Macau

To beat the crowds at Immigration, which we had been warned were crazy, my colleague and I set off from the hotel @ 7.30AM.
Caught a taxi to the Gongbei port on the Zhuhai side and it took us about 30 mins to pass through immigration. At Macau immigration, our passports were examined in great detail and it took us about 5 mins each to get through..no questions asked though.
The tourist booth at Macau was closed and we could not get our hands on a map..the one sign in english said they would open at 9.00AM. So, we set off to exchange some money. Only HKG dollars or the Macau Pataca are accepted, no Chinese RMB. We exhanged about 100 RMB each[USD$12.50], as we had no plans to shop in Macau and had decided on taking the bus to the various sites.

We walked back to the border post and luckily found someone manning the tourist booth. Got our hands on a map with all the tourist sites listed on it in English.
we set off to the nearest bus stop, which is underground right outside the port exit.

Our first stop was the ruins of the Church of St.Paul. Luck for us, there was a woman who spoke a smattering of English and she directed us to get off at the right stop. A short walk, with the help of some Portugee and English signs, and we were at the ruins. This church was built in 1602 and had burnt down in 1835..only the front facade remained.

We were unable to get into the musueum or the Monte Fort, overlooking the ruins, as they were closed for renovations.

A short walk downhill from the ruins tooks us to Senado Square, the major shopping area in Macau. There was some kind of mini-convention at the main square and there were a lot of peole in this small square. The facade of the St Augustine's church was also being renovated and it was all covered up in construction material. We did step inside the church for a few minutes. Another stop at Starbucks(my kind of church) for a latte and we were off to ur next stop..the A-Ma temple.

A couple of bus rides, once in the wrong direction, and about 40 minutes later, we were at the temple. Just another regular Chinese temple..nothing spectacular. The smoke from the incense sticks drove us out of the temple quick. Next stop Macau tower.

With the help of a couple of students, we got off at the right stop and a 10 min walk later we were at the Convention Center adjacent to the tower. There was no point going up to the tower since it was smoggy and we could hardly see much of the horizon. We looked for a place to eat lunch but could not find anything suitable.A quick look at the guide book we had picked up at the port and we decided on a Portugese restaurant at the Avenida Almeida Ribeiro. Now this was going to take us full circle back to the ruins, but we did not know that at that time. Another bus ride, and this time with the help of the map we were able to figure out where to get off by ourselves, we arrived at the center of downtown Macau. A short walk and we found ourselves back at the Senado square. Quick lunch,decision to skip the Kun Iam temple and we took a bus back to the port. An hour wait at the border crossing and we were back in Zhuhai at around 4.00PM.

On our way back,outsdie the immigration gates in Macau, we saw some women unpacking cartons of cigars and folding up the boxes. And then they stuffed the cigars in their socks and up their sleeves. On the Zhuhai side, we saw them re-pack the cigar boxes. [figure that one out for yourself!!]