Macau

Macau was the first leg of the "Great Southeast Asia Tour", and it all started off exactly as planned... or at least exactly as we figured it would. When we arrived at the airport (after a nice long delay at the airport) it was around 9pm. It was also around this time that we realised that we had no idea what the address was of the hotel we were staying at. And since we were going budget, no one had ever heard of it before either. The added bonus is that there are very very very few people in Macau who speak English. But with our guide of China in hand, we were able to get some help and after a few phone calls (to people who did some searches on the Internet for us) we were on our way. Sort of.
Unfortunately, the instructions written in Chinese to our non-English cabbie were a little unclear, so he just dropped us off downtown. So after wandering around, a little lady asked us if we were looking for Augusters hotel. Little did we know, we had walked right past it and she was waiting outside for us after a call from our helpers at the airport. Not bad.

After arriving at our hotel, we founf out we were just a few blocks from Senado Square... the quaint city centre of Macau. It is blocked off to traffic and is very cute lit up at night.

A side street of the square. The doors all lead into little cafes.

The next day was spent seeing the sights of Macau... of which we quickly learned there weren't many. These are the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral, which was built in the 17th century. The facade is the only part remaining after a huge fire in 1835.

Next to the ruins of St. Paul's, is the Portuguese built Monte Fort, also constructed in the 17th century.

Yes, I am aiming the cannon... and yes, I am a big geek.

A view of Macau from on top of the fort.

This is the facade at night. It looks a little eerie - as did the fort. But oddly enough, there were many people congregated here for socializing and late night jogging.