Macau

One of the highlights of Jan and Don's trip was our visit to Macau.  Macau is about an hour ferry ride from Hong Kong.  It is part of China, but like Hong Kong it is a Special Administrative Region and does not require a visa for visitors.  Macau is a old Portuguese colony that is full of casinos.  It is kind of like the Las Vegas of China, except without the drunken bachelor party shenanigans Vegas is known for.  Macau is only for serious gamblers.  Tom, Don, and Tommy went to watch the Grand Prix race.  Jan, Charlotte and I decided to skip the car race and go to the House of Dancing Water show instead.  Charlotte was insistent she wanted to do the "show" instead of the race and the times didn't work to do both.

Charlotte and my selfie on the Macau ferry

Tom, Tommy, Don and Jan on the ferry

We got to Macau in the morning so the guys could go to the race.  The show wasn't until 5PM which gave us the day to explore Macau.  We took the bus and then a bit of a walk to find a great Portuguese restaurant a friend of mine (who is Portuguese) recommended for lunch.  It was delicious.  Then we walked to see the Ruins of St. Paul's in the old part of Macau.  Everywhere was really crowded.  I am not sure if it is always crowded or if it was because it was race weekend.

Ruins of St. Paul's

Jan and Charlotte

 Charlotte got tired after awhile, so we decided to find a taxi stand to get to the other side of Macau for the show.  I was glad we left early, the taxi queue was a block long!  We ended up getting there in plenty of time anyway.  The show was amazing!  I don't know how they engineered the stage, but it would change from a dry stage to a shallow body of water, to a deep pool with people diving from the rafters within seconds.  Toward the end, there was a portion with motorcycles doing tricks.  It was amazing, they were doing these dangerous stunts on a stage that had been buried in water just moments earlier.  Charlotte loved the show.  She was literally on the edge of her seat the entire show.  It told a love story, she had a lot of questions about why things were happening and was very concerned the man and woman would not end up together in the end.  She cheered when the "bad guys" lost.  It was a late night before we got home, but we had a great time.

Ready for the show to start

The show was amazing!