Macau – Day 1

Last Aug. 24, my friends and I travelled to Hong Kong and Macau for 3 days. It was 6 of us. All girls and all of us were first timer to travel in another asian country. Since HK is a non-english country, we knew that it would a bit hard to communicate with the locals. So before we fly to HK, we’ve been making research online about HK and Macau.

Upon arriving in HK, maps and brochures about Hong Kong are available at the airport free of charge.  And by the way, HKIA is a big airport, so you have to take a minute train ride from Airport A to Airport B to get your luggage.

We bought Octopus Card in the airport. This card is used to pay for buses and trains; stores like 7-Eleven; and even fast food chains like McDonalds. On top of that, it gives you discounts on all public vehicles except cabs. Travelling for us was made easy because of this card.  For more details on how to avail an Octopus Card, visit their website here.

We went straight to our booked hostel, Taisan Guesthouse Harilela Branch. Taisan Guesthouse has 3 branches and Harilela Branch was newly renovated though you might find the elevator a bit ackward kasi, it has a door that you have to open when accessing the elevator. Safe naman though.

Taisan Gueshouse, Harilela branch is located at Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station Exit C2 (Nathan Road #81) side. Very near so MTR station. Now if you will book this branch, make it sure to the person you are dealing with that he/she understands you. Medyo nagkagulo kasi yung booking ko because the owner misinterpret my emails. I originally wanted to book 2 rooms at Burlington branch since the branch has a pinay manager. So since nagkagulo nga at muntik ko ng makaaway yung owner na mataray, 3 of us stayed in Harilela and the other 3 naman sa Burlington branch. Burlington branch naman is on the other side of the street kaya okay na rin. Our room was not that big but we dont mind since we  spend our 3 days touring HK.  Each room pala has it’s own pc with internet. Our PC in our room has a problem so we asked for a replacement. It was replaced naman agad on the next day. The room has a spacious cr with hot and cold handheld shower, 2 beds – 1 single and 1 double size bed. It’s an airconditioned room. Yun nga lang I noticed that the aircon was programmed. It turned off on a certain time so what I did, I pressed the reset button of the remote hehehe. The room cost 500HKD . Well, staying at Taisan Guesthouse was okay naman. Wala ng hassle after the misunderstanding situation nung arrival namin.

Around 12 noon, we walked along Haiphong Road to get to the China Ferry Terminal in TST where the First Ferry  is located.

Ticket price depends on the day and time of travel. Ours was HKD 151. Dont forget your passport by the way.

It was a 1hr ferry ride to Macau. Since we were in a hurry, we bought lunch from McDo near Taisan and eat it inside the bumpy ferry ride. No visa is required when travelling to Macau.

We walked towards the north part of the square leading us to Rua de Felicidade. It is a very narrow street surrounded by old buildings, there all lots  food tastings along the way. Sample every food you want at Pastelaria Koi Kei, Macau’s largest bakery.

During our Macau trip, there were no free tasting for portugese egg tart. So we bought each for 7 MOP$.

Authentic Portugese Egg Tart. Yummm

but the beef/pork thin fillets samples are overflowing…

I think, I tasted every kind of these.

By the time we reached St. Paul’s ruin, I was full already. hahaha.

What’s left of the St. Paul Cathedral is its ornate facade after being destroyed by fire in 1835.

From Senado Square, we walked towards the Grand Lisboa to catch the bus back to the ferry terminal. From here, we transferred to the free Venetian Macau shuttle and headed  to Venetian Hotel. The Venetian Macau is a another  famous tourist attraction.  Its has a Venetian-inspired structure and canals and Renaissance-inspired paintings.

So grand….

Escalator na kung escalator….ang taas kasi. I tried to look back at nalula ako sa taas. hehehehe

Photo opps muna. After the mile long escalator ride hehehe.

A few more steps from here, we were in the Grand Canal Shoppe. What amazes me is that this area has have artificially hand-painted skies onto the ceiling. I kid you not.

It was really amazing to see the lovely sky este hand-painted sky…

Grabe ang ganda.

At this side naman,  the  sky is getting dark na :-). 

Looks so real di ba?

The signature of the Grand Canal Shoppes is three 490 long water canals along the cobblestone walkways. They even have Italian gondolas and serenading gondoliers to transport you around. Too bad we came in a bit late. It was close already.

At 9.30 pm, with our aching feet, we took the shuttle bus from the Venetian Macau to get to the ferry terminal and catch the Ferry going back to Hong Kong. We accidentally bought ferry tickets from Turbojet that brought us to Shun Tak Center. We weren’t aware that this ferry will brought us not in Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) where our hostel is. In short….NALIGAW kami…wuahhh!!!

We tried to asked people but it was really hard since, most of them don’t speak english. We had asked many locals how to get to TST. Luckily there was this lady who understand us somehow. We took the MTR which was a few steps lang, kakatawa talaga.  In less than 30minutes we were at the hostel na.

It was a tiring  and a challenging day for us. Our feet was really aching but the memories of Macau was incomparable.