Macau with Senior Couples

It was our "try again" trip to Macau with the couples. Last time we had a huge group, but many have had experiences in Macau and so we only had four couples go. The Benchs, the Halversens, the Workmans, and the Jacksons. We met the Kaps when we got there, so there were 10 altogether. Elder and Sister Workman usually have to work on Saturdays, so this was a rare chance to go with us as a group.

Preparing for tour. Left to right - Halversens, Us, Workmans, Benches and Kaps.

The day actually went quite well. We left at 7:30am and only waited about a minute for the bus to arrive to take us to the Macau ferry terminal. Then we were able to take an earlier ferry. Of course my thumbs didn’t work on the Hong Kong "easy" identification system, but neither did Sister Bench’s. Seems we don’t have "easily identifiable" thumbs. She blames hers on hot pans, she simply burned off the prints, I can’t say I actually have an excuse, they just don’t work!

Sister Kap and Halversens waiting for bus

We met the Kaps and took taxi’s over to their meeting house to see it. It’s on the ground level and basement of a building, but as with all Church buildings, it’s clean and well cared for. They are working to find another place to move, as it’s getting too small, but property costs are out of sight, as they are in most cities in Asia.

Visiting the Macau meetinghouse.

Then we went to the Venetian for lunch at Fat Burger, and caught the free shuttle back to the terminal just in time for our tour. The tour bus held about 25 to 30 people so we were just about a third of the group. It was a very diverse group and the tour guide had to give her talk in three languages.

View from Macau Tower

We saw some areas that we had not been to before, and some that we had seen already. But all in all it was a good tour. They took us to the Macau Tower and our tour included going to the 58th floor. It’s a circle and parts of the edge is thick glass that you can actually walk on, or at least some people can. It gives you a weird feeling to walk on glass and be able to see the ground so far down below.

St. Paul's Cathedral

Part of the group got to see someone jump from the upper floor, but we were on the other side of the building. You wouldn’t get many takers in our group to jump, we couldn’t even get many takers to walk on the glass. It is a great view from up there.

Then we went to St. Pauls on our last stop. The Halversens and Workmans wanted to keep going down through the squares to the main square. Actually they wanted to shop, so they left the tour at that point and caught a taxi to the terminal. Just the Jackson’s and Bench’s were on the final leg of the trip. They kept threatening that if you weren’t back to the bus on time, they would have to leave you, and on the last leg one lady didn’t return on time and they actually left her. She had left some packages on the bus, and as we left the bus at the ferry terminal the tour guide was taking her packages in to meet her. Luckily she gave us all her phone number, so the lady simply called and told her where she would meet her.

We caught the 7pm ferry back, and had an un-eventful ride back. The best kind. And of course the thumbs didn’t work again, and we held up a large number of very impatient people while they had to come rescue us from the ID booth. We caught the MTR to Causeway Bay and had a late night snack, okay it was only 8:30pm but seemed very late, at the food court before we headed for home. It was a long, but enjoyable day.