Travel Charms..

Water overflows from a bucket and slowly begins to snake down the hill, slowly feeling its way down the sloping tangent guided by gravity. The little stream quietly glides by a small boy, the kid is not amused at being ‘overtaken’; he glances sideways at his competition and quickens his pace. I watch the kid as he begins to run down the hill, looking over his shoulders to make sure that the water stream doesn’t catch up with him..
This image has persisted in my mind for over a month now, may be because the scene was innocently human. May be because each one of us is kind of chasing random streams of water overflowing from different buckets lest we get left behind. May be because sometimes it is good to see that the life we live can have parallel in a kid’s universe. Life sure has a charming sense of humor; may be I should just leave this thought at this point

In a recent trip to the gambling city of Macau, knowing that riches and luck elude me, I choose to seek the charming side of history and culture. Not sure why the weather gods thought that showering us with buckets of rain would add to the charm of exploring the city but undaunted we started on the ‘list’..

We managed to cover the following on the list: Senado square, ruins of St Paul’s Cathedral and the Taipa village, toured the whole bunch of glitzy casinos and watched the much famed 'The house of Dancing water' show at the City of Dreams casino. We missed out on the museum tours, The Guia Fortress but I guess there is always a next time and with the time we had on hand we did a fair job of exploring the city.

The Senado square, the ruins and the Taipa village were all a slice of the Portuguese history in Chinese Macau, the churches standing tall amidst the cozy incensed temples.

The wavy black and white mosiac floor is the give away for tourists in the city trying to find the Square without any Google help. Once you start seeing the cobbled street you know you are close to The Senado square. The ruins of St Paul's Cathedral are also in the same stretch so it is easy to cover the two together. 

The colorful windows, potted plants, dainty cast iron lamp posts, it was a deja vu as i remembered the French Quarters in New Orleans. The quaint European feel that never fails to evoke the old world charm where perhaps aesthetic and beauty was a purpose in itself. 

The next day we covered the Taipa village. This small market area is a quintessential tapestry of East meets West, the narrow alleys lined with brightly colored buildings(the Portuguese flavor) in the midst of intricately designed roofs of Chinese buildings. There are small eateries, cozy restaurants all along the street with Portuguese, Spanish,  Macanese and Thai fare. Ice-creams- the Gelato variety, the pure milk Ice-cream from Hokkaido, Japan and the obnoxious Durian ice cream(i am entitled to an opinion). Taipa market is a melting pot of different cuisines, dig in and enjoy the food(hopefully you are a non-vegeterian)!

We watched the Dancing water show just before leaving Macau, the show completely mesmerises the senses, the acrobatics is awe inspiring, the design of the stage with all the water histrionics is impressive, the choreography and music set the right mood. Yet it is just that, a sensory pleasure, that holds you spellbound but doesn't grow into you. Nonetheless the show sells and it is not difficult to see why, its perfectly tailor made for the Asian Casino audience, drawing elements from both East and West and packaging it with a generous dose of Chinese motifs. I did enjoy the 90minutes performance and the Chinese lady sitting behind me was hysterical with laughter so i guess that counts for something..

I have kind of little to talk about the Casinos, they don't really work their Charm on me..(loser talk). But I do accept that each is grandiose in its own right- you heard me right, 'fake Venetian sky'!

That's it for now until I find something charming to chime about :)