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| Senado Walk |
Macau’s heritage sites are mostly within walking distance of the Rue da Felicidade. The centre of Macau is undoubtedly Senado Square and surrounding area, just a few minutes walk from the Hotel Kou Va. The wavy paved pedestrian area that is Senado Square extends along a walk between fashion boutiques, overpriced jewelry shops and dubiously sourced electronics outlets to tease out the visitors spending money. Small alleys off the main thoroughfare offer a variety of quirky food and drink outlets. It’s a cool place to start discovering Macau from.
The standard tourist literature available at the airport does a fairly good job of guiding one through the more prominent points of interest in the central area.
Some less reported facts and suggestions I can share are ..
Macau transport authorities appear to promote the use of zebra crossings (without lights). They are installed on many of the main streets. Step on to them at your own peril as many motorists see them as opportunity to assert their authority over tourist pedestrians via large helpings of terror. Macanese pedestrians have given up with them many walking years ago it would seem.
The older Macanese have a ‘fuck you’ attitude about them. Unfortunately many are employed in occupations that require them to interface with the tourist such as bus drivers and tourist information centre officers.
There is a distinct lack of places to hang out and chill. Bars, people watching enabled coffee shops, pubs, al fresco dining operations all seem to be, disappointingly, conspicuous by their absence.
There is a bus company driven conspiracy that promotes over payment of bus fares. Commercial operations able to change 10 potatoe banknotes or higher into smaller currency denominations to match bus ride tariffs have been banished from within a quarter mile of all bus stops.
The younger Macanese are cool, courteous, fine mannered individuals in general. If you need help, go young.
Beer (Tsingtao) is around 10 potatoes for a large bottle in a Chinese noodle shop and most operators seemed content to let one drink for a while before expecting a food order (on average 20 potatoes a dish). The savvy operators have picture book menus.
Go to a Casino. The only apparent dress code is ‘no cap’. The cool croupiers are more fascinating than gambling.
Down The Road 