A very quiet start to the day after the excitement of the night before commencing with a visit to the office to pick up my asiamiles vouchers for the turbojet to Macua. I had a chat to some of my colleagues and promised to join them for a drink tomorrow evening. We then headed off to the ferry terminal (on HK Island)and swooped my redeemed asiamiles for three return tickets to Macau.
The Turboject is a catamaran which heads off to Macua every 15 minutes or so during the day for the 1 hour trip down the Pearl River Delta to the former Portuguese enclave. I used to visit Macau fairly regulaly when based in HK and it always provided a welcome contrast to the hustle and bustle of its bigger brother. These days Macau is very much about the huge casinos which have been built over the last 5 years or so (Venetian, etc.). However, it still has some of the old world charm of the rather sleepy town left by the Portuguese and our first port of call was to the expat mainstay Fernandos on Coloanne Island. Macau itself is a series of Islands linked to the mainland by huge bridges that stretch over the Peal River and Fenandos is around a 30/40 minute taxi journey froom the ferry which takes you over one of the many bridges and past the airport to the forests and bays of the Island. We also went past the Westin Hotel - a rather old-fashioned and (in contrast to the opulent new casino-hotels we passed on the way) rather dated looking member of the Starwood group.
We arrived at the tail end of lunch time so were easily able to get a table (no booking allowed and generally a wait during peak periods). Fernandos started life as a beach hut diner next to Coloanne beach and was established (it is said) by a former chef at the Lisboa HOtel. I am not sure if that is correct but nevertheless a trip to Fernandos was always a popoular part of the itinerary whenever we came to Macau and it did not disappoint. We all had crab in a pot - a sort of hotpot with a whole crab and various herbs and vegetables cooked in a superb sauce. It must have taken a good couple of hours to eat - trying to break into the crab (and avoiding burning ones mouth on the suace which remined piping hot throughout the meal) was part of the fun but did take up some time. The bread accompnaying the meal (and the Portuguese wine) was superb and we were very replete when we eventually finished!
We had a brief wander along the beach and then headed to the old town where we pottered around some of the churches and the ruins of St Pauls before heading back to the ferry terminal for the trip home.
Despite the huge late afternoon meal, we decided to go for a quick drink in the evening and ended up at the Darby - just along the road from the Hotel where we did a few quiz questions and managed to eat some samosas and potatoe skins.
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