Crowded Macau

Living in Hong Kong meant being able to travel far more than I had been able to living in Sydney.  I was very keen to embrace this newfound opportunity for regular travel as soon as possible.  It seemed that the easiest place to start this was Macau.  It was only an hour away on the ferry and I had always enjoyed visiting in the past.  Shiral was visiting me on her way back to Sydney, so we both headed off early one morning for a day trip.

I was shocked by what we encountered.  It had been years since I had been in Macau, and the level of tourism from China has exploded.  I've never experienced such crowds before in my life.  Just getting up to the famous ruins of St Pauls involved a shuffle with hundreds (possibly thousands) of people jostling up a series of narrow streets.  The danger involved if there was an accident would have been huge.

Elsewhere, the crowds thinned out a bit, but it was still noticeable that there were far more people than in the past.  Even in front of the old stalwart of Macau, the Hotel Lisboa there was a constant stream of people walking in and out.

I've always loved going to Macau, but this trip didn't feel the same.  It was fun to spend the day with Shiral, but Macau just didn't have the same atmosphere that it used to.