1 April 2025
Money laundering capital of the world
Macau day trip by ferry
Today I went on a day trip to another 'country'. I say country because Hong Kong and Macau are both part of China, and yet you have to clear customs on both ends in both directions. So this means today I went through 4 sets of customs and immigration and spent about $60 on ferry costs to go to a place a lot like Hong Kong for 4 hours. Also I have done this twice before.
Of course, Macau basically exists so every criminal in the world can launder money stolen from their respective countries poor people, and so it is lately doing a roaring trade. I think there are a lot of big new buildings since my last visit. A lot of the development is on the Taipa side, which is a different island, away from the historical Portuguese stuff, I have never been there, maybe I will go there next time.
Here is the departure area after customs at the Sheung Wan terminal. I took the Turbojet, which is one of 2 different companies that travel the route. There are 2 departure points to pick from, but Sheung Wan has a lot more sailings and arrives at a better location in Macau.
I had a window seat. More on that below. The ferry was quite full on the way over.
At this point I could see out the window. There is Hong Kong.
But as soon as the boeing jets that power the thing fire up, you can no longer see out the window.
Now I am in Macau. Over that bridge is the Taipa part of Macau.
My journey into Macau took me over this long elevated blue floored walkway. The government of Macau has gone to great lengths to ensure there is no view.
I got down at a nice harbour area. A lot of joggers. Also I bravely boarded the boat in shorts and a t-shirt, thinking it would get warmer. Everyone else was in arctic gear, but now they regret it because it is nice and warm.
Here is a typical Macau housing area. They are a bit denser than Hong Kong.
The other thing different about Macau is scooters, lots of scooters. You do not really see scooters in Hong Kong. The public transport in Macau is crap, not that it will bother me today, I shall be walking.
Soon, by accident, I found a park / zoo / flower garden complete with pointless cable car. I believe it is called Jardim da Flora.
Some nice views to be had from the garden.
The area is an old fort. I presume Japan were the problem, as usual.
They refused to allow me to operate the cannon.
It is an interesting thing to consider, this is one of the few places in the world where English is the 3rd language. Most signs in Macau have Chinese and Portuguese.
The main skyline area, I suspect the buildings in the distance are taller, but the Casino Lisboa will always be the star.
On top of the garden is the historic lighthouse. Apparently the first one ever constructed along the Chinese coast.
Rusty knot.
Behold, the Lisboa Casino. I did not go inside. Somehow on a previous visit I was still here at night, and observed hundreds of possibly 'ladies' of the night walking laps up and down a shopping area inside the casino waiting to be bought for the evening while the triads watched on.
The lesser side of the Casino Lisboa.
I do not know what is going on here, pink santa?
Time to wander around the shopping area, apparently called Macau Ginza, for no known reason.
This old church is still standing.
A hugely busy area. Macau exists only for tourists. They do not complain about over tourism.
There is the church that is only partially still standing. Probably the most taken photo of Macau.
The main shopping street is very busy, but even one street over and there is almost no one.
The shops here do not take visa or mastercard, they fully embraced China with alipay and wepay. They do however take Hong Kong dollars, and give you change in Macau patacas. This meant I had to spend about $20 Australian. A challenge for me. I bought the most expensive Portuguese tarts to waste money. I still did not spend all the change I received. When I arrived back in Hong Kong I left about $5 worth of patacas in a plant pot for someone on their way to Macau to find.
Time to head back to the ferry terminal and observe some cool architecture.
That is the sands casino. Every single one of these places is owned by criminals.
At this time the Macau ferry terminal was very quiet. I tried to spend my patacas here, but they only had a mcdonalds and places to buy moutai.
Finally, here is my ferry back to Hong Kong (the one on the right). So there you go, a day trip to Macau and I never set foot inside a casino.