17/8/25
Choosing to spend most of our last day in the east in Macau, we decided to walk up and see Guia lighthouse and fortress. Actually grateful this time for the excessive pedestrian infrastructure that skipped half of the elevation. Near the top we met a man from Chongqing and his English speaking daughter from nearby Shenzhen.
The lighthouse was mainly used for hoisting physical typhoon signals. Obviously once a huge part of their life, now largely symbolic in the digital age. Currently the lump of metal that signalled T1, was hanging. Predicted rain not yet arriving. Wandering around the rest of the park we were a little surprised that there weren’t more people given the population density.
Though we contemplated a return to Cotai to see some more casinos we made do with those nearest to us. Wynn Palace was supposed to have a fun fountain that played music and fired water around. But after noon passed the scheduled show didn’t begin. Cancelled because of the windy impending shadow of the approaching typhoon.
The Grand Lisboa had the most unusually shaped structure. Just for fun we went inside. Horribly busy and still far too high minimum bets for us, the most exciting gamble we took was stashing our prohibited umbrella and hoping it was still there when we returned. Inside the MGM Macau was the Poly Museum. A collection of exhibits that showcased the maritime Silk Road. Never what you think it is, Xi Jinping recently expressed a desire to reinvent the route with a modern angle. Of course the ‘museum’ was really an opportunity to leak support into people’s psyche. Our main disappointment was that there was a sister Poly museum in Beijing that we hadn’t had any knowledge of. It housed the actual Old Summer Palace animal heads that had been ‘controversially’ recovered from colonial looters.
By now the typhoon warning signal had increased to T3. Not serious, but windy and rather wet. Time to leave Macau we took the 102X bus to the HZMB port. A spiralling network of bridges weaved its way to the large building housing the exit procedures. Macau was easy to leave, merely formalities in place to maintain its illusion of independence.
For 65MOP we could utilise the ‘golden express bus’ across the Hong Kong Zhuhai Macau bridge. The longest unbroken sea crossing in the world at 36 miles. Combining undersea tunnels and bridges. Despite linking two left hand drive states, the bridge, perhaps looking to the future, was right hand drive and required ramps to swap over at each end. Locals are hard pressed to use the bridge due to needing two driving licenses and permits. Referred to by a Hong Kong lawmaker as the ‘bridge of blood and tears’ due to the death toll, its safety has been questioned due to poorly placed dolosses and questionable concrete.
More formalities on the other end of the bridge to reenter Hong Kong, we took the A11 bus to the island. Although our journey was longer, we saved around $100 each. Rain was falling heavily when we checked into a hotel for the final night of our easterly excursions.
For our final dinner we went to a vegan restaurant called Yat Sum. Cheap and cheerful on the second floor of a large apartment block near Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station. Despite our best efforts we ended up with two very similar dishes. Lemon sauce covered fried tofu sheets, which we ordered and for some unclear reason the woman insisted on swapping half the bbq sauce for our wheat gluten with yet more lemon. Sadly the gloopy citrus tasted like it belonged on a cheesecake.
Surly They Won't Make It 