On our last full day in Hong Kong we had resolved to go to Macau. It was pouring with rain but I was adamant that we go. I'd made the girls get up early in readiness in any case so, slowly, at about 11am we left the hotel. A slow walk to the MTR station was followed by a slow walk to what we thought was the ferry terminal, followed then by yet another slow walk to the actual ferry terminal. Everything seemed to be happening slowly that day. No matter how often I stressed that we only had a short time available, there was no way my sister would set her pace to anything higher than 'amble'.By the time we finally made it into Macau it was unbelievably almost 3pm.
With just 4 hours left til we had to leave, I tried to press on. I slowed my pace right down to 'stroll' and still my sisters were trailing after me. It didn't seem as though they wanted to go anywhere. I was trying to find a taxi to take us into town as it was still pissing down with rain, but it seemed as if they'd rather paddle through the puddles than actually go somewhere. After half an hour and still within sight of the ferry terminal in some outlying part of the city I gave up. I stopped trying to drag them round and gave Sarah an ultimatum. Stop following me around like a bad smell and either come with me or stay where you are. She chose to stay. Anything else and we'd have ended up with a fight on our hands. It was an outcome that we were both happy with. Sammy stayed with Sarah to keep her company, we arranged a rendezvous and I went off to explore.
Trying to flag down a taxi was proving impossible. I had Sammy's MP3 player with me so put that on and started walking. I walked until I found something interesting enough to make me want to stop. I found the buildings at the top of this page. Macau is rich in these colonial era neo-classical buildings and they were precisely what made this city so special. Once I found them I knew I was in the right area and started off down some side streets.
This was a world away from the China I know. I could easily have been in any European city. The atmosphere was almost identical. Quiet narrow streets lined with balconied apartment buildings, old stone walls overhung by trees, centuries old architecture, scooters and motorbikes ruling the roads...it was all there. Even the street names were written in Portuguese. It was only the Chinese translation alongside that gave away the fact that we were nowhere near the Mediterranean but in fact on the South China Sea.Soon enough I came upon a pretty little church and graveyard. I stopped to take a look around.
I have always liked wandering round graveyards and cemeteries. This cemetery was all the more interesting for its mix. Portuguese and Chinese graves lay side by side, each as restrained or extravagant as the other. I'm fascinated by personal histories and am always intrigued by the names carved on those stones. I like to imagine who they were, what they did for a living, their families, the times they lived in and what they may have looked like. In this particular cemetery almost all graves had photographs attached and this instantly injected a stroke of reality and personality to these monuments, making considering these lives, deaths and everything in between all the more poignant.It was while I wandered from memorial to memorial, reflecting upon mortality, that Sammy's MP3 player skipped over and began, of all possible albums, to play ABBA's greatest hits. Of all the musical accompaniments that a walk through a graveyard could command, cheerfully cheesy disco would be bottom of the list. Absurd. It made me laugh though and realise that it was time to move on. Unfortunately Sammy's MP3 player is one of those tiny ones with about 3 buttons which you need to press in certain combinations to access the option that you want. Either way I didn't know how to work the bloody thing so it was ABBA or nowt.
After the cemetery I kept walking for some time. The streets were all interesting, but not exactly where I wanted to be at that point. But then, glancing up an alley between two apartment blocks, I caught a glimpse of Macau's greatest monument, the ruined facade of St. Paul's church. This was when it got good. I'd hit the old centre of town. The camera never went back into my pocket after this point.
Next to the ruins were the remains of the Forteleza Do Monte. As I set out to climb the mount, the generic disco that had been continuing on in the background gave way to the real ABBA hits, and it was to the beat of 'Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!' that I scaled the walls to penetrate this great fortress and looked down past it's cannon-lined walls to the city below. My soundtrack to the city was set.
'Mamma Mia', 'Dancing Queen', came and went as I looked out and lined up my camera until 'Super Trouper' told me it was time I was on my way....so when you're near me, darling can't you hear me, SOS...
Reaching the bottom I had time for one more shot of the church, a Portuguese egg tart and it was off down the Rua De Sao Paulo, taking my place in the intricate dodge-the-umbrella dance as 'Money Money Money' echoed out of my earphones.
A pause to snap St. Dominic's Church, 'The Winner Takes It All' and I came out onto Largo Do Senado - Senado Square - an immaculately kept space proudly displaying it's heritage and really putting Hong Kong to shame. I have to say that Macau took first place of all the sights I managed to see down in this part of China. It topped the list, and it topped it in the rain, and with wet feet.
...Chiquitita you and I know... I left the square, now with evening drawing in and time beginning to press. I walked quickly up Rua Dr. Soares, Calcada Tronco Velho and came up upon another pretty little square next to St. Augustine's Church. 
No time to stop, I carried on, past the beautiful Dom Pedro V Theatre, round the corner, down the hill, to reach the Rua Da Praia Grande, ABBA still leading the way. It was past 6.30pm by now and I marched down the road with purpose. I still didn't know exactly where I was and needed to get back to my sisters and my boat home. Taxis were still out of the question so I tried a bus....Voulez vous...'does this bus go to the ferry terminal?'...aha!... 'Shenme?'...aha!...'uh, (scramble with the map) zheli'...aha!...(nod) 'how much? duo shao?'...oooh...Voulez vous...'san kuai'...aha!...and I was on my way. By the time 'Waterloo' came on I even had a seat - a big relief after pounding the streets for the past 3 hours. I arrived just in time for the end of the CD and just in time for the boat.
I'd had a great afternoon. It was perfect. Macau was high on my list of must-see sights down here and not even the rain could detract from what is a beautiful, beautiful city. While there was obviously still so much more to this place than I could cover in a few days even, I saw a hell of a lot. I was satisfied, and more than a little vindicated. My sisters looked round a shopping mall and then spent an hour or so sat in the ferry terminal.
Have some faith in your big bro. He knows what he's doing.
