Macau & HK Trip

- The Intro -

Macau is a charming, vivacious city that has an apparent combination of historical and modern influences. We had a short trip to Macau last weekend (1-4 Nov '08). This area is so famous as center of casinos, so much so that when a friend heard about my plan, his first comment was that I was going there for gambling, haha..

- The Flight -

We booked our flight on Jetstar as its timing was better compared to Tiger airways, but too bad, they had a last minute change that delayed the departure time by 2 hours. They did a good job by notifying us early for the delay of the return flight, but we only found the delay on the Sg-Macau flight after we reached Changi. It's not a good start.
Thankfully Changi lived up to its name, we didn't have time to get bored at Changi at all, thanks to its free internet and xbox games! After 3.5 hours, we finally reached Macau at 7.30pm last Saturday, 1 November.

- The Hotel -

We stayed for 2 nights at Pousada de Mong-Ha. Pousada is a Portuguese word meaning "a place of blessed repose". Mong-Ha is the name of the hill on which the inn is located. We chose this place based on fantastic reviews from previous guests, and also its affordable price, despite its location which is a little out of the way. And we didn't regret it.
This inn is run by students from IFT (Institute for Tourism Studies), with warm greetings and eager service. The room was spacious with nice bathroom, and room service was really responsive. They all speak good English. And extra touch was given by providing complimentary cookies in a bamboo basket in the room, complete with a card. Newspapers were delivered early in the morning, and what made me impressed was that they took note of the guests' preference, although we didn't indicate it. On the second day two girls delivered a Chinese newspaper to our room by mistake and they quickly went back to exchange it to an English newspaper while apologizing profusely. The nice surroundings of Mong-Ha Fortess and Park helped, too.

On the third day we moved to Grand Waldo hotel in Taipa, as there was no more available room in Pousada de Mong-Ha. For a room twice more expensive, the comfort was not as satisfactory. The mattress was so hard I had problems sleeping.

- The Food -

In general the food in Macau tasted great and was affordable. Our only problem was when the menu was written completely in Chinese and the waitress only spoke Cantonese/Mandarin. Other than that, we could just point at the menu to get the message across.
Portuguese egg tarts were mouthwatering.. they smelt great, too. There is this street connecting Senado Square with St. Paul's Ruins which is full of stores selling local favorites. Peanut candies, almond cookies, egg tarts, piggy buns, steamboat, roasted pork slices, egg rolls, etc. Some of the sellers stand along the street to distribute samples. One famous store even provides water to drink after trying the food. You can just walk back and forth for a few times and feel full.. most of the tourists passing by that street were walking while munching something.

We tried the local steamboat: it is basically various kind of meatballs with sausages and also crab sticks cooked in flavorful soup. small bowl costs MOP10 or MOP15 in tourist place. Delicious.

- The Transport -

We relied a lot on taxis for our transportation. It was always the same ritual: we got in, told the driver the English name of our destination, got that blank look, produced a map while pointing on the location we wanted to go to. It worked.
Buses are small in size, and a flat rate of MOP2.5 is imposed for each ride. Certain buses cost MOP5 per ride. All roads are named in Portuguese and Cantonese. The road names are commonly written in blue ink on top of white ceramic tiles.
People who have plenty of time can always make full use of the free shuttle bus services provided by almost all of the casinos. Most of them ferry guests between ferry terminal and the casinos. This is quite useful for crossing the bridge between Taipa and Macau Peninsula.

- The Historical Macau -

On our first day, we explored the historical area in Macau peninsula on foot. First visit was to the famous A-Ma Temple, followed by Moorish Barracks, Lilau Square, Church of St. Lawrence, St. Joseph's Seminary and Church, Senado Square, St. Dominic's Church, St. Paul Ruins, Na-Tcha Temple, Mount Fortress, Church of St. Augustine, and then Guia Fort.

Senado Square (Largo do Senado) is a popular venue for public gathering and celebrations. On weekends it was packed by locals and tourists alike. It's surrounded by pastel coloured buildings, street market, stores and restaurants.

Among the many famous landmarks, my favorite was St. Paul Ruins (Ruinas de Sao Paulo), although only the facade remains. There is a small museum built at its basement.

Just across the famous church ruins is Mount Fortress. To get to the top of Mount Fortress, you can choose either to climb the stairs or to take the escalators under the air conditioned rooms of Macau Museum. Too bad that we found this out only after we climbed the stairs up, haha.. but exercise is always good.

Guia Fortress (Fortaleza da Guia) is located on Guia Hill. We reached the top by taking cable car which costs MOP3 for return trip (MOP2 for one way). Another alternative is to climb on foot via the Flora Garden. Upon reaching the top, after a short walk, we arrived at the Guia Chapel and light house. Guia Chapel was established by Clarist nuns, and its frescoes depict representations of western and Chinese themes. Too bad the light house is not open for public.

Celebrated Sunday Mass at Macau Cathedral (Igreja da Sé) in English. The mass was mostly attended by Filipino community, even the text is printed in Makati. Some of the hymns were familiar too us. We noticed that they're still using the now-forbidden 'Y' word.
After mass we went to Nam Van Lake. The plan was actually to watch a laser cum music performance on the lake, but we didn't see any show there. Luckily there was a night market along the lake where we found this nice meatball steamboat.

- The Modern Macau -

On the following days, we visited Macau Tower, Fisherman's Wharf, Venetian Macau, and also a few of the casinos: Grand Waldo's, Venetian's, and Sands.

Venetian Macau was grand. They built the whole place to imitate Venice, complete with false roof (painted in sky blue with clouds), pretty windows with flowers, domes, canals, gondolas and the singing gondoliers. They sang wonderfully, especially with the echo from the false ceilings.

There were also artists who painted their whole body and display themselves like statues. There were no money box for donation, instead there was security guard looking after the artist, but yet people put money near the artists' feet.

- The short Hong Kong trip -

Visited Hong Kong for a short while. Strolled along Tsim Sha Tsui area, all the way to the promenade to get to Avenue of Stars. Went up to the Victoria Peak by taking the touristy tram. The view of Hong Kong night skyline was worth it.

- Footnote -

Macau was easily accessible for us since there's no visa requirement. Another good thing is, all famous landmarks do not impose any entrance fee, with an exception of Macau museum (MOP15 for adults). The city is very well maintained, with clean public facilities.

The city's preparing for F1 Grand Prix in mid November, so fences and barriers were being put up, colorful seats were set up along the main routes.

However Macau Patacas (MOP) are not sold in Singapore's money changer. And the HKD note that we got was too big for day-to-day, normal expenses. So we eventually exchanged the HKD to MOP there.