Macau

17 - 23 December 2017

(photos to be added)

Macau Day 1

It was 7 degrees in the morning (>‸<) but thank God the temperature gradually went up as the day progressed. We had dou jiang, you tiao and tang yuan for breakfast at a Taiwanese cafe before walking all the way to St Paul’s ruins. I bought 3 pairs of socks for SGD$1.75 ꒰´•௰•` ꒱ and we had egg tarts with super crispy crusts. There were many aesthetic alleys to take photos, including one with pastel painted drawings on the floor, hanging Christmas lights and decorations, and colourful statues. We had lunch at a small Japanese restaurant there, sets with ramen, onigiri, soft shell crab/scallop/prawns and jelly! Then we shopped some more and went into a church with a chinese porcelain exhibition and a beautiful Christmas display. We then sat by the ruins and waited for night to take photos. Dinner was fantastic, at a Portuguese restaurant called 7 burger where we had 3 mini burgers (chicken, pork and beef) and salmon with salad and wedges. Here in Macau, fries always go with ketchup! I saw a guy in singlet, shorts and sandals (in 13 degree weather?!) Lastly we watched a light and sound display on the ruins which featured the history of Macau.

Macau Day 2

Today we took a public bus to the ferry terminal to take a free shuttle to The Venetian, which is in Taipa, a linked island from main Macau. It’s this grand themed building (casino and shopping) with the inside built to resemble Venice. The ceiling was projected with a realistic sky and there was a gondola ride and people dressed in Venetian costumes. We shopped for a bit then decided to head out to Taipa village, a collection of quaint streets with old but colourful buildings. It felt like a laid back place and we had the famous pork burger. For lunch we dined at a Portuguese restaurant which had lunch set promotions - main, salad, soup, dessert and drink for less than SGD$10 ( ´･ω･`) but the portion was humongous and the hot lemon tea wayyy too sour, the risotto was good though. We then walked back to the Venetian and headed over to The Parisian, another grand themed casino hotel linked from inside the Venetian. The shops over there were all boutiques so we went straight to the Eiffel Tower experience, which is a smaller version of the real one in Paris. We bought tickets to go to the viewing galleries on the 7th and 37th floor. The lift ride up to the 37th floor was quite scary actually, as the lift doors were all glass and it felt like it was going up forever. The observation deck at the top was really small but caged up so it felt safe. We watched the night view from there before heading back to the Venetian for dinner since the shops there were more affordable. We had to stop for a rest at a bench as it was so long and tiring to retrace our steps. We had porridge and fish and chips, where my fork broke at two places and had to be replaced ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ There was a shop selling Singapore food, obviously overpriced but I was tempted to try it. Then we took the free shuttle back to the ferry terminal and took a public bus back to our hotel.

Macau Day 3

Today we had breakfast at a small cafe beside our hotel - chee cheong fun, abalone noodles and vermicelli. It was hilarious to read the English translations off the menu, like Horlicks was Good Gram (*^◇^) We then leeched off the free shuttle of a hotel behind ours to get to Gongbei, Zhuhai, which is just a checkpoint across from Macau. There was this huge underground shopping centre where we bought so many We Bare Bears stuff from Miniso ( ˘▽˘)っ The clothes were quite nice but inappropriate for SG weather ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ We lunched at McDonald’s where the cashier looked at me with horror when I asked for chilli sauce. We tried the special Genmai flavoured ice cream cone then kinda got lost for a bit in the mall before finding our way out to some supermarket where we bought skittles in nunchucks (yes that’s a thing) and then to their local market. Everyone there had bought a lot of vegetables, probably to bring back over to Macau. I think my lungs died a little from all the cigarette smoke and my heart also died every time I hear someone behind preparing to spit (nOT ON MY SHOES) The sky was cloudless and I took California-looking photos with silhouettes of palm trees against the sky. For dinner, we headed back to the underground shopping mall where we had (real) abalone fried rice, which was great. At last, we leeched off the free shuttle again and headed back (୨୧•͈ᴗ•͈)◞ᵗʱᵃᵑᵏઽ*♡

Macau Day 4

Today we took a bus over to Cotai, another linked island from main Macau, and we missed our stop twice because Google is a liar. The bus had 2 flat screen TVs, charging points and free wifi wow. Anyway we got to the Giant Panda Pavilion, which honestly looked boring and empty at first but I later discovered how wonderful the place was! It’s like a mini zoo and park combined, and it’s FREE, the only place that requires a SGD$1.75 ticket is the giant panda enclosure and you can stay as long as you want (sorry river safari, pls up your game) We got to see one big panda and two baby pandas playing/wrestling up close and it was adorable. The momma panda even pushed her babies down the slope right in front of us and it was hilarious to see the babies struggling before finally sliding down and then lying lazily down there. The momma panda then went to eat bamboo leaves. The papa was asleep throughout but still cute! The red pandas were my favourite frankly, they were so fLUFFY. Then there were many different species of monkeys (king julian included move it move it!), birds (flamingos and ostriches) and a deer. There was also a nature and agriculture museum. We then had some snacks at a small shop as lunch - sandwiches, garlic Calbee chips, snow pear drink. When we left, my camera roll had +200 because of all the animals (ू•ᴗ•ू❁) Next we walked down to take a free shuttle up to the A Ma cultural village. The bus took forever to come (not following it’s schedule) and we still had to wait in the bus 20minutes just for the driver to finish reading his news paper (ノಠ_ಠ)ノApparently it was possible to walk up the steep slope but after taking the bus up to the very top, no, just no. Up there, it was a grand disappointment. Not only was the place under construction, there was nothing but a toilet and swing set ლ(ಠ_ಠლ) So it wasn’t a cultural vILLAGE at all. We then beaded back to Macau and had early dinner at a recommended small restaurant called Cheong Kei, the portions were super small but it was delicious, we had wanton noodles, shrimp dumpling noodles, 2x shrimp flavoured dry noodles, and fried mud carp balls (•͈ᴗ•͈ 人) Lastly, it was time for mandatory vacation cup noodles - chilli crab flavour because I miss SG :)

Macau Day 5

4 days are actually sufficient for touring around Macau, so today we practically had nothing to do. In the morning, I finally satisfied my curiosity by pressing the forbidden 4th floor button which was blanked out and the lift doors opened to a dark and deserted hallway (+.+) We then had a grand breakfast at a restaurant, 7 types of dim sum(*^◇^) and I was really full! The toilet there had heated toilet seats! After that we walked around kinda aimlessly till our feet hurt before settling down at a small cafe for lunch - fried rice and dry beef hor fun. Then we walked some more and I concluded that the people here walk like light, they only travel in straight lines and would rather bump into you than make a small detour (－‸ლ) We stopped by McDonald’s for fries and coffee before walking over to Macau Tower, passing by some lake side shops as well as catching a good view of the sky gradually turning pink from the setting sun and casting beautiful reflections over the water surface. I thought Macau Tower was a star attraction but apparently not, there was no direct path there and we had to take lots of detours and jay walk across a road to get there (the Tower seemed to be getting further the more we moved towards it) And then it was another grand disappointment. The ‘mall’ had a grand total of 3 retail shops, one being toys R us ლ(ಠ_ಠლ) So there was literally nothing to do if you didn’t go bungee jumping, the casino or watch the only movie showing. We took advantage of the large sofa to rest for a bit before going back to Senado Square and having dinner at a recommended Portuguese restaurant where we had escargots and monster prawns, that came with free buns as appetisers. I actually can’t wait to get back to SG tomorrow - so many things I wanna do!!!

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But really thank God for such a smooth and safe trip so far, my dad for taking all the photos of me and my mom (till his phone died twice), and the phone provided by our hotel that allowed me to use its hotspot ehehe