Kinda-Autonomous Macau

Picture this setting: an Egyptian speaking in Spanish to a Chinese woman who's replying in Portuguese, under the bemused eye of her teenage son who provides the occasional English-Cantonese translation bridge when the Latin languages kinship fails to convey the meaning.

Welcome to Macau, China's 'kinda-autonomous' (©!!) region, which 500 years or so of Portuguese colonisation have given an undoubtedly unique feel, a sometimes tragic history, an odd street fusion cuisine, and some weird architecture that often has you wondering whether you're in China, Algarve, Hongkong, or Rome.


I'll dwell longer on its political status in a future post about Hongkong, where the topics seems more relevant. Here, with their Portuguese citizenship - Portugal gave its passport to all those born in Macau - and with their city's less strategically important economic role, Macau's people seems to have been spared the political drama that HK had to endure. But I digress.

I have been asking the lady, who, with her husband manages the Livraria Portuguesa of Macau, about the Portuguese, Lusophone, and Macanese communities (the latter being defined as the children of mixed Portuguese and Chinese couples).
You could hear a tinge of nostalgia in their voices.

"2 out of 3 Portuguese left after 1999", he said, in reference to the retrocession of the colony to China.
"Portuguese used to be the language of the government. Now, officially both Chinese and Portuguese are government languages but really, Chinese is dominant."

I picked up this book - a lovely collection of stories from a near yet distant past. And was out in the rain again - Portuguese colony it may have been, but that was a classic S.E. Asian typhoon I had on my hands (and head).

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Other than flying into Macau, the most obvious way to get there is by ferry from HongKong, which is the way I favoured.

After struggling with the customs officers who had seemingly never seen an Egyptian passport before (note that we're allowed visa-free access, hiya!), I was out to face the multitude of free shuttles that take you for free into one of the many casinos of the SAR. Because Macau also doubles as the Vegas of China, where wealthy and not-so-wealthy Hongkongers and mainland Chinese go and squander their yuans and HK dollars on the tables of the (needlessly) impressive Venitian, or the mythical Grand Lisboa.

Can you tell me this doesn't look like Via dei Condotti seen from the Spanish steps?
In the back left, that's the Grand Lisboa, by the way...

It's the Grand Lisboa shuttle that K and I took, and emerged in its main casino hall. And since I didn't gamble a penny - but got a free cup of tea, I can say that I beat the house. :)

We spent a little while watching people put their bets on Baccarat tables -- plenty, plenty of Baccarat tables, God knows why -- and listened to the Chinese onomatopoeias for joy (Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!) and disappointment (Rhooooooooooo!) before going out to town.


Everything is written in Chinese and Portuguese -- which we found absolutely hilarious! I mean, I could read the stuff! Plus the bilingual combinations were very funny - ("Sapataria Tai Fong"?? WTF?? :)




Colonial architecture, wave and mosaic pavements like Lisbon's, if Cantonese wasn't the language spoken on the street (and the humidity so damn oppressive) I could've forgotten where I was.



Anyways. Plenty of ginger candy, churches with dragons on them, a few Buddhist temples, a very cute Indonesian saleswoman (who asked me out for a Turkish kebab before selling me overpriced chines-ey stuff) and oh-so-plenty of good food later (highlight: bird's nest on an egg-tart. Kinda gross when you think of it but tasty), I was actually quite taken by the quiet city. Which is not as quiet as it is accused of being. Actually, I think I'd take a Macau over a Hongkong any day.

Coincidentally, I happen to be wearing this t-shirt at this very moment:

Says it all, right?

PS - Seems that I'm caving in to the pressure - I've uploaded some photos to Flickr.