Hong Kong Trip, Day 1 (Macau)

Music: Bob James- Feel Like Makin' Love Mood: Awaiting eagerly


I got these from MPH, the same day where I could have gotten them at a 30% cheaper rate at Bookfest 2009. SCREW IT…..%*$%(*#&$*#!@!


HKDs differ from one bank to another, hence the wide variety I get from each change. The $4000 shown here are kacang putih to them
Hongkies.

There’s an average of near- hundred H1N1 cases infection being reported every day, the last time I checked, Hong Kong: 11 deaths, Malaysia: 73 deaths. Means that we are on a more dangerous ground! Heck, it’s the best time to fly!


...coupled with a good read in hand.


I feel contaminated when people need to dress up like this to check you out and jumped 100 meters away if you ever brush pass them.


Here we are, the place to rest for the night.


It’s nice of them to upgrade our rooms to two interconnecting executive rooms. Nothing like what was being commented from online where rooms are so small until you couldn’t fit in more than 2 luggages.


See? The bathroom looks decent.





First stop of the day- Fisherman’s Wharf (澳門漁人碼頭). This area is called 新口岸(ZAPE), an area you would love to visit at night as it is called the Macau Lan Kwai Fong, filled with nice Portuguese restaurants and pubs. It’s less than 15 mins walking distance from our hotel and this is situated next to the huge Sands Casino. It’s Macau’s first theme park with
NIL entrance fees. Too bad it started to rain once we reached there!! I only managed to catch a few shots before flagging a cab to our next destination for lunch.

Next stop- Senado Square (议事亭前地). Damn it, it’s obviously not our day today, the famed fountain (喷水池) is under construction -____-

Walking around Macau feels like a walk around Melaka, a city of ruins. You can see most buildings in Macau looks something like 仁慈堂(Holy House of Mercy).


邮政总局 (Post Office)

St. Dominic's Church (玫瑰聖母堂), I forgot to proceed inside for more pics T.T

Lunch at Wong Chi Kee(黄枝记面家), a restaurant famous for their noodles.

Wonton Noodle with Cow's Flank(牛腩云吞面), $31
Looks nice? Taste fine too. Generously big, boneless chunks were served and they were not chewy.


Braised Noodle with Shrimps' Eggs(虾籽捞面), $29
I wonder why this is a best seller, it’s so dry and yet not crunchy.


Char Siew Wonton Noodle(叉烧云吞面), $28
Soup noodles definitely excel here, though the quantity of char siew is a bit less.


Sliced Fish Congee(鱼片粥), $21

The amount of fish slices were aplenty!




We proceeded to the famous Leitaria I Sun (义顺牛奶公司) which is located at the same row as Wong Chi Kee with our bloated stomachs.


Red Bean Double Layer Steamed Milk Pudding (红豆双皮炖奶)， $18

Original Double Layer Steamed Milk Pudding (驰名双皮炖奶), $16

These are very milky like a smooth pudding, but don’t attempt to try it if you can’t take lactose.


Pork Chop Bun(猪扒包), $14

As the shop charges extra for those who did not order anything, we chose their pork bun. Nothing particularly special about it, only remembered that it’s quite oily.

It's like an RPG game, signs like these are everywhere so getting lost is quite impossible.


Next stop- Ruins of St. Paul's (大三巴牌坊), the most iconic landmark in Macau.


This is the façade of what was originally the Cathedral of St. Paul which was destroyed by a fire during a typhoon in 1835.


Next stop- Fortaleza do Monte (大炮台). This is the historical military centre of the former Portuguese colony of Macau, a fortress built in the 16th century for protecting the properties of Jesuit in Macau.


We clambered like HELL up the hills, but it’s worth the effort as the scenic view up here pays it all.


Notice that this cannon aims directly at the Grand Lisboa Casino.



The Museum of Macau is located on the hill of the Fortaleza do Monte, a place that displays the history of Macau. We skipped the museum visit as parents wanted to shop BADLY, hence giving the excuse of “we need to save on paying too much admission fees”.


Na Za Temple (哪咤庙)


Here is an interesting street I’ve heard all about, called Travessa da Paixão (戀愛巷), a tiny 50 meter alley situated in between 大三巴街 and 大三巴左街.

‘Paixão’ means ‘indulgence and passionate’ in Portuguese. The pastel pink and yellow buildings suggested a mixture of classic and modernism expression.

Next stop-大三巴街 (手信街). This street that links directly to Ruins of St. Paul's consist of more than 15 shops that sell the famous Macau delicacies as souvenirs.



Do try this famous Dai Seng Gong herbal tea (大声公凉茶) on your way up to St. Paul’s. They’ll give you a packet of orange peels if you can’t stand bitterness.


This shop was made popular after the widely watched Korean TV series Goong S (宫S) shot one of their scenes right here. Trust me, these are not the best Portuguese tarts in Macau oh kay...


Another shop beside the previous one, also made popular by another Korean TV Series Boys Over Flowers (花样男子). It’s so overrated, tourists who lined up here mostly made up of young girls.




Koi Kei Bakery (钜记饼家), the top pick for tourists.


Widely publicized and made famous even more by the endorsement of renowned food critic Choi Lan. They have successfully made more than 70% of total sales in Macau! You can even find 3 outlets here along this street alone.


Free samplings were freshly made like these and were given out like it doesn’t cost a thing. They practically FORCE the cookies into your hand even if you already had countless servings.


One piece of this equals to the thickness of 2 pieces of our local meat jerky. Their sides are charcoal-less and amazingly tender.

A note of advice: although Koi Kei may have the best selling cookies, it doesn’t mean that the rest of the shops around here don’t fare well. Take one example: we stopped by this shop called 大三巴饼家 and tried their almond cookies. You can find coarse bits of almonds in each cookie and IMHO, they taste even BETTER than Koi Kei’s! Moreover, they cost much cheaper as they sell without fancy packaging unlike Koi Kei’s.

Pun Weng Kei (潘荣记)- located along the road beside 仁慈堂 (Holy House of Mercy), the shop stood for many years and sells Macau’s famous 金钱饼 (loosely translated to Money cookies). They use an old furnace to bake these cookies that are made from egg yolks, flour and sugar, hence it’s particularly highlighted as ‘减蛋’金钱饼 (egg yolk money cookies).



They will only open their shop in the afternoon and they have already sold out all pre-packed cookies by the time we reached there, which was only about 4.30 pm.


Next stop- Cafe e Nata Margaret's (玛嘉烈蛋挞店). The hunt for this shop was gruesome. Although the locals have been kind enough to help us, but different people have given different directions pointing at the same way which is near Casino Lisboa, so we actually walked up and down the same street a couple of times.


Spotting the shop finally was like finding gold (Turn right after 玫瑰聖母堂, go straight up then turn left after you see the white cathedral in front, hike uphill and downhill following the street and you will reach a busy main road. Cross this main road into another small lane, then turn right. You can spot the shop at the corner immediately after you turn right.), I could almost cry
with joy. I can only say I score full for patience and determinacy after dad shouted and complained throughout the way to find ‘the- useless- shop-and-nobody-is-going-to-eat’.

I told the owner we went through hell looking for their shop, she smiled and replied that there’s a tourist who took THREE days to reach here. Har-de-har.

We took a cab back after I bought three of these. These are nothing like the best egg tarts from KL, this is the cream of the crop, OMG, they are THE Portuguese tarts. They were still piping hot even when we had it back in our rooms. Its crust was multi-layered and crrrispy, but stay attached as you savour through the entire piece; the custard is not sickeningly sweet and melts in your mouth. Simply heavenly!


Next destination- The Venetian (威尼斯人). We took our hotel shuttle bus to ferry terminal and took The Venetian shuttle bus to get across the island. There are many different hotels’ shuttle buses that dropped by to pick up people from this ferry terminal, you can just board on any bus that takes you to their hotels/casino for free.


The huge Sands casino viewed from the bridge.


Lotus Bridge (莲花大桥), the other bridge that links Macau with Zhuhai , the other bridge we are travelling on now is called Sai Van Bridge(西湾大桥) that links Macau Peninsular with Taipa Island.



The side entrance of The Venetian, too bad it’s not the main hotel entrance where you could view the awestruckingly big building.



We went straight to their Food Court for dinner.



That’s the wondrously painted sky ceiling. See the hardly visible tiny roundish marks? Those are nails.

Our good o’ cuisine and Singapore food sits next to one
another.

Beef Flank Rice(牛腩饭) from Ci Gei (池记）
Ci Gei (池记）is famous for their Wonton Noodle but dad ordered rice instead.


Fried Bee Hoon Special(特制炒米粉) from Ocean Empire Food Shop (海皇粥店)
Big portion but rather oily.


Garden Salad from North Border
Hah! I regretted ordering these, they put too much balsamic vinegar. >.<

Fried Carrot Cake(萝卜糕) from Ocean Empire Food Shop(海皇粥店)
This is the most decent one although it doesn’t look as appetizing. It taste different from our normal carrot cake, light but not dry.

My verdict: If you have limited time at Macau, go have your dinner at any Portuguese restaurants at ZAPE (新口岸). Don’t regret like me for missing out the chance to try Portuguese food while I’m still there. If you have more time, there are plenty of good choices at Taipa Island.



The Venetian is the largest building in Asia and second largest building in the planet and houses a 15,000 seat stadium, 350 shops and 3,000 rooms.




The $2.4 billion dollar complex features stunning replicas of Venice’s key landmarks such as St. Mark’s Square, the Doge’s Palace, Campanile Tower, and three indoor canals with gondolas and singing gondoliers.




Anyone watched the popular HK TVB series 家好月圆 (Moonlight Resonance AKA Ga Hou Yut Yun)? They made the show especially for Kee Wah Bakery’s 70th Anniversary. Of course Kee Wah is the main sponsor behind the entire drama.


Final stop of the day- Grand Lisboa (葡京娱乐城). We left The Venetian at 9 pm and took the shuttle bus to Grand Lisboa. This was built in 2007 but Casino Lisboa and Hotel Lisboa actually existed long time ago. My parents were here during their honeymoon more than 25 yrs ago ^^


We walked back to hotel from Grand Lisboa, which was within 15 mins walking distance. Notice these shops? They are gold shops and second hand shops selling expensive watches like Rolex and Cartier. I supposed they serve good purpose by opening near casinos and operating 24 hours?

End of day 1