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Continuing to Macau

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PauTravels and Family at the foot of the St. Paul Ruins in Macau

After spending 6 nights in Hong Kong, we continue our long vacation to the neighboring Chinese Special Administrative Region of Macau.  Macau has gained popularity for rivalling Las Vegas for its booming casino industry.  And aside from big time casinos, this former Portuguese colony is also known for having a number of UNESCO World Heritage sites including the Ruins of St. Paul.

And so from our hostel in Kowloon, we took a cab to get to the China Ferry Terminal.  We took the 1pm ferry trip on board a New World First Ferry vessel.  The ferry ride cost us HKD128 each and took about 1 hour. On our arrival at the Macau Ferry terminal, we had to pass through immigration.  And from the terminal, we hired a van which cost us 200 Macau Patacas to take us to Hotel Sun Sun which is at the western side of the Macau Peninsula.  The hotel did not have free shuttle service unlike many of the hotels in town. In front of the ferry terminal many hotels have their spots where they provide free shuttle service to their guests.  The Venetian, Sands, Wynn, MGM Grand, and StarWorld hotels are some of those who have buses waiting in front.

Macau’s currency is called Patacas (MOP) which has a value almost same as the Hong Kong dollar.  In the terminal, we had some of our cash converted so that we had Macau money to spend.

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Hotel Lisboa

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Sands Casino Macau

Our van driver drove us through some of the casinos and also by the Macau Tower.  Upon arrival in our hotel in Hotel Sun Sun, we found out that most of the staff of the hotel were Filipinos. Since we were quite tired from our trip from Hong Kong, we decided to take some time of rest after having late lunch.

That night, we went to the Macau Fisherman’s Wharf beside the Sands Casino.  It is a themed amusement park built on an old wharf that features different European architectures like the Coliseum. It also had a building that is based on a Persian or Egyptian castle.  Within those structures are different shops and some amusement facilities like the Volcano Archive, Magic Carpet, Flying Camel, Bump Cars, and Casinos.

Continuing to Macau

Macau’s Fisherman’s Wharf

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Coloseum Replica

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a classical looking structure which leads to the shopping strip

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the volcano attraction at the theme park area

Due to the Halloween season, like some spots in Hong Kong, the Fisherman’s Wharf had special characters that night.  They’ve got a bunch of zombies that lurked around the whole area.  This group of zombies are not only there to stand at one corner but instead they run after people to try to scare them.  It was such a fright for some, including my sister in law who was chased by four zombies that night.

And so due to the zombies, we did not take too much time around the wharf.  Plus the amusement facilities have already closed. We should have gone there in the morning.

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The Golden Lotus Square

Anyway, we walked across the wharf to the Sands Casino.  It’s not like going to Macau without visiting their grand casinos. But unfortunately, since we have my baby Janine with us, we were not allowed to go inside.  I mean babies are not allowed.  So we ended up just going somewhere else.

We walked across the highway to the nearby Golden Lotus Square to take some pictures.  I read in the net that it is made of real gold.  That’s probably why there are policemen in the park.  And from there we walked to the other end of the road in front of the Hotel Lisboa.

Anyway, the road in between the Golden Lotus and the casinos are barricaded with metal fences.  That stretch of road from the Fisherman’s Wharf to the other end by the Wynn Casino is fenced out.  This is due to the upcoming Macau Grand Prix that is happening in Macau in November-time.  And by the front of Wynn is a big viewers stand for those who have paid to watch the race.

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Grand Prix Stadium in Macau

It was quite late then and was frustrated that we are not going to be able to enter the casinos that we just took a cab back to the hotel.

The next day, we were a bit optimistic as we’ve scheduled our trip around the Macau Peninsula.  Our first destination is one of Macau’s iconic structures, the Macau Tower.  Rising at a height of 338 meters, the tower is famous for having the highest bungy jump and the 10th tallest free-standing structure in the world.

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At the foot of the Macau Towe

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The Macau Tower from afar

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A Dragon Boat Monument at the Macau Tower

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A Golden Lotus fountain

We took a cab to get there.  Oh, one thing I liked in Macau is its taxis.  All taxis that we got had automatic doors, that is it opens and closes automatically.  No need to do it yourself when riding and alighting.

And so, we spent some time taking pictures by the foot of the tower.  The Macau Tower offers different activities aside from their famous bungy.  They activities like climbing its spire, walking around its glassy roof, and jumping from the tower.  Going up to the viewing deck at the costs MOP88 each, if I remember it right. Due to budget constraints, we no longer went up the viewing deck.

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A Ma Temple

Continuing to Macau

Paper Strips with Prayers in the A Ma Temple

Initially, we thought of walking upward to following the tourist trail as presented in the tourist maps that we got from the ferry terminal.  But instead, to save our energy and time we thought of jumping on a cab to the our next destination at the Largo do Senado or the Senado Square.  This must be one of the more famous tourist areas in Macau as this used to be the main square since the Portuguese regime.  After visiting the tower, we again took a cab to bring us to the A Ma Temple on Macau Peninsula.  The temple is found at the southern end of the main tourist trail of Macau’s World Heritage sites.  When we got there, it was in time when they had firecrackers crackling in front of it.  This temple is one of the more famous tourist spots in town and so there were a number of tourists on site. In front of the temple, the pathway is bricked with wavy white and gray stones.

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Largo do Senado in Macau

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St. Dominic’s Church

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an old building in Senado Square

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at the entrance of Largo do Senado

When we got there, Jen noticed a shop near beside a money changer that sells Portuguese egg tarts.  We later learned that it is one of their common delicacies which basically is like a small egg pie.  I’d say its delicious that we bought another one on our way to the ruins of St. Paul.

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Portuguese Egg Tart counter

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a Portuguese Egg Tart

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St. Paul’s Ruins of Macau

And so we moved on to follow the wavy bricked path to San Ma Lo.  Along this path are new shops that are housed in the colonial structure of the Senado Square.  And also we passed the beautiful yellow church of St. Dominic.  Later I learned that there are so many Catholic churches in the city due to the Portuguese influence.

Aside from the new shops and some souvenir shops in the San Ma Lo area, there are also shops that sell Chinese delicacies.  These shops offer free taste on square dried pork, which I did not know the name but I think they sell something the same in Binondo.  These pork meat is like tocino or beef jerky.  And well, passing by this shop meant we’re near the famed ruins.  And so we were.

From a far, the St. Paul’s ruin is so beautiful and very striking as it stood on a hill top rising above the nearby structures.  The St. Paul ruin is the remains of a cathedral that was burned leaving only its facade.  Being a famed spot as it is the location is filled with tourist taking their photo opportunities.  Behind the church is a museum built to showcase the artifacts found in the ruins and also the old ruined parts of the church.

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A Cannon in Monte Fort Pointed at Hotel Lisboa

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Madonna and Child statue in the Monte Fort

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adjacent to the ruins is the Monte Fort which is one of the Portuguese fortresses built in the city. And within the same compound is the Museo de Macau. I lead the group up the stairs that lead up to top of the fortress.  On top of it, it gave a beautiful view of th Macau area. There you’d see how imposing the Hotel Lisboa is with its beautiful architecture.  On top of the fortress is an entrance to the Museo de Macau.  We went in and we found out there is an escalator that lead down the foot of the fortress.  Well, if we knew earlier, we should have used the escalators instead of hiking the stairs.

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Lily’s Kitchenette, one of the Filipino Food shops in Macau

Then we decided to retire early today.  So we just decided to walked back down the same path to the Senado Square and walked past the Leal Senado to the hilly streets of Macau to find our way back to our hotel.  We passed by the street lined by shops owned by Filipinos including Lily’s Kitchenette.  We bought our dinner there before going back to the hotel to end our 2nd day in Macau.

For our last day in Macau, we checked out of the hotel early and had ourselves driven to Macau International Airport which is located on Taipa island.  For this day we planned to tour around Taipa and Coloanne and the reclaimed section called Cotai.  And we thought that we had to bring our luggages to the airport and leave them there at the Left Luggage section so that we can tour around up to our departure time without thinking of driving back to Macau.

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The A Ma Cultural Village in Coloanne

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A Dragon Statue in A Ma Village

At the airport, we left our big luggages for a cost of MOP20 each and took a cab to go to the A Ma Cultural Village in Coloanne.  It was quite a long taxi ride to get there. It cost us about MOP48 to get there.  It is on top of a hill and passing through snaky road.  And along the path we realized that there are not too many cars going there. When we got there and our taxi left us, we felt worried on how we’ll get ourselves back down the hill.  And another problem is Jen’s sister’s family got lost when their driver brought them somewhere else.  And when they arrived about 30 minutes later, we decided that they don’t leave their cab any more and go directly to the Venetian.

When Jen, Janine and myself was left, I thought of calling for a cab or trying to hitch on private cars.  There we learned that there is a free shuttle that picks tourists from the foot of the hill to the village and back. And so we took some pictures while waiting for the shuttle.  Then from the main gate we took our cab to the Venetian.

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Inside the Venetian

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an metal artwork in the Venetian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And from the Venetian, we just took some short time of taking pictures in the main lobby that has a very beautiful hall with a golden ceiling.  Very posh, very elegant.  Since we can not bring children passed through the casino areas, we did not stay long.  One thing we missed going is going up the mall area on the upper level, which I read to have gondolas plying within the mall area with blue skies painted ceilings like those in the Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

It was such a short stay in the Venetian and we went back to the airport to take our lunch and wait for our departure at 10pm.  Such a long wait in the airport but at least it gave us some time to rest and sleep.

Well to sum it up, we did not enjoy Macau as we had in Hong Kong. Maybe because we were already exhausted.  And also we have not enjoyed their casinos which made it not as child friendly as in Hong Kong. But at least we enjoyed the historical side of Macau.

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A Dragon Statue in A Ma Village

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an metal artwork in the Venetian

Oh by the way, just to add that on our flight back to Manila, we had another opportunity to have Janine have a picture with our pilot.  And not only that we were able to get her pictures in the Cebu Pacific cockpit, but also with its flight attendants.  And so at 10:15pm we departed Macau on board flight 5J363 en route to Manila where we arrived at 12:15 am at the NAIA Terminal 3.


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