HK Jun’08 - Day Three (Macau Day Trip)
[Ruins of St Paul's, Macau]
The weather was perfect for our planned day trip to Macau with S&S (SY and wife). Would LadyLuck be on my side? Hee cross fingers!
YB and I made our way to Causeway Bay?銅鑼灣 to meet S&S for breakfast at a nearby teahouse. Apparently, I was the only one who can communicate in Cantonese. My dialect is limited to half a bucket of water but it is better than nothing at all =P
I ordered 4 sets of breakfast and according to S&S, they didn’t have to point at the menu to order local food for the first time in Hong Kong Heehee =) The Marconi set came with two sunny side-up, bun and hot drink. I really wondered how can anyone eat two eggs for breakfast daily? (I totally skipped eggs temporary after this HK trip)
After breakfast, we headed via MTR towards HK-Macau Ferry Terminal at Shun Tak Centre, Sheung Wan 上環.
Before the trip, I wondered if we need to purchase ferry tickets in advance in cause of crowded weekend. However, the news of rainstorms and floods in HK discouraged the idea of buying tickets in advance.
[Turbojet]
There are a few ways to get to Macau and the ferries cost fairly the same. We bought single tickets for 146HKD each from Turbojet ticket booth and surprisingly not many people as expected. Or maybe we were late?
[YB & AK on Turbojet]
I may look all chirpy in the above picture but I turned green the moment I started to feel the rocky waves of HK waters. I don’t even feel this sick on any dive boat which is relatively smaller! I managed to doze off while sucking on a few mints. The journey from HK-Macau is about an hour. I must make a note here that the ferry is way more luxurious than any of our SG short-trip ferries.
Before moving off from the customs, we had our toilet breaks, To my horror, I witnessed the janitor using the same floor mop to wipe the toilet seat!!! WTF!!!! Never trust the hygiene level of any toilet.
Back to main topic!
For the first time, I didn’t prepare “homework” prior the trip. I only had two names in my head 1) Ruins of St Paul’s and 2) Venetian Casino. It’s really quite easy to travel around in Macau IMO. Upon exiting the Immigrations Centre, there’s a bus stop on the further right. There are signboards that show what bus no goes to where. Everything was in Chinese or Portuguese, so I was looking out for 圣堡罗 and I was wrong. Ruins of St Paul’s is known to be 大三巴牌坊. So take note!
[Building at the right side of walking trail]
Bus 13 took us to start of the walking trail for the price of which I’ve forgotten but anyway we paid everything in HKD throughout the whole trip. Note: Bus 13 has electronic notice board that shows 大三巴upon reach destination.
[Cafe "Leitaria I Son" is located in this building]
[Delicious Pork Bun 猪扒包 12HKD]
Opposite the drop off point, you will see a big parade square and this is the start of the walking trail. On the left of the trail, there’s this pink building selling lots of food. We had our quick n simple lunch of payaya milk, milk pudding, and pork bun at Leitaria I Son. The pork bun is amazing! Although there are many other stalls selling this but the standard of this cafe is within my acceptable range :P
[Modern version of St Paul's?]
[Signboards]
The architecture style in Macau is mainly Portuguese which has Romanesque and Gothic influences. Why so? Please read up History of Macau.
[Bustling Alley]
Towards Ruins of St Paul’s, we entered an alley selling biscuits, ba kwa, etc. Free samples along the whole stretch can keep you well-fed for the next few hours.
[Making of Peanut Candy and Almond Biscuits]
[Hot Almond Biscuits]
Finally we reached Ruins of St Paul’s! My dad told me the last visit to Macau was in 1984….wow 24 years ago!
I like the environment near the wall because it has nothing tall to spoil my pictures haha *blame it on the photographer yeah yeah*
[My favourite picture of the entire trip]
Visitors can climb up the wall from the other side. I only made it to the first quarter because its freaking high!!!! Moreover I was wearing a skirt over a meshed walkway…how unsightful.
Its about 3ish and we decided to back track. Bought some goodies and board a bus 11 that brought us to Taipa. Apparently the bus does not stop anywhere near our next destination Venetian Casino. We dropped near the vicinity and took a cab there.
Venetian looks really big yet plain from the outside but luxurious from the inside. The wow factor is…Gold and more gold!
[Golden globe]
[Painted ceilings]
[Spacious and luxurious restroom]
YB and I tried our first 50HKD on a jackpot machine and by chance won another 50HKD by our 2nd try. *Applause!*
We had our mini windfall but gradually started to give them back. I had to make sure I didn’t lose my capital despite being so small :P We explored the tables and found most min bet was 200HKD. Majority of the tables were playing baccarat but we weren’t sure of the rules.
We came around this table playing Sic Bo and there was a screen showing statistics of the gameplay. For the past 20 games, it was going Big, Small, Small, Small, Small or Big Big Small Small Small. With min bet of 100HKD, we adventurously placed a bet on small.
*Drum roll* Small! We just won 100HKD in 1 minute!
Net profit total to 50HKD which was not too little for us but at least we didn’t lose any :P
It was almost 7pm and the group decided to head back to HK for dinner. We bought return tickets each 176HKD from coach area. This time we took Cotai Jet which departed from Taipa Pier. Free shuttle bus to pier is provided and the ticket price matched of Turbojet. Ferry ticket after 6pm will cost more for all ferries.
Back on Hong Kong Island, we took a cab to SOHO for dinner. SOHO stands for “South of Hollywood Road” not “Small Office Home Office”. The slopes were extremely steep! I will not survive in such condition with a manual car. Anyway dinner was at Fat Angelo’s along Elgin Street. Mid-Levels.
[Fat Angelo's @ SOHO]
[The starters]
[The main dishes]
The starters came along with salad and bread. All four of us were all full by the time we finished our starters! When the main dishes came, oh my….we “fainted” at the sight of the ENORMOUS portion. Please share your food in Hong Kong…I am S E R I O U S. Oh by the way, the calamari were so YUMMY! The best I’ve tried so far =) *Cheers!*
End of Day 3. *Burp*