Monte Fort and Macau Museum

Located next to the Ruins of St Paul, Monte Fort is probably the highest point in Macau, and provides some amazing views of the city. The fort was a defensive installation by the portuguese, and canons are jotted around the fort. The top has an amazing garden also - and given the time of the year, lots of flowers!

In a recent renovation, the Macau Musuem was added to the fort - a a great exploration on the combined history of the West and China - starting with a short history summary, trade, construction, science developments and some cultural fusion. It's a great primer on the shared history.

St John's Cathedral

Close to the Peak Tram station in Central, St John's Anglican Cathedral has a few stunning stained glass windows in an otherwise plain and bork interior.

Ruins of St Paul's

It's possibly Macau's most famous tourist attraction - the remains of the facade for a Jesuit church, on a hill overlooking the ocean. The facade is remarkably well preserved, and highly decorated when compared to other churches, including the cathedral, in the area. After archeological excavations, the crypt and a small gallery exhibiting Christian art and artifacts from the era are also accessible from the church grounds.

Macau Lights

Macau is well known as a gambling destination - the Las Vegas of the East. There are two clusters - a cluster of outlandish reports on the island of Cotai, and a cluster near the harbour on the "mainland". We landed on Cotai, and took the bus to the centre, so we saw the resorts during the day. The older cluster came alive at night, on our way back.

St Dominic's Church

Just after the Senado Square, St Dominic's is a large Jesuit church with the stand out feature being the altar - showing the Virgin Mary and Jesus carrying his cross below the altar. As with many Jesuit churches, the decor itself is rather ordinary, but the strange altar is interesting ...

Macau Tarts

There are a lot of stalls selling Macau Egg Tarts; but this stall near the St Dominic's Church (on way to the steps) has it for a gat price and great service. Efficient process also - order with the lady, and pick up at the other window.

Ferries to Macau

There is a surprising volume of ferries to Macau - approximately 7 an hour for most of the day (the ferries effectively run a 24 hour operation). Given that each ferry can take about 250 passengers, it's a lot of people! The route itself is about an hour long (on the slower ferry), fairly cheap (approx HKD 350 return) and quite hassle free. There are higher classes of tickets promising more luxury, but I can't work out the value beyond more privacy.

Hong Kong Maritime Museum

Perched on the edge of Central Pier, the Hing King Maritime Musuem is deceptively small from the outside. Located across three floors, the museum explores Chinese maritime history, the naval roots and history of Hong Kong, and general maritime topics (such as radar, containers, safety, etc). I found the Chinese maritime history most interesting tracing development of saling and marine exploration. There is also a big collection of model ships, ranging from the old to the modern container ships. 

The Big Buddha

In my last visit to the Big Buddha, the weather was cloudy and cold, and the Buddha was enveloped in the mist. Today was a clear day with fairly good visibility, although not good enough to see beyond the airport. 

The Vegetarian Restaurant and Po Lin Monastery

The Po Lin Monastery, located next to the Big Buddha, has a fairly well known vegetarian restaurant. The menu apparently changes regularly, with two set course options of approx 5 items, comprising of soup, spring rolls and some vegetarian mains. The food is quite impressive and very decently priced (given the amount); the highlight being the pumpkin soup on today's menu - a gelatinous, noodle based soup that was very different to the usual smooth butternut/pumpkin soup from South Africa.

Fujiyama Mama

Hong Kong is full of interesting restaurants; perched in the shopping complex at The Peak, with spectacular views of the city, one could just open a normal restaurant. Instead, Fujiyama Mama is themed on Japanese Rock - complete with the memorabilia, looped playback of Japanese rock bands on the sound system and video screens; and great Japanese food. It is expensive - paying the tourist tax - but the food is excellent, and the views are spectacular - so it is worth it!

Walking up to the Peak

The queue at the bottom for the funicular said 90 minutes; and that was not even accounting for the ticket office. So I managed to convince M that we should rather walk. There walk was described in a tripadvisor post as "easy" - the pathways are certainly well marked (mostly as Central Park Trail) and paved; but the incline is not easy. It's about 3.5km walk up a steep incline; the views are spectacular, the path is mostly shaded by the forest, and it was full of birdsong and flowers (could be a time of year thing). It's good exercise - and we did make it up in about 90 mins; so it beat the standing in a queue. The paths are not well lit, so we took the funicular back - and that's only because there was surge pricing on Uber - when we looked earlier; Uber was cheaper than taking a one way trip on the funicular.

The many Gods of Temple Street's Temple

Like Hindu temples, Chinese temples also seem to have a focal main God and a number of different Gods in the same temple. It's difficult to work out which are the Gods, and what are the various consorts etc. but it's fascinating to see one the less.

Above: Coils of insincere hanging from the roof

Below: A number of Gods on the altar

Above: Doesn't look like Bramha, but is very similar 

Back to Hong Kong

I don't often travel back to places I have already been - but there is something compelling about Hong Kong. There is the electronics and the great food; and there aren't too many new tourist places to go to - but it was still compelling. Hopefully, I can squeeze in Macau this time!

Movie: Fences

The performance is like a play - very strong dialogue and minimal changes in sets - but that does not distract from some amazing performances; especially Viola Davies and Denzel Washington. Set in the late 50's; it's the story of a low skilled worker; a garbage collector - partly his reminisces and partly a story about the conflicts in his current life. It's a difficult story, about sacrifices, about difficulties of racial discrimination, of difficult upbringing, of living paycheck to paycheck, of community and above else relationships. But it's the performances that is the real highlight of the movie. 

Movie: Moonlight

There has been a lot written about Moonlight already - especially after the Oscars best picture presentation debacle - a low budget movie, featuring African-American cast, on a story of three parts of a young man - first as a boy, then a teenager and then a young man - charting his life through bullying, sexuality, poverty and drugs. There are incredible characters - be it Mahershala Ali's brilliant portrayal of the caring drug dealer; the protagonist Chiron, or even the bullies - it's a story that really sucks you in. The cinematography is stunning - especially the camera work in the opening scenes, where there is very little dialogue. 

Underlying this tale is also a tale of love - partially unrequited, and sexuality; themes that the other contender for best picture this year also had - but there is no real competition in who did it better. Moonlight is gritty, it is mostly sad, but it is engrossing and heartwarming none the less. It deserves all its honours.

Amazon Video

It has been just over 3 months since the global launch of Amazon Video; and I have been a subscriber since then - initially to watch The Grand Tour - but there have been other things that have kept me paying. 

I have mostly been watching TV series but have also watched a few movies - even though I find that selection rather meagre. At least in SA. One of the interesting experiences was to see the difference in content between South Africa and Reunion - some content I had downloaded on my phone disappeared, while I had access to other content. 

I also find it strange that some of Amazon's own content is not immediately available - even if it is for an additional cost. Manchester by the Sea is the example that comes to mind, but there are other series that I have heard of but not seen on Amazon. I expect that will change over time - or at least I hope so.

 Technically, I have had few issues with streaming HD content on what is still a fairly slow 4 Mbps ADSL line - and that says a lot for Amazon's streaming codecs. I would prefer if my Nvidia Shield TV cached or otherwise downloaded content that is in my queue - but except for a few occasions, haven't had cause to complain.

Movie: Hidden Figures

In a time where exclusion or special treatment, based on nationality, race, religion or sexual orientation, is a easily highlighted problem - especially with politicians promoting such exclusions - Hidden Figures manages to portray the power of inclusiveness; and what that can contribute to monumental achievements. 

Based on the true story of how a group of brilliant black women mathematicians and engineers were instrumental in NASA's space program - this is a super-charged tale of the fight against racial discrimination and gender discrimination to achieve some of the biggest achievements of humanity. 

There are some embellishments to the story - in the name of dramatisation I am sure - but it is an achievement on its own to weave the various elements into a comprehensive tale. The performance as impressive - perfectly showcasing the grit and determination required to survive, as well as the impact of the humiliation and obstacles in the way. 

In the time we live, this is what we need to remind ourselves on what diversity brings to the table; to remind ourselves what the forgotten and the disenfranchised could potentially contribute to our society if they were able to.

Movie: Denial

The central plot of the movie is the libel case brought by noted holocaust denier David Irving, against American historian Deborah Lipstadt; which ends up being a great court room drama on defending the idea that the holocaust happened. 

But in the modern day news environment it highlights a larger issue - how difficult it is for truth to overcome deliberate falsehood; and how difficult it is for the lay person to identify the nuances between fake and real events. This is not about the easily overturned items that populated the tabloid press - but rather the nuanced ideas from otherwise reputable persons (as in the case of David Irving - who, according to Wikipedia still has notable biographies and historical studies to his name). We see this often with climate science denial, and previously in research into effects of smoking - deliberate misdirection and misinformation is difficult to identify, and ultimately leads to mass confusion.

Overall, Denial is an ok movie; and a great primer to the key issues of the court case. The long slog to prove something that is so well documented and researched as the Holocaust proves that the fight against fake news has a long road ahead.

Movie: La La Land

I am not sure why there is such a buzz around this movie - in fact, one of the scathing reviews on IMDB manages to capture the movie in one word - insipid. The opening scene was annoying, with wooden dancing performance, and adding no value to the plot or other redeeming features. It doesn't really get better - and although Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone provide strong acting performances, their singing and dancing hardly light up the screen.

 

In fact, the movie is somewhat Bollywoodish as opposed to a musical - given than songs and dancing are a relatively small part of the movie - and perhaps they should have taken a leaf out of Bollywood and dubbed the singing! It's a movie about Hollywood, so, perhaps like Argo, that is the reason for all the rage. I found it uninspiring and mostly boring - I would recommend avoiding.