We were actually just about at the ferry terminal half an hour early this morning which doesn't happen very often. Normally things conspire against us. As we climbed the metro escalator, Mikey realised he had no card in his camera, and we made the mad dash back to Causeway Bay to collect it. We were still in the waiting room early. As we sat there, eating breakfast and watching the ships bounce along on the waves, I decided to take my trusty sea-sick tablets just in case. The trip would only take an hour, but I really don't travel well on boats.

We were thrown about a bit on the boat, and even hanging on tightly it was hard to walk in a straight line. Within ten minutes of setting sail Mikey was alseep, which is quite normal. Within eleven minutes so was I, which isn't. I opened my eyes for a second and saw Macau harbour swim into view, but I couldn't wake up. Getting of the boat was like walking through a world of fog and jelly and we both realised something was wrong. I fished out the packet of seasick tablets and read that they can cause drowsiness and blurred vision. They had never done that before. We walked purposefully and very slowly through immigration and customs, hoping that the six doctors standing at the end of the infra-red walkway couldn't tell that we were under the influence of some kind of drug. They were too busy checking our temperatures to bother though.

We waded out into the sunshine and looked slowly at our map. The city centre was quite a way away, but there was a bus that could take us there if we could find it. We walked along the main road, managed to find a photocopying shop for our passports for our visas in the morning, and then saw the bus go passed.We tracked it down and got off at what we hoped was the main square.

It was a massive cobbled area flanked by impressive pastel-coloured colonial buildings, with narrow paths leading off it, and a modern fountain in the middle. We found it on the map and then started exploring. I'd forgotten how much I liked big colonial squares, and were it not for the Chinese characters on the front of the buildings, this could have been Mexico or even Europe, especially with the Portuguese street names. Windy paths led up a hill, past ice-cream shops and big clothing stores. The cobbled streets had black and white swirly patterns on them. As we climbed, the shops got smaller and more residential areas appeared.

At the top of the hill we saw the ruins of St Paul's church, the first church we'd seen in ages. Only the huge front wall was still standing after a fire, and it looked lovely against the dark blue sky. We haven't really been able to see the sky much in Hong Kong as it's always hazy. We climbed the wall and looked out over the town of cobbled alleys, yellow European mansions and tiny Chinese market stalls.

There was a renovated crypt and a lot of bones in glass cases under the church. Then I went to try the local speciality: almond biscuits. I've been searching for the wonderful almond cakes I had in Portugal when I was twelve but with no luck, and unfortunately these were either biscuits or custard tarts, neither of which were what I've been looking for. But all the shopkeepers (and there were many) offered me the dry, freshly-cooked biscuits to taste, so I bought a box. Then I burned my mouth on one that had come straight out of the oven and didn't have any more.

We walked and walked. Macau is very hilly and full of greenery. We sat in a Chinese garden for a while. The drug was beginning to wear off, and Mikey's suggestion of drinking coke to let the caffeine counteract the sedative seemed to help. The garden was lovely, big ponds of carp and a lot of strategically placed rocks. There were also wonderful hidden passages and places you could only ger to by squeezing through tunnels which I thought was very exciting. There was a series of curly bridges over a lotus flower lake too. A dozen old men sat on rocks and played the boardgame I'd seen the Vietnamese policemen play at Cu Chi. It looked like draughts, but with symbols on the counters, and the board was 9x9 squares. There was a lot of tapping and hitting the pieces, which was the only sound for a while.

Then it was time for ice-cream and another stroll. It was a proper autumn evening: warm with long shadows. We finally walked to a restaurant and had some typical Macanese food which was interesting and quite nice but not great. There was a lot of coconut and African and Indian influences, so maybe a different dish would have been better.

It was dark when we finished, and we were going to get a taxi back to the ferry but I wanted to see the 'cybernetic fountain' mentioned on the map, which was a series of jets of water in the harbour with lights flashing under them. There was also music and some little market stalls along the water's edge. It was about five miles to the ferry and we walked it slowly. We arrived with about twenty minutes to spare.

Neither of us took the travel tablets this time, and the journey wasn't that rough anyway. All the tourists on the boat had enormous sacks of Macanese almond biscuits. We cleared immigration and customs in Hong Kong for the third time. I was a bit upset by the infra-red temperature detectors above immigration booths because part of me thinks it's an invasion of privacy but the other half can't think why it's wrong, and that's probably why it annoys me. In such a crowded country like Hong Kong, having an infection is everyone's business as germs spread so quickly. It's quite common to see people on the metro wearing surgical masks, and there are signs requesting that you seek medical attention at the station if you feel unwell. There was even a 'No Germs' sticker on the train this evening.

Back at the hotel we just collapsed and slept very well indeed.