When I arrived in Macao, I saw some interesting architecture on the bus journey to the city centre. Today I took a bus to that side of Macao. It’s full of modern buildings and a light railway. There are plenty of casinos, just as there are in the centre.
My first port of call is Morpheus, a hotel. It’s an astonishing mind-bending building that completely mesmerised me. The steel forms a grid and surrounds the building. There are holes in the centre that seem to be the result of heat distortion. The firm of celebrity architect Zaha Hadid designed it. She didn’t live to see its opening in 2018.
The second extraordinary building is Studio City. Its centrepiece is a figure-of-eight Ferris wheel, the Golden Reel. The steampunk design is striking. It is, unfortunately, raining today. So, I miss out on the Ferris wheel.
No self-respecting gambling city would be without replicas of world monuments. Macao is no different. To name three: there’s Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and the Eiffel Tower.
I returned to the city centre and went to Ting Ting restaurant, which I’d been to yesterday. However, it was shut. The next nearest vegetarian restaurant was Chakra Cafe. This was open and, although I’d not made a reservation, there was room for me. Choosing what to eat was easy. The chef makes one meal for everyone!
The starter was pumpkin soup with chestnut. The main course consisted of these dishes: a Thai curry made of what looked like mince, pickled radish, aubergine with something stuffed in its centre, rice, and some unusual mushrooms. I finished with a tea, which, the server told me, “contained Chinese medicine to help people sleep”!
