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When I had the opportunity to use frequent flyer miles for an overseas trip, I decided to use them to go over a different sea than usual for a trip to Asia in November 2002. Here is a report on that trip to Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
TRIP TO ASIA, NOVEMBER 2002
Amc2004-09-13 14:42:34
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which I understand was adequate, but when they brought change they hovered over me, putting pressure on me to leave the coins.
Macau
A highlight of my week in Hong Kong was my day trip to Macau. There was light rain on the Tuesday morning I'd designated for the trip, but I went ahead with it. I walked from my hotel to the China Ferry Terminal. I thought the crossings happened only on the hour, and I’d just missed the 8 a.m. sailing. I found that there was a crossing at 8.30, got my ticket, and made my way. I faced the bugaboo I’ve complained about when leaving Italy, of slow going through exit passport control, this time going from one Special Administrative Region of China to another. I made it on a close call, and they assigned seats as airlines used to do it, putting a sticker from their seating chart on my ticket. This was a new ferry, not too full, with comfortable seating. After about an hour, I was at the Macau ferry terminal.
As I expected, I liked Macau for its evocations of Portugal and its better sense of historical preservation than HK. From what I’d read, I half expected to find a sleepy fishing village (not quite), so I was surprised to see many high-rises and much bustle there. I’d planned to start on a city bus from the terminal; I’d had breakfast at McDonald’s in HK a couple of days because the prices were clear and I could be sure of having the right change for the Macau bus fare of HK$2.50 (Macau has its own currency, the pataca, which is pegged at a very slight difference from the HKD, but they’re used interchangeably in Macau). The guidebook said buses 3 and 3A were good for getting to the center, but I took bus 3B, which went to the Chinese border, a spot that interested me just to see over the border but also because the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Park was there. I saw over the border (and there were several other opportunities to see the modern skyline
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See photographs from:
Vietnam Gallery
,
Macau Gallery
,
Hong Kong Gallery
,
Cambodia Gallery
