Macanese Mommy

My mother was born in Macau, currently a Special Administrative Region (SAR) in China that was formerly occupied by the Portuguese similar to how Hong Kong was occupied by the British.  Macau was a safe haven during World War II but became unstable during China's Cultural Revolution.   After enduring it's own period of unrest and dissatisfaction with the Portuguese government, it was formally returned to China in 1999.  Prior to that, Macau acquired its own type of Sino-European identity.  Today its national languages are still Cantonese and Portuguese--not Mandarin.

The hillside in the distance across the river is mainland China.   It's very close, but also quite far.  During World War II many Chinese refugees would attempt to swim across to sanctuary.   Most were shot and killed before they ever reached the other shore.  Thankfully, my family came by land.

Macau is not what it used to be having developed tremendously with it's gambling industry.  Although commonly called the Vegas of the East,  it actually draws in more revenue than its American counterpart.  Macau's no frill approach to gambling lures the true gamblers. Casinos are packed tightly together along the Cotai Strip without the excess of shopping esplanades, show venues,  and gimicky attractions that define Las Vegas.  Furthermore, it is in prime location to be easily visited by the neo-rich in China, neighboring international clientele, as well as Hong Kong which is about 45 minutes away by speedboat.

The round hotel with pink lights is the Casino Lisboa--the casino that started it all for Macau when it opened in the 1970s. Behind in blue lights is its recent and equally flamboyant extension the Grand Casino Lisboa.

This is Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro or "San Ma Lo" according to the locals which means simply New Street because no one could ever remember the Portuguese name.  This is the main street running through Macau's downtown.

In my opinion, there is not much to do in Macau but gamble unless of course you're taking a trip down memory lane with your mother. I tried to imagine what kind of funny, little town it must have been with the Portuguese and Chinese in her heyday. There are still some beautiful historic sites, but none so interesting to me as the site of their old house. It has since been demolished and paved over with apartments, however there once stood a European style house and courtyard on this block.

 My aunt Belinda--my mother's sister and her daughter Cheryl accompanied us on this visit. It was both Cheryl's and my first time in Macau. Below we are at one of the more well-known sites: the Ruins of the Church of St. Paul. It is one of the few examples of Christianity in China.  Before it was officially designated by UNESCO and blocked off, my aunt Belinda and mother use to pass through the wall daily to get to school.  They never thought it to be any more than just a wall; and in a way it's still just a wall.  The importance of things can be ironically arbitrary.

The A-Ma Temple is the namesake for the city of Macau.  According to legend, A-Ma was a poor girl trying to get to Guangzhou by boat, but was turned away by every wealthy junk owner until a kindly fishermen took her on board his boat. Soon afterward, a huge storm swept in to the harbor destroying all the junks but left the fisherman's boat untouched. When A-Ma got off the boat, she walked to the top of the hill and ascended to heaven. The fisherman built a temple in her honor on that spot. In Cantonese Macau is "Ou Mun", which means gateway of the bay.  When the Portuguese arrived they likely heard "A-Ma Gau" which means bay of A-Ma. (Lonely Planet)

Roast pigs are laid out in an offering to A-Ma and incense coils hang from the temple rafters.

As a SAR, Macau enjoys many privileges. This is a city park where suffrages and complaints are posted relatively without censorship.

We tried some of the local fare while we there. Ja Ja is a type of sweet red bean and coconut soup served warm. It tasted more Chinese than Portuguese.  ( Pardon the fuzzy picture. I will move on to a better camera one day!)

I'm not sure how authentic food court Macanese cuisine is, but when you're on time and budget restraints; it'll do.  Below is curry chicken.

And, last but not least we had to visit my favorite hotel: Wynn. While the hotel is still nice, it can't hold a candle to the Vegas original.  The modern elegance of the Wynn is still here with the signature array of tassels and lanterns.  However the Vegas design has a certain quirky wonderment about it that captures your attention, while Macau's approach seems to be business as usual.  Then again, people may go to Vegas for more reasons then to just gamble--Wynn Vegas does have an awesome buffet.

In the front of the Wynn there is an imitation of the dancing fountains of Bellagio.  We got there just as the fountains stopped but I still found it amusing how many parallels to Vegas Macau tried to capture on its own casino strip. Half way around the world and I still feel like I could be in the US.  Maybe it's another example of common ground? Different, but still fundamentally the same.