canals, gondolas and expensive shops. High above us a realistic, painted sky with clouds and birds. I’ve never seen ANYTHING like that before.We walked to Taipa village to have a drink in the old Taipa Tavern. Catriona and I used umbrella’s to shade ourselves from the sun as we walked.
We took local transport to Macau city from Taipa on the number 11 bus. Macau is a very busy city with so many casinos.
We walked around to see the façade of a famous church at the top of many steps which burnt down long ago. This is one of the most famous tourist spots in Macau.I was interested to see all the street names were written in Portuguese too.
Catriona stopped at a local shop to buy a lovely top for her sisters Xmas present. Macau is so different form Hong Kong, you can see it as soon as you arrive. We did a little shopping for some Portuguese/ Macanese treats such as almond biscuits, garlic cashew nuts, dried pineapple, nougat, fish and chilli sauce. We all tried the famous egg tarts too.We decided to go to a Portuguese restaraunt called Pinnocchio for dinner. Thats here where Catriona thought that
Macau got attacked by small red UFO's. We managed to calm her down by explaining that what she saw, was only the reflection in the windows, of the restaurants red lamps. Then we headed off to the circus. Leaving our shopping bags in a cloakroom we went in to see the show.
In the line up to go in we met 3 teachers from Renaissance College- what a coincidence! We have never seen a show like it before. Clowns riding bikes upside down, an enormous robotic polar bear and incredibly talented trapeze artists and gymnasts who climbed and leaped from pole to pole through the air. There was so much activity on stage and above us in the air at all times that it was virtually impossible to concentrate on everything at once. It was not alloved to take any photos or video at the show, so please enjoy my description or better; go there for your self.
One last drink in the mega size Hotel, it is said that the Venetian Macau is the second largest building in the world.
Our ferry was due to leave at eleven thirty pm and it was time to leave and make our way to the Macau Ferry terminal. We all fell asleep on the Ferry so we missed the form that we needed to fill in so that we could get back into Hong Kong so when we showed security our passports they sent us back to fill in an immigration form. Finally into Central a Taxi took us all the way home to Taiwan village in Sai Kung. As all the trains stop at midnight, a taxi is the only way when your out that late and the cost is 170 Hong Kong dollars or about 12 pounds. We finally arrived home about 2.30 am but it was well worth the visit.
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