macau in one day: walking tour

squeezing macau into just a day proved to be too hectic than we came prepared for. to make it even more chaotic, we went to macau on a weekend! it was a sunday to be specific. well, you could just imagine the sea of people out in the streets, tourists and locals alike. to top it all off, the humidity had started to sink in, indicating the onset of summer in macau.

we started our walking tour quite late since we unintentionally spent too much time in venetian during our hotel hopping. after all, who wouldn't get lost in such a huge maze!

we were with other three people from work namely, joy, noie and tinay who arrived in the wee hours of the morning on that day and with barely a few hours to catch up with sleep, they went straight to macau with us.

from sands casino, we took a taxi to get to senado square, our jump off point of our walking tour. the walking tour suggested in the map includes too many tourist spots but we could no longer accommodate all of them so, we only picked a few spots that could fit in the few hours we had left in macau.

taking a taxi was convenient for us since we were many and we could just share the total fare of the two taxis we hailed. far more convenient than buses. we also had no idea which bus to take! haha

while some of us went frantic in taking photos of the place, the rest were intently looking at the map. i wouldn't know if having a guide would make it a lot easier. by the way, there are a lot of filipinos in the ferry terminal on the lookout for fellow kababayans who want to tour macau. we were asked by one filipina but we politely declined for we didn't want to spend on something we didn't plan.

and we came up with this.

first on senado square, a place where portuguese traces in macau are very evident.

Sam Kai Vui Kun Temple

St. Dominic's Church

i love this kind of church which doesn't have too many relics for it gives me the feeling of serenity. however, it was very ironic how the inside of the church was almost empty while outside was like a stampede of weekend yuppies.

too many people i say, for joy and noie got separated from the rest of the pack and everyone went a little edgy after making several survey around the area, but unfortunately, to no avail. how very important indeed, to have that mobile phone set to roaming!

and so the three of us, stay put in one place near the cathedral to wait for hannah and jl on their attempt to search for the lost duo.

Cathedral Square

Ruins of St. Paul

we then decided to proceed to our last stop which is the too famous landmark in macau, the ruins of st. paul, hoping we would stumble upon joy and noie while heading there.

then to our relief, we spotted noie as we were about to climb the steps to the ruins, with the exhaustion written all over his face for he had been going to and fro, the ruins and senado square's fountain.

the crowd had dispersed near the ruins but it was a different story when going through the narrow streets.

and these caught my fancy for they reminded me of vigan, ilocos sur.

The Golden Arches in an Old Portuguese Facade

Also Giordano

--

lessons learned after pushing macau on a weekend.

(1) decide on a meeting place where you will eventually meet up no matter what.

(2) set your mobile phones to roaming.

(3) carry a bright colored hanky or anything which will serve as a guide for the pack. we really did this after seeing all tour guides raising a flag or something to guide his flock.

(4) lastly, decide beforehand on your route, at least everyone is aware.

o-O