Mommy in Macau- prt. 1

The highpoint of my mother's trip was taking her to Macau for a ladies of luxury weekend. I have been to Macau on a couple of occasions but it seems every time I go my friends are not too interested in sightseeing, more interested in partying. Or, I get a friend who is into sightseeing and we get stuck with the worst weather and get stuck indoors. Not that all my Macau experiences have been bad, (GAGA!!!) but Macau and mine's relationship was rather mixed until after this trip. I was given a discount rate at the Grand Hyatt Hotel because we were going to go see The House of Dancing Water at the City of Dreams. We knocked about 1,000 MOP off our room, got free breakfast at the brilliant Mezza9 resteraunt and  got to see the show for free. (A pretty good bargain, but it was still 2,000 MOP.)

I am not doing this in order of what we saw and when we saw it but in an order that makes sense geographically. I have provided a map of Macau for your convenience.

Macau has 3 sections: Macau (where most of the touristy things are), Taipa (where the casinos are) and Coloane which is the sea side area which is similar to Hk's New Territories. Here is a map for your convenience. You can take buses to all the touristy areas from the ferry port and then try to figure out the portuguese writing. Most of the casinos in Taipa have free buses from the ferry port to their location. Also at our hotel they had a free shuttle bus to other points like the airport, china border and the lotus bridge. You can also taxi to an area where there are many things to see, walk around a lot and then take a taxi to the next major destination that is not walkable. Taxis are cheaper in Macau then they are in HK and MAJORLY cheaper than any taxi you will find in the USA. It is really easy to walk in Macau but there are a lot of cobblestones so watch those ankles!!!

HOTEL

The hotel was pretty swanky and they treated us really well. Everyone was really nice and they had staff members that spoke almost every language in the books. The people behind us were from India and even though they spoke English they had someone come out and speak to them in their native language. (How cool is that?!)Unless you speak a really obscure language their staff has it covered they had staff from France, Germany, Holland, America, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Dubai and many other places.

Thirty Years Ago

My mother went to the Peninsula Hotel for High Tea with my father thirty years ago on her first trip to Hong Kong. She told me about it as a child and described the hotel to me as a child. So on her trip she had a list of things that she did thirty years ago that she wanted to do again.

High Tea at the Peninsula Hotel with Mommy (before the incident)

Planning a visit for someone Else!

I don't know about you. But I find that planning a visit for someone when they are coming to see you is much more stressful than doing your own visit. I am a very relaxed traveller. I go where I want when I want. I am one of those people who wanders and then makes sure she has a hostel booked because I don't want to end up homeless on the road. (My biggest fear is having no where to sleep. My first night in Paris was AWFUL because of this mishap. COLD!)

Review- Konzert de Solidez- City Singers

I'm a bad bad artist.... I admit it, I have a problem. I really don't like classical music. I've tried, I swear! My mother and sisters were all classical musicians and I had a very short/angry relationship with a trombone when I was 11. I think I could still bust out "The Muppet Show" theme on it if I tried! But here's the thing, I like reinvented classical music- you know the kind you can dance too! Or I like pop songs turned into classical music, also you can dance to it. (Can you see a pattern?) But I cannot sit through a chamber music concert without becoming a bad, bad girl...

A fun evening with great local musicians!

Review- Momix Dance Theatre

The last show of my Hong Kong Arts Festival adventure was a night with the Momix Dance Theatre: Momix reMix. The Momix show was a collection of their greatest hits arranged into a two hour piece. Momix was founded by Moses Pendleton who was one of the founding members of Pilobolus Dance Theatre in the seventies. Momix was founded by him in 1980. Momix has been featured on PBS several times on various dance presents specials.