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Culture in Macau
What is it like in Macau, when you venture beyond the casinos?
Walking around Macau, it is easy top see that there are two different worlds in one place. Firstly, the almost surreal world of the casinos and the tourists visiting them and then you also have the poorer areas in the City.
Most Densely Populated City in The World
The City of Macau which is said to be the most densely populated place on earth. Well, it has to be worth a visit just to experience this phenomena.
This dichotomy is possibly most apparent when you take the hike up to the Guia Hill Municipal Park. From there, you can see across the entire city.
It would be easy to think that Macau only exists because of the casinos. To some extent that may be true, because the casinos bring in so many tourists, so a lot of the jobs are to do with that.
But, at the same time, the main City is a very busy and unique place, where you feel like you are a million miles from any casino, or casino culture.
New & Old, Rich & Poor
Something that amazed me was just how close the new and old, the rich and poor are in the City. I managed to get some nice photos of that, which I will post as soon as I get the time.
Don't let the fact that there are poor areas and poor people around put you off, because the place is safe and the people are very friendly, caring and sharing. I loved walking around some of the older local areas.
Friendly People
The other thing that really made me enjoy my time in Macau was just how friendly the people were when I got away from tourist areas.
People were genuinely interested in where I was from, how I was enjoying my stay. Also, when I ate in the local cafes, people were very pleased to see me actually exploring the real City rather then just staying to the tourist areas.
At one stage, some school girls approached me and asked if they could take my photo '"or their home work", which was kind of weird. I asked what sort of home work? But at that stage they wee too busy setting the photo up, with all of their friends and me in the same shot - obviously one to take into school the next day, not for home work, but more like 'look we got our photo with a tourist' - all good fun!
Not Hong Kong!
It would also be easy to think of Macau as an extension to Hong Kong. The guide books always lump them in together, but really, I found the two places very different. It's hard to explain the cultural differences, but once you are there, you can feel it almost immediately.