Intrepid overland traveller, journalist and editor Sofia Salgado has called Coloane Village home for almost 30 years. This tranquil historic fishing village on the southern tip of Macau, once a smuggler and pirates’ refuge, today offers a glimpse into a more traditional, less commercialized side of Macau, a peaceful escape from the city’s bright lights and casinos with Portuguese colonial architecture, low-rise homes, temples, and coastal trails.
Traveling 2-years overland from Portugal in a Volkswagen van that doubled as a home on wheels, Sofia Salgado and her partner first arrived in Macau in 1986. The intention was to travel on through southern Asia to Australia, but they soon fell in love with the little Portuguese enclave, with its blend of Portuguese language, architecture and customs within an Asian context, where the weather was fine, life seemed simpler and work was plentiful. They soon got jobs – and stayed for the next 14 years! Both children, son Eloi and daughter Saskia were born in Macau in the 90’s.
Enchanted with the quaint charm of Coloane, over the years the family has lived in 4 different homes in the Village among its winding streets and colourful colonial buildings, eventually moving a couple of miles around the coast to Helene Garden on Hac Sa beach. “We had a beautiful big duplex on the sea front which we could have easily bought” explains Sofia, “but at that time, pre handover, most Portuguese were investing in homes in Portugal as a more certain bet, unsure how Macau’s property market would evolve after the handover.”
Just after the handover, in early 2000, Sofia left with her husband and the two children, aged 4 and 5, for an overland trip around-the-world. “The kids were both small, so schooling was not a big problem. We bought a Jeep and travelled through China to Laos and Thailand.” The plan was to still to head for Australia, driving through Malaysia and Singapore but due to a family illness they returned to Portugal.
Once matters were settled at home, the Jeep was sold and they bought a 4X4 MAN truck. “We got our truck licenses and travelled from Portugal to England where we shipped the truck from Southampton to Baltimore in the USA. From there we started the road adventure in the Americas which lasted over two years, from the last road in Quebec, Canada to Ushuaia, Argentina. Once in Brazil, we were based in São Paulo, so the kids, homeschooled during the journey, could enrol in “Lumiar”, an international democratic school, with the “Escola da Ponte” system from Portugal.”
After 12 years away, in 2012 the family decided to return to Macau and to live again in their beloved Coloane, bringing with them their now 17-year old Italian greyhound, Tao. Arriving, they found the Village had been transformed, rents had risen considerably, today it’s become a bustling tourist attraction with many little cafes and restaurants. “Thankfully the centre remained largely untouched, quiet and liveable, and the seashore pleasantly designed with Portuguese cobblestone sidewalks and benches to appreciate the sunset overlooking Mainland China (Mountain Island, which is now Hengqin). As I walk Tao every day along the shore, I enjoy this rare and magnificent view and am reminded how privileged I still am to live in a ‘pirate’s island’ in the South China Sea!”
“After an exhausting month of searching, with the help of our previous landlord we found this house, in my opinion one of the nicest and best-integrated three-floor construction in the Village, built in early 2000’s by a mainland Chinese living in America.” The external walls of the house are of pale grey tiles imported from demolished Shanghai longtang courtyard houses.
“We moved in on the ground floor and then when the tenants on the first floor moved out, we agreed with our landlord to take that on as well, and to convert the ground floor as an art gallery.” An artistic family – Sofia studied art history at Porto University, and both her children developed an early interest in photography from their father, today, Eloi, 31, is a visual artist with a degree in sculpture, a photographer and a writer based in China, and 29-year-old Saskia with a degree in photography, is currently based in Australia, specializing in sports and Getty. “Over the years I’ve coordinated several art projects between Macau, Portugal and Brazil. Our gallery, ‘Casa do Povo’, which I co-founded and co-directed is dedicated to photography, a common family art. We closed during Covid and it remains a project on hold for now.”
“Before moving to the first floor we needed to make some modifications. Luckily my family is quite DIY, and we did most of the work ourselves. Originally one entered a big room that looked straight into the bedroom and kitchen areas, so we extended the main living room wall to form an inner hallway leading to the three bedrooms and put built-in shelves to integrate the fridge and kitchen island and give visual separation of the kitchen from the entrance. The previous tenants had painted all the walls in different bright colours so these we painted in white.” The doors of some of the rooms and the inner hall bathroom have been coated with laminate, “each with a different joyful colour!”
The kitchen was very basic with the cooker exhaust exposed, so a simple Alucobond panel was added. Faux wood ceramic floor tiles throughout the apartment and both bathrooms were in good condition.
“What I love about this home are the many windows, so there’s plenty of natural light and we look out onto some beautiful, old tiled roof tops of other village houses.” When it came to furnishing, many of the pieces have come from friends leaving – as gifts or on long-term loans – “I have the space for them, and my friends know how much I appreciate saving these treasures from being thrown away.” On the walls hang several framed pictures of Asia by the family’s three photographers, documenting the years of travel, especially their time in Tibet in the 90’s, one of their favourite places.
Sofia is originally from Guimarães, an historic town in Northern Portugal, and as a child she grew up in Barcelos (the town of the Rooster” fable), about 50 kilometers from Porto. With her own children now independent and overseas, she feels that a third stage in life is starting, for new travel adventures. “I don’t own here, so renting I rely on having a good landlord. I left Portugal when I was 19. My country, for me has always been for visiting family and holidays, very nice, but I wouldn’t consider living there full time. Asia is my favourite continent, I’ve lived here, on and off, for almost 40 years, and I love almost everything about Asia. As a woman I feel very safe. I love the food, I love the way the people deal with each other, so respectful, the kindness and attentiveness. I feel most comfortable living among Chinese people; the easy-going nature, the calmness, a sense of collectiveness, of community.
“We live in a society that is caring, China takes care of their citizens. Of course, there are the issues of control – but with a population of over one billion, there needs to be an element of control.”
What does the future hold? “I may eventually one day settle temporarily in mainland China. I studied Chinese in Beijing for a year in the early 90’s as part of a Macau government sponsored initiative when I was working for the Macau Archives, so my Mandarin is basic but enough to get by. Today, as a foreigner you can rent land, and install a simple modular house for a very affordable price. There are lots of different interesting places to live in China, but probably I’d choose Yunnan, where the weather is mild, it’s the home of hot springs and a retreat for artists, and world educated Chinese. But my intrepid life and character tell me, if life and health permits, I will always move around, from Europe to Asia to Australia, until the end of my days.”
For now, Sofia cherishes life in Coloane. She enjoys cooking and having friends visit. Although the lack of private parking spaces or garages for the residents is an unsolved issue in the Village, making the life of the locals difficult, she wouldn’t change her home for any “fancy building in town with their smart clubhouse facilities,” she says. “And it’s not about affordability, because nowadays the house prices in the Village have increased dramatically.” Rather, it’s for the peacefulness, the slower pace of life. Waking up with the silence or birds chirping, going to the market in her pyjamas on a Sunday morning, with Tao tucked under her arm, stopping for a chat with a neighbour. Although surrounded now by hordes of tourists during the weekend, Coloane Village remains an oasis during the week, and is still only a short 10 minutes’ drive away from the town centres and the airport.
As a World traveller who’s been to over 80 countries Sofia has often been asked, as a Portuguese citizen living in Asia, if she lived in Macau. She will joke and say, “no, not in Macau, I’ve always lived in Coloane …”
Text and photographs by Suzanne Watkinson of Ambiente Macau
