Macanese delight~

yay!!! visited Macau on the 14th for some site study for the undergrads and Karin and I tagged along :P (i'm considered masters year for studio :X cos there's no year 4 course here)
the best thing was that the school subsidized half the cost!! so in fact i only paid for less than the cost of a ferry ride to Macau~~~ :D

the boat ride was an hour's journey.. it was a big ferry so not anything like the little speedboats i get on for FOUR hours to Pulau Aur :P

Along the way, there were little islands .. and the Macau bridge!! of course it's by some other name. haha.. but i'm wayyy to lazy to find out :P it's heaps lovely, it isnt horizontal like most bridges i've seen..

The side of the facade that no postcard / website / magazine ever shows. hahahahhahaha so it REALLY is just a facade. ack. well for the real one, pls go search it out somewhere.. i is lazy. hehehehehhehehe. or i might just post it up one day..

some little tiger thingy sticking out at the front of the facade.. heehee.. btw it's called the ruins of st. paul or something like that. so go ahead and google it :P

onward we go!! and into the little narrow streets.. really is rather narrow. but it's got the little town / community feel to it, like where everyone would know each other sooner or later.. Karin's to the left of the pic.. she's a Swedish exchange student and she's seriously taking an opportunity to tour the world!! she's already been to europe and thereabouts. she's gg to japan after this!! eeks!!

the wonderfully pebbled/ tiled streets.. makes me feel the Macanese really love their town.. hehe but this is really the oldest part of macau.. it's the UNESCO site leh!!!

looking up where pple stay in birdcages. hehehe. well almost literally. so the undergrads went about hunting for their site to build on, and we tagged along.. with really lovely old sights and sounds and SMELLS..

hehehe took a sneeky picture of Shinya and wah!!! very magazine pose can!! hahahaha..yes.. he's ALWAYS wearing black. typical architect. haha. but he has a theory behind it.. because being an architect, u're neither white collar nor blue collar. u gotta go to the site, u gotta meet clients.

so what else can u do? wear black. so the dirt / sweat wouldnt easily show on ur clothes and u always look presentable in black. -_0""" ok......

so anyway, in Macau basically the pace of life is rather slow ( in the old area).. felt as if i went back in time to the 60s.. and we had lunch!!!!

some tofu noodles. well. it's not really made of tofu. just that the shop is really famous for it's tofu. and it sells noodles as well -_-"""

greedy ol' me had noodles with a chicken wing and wanton.. yummies!!!!!! had heap loads of prawns. machiam free like that. hahahah and the EXTREMELY WONDERFUL tofu beancurd. wah!!!! they call it "to fu fa" or "tofu flower".. it's got the hot / cold version and i got the cold one.

it was SILKY.. silkier than all the other tofu beancurds i've ever tried. really the best man. i was soo tempted to have another bowl. hehehe. it was sweet but not too sweet and LITERALLY melted in my mouth.. OooOOOooOoOoOO

the lady is the owner.. didnt manage to take her pic of her present age.. 80-90 now 0_o""" and to think she started from a humble roadside stall!! i think she also looks like my paternal grandma - mummy / sasa horrrrr..

so after lunch, we headed down to some super-rich-man's-house-that-has-been-preserved. it's called.. something something.. errr. yes i am horrible at giving details and now really too lazy to check it out. heheheh..

check out the mother of pearl windows. so cool huh? it actually acts as a translucent barrier of light. ooOOoOooOOo~~

it's basically like a peranakan shophouse in sg. just that it's several combined like a bungalow.. details are really similar. well. since the peranakans have chinese background as well..

the really "akitekture" shot that i took. heheheheh.

walked ard Macau for a bit, after a lecture we had... and Shinya pointed out this art noveau house that is apparently the distinct architecture of macau.

well. just seems like the typical rojak building with a garish colour.

so anyways.. after more walking and sightseeing (not ur typical touristy sights), we went for dinner!!!! portugese food~~~ wooo~~~~

thanks to the lovely studiomates who recommended this place :P

they ordered (or rather Thomas did) loads of fried rice.. 5 types!!! well portugese food is bascially tomato-ey, milky, seafoody, soupy-stewy.. and NICE!!!!! hehehehe.. the little squid i found in the fried rice is sooo cute!!!! heheeh so mojojojo..

well this is taken from a square in the old city area.. it's become a shopping area.. something to the likes of Bugis minus the fake glass roof.. hahah.. colours are rather distorted cos of a special function in my camera :P

sigh. this never fails to pull my heart strings. so many of these lonely old pple around. the old man in particular was just staring at people in the square, laughing at their own jokes and totally oblivious to him.. even tho he was like just 2 metres away STARING. and he smelt of pee and dirt :( his trolley basically had rubbish. like no metal cans, no newspaper, just rubbish. :(

another little old lady (she was at my shoulder height!! and i'm already small -_-) was walking REALLY wide eyed. really saucer wide eyes. 1 step 2 steps, STARE look around. 1 step 2 steps, STARE look around. yikes!!! it's as if she's trekking precariously thru the unexplored congo forest. but really wished i could talk to her and help her....

how she really looked like to me. except she looks in her 90s. and even more frail than i've drawn her.

another old man was just sitting at the steps of the entrance.. *BAWLLLLL* sighhhh..

top left: well me of course. -_-

top right : an unflattering shot of Carrie and Janice always ready for a candid shot. hahaha

bottom right : Thomas and Ruth bottoms up! nahhh it's just plain water. heheh

bottom left: both shots of me were taken in the ferry where i was incredibly bored. :X

well.. now that i've seen macau.. a different route taken from the everyday tourist.. it's got a really interesting urban character.. like the little crooked man in the little crooked street in the little crooked house....

and the Macanese (macau pple) are really something like singapore! so rojak. like how a chinese can have so many different looks and some even resemble malays / mixed blood, filipino, etc. and no matter how they look, they always speak the language (canto or even portugese!! - which sounds rather like spanish)

hmm but the main images that keep popping up in my mind are the old people. sighhhh. i am such a softie.