Evening walk in “Portugal”

28 March 2013

Macau was a Portuguese colony and many churches, squares and government buildings constructed by the Portuguese are still standing throughout the city. Most of the best Portuguese Macau sights are clustered around the Largo de Senado (Senado Square). The best time to visit this historic area of Macau would be in the evening when it is less crowded and the buildings would be lit. Also, once it is dark, we can walk to the nearby casino belt and explore the brilliantly lit-up casinos.

Senado Square at night.

One tip that I found on the internet was to take a taxi to the Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral since it was on high ground and then walk downhill back to Senado Square. We took a taxi from our hotel, The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel.

After a wait of about 10 minutes in a taxi rank, we got into a taxi and pointed to the picture of the Ruins of St. Paul's on our tourist map to the lady driver. She lowered the window and yell at the concierge to ask him where were we going. My god! She does not even recognise a famous landmark in her own country or just that she does not bother to look. The hotel concierge told her the name of the street in Cantonese and the grumpy lady driver told us rudely that she would not alight us at the ruins of St Paul’s but near to it, citing traffic jams.

“OK, how near is near”….I was about to ask but I don’t want to get into an argument with a grumpy lady. So we just went for the ride and see where she would take us, since we planned to explore the area on foot anyway.

The ride costs us about HKD 75 from the hotel to a narrow street in downtown Macau. I was following our progress using the GPS in my smartphone so I know we were “not taken for a ride”. After getting down and paying her the fare, she redeemed herself by pointing us the way to walk to the ruin. I wasn’t expecting that from her. The Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral was just about 200 meters away, round the next corner.

First glimpse of the Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral. This icon of Macau was used as filming location in many movies.

Closer look at the facade. All that was left of St. Paul's Cathedral after it was destroyed by fire in 1835.

It was interesting to see the skyline of Macau, the old and new together.

Glittering tower of the Grand Lisboa Macau casino and the old Portuguese buildings as seen from St Paul’s church.

It was also interesting to see a residential building right next to a historical icon.

Living right next to Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral.

From here, we headed down the steps and explore the cobbled streets of old Portuguese Macau.

 

Sculpture near Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral.

Many shops were still open, including numerous bakeries and shops selling local snacks. We tried some fried pork buns, pot sticklers and of course the famous Portuguese egg tarts.  We eventually ended up at the Senado Square surrounded by old Portuguese buildings and its wave-design calcada - portuguese style pavement of black and white stones. 

St Dominic Church, one of the many churches  constructed by the Portuguese.

Street names and most signs in Macau are in Portuguese, Chinese and English.

Largo de Senado (Senado Square), with Holy House of Mercy in the back.

One could take an hour or two to explore the various narrow streets and buildings. We had enough of the old town and decided to head towards the glitzy side of Macau to explore the various Casinos and also check out the restaurants for dinner.