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Spoke Notes Stamp

Peter Snow Cao
Spoke Notes
Flyby Night in Macao
Copyright © Peter Snow Cao, 2000.

Skip to: China

Macao

One good thing about Rainer that I really like is that he isn't bashful at all about asking questions of strangers, checking out restaurants, getting directions, etc. I tend to be much more reserved and shy and prefer looking for things for a long time before I will ask someone. This is particularly true in countries where English is not the native language.

Rainer tends to be very casual about his traveling, almost to the point of carelessness. I know I am going to have to watch out for the both of us to be sure that we don't get into trouble. He is quite lackadaisical about his bike and the maintenance of it, not wanting to spend money on spare parts or tools. I hope we don't run into trouble.

Hello Macao!

October 17 Macao

Macao Stamp

10 AM: It is amazing how many things can happen in such a short period of time. Rainer and I arrived in Macao at 10 PM last night rather disorientated and confused by being in a strange place (and new country) at night without a map. The tourist information center was closed and the only thing we could find out was that the Hotel Central was supposed to be the cheapest hotel in this town/city/country. So we set out cycling with Rainer in the lead apparently with some sort of idea where to go (or at least he appeared that way). After a few kilometers heading what seemed to be south toward the hotel we arrived in an area that is a bit like a park. We had something to eat and then asked a policeman where we were and if there was a place we can camp. After a few minutes of Portuguese/Chinese/English and hand signals we find out the gate wasn't into a park, but rather the border to China! Wow! What a surprise! However it was closed for the night but he said it opens at 7 AM. Then we went looking for the hotel and after circling the whole peninsula we found it. The cost was HK$263. Ugh! And it was full as well so we could not stay there even if we wanted to. So then we set out to try to find a quiet place to camp. This was no easy task in a place with a half a million people shoehorned onto a piece of land 6 km by 3 km.

Billy Graham

After circling around and around and finding all the lovers make-out places and homeless sleeping spots we met a Conservative Baptist missionary from Arizona. After some time of talking to us and determining we were relatively harmless, he offered to let us stay with him. It was now 1 AM and we were dead tired. Rainer was falling asleep on his bike and making dangerous mistakes. We were very fortunate to have met Dan. He told us about Macao as having only one tenth of one percent believing in God making it the "most Godless place on Earth". I asked him if that was any God. He said no, "my God, Jesus Christ". But he didn't give us any hard sell. However, it was evident he was very committed to his work. He liked it in Macao and was learning Mandarin and Cantonese as well and teaching English to high school students. He also gave us some postcard of Macao and a Billy Graham Macao Crusade bookmark.

We left about 8 AM and stopped at the first piece of grass we could find to first have breakfast, and then wrote letters and caught up on the diary.

We still have to find the bank and a post office to change money, get some stamps for the diary and postcards. It is going to be a full day.

Another Macao Stamp

Impressions of Macao: Some of the women are extremely beautiful. But I find the combination of Portuguese and Chinese personalities to be a very odd one. The men seem to be macho-oriented. The drivers are rather reckless and aggressive, but fortunately, do not use the horn. There are many high-rise buildings and we saw a number under construction. I suggested trying to sleep in them last night, but Rainer didn't like the idea. There is very little open space. I guess that is why we saw such large land reclamation projects going on when we arrived last night. We also saw a tunnel under construction. I wonder if that is so they don't have to use the land for streets and can build more structures. I can't imagines such a tiny place really needing a tunnel to improve the transportation system.

Macao Stamp, again

It is nice being able to half understand the signs we see in Portuguese. It is the first time since Malaysia that the alphabet has been Roman.

Now we get ready to head into the vast unknown of China!

Macao Money

On to: China

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