China - Macau

We were plannning to just land in Macau and then get a ferry straight to Hong Kong as we couldn't find any budget accomodation for Macau, but we met a Polish/American girl Ursula who had booked into a cheap hostel and decided on a whim to go there too. We checked into this tiny hostel with tiny dorm rooms. It was in a great location in the middle of town though.

Macau is a gambling town. There are so many casinos (you cannot gamble in the rest of china). So there is a lot of glitz. It is quite a beautiful place, right on the harbour. It was colonised by the portugese and there are some nice buildings and gorgeous winding cobbled streets.

The highlight for us was a food festival that luckily opened on our second night. We sampled some yummy food and saw lots of entertainment(a mix of old and modern, chinese and international). There was also some very cheap local beer.

Ursula did a "sky jump" off a sky tower(like the sky tower in Auckland but bigger). It was set up by AJ Hackett and he was up there and she met him. It was kind of like a bungy but tamer.We thought while we were there we should go to a casino, so we went to one and had a look around. We played on the slot machines for a little bit,but after playing $6 NZD and winning nothing we called it quits.

Macau was our first taste of things becoming more expensive. For the price of our accomodation and food we could have had much better in Thailand.But we have to get used to it with europe coming.

So after 2 nights we took a ferry to Hong Kong- about an hour trip.