My agency booked the ferry to Macau at 6pm. I am glad that the staff from Turbojet was kind enough to change it to 4 pm. The staff also mentioned that there is free upgrade to super class as I had checked in online but I have already paid the $60 extra for the upgrade – what a waste!
While waiting at the airport for the ferry, Lee took the porridge. After that I bought 2 HK sim card at HK98 each.
Light refreshment was served onboard the turbojet – we had tuna sandwich with cheese cake , a red bean biscuit, orange juice and yogurt/oreo biscuit. The sea was rather choppy but thank God we did not have motion sickness. The ride was 45 mins but it took some time before the hotel shuttle bus arrived. It seemed that the shuttle bus bring the customers to both Hotel Sintra and Lisboa as both belong to the same owner.
Our window at Hotel Sintra faces the Grand Emperor Hotel – a pretty sight with all the advertisement for its artists.
We walked towards Grand Lisboa as we had already booked a table at Grand Buffet which many had claimed to be good with its 100m long spread.
On the way we stopped at Yishun milk and tried out the double steamed egg and the pork bun – my goodness it was so delicious. The papaya milk was average though. The bill worked out to be HK51.
Not very impressed with Grand Buffet and pay a hefty HK532 on it. The only outstanding dishes were the roasted suckling pig and the boiled live prawns. The queue was extremely long and the restaurant turned away many customers who did not make reservation. I still prefer the Vienna International Seafood Buffet (Novena Square) or Parris International Buffet(near marina square) in Singapore. I tried my luck at the casino but lost all my HK100.
After that we took a cab to the city of Dream where Venetian is. I was so impressed with the Marco Polo Canal – the whole sky is man-made but looked so real – seemed like as if it was still in bright daylight though it was near to 11pm. We ate the Portugese tarts at Lord Stow’s – the original creator of the tarts. The crust was so crunchy and buttery whereas the filling was so soft and fragrant. We took a cab back to the hotel and I went to the 7-11 to buy 2 bottles of milk – Kowloon Diary – wish we have this in Singapore.
On day 2, we walked towards the Ruins of St Paul's and I stopped by the tourism board t o collect some brochures and maps. I also bought some first day covers and stamps form the post office nearby. At the foot of the St Paul's ruins is a lane full of sales assistants promoting their products - they will let you sample dried meat, biscuits etc. I bought some souvenirs back from "Koi Kei" - the most popular outlet for pastry such as almond biscuits and egg rolls. Other than the fort remains, we also saw a "Na Tcha" temple. There is also this alley called the "love street" as the houses were built so close to each other and the lovers living across can just talk to each other from their house. We had breakfast at the eatery next to the famous Margaret's Cafe de Nata where they sell the famous egg tarts. I must say it did not taste as good as the ones we had at Lord Stow' bakery though the queue was so long.
There were not as many eateries here as compared to Hong Kong - just a lot of casinos, pawnshops, jewellery shops and medical hall. Many of the eateries and restaurants were closed. I learned from the tour guide later on that that life is very relaxed in Macau and many of the shops are not opened until late in the afternoon or at night. If someone is short of a player for mahjong, they will just close the shop and join the rest for the game. The citizens are well taken care of by the government who provides free education for the students till high school and the retirees are paid a sum of HK6000 every month. Many of the coastal land were reclaimed and a bridge linking to Hong Kong is under construction and will be ready by 2014.
Our tour guide brought us to the Lotus Square and the Grandpix and wine museum opposite it. After that he brought us to the Statue of the Goddess of Mercy. He explained that the statue is unique as it was built by a Westerner and the statue face landwards instead of seawards. The statue also resembles the Mother Mary statue and was known as the Western Goddess of Mercy. He then drove us to Macau tower but we did not stay long there as we did not intent to go for the sky walk.
The Kwang Yin (Goddess of Mercy) statue that face inland instead of the sea.
Macau tower
Lotus square
Grandpix museum
Wine museum
After that he brought us to the "A-Ma" temple where I bought a set of coins which shows the 12 Chinese zodiac signs from all over the world as well as sampled the famous local ice cream. After that he drove us to the custom check to China's Zhu Hai. Some of the coastal strips are so near to China that you can just swim across. He mentioned that in the past, people from mainland China would swim over to Macau but now it is the other way round. He said that near to Chinese New Year, there will be boats offering to take some of these people back to China illegally and they only paid HK500 instead of HK2000 to get through the custom.
The famous Á-Ma temple
Famous Ice Cream vendor outside the temple
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