"Macau Fan", Part Un

Finally, I got around to blog about my graduation trip to Macau & Hong Kong after my "oh-so-hectic" week of travelling.

My travel buddy was none other than Miss Macho. Initially it was supposed to be 3 of us, however due to some unforeseen circumstances, there were only two single ladies left travelling to a foreign little land called Macau.

I was super excited as this was the first time that I travelled to a foreign country without my family and of cos the thought of celebrating New Year's in Hong Kong has triggered the inner me to jump around and whoop with joy.

When we got off the plane, Macau has greeted us "coldly". What I meant was the weather. I was expecting the weather to be somewhat like Genting, instead I was dead wrong. The weather is still bearable. It was the chilly wind that almost killed me. Haha.. Luckily, I brought enough jackets and scarves.

Anyways, one funny incident happened at the arrival hall. We were greeted by a guy, whom I initially thought is our tour guide (Turned out that he was just a temporary guide) . He thought that my name & Macho's name were the names of 6 persons !!!!(C'mon how is that possible right??). So, we were quite puzzled when they said there are 4 other people that took the same flight as us, while the cue cards only have Macho's & my name. Hmm.. That guy really has some serious studying to do.. Hahaha

Since the airport is in Taipa, we were then transported to the city i.e. Macau; which I would like to call, The Asian Sin City.

It was a whole new different environment because we were greeted by buildings illuminated with mega-watts neon signs. I've read some article somewhere that said these neon lights could light up Africa for a year. Hahaha,could you imagine that??

A Gambler's paradise!

Almost every hotel has their own casinos and of course the most renowned is The Venetian. Too bad we did't get a chance to get into any as we have a very tight schedule.

Rio Casino, 5 mins away from our hotel

We stayed a night at the Metropark Hotel, which is situated in Rua de Pequim, a rather quiet street I would say; as they don't have any casinos in the hotel.

I was satisfied with the hotel because the room is pretty spacious, with a living room and a 29" flat screen TV. And the service is pretty good too.

After we've freshen up, we embarked on our quest to search for yummy food in Senado Square.

FYI, many locals do not know the term "Senado Square".. So it is better to ask for The Fountain or ask the taxi driver to go to Avenida Almeida Ribeiro (新马路). The taxi ride costs about 15MOP from our hotel.

The decorations at Senado Square were too pretty to be passed up. Macho & I couldn't help ourselves.. So, we snapped a few shots first although we were feeling super farmished already ;-p

Ain't the decos pretty? Of cos, the two girls also lah~ Hehe

Love the beautiful icicles lightings!

The fountain, with Santa's sleigh.

With the angmohs and the beautiful background, I felt like I'm in Europe for a split second. Hahaha~

St. Dominic's Church, which looks a bit like the St. Pauls's Ruins..

We didn't have the chance to get into the church as it was closed at 6 p.m :(

Buildings with Portugese influence. Nice.

Basically, in Senado Square, most of the old buildings were converted into modern retail shops; particularly the ground floor.

The hybrid of old and new

After some of the sight-seeing, we settled into a HK char-chan-teng lookalike for dinner. Macho suggested to try out a Portuguese restaurant which was recommended by her boyf friend, but the queue was so long and I was pretty farmished..So instead we ended up with a so-so dinner.

I had the Cow tongue rice (which doesn't taste like what it looks) and a glass of uber-yellow Honey Lemon. Macho had the Pineapple beef rice which tasted like Sweet and Sour pork and Ribena Lemon. Like I said, dinner was nothing to shout about.

Since it's just not a complete meal without desserts, we also tried out a few local delicacies.

First up is the double boiled milk from Yee Shun Milk Company.

Their menu is only in Chinese. But they speak English and Cantonese too. If all else fails, finger pointing will do.

I preferred the one with ginger because the one without ginger had a very strong milk taste. However, Macho liked the latter. Their texture is quite smooth and nice. I could understand why this place is jam-packed with patrons.

As we walked around, we also spotted a stall that sells Portuguese egg tarts and Pork Chop Buns.So, we gave them a try.

Can you spot the glutton, Chu La?? LOL

You haven't been to Macau if you haven't try their Portuguese Eggs tarts.

Personally, I prefer the ones we have in Malaysia. Macau's tarts are slightly smaller and their crust are salty while the egg fillings are sweet. A sweet & salty combo is not my cup of tea. Macho seemed to love them though.

Another delicacy that is pretty run-of-the-mill. It was less tastier than I have expected.Probably we should try those restaurants that specialize in pork chop buns like Restaurant Victoria or Lau Kei Restaurant.

Chu La eating Chu Par Bao.. Hahahha

After that, we decided to walk home from Senado Square as we wanted to explore Macau for a bit. As we walked along Av. Infante D. Henrique, we spotted lotsa casinos and here are a few famous ones.

Casino Lisboa. Love the neon lights!

The Grand Lisboa. Friggin' hard to snap the whole building.

The Entrance.

The Grand Emperor.

Spotted an unusual post box on our way home. I know... we're Jakuns mah.

When we got back to our hotel, I made a shocking discovery.. I've lost the hotel card!! I was worried at first cuz I might need to compensate for the lost card, which would costs me 100MOP. I even planned to cooked up some sad stories to gain sympathy. Hahahaha.. In the end, when I decided to come clean during check out, the receptionist didn't even ask me a thing about the card cuz she thought only one card were issued to us.

As a result, I was off the hook :)

Watch this space for more updates!