Macau: My first taste of lutong Macau

It's really difficult when you're travelling on a budget. But any break from stress is heaven for me, moreso if its travelling to another corner of the world. Cumprimentos de Macau! Yup, I'm in the former Portuguese colony of Macau, now a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China. I arrived here using Tiger Airways, another no-frills airline which flies from Clark. Good thing they're expanding their destinations. Hehe! Moreso, the Historic Centre of Macao was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list this year which gave me more reason to make a visit.

Being on a tight budget, using a taxi to get from the airport to the hostel was out of the question. Why pay 50 patacas (times 7 equals PHP350) for a five kilometer trip when you can pay just MOP3.30 if you take a bus? Sad thing it was rush hour though so it was standing room only. Boy, can they stuff those coasters! And just like most Chinese cities, English is hardly spoken! So I had to rely on instinct where to get off.

When I felt I was lost, I decided to get off and look for a place to have dinner. I entered the first restaurant I saw. Just my luck, English was still non-existent so I had to make do with pointing at pictures on the wall. I think I picked a pork dish with leeks, celery and carrots. Not bad for a first meal although it was quite salty for my standards.

After that filling dinner, it was time to walk and look for the hostel which brod Phil Vega had reserved for me. He had to make reservations since there were a lot of people here in Macau due to the Macau Grand Prix 2005 which culminates tomorrow. It turns out, I got off quite near my hostel. Looks like my traveller's instincts are working perfectly today. Anyway, have to go for now. I'm off for a stroll around old Macau (talk about adaptive reuse of heritage... outstanding!) and maybe find some great hawker food. Hehe!

Some photos of that stroll are in my Patrimoine Mondial photo album.