Two Days Itinerary in Macau (part 2)

Sorry for postponed update! So here we go!

On the second day in Macau, I spent my day walked through all the famous world heritage spots in Macau Island area. While everyone on the net recommend the route to be started from Senado Square to the lower area, I started my route backwards; from down below (A Ma Temple) to upper area which is the Guia Lighthouse.

The exact route that I’ve walked in Macau Heritage Walk plan was (in order): 

• A-Ma Temple
• Moorish Barracks 
• Lilau Square
• St. Lawrence’s Church
• Dom Pedro Theatre, St Augustine’s Church, St Joseph’s Seminary and Church, Sir Robert Ho Tung Library (they are on the same area)
• Senado Square, Leal Senado Building, Holy House of Mercy (all same area too) 
• St. Dominic’s Church
• The Cathedral 
• Mount Fortress
• Ruin’s of St. Paul  
• St. Anthony’s Church 
• Guia Lighthouse

Since I stayed in the middle of Taipa Island and I’m very lazy to search for the bus route to my first destination (actually they have bus with the route that I wanted, but again, blame the construction sites everywhere the bus stop are nowhere to be seen!) I used taxi and it cost me around 50HKD from my hotel to A-Ma Temple.

I won’t talk that much about the history behind all the sites (as it was TOO MUCH to be told), I will just focus on each place that I have visited and what’s they look like.

First one is A-Ma temple; the one of the oldest Taoist temple in Macau that dedicated to Matsu, Goddess of Seafarers.

From A-Ma temple, everything just literally GO STRAIGHT to Senado Square, which is my temporary main aim from the temple.

Once I found a path like this on the side of A-Ma temple,

I just walked straight from there and the next building that I found was Moorish Barracks; being built to accommodate Indian regiments that were being dispatched from Goa, India. Can go enter the building but restricted only to the lobby area.

Walk a little bit more further from Moorish Barracks I found the Lilau Square.

Just near the Lilau Square, is the St Lawrence’s Cathedral which built before 1580 making it one of the oldest churches of Macao. The interior was beautiful, and the garden area was so peaceful too.

Finish with admiring every single thing there, walked again until I found the next big area where Dom Pedro Theatre, St Augustine’s Church, St Joseph’s Seminary and Church, and Sir Robert Ho Tung Library gather together.

The theatre was a little bit small but still can feel its glory presence.

Next to the theatre building is directly the St Augustine’s Church,

and Sir Robert Ho Tung Library.

I didn’t literally visit the St. Joseph’s Seminary and Church as it forbids me to enter from the back door there (see photo above) and require me to go outside the area and turn around on the back to enter the church via main entrance(which is quite troublesome). So I skipped that and continue walked straight from there until I found Senado Square, finally.

Leal Building is near the area too so I entered the place real quick before stepped in to the Senado Area.

Across the street was the Senado Square, which is, too bad for me, in their very awful state in my opinion as so many Chinese new year’s decoration were present at that time which somewhat annoys me THAT bad. I want the plain Senado Square!! Seriously.

Disaster.

Holy House of Mercy. Let’s skip this quick.

Walked to the end of the Senado Square area, reached the St. Dominic’s Church.

Actually, from here, everything was kind of in the same area and near to each other, and there were so many markings that lead you to several next historical places whichever would you like visit first.

I chose to visit the Cathedral first; took photo from the yard area and directly in front of the building itself.

I rest a bit there as I feel that wow, the whole trip from A-Ma Temple to this point was quite exhausting. And it was a right decision after all; because my next decision was Mount Fortress as the next target and HOLY guacamole, the road to the top was very steep and had quite a cardio back there!

Reached the top! Too bad it was foggy the whole week so the vision range was not very good. However I can see the Guia Lighthouse from here!

Anyhow, the trip from there and on was quite relaxed. Just follow the downward stairs from Mount Fortress lead me directly to the Ruin of St Paul; the main tourist spot at Macau.

It was so crowded and was quite a challenge to take a clean shot. Here was mine (with consideration to cut the below part as to avoid people’s head). Not so bad.

From there just take a little bit walk to the St. Anthony’s Church before leaving for Guia Fortress.

To go to the Guia Fortress, I use bus directly from the bus stop super near the church, and stop at Le Jardins du Flora. I’m very sorry that I forgot which bus number that I took; it was the wrong bus after all.

I thought the bus I took will take me directly to the station itself but instead they stopped at the main terminal in the middle of the route thus I have to change bus and pay again for the rest of the route.

Once I arrived, I just walked right to the cable car station spot, bought the ticket and directly went to the top of the hill. Reached the top, it took me around 15 minute more walk to reach the lighthouse.

It was not crowded at all and wish If I had more time to spent, I can spend the whole day dozing off there, maybe.

The lighthouse itself was quite fascinating although there’s not much to be seen for overall too. It will be much more perfect if the sky is clear and the whole scenery can be seen.

Thus Guia Lighthouse marked the finish point of my whole historical trip. From there I catch the bus back to City of Dreams to watch the House of the Dancing Water show which quite breathtaking too.

For overall, the trip from A-ma Temple to Guia Lighthouse took me from 10.00 to 17.00 on one day; including around 30 minutes lunch stop and 30 minutes lost around Senado Area to find one recommended restaurant which I finally couldn’t find at all. Considering that I went alone and my frequency to take photos and maybe selfies were not that time-consuming, 7 hours were just okay for me.

My opinion is that if you go in group and wanted to do a more relaxed time to enjoy every spot, 2 days will be perfect. 1 day is a little bit tight or so I think. But feel free to try on one day (and feel the burn on your feet!) as I feel that it was not that impossible to do too.

As a conclusion, It was a very, very fulfilling trip as I'm a very outdoor person, I haven't feel such in a better mood the whole day; as I spent mostly my days indoor on my work.

I can't wait to have this kind of trip again some other time. Gotta plan some more holiday to do!

See you on the next post! 

Two Days Itinerary in Macau (part 1)

As I have been telling you guys I finally wrote a separate post piece about my two days trip to Macau. I thought I will be able to do this in one short post however looking at all the crazy amounts of photos that I took back there, 2 post... doesn't look too bad. 

My short itinerary for these two days were divided into two big parts, which is a one day trip around Taipa (or, the casinos) area and Macau World Heritage Sites on the second day.

It looked so simple (since the area were not as big as Hong Kong) however I have to say that I'm having quite a hard time to get used to the transportation system here, which most of them using bus. I didn't have any problem whatsoever with using bus daily however I realize that in Taipa area especially, so many construction sites was on place and several supposed-to-be-there bus stop which was told by Google Map where nowhere to be found, which leads to a consumed amount of time to search for the correct bus stop several times. 

Since I had hard times to get used to Macau on the first day, I only have the chance to explore the Taipa Village and area around Venetian Macau and City of Dreams on day one.

My route from Hong Kong was Sheung Wan Ferry Terminal - Taipa Ferry Terminal - Macau Ferry Terminal - Kowloon Ferry Terminal.

When I first arrived in Taipa terminal, I was confused how to get to the city without using taxi, so I blindly go to several free shuttle bus to several hotels; since I'm aiming for City of Dreams, I took their free shuttle bus. The person asked me whether I will be staying at the hotel there, I said no, but I just said that I WANT to visit the City of Dreams, an luckily in the end they let me stay anyway and use the service. 

First stop was City of Dreams, which I found it quite boring. Nothing's there except the casino which I'm not quite interested in, however this show, The House of Dancing Water catch my eye!

I read several reviews about this show on the web and it looked pretty awesome, so I decided to impulsively book the ticket for the next day (since apparently they were having off days or can't buy on the spot, I'm not very sure). And indeed it was awesome! Will talk about the detail on post 2. 

Then I decided to take a walk to my hotel as It didn't too far away from the City of Dreams, and since it passed the Taipa Houses Museum and Taipa Village, I decided to take a look too. 

The walk to the Taipa Houses Museum was just so, not China. hahahah. Well since Macau was strongly influenced by the Portuguese, so most of the building style were kind of European style too in some spots. It was a total environment change for me. Unreal.

But yet everything was so pretty and properly placed. Love that.

Continued my walk to the Taipa Village area which I didn't had chance to explore much, since I still carry around my luggage and raining quite bad that time.

The stairs to the Taipa Village area were beautiful. 

The area filled with quite a lot of shops which sell several souvenirs and famous traditional food, such as the Portuguese egg tarts! Didn't bought a lot though, as I don't want my bag to get heavy before I move again to Kowloon the next day.

Once I reached my hotel, I'm quite drop dead tired as I have walked to a pretty hilly road on museum area, plus a little bit lost worsened by a quite hard rain. But once I went to my room I definitely whooooo!!-ing over my room. 

Look at the queen size bed!! All for myself! and WTH with the see-through bath room! 

Excited to the maximum but quite sad also since I only will use this room for one night.. But I was more than satisfied!

After having a quick rest and tidying all of the mess in my baggage from Hong Kong (thanks to the BIG room space I can just took out everything in my luggage and re-pack it.. how happy I was at that time..) I decided to go back to City of Dreams area with bus, and took a direct walk to the famous Venetian Macau since the area were close to each other.

I had to admit, the interior is just WOW.

Still hard to believe that all of this were the creation of a man. It was amazing.

The shopping area itself consist of several area with several different interior theme. All of them was just as mind blowing as it can be.

Yet at that time I realize the more mind-blown I am the more I think that all of these were such a vain; all of the rich people came here throwing their money in casinos and everything; surrounded by all the branded stuff and luxury goods, etc. If they already have everything and can do everything, do they have any life purposes after all of this? I wonder.  

There are people so rich they just stomp several hundred thousand dollars on the casino table (I saw that by myself when I visit the casino) yet on the other part of the world some people even having hard time just to feed their own mouth. What kind of world we live in.

That's all. Sometimes my mind is just being a little bit philosophical.

Getting stoned just by seeing all of this weird life phenomena I found here.

After I'm getting bored and bored by all of this stuff (and before my head getting anymore weird), I decided to just walk around the outdoor area a little bit and call the day off.

Went to sleep that day with a little hope: that the second day will be much more of a "realistic" trip  and more exciting than today's one.

Will post on part 2 soon!

What I Ate in Hong Kong

In this post I just want to share a little bit about what I ate in Hong Kong back there. Since I had quite a lot of photos I decide to make one specific post for this. Enjoy the picture and sorry you can't enjoy the taste. *smirk

To the point! 

I bought this VLT once I reached Hong Kong. I remember last time my friend whose a local bought me this and from there somehow this VLT brand becomes Hong Kong trademark drink (at least in my mind). 

Honestly I think this drink is very sweet. Tried the less sugar one and wahhh still too sweet for me. I don't know. This drink kinda didn't work out for me. All the Japanese brand tea were not sugared one (Japanese think that putting sugar in your tea is VERY weird) so I think I've get used to it and one reason to be blame for too. Bravo for the size, though!

Next was the One Star Michelin wanton noodles with shrimp dumplings by Ho Hung Kee. Ordered the small one, around 40hkd If I correct.

It was.. OK.  I don't knooooow. I just want this food to blow me out but somewhat It fails to impress me. The other day I tried the very cheap street wanton noodle also and If it were to be compared with Ho Hung Kee's one, definitely this one is the winner. However it still not until the point that you wanna visit and eat here over and over again. End of story.

Let's move on.

The next thing that excites me is Hong Kong super unique desserts and so far I'm not disappointed by what I ate at all. However, due to their (mostly) ugly appearance, the photo won't be as delicious-looking as the taste :(

The one that I managed to try was Sweets Dynasty's Mango Sago something. Didn't quite remember the name but It was so refreshing!

The picture was sooo... bland looking hahaha.

Ordered this egg-filled fried sesame balls too to balance the sweetness of the dessert. This one is yum!

Tried the other sweets at Honeymoon Dessert too. I had it in Indonesia before, but it was an honor to taste it in their real origin place; however I forgot to take picture of it. Tried the sesame and almond dessert with nut mochi balls (the name.. I forgot. My bad) and it taste great too!

So far thumbs up for Hong Kong desserts! 

Now next to the worst one in this post:

Yat Lok Roast Duck Rice-Noodle. hkd80. Overpriced and such a pain in the a** to eat.

Looks delicious right. See all the shiny parts here and there HOWEVER the experience of eating this was, what, craziness.

Let's get to the points: Yat Lok is very hard to find for me, as a single tourist please prepare to be moved around even when you're in the middle of eating even when you say n0(happened to me, they just grab your bowl with no mercy and moved me around), no tissue (want tissue add 3hkd, please), the rice-noodle was so slippery and hard to catch with chopstick and what makes it worse was the rice-noodle was chopped here and there so you kinda can't slurp it altogether.

Chopped and slippery rice-noodle + chopstick = you're worst nightmare. Maaaaan I can't believe I went to this place! Wish I order some other stuff rather than this.

I don't even want to comment on the duck anymore. Give me back my hkd80 I can buy 4 bowls of desserts for sure.

Luckily, from there, it seems that my over expectation of HK food drop drastically so from here on point the food taste better and better.

The next "big" thing that I tried was the famous Tai Cheong Bakery egg tart.

Shiny shiny egg tart............

...however not my most favorite. I've tried several egg tarts that was definitely better than this. The pie was not crunchy enough; and the middle part was too bland for my liking.

Maybe all HK style egg tart is like Tai Cheong one? Anybody can explain?

I went to Macau and definitely LOVE the Portuguese egg tart more, crunchy and sweeter; just the same as my expectation. I think this is a matter of personal taste already; not that Tai Cheong one was bad. It was nice however not my most favorite.

Moving to the next one was a hot bowl of soy milk and sticky-rice bun that I had for breakfast in Mongkok area. 

When I went here the owner was a very traditional lady in her mid 50 with ZERO english. So I only say "good one, good one" to her and I think she catch it (?) and she brought me this! and DEFINITELY not dissappointed!! You go auntie!!

The hot soy milk was literally the king of all of it; the sweetness was just right and combined with the salty sticky-rice filled bun, everything was just, heavenly morning. 1 thumb up for the auntie, another for the taste, and the rest of my (feet) thumb added because of this healthy style of a breakfast :)

The next before the last one was this recommended French Toast (?) from Mido Cafe near Tin Hau temple.

Love the cafe ambiance, love the taste too.

I never had this kind of food for whole my life to be honest! A bread dipped in egg and fried, eaten with maple syrup and butter. A Little bit oily but it was nice! The milk tea balance the sweetness and washed away the oily feeling. Perfect combination. 

I tell my Singaporean friend about this food and he shocked; he told me he ate this stuff almost everyday as breakfast when he was in Singapore. Seriously. Indonesian didn't know this stuff at all how can hahahah.

And this is the last recommended food that I can remember eating (and the last photo of food that I had) which is HK famous Polo Bun by Kam Wah Cafe.

Taste nice, crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, perfect paired with (again) the milk tea. One is enough to make me full until lunchtime. 

The one thing that concern me with this cafe was the service: zero English and very understaffed, and even some of the staff can scold customer in some ways. Consider I'm used to Japanese way to service customer (which customer is the KING), this one was a mega culture shock for me! Well, what an experience, I have to say.

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For overall, my food-adventure in Hong Kong was quite fun! Got some disappointment and shocked about several things here and there but on the other hand the good one was really good so It kinda balancing everything out in the end.

I've tried to follow people's recommendation here and there using travel books, blog reviews, and stuff, some works for me, the others not. On the other hand when I tried some stuff randomly at some points, it turns out to be better then what I expected it will be. Strange, indeed, but I realized that's the exciting part of a new experience. 

At least I know that I didn't regret trying every single thing that I have tried back there. Well, except the Roast Duck one, sorry. However I still wished that I have much more time (and another stomach) to try several food that I didn't have time to try back there (such as their dim sum, and hotpot rice). 

Maybe I will be back there again someday; definitely won't miss the dim sum and hotpot rice next time!

See you on the next one!