Macau 2008
I should be sleeping but I've been writing this entry in my head for the past two days now, when I lie in bed with my eyes closed, it's all I can think about. Anyway, it's 11PM. Desi will wake up soon, I might as well get started. :D
This year our Anniversary Trip was to Macau. We went last weekend but booked our flights back in May when the new Cebu Pacific international budget fares came out BEFORE fuel surcharges skyrocketed. But also before they offered the travel packages that come with hotel accommodations and city tours.
So I had half a year to prepare for this trip but did most of the research in the week before we left. So typical! Not that i wasn't excited. I was. I was even the one who chose Macau, mostly because I loved the pictures Judy (typershark ) had taken from last year. I just left it for the last minute because I didn't think it would be that difficult to plan our itinerary. In actuality, there were more things to do than I originally thought, because everyone kept telling me Macau is so small you could see everything in a couple of days. But we were there for four whole days and each day we did something new.
So in the tradition of blogging our travelogue through pictures like I did with our trip last year to Indonesia, here's what we did in Macau.
We left Manila Last Thursday, Nov 13 in the evening. Let's call this Day 0 because it was mostly spent getting to Macau. This is NAIA 3. It wasn't in Macau, I know, but it deserves mention because it's huge and EMPTY! Exclusively used by Cebu Pacific, it is officially the No Stress Airport. No lines, no hassles, nice friendly guards and check in ladies, immigration was a breeze going and coming. It makes us like traveling by Cebu Pacific again. Nevermind that there are no free meals on the plane, it's just a two hour flight, and the airport is no stress. Yay NAIA 3!
So anyway, we arrived in Macau at like 10PM, took a cab to the Metropole Hotel, a small and relatively cheap place right in the middle of tourist area Macau. We were settled in our room by 11PM. Mike was hungry so we decided to get out of our hotel to walk around and get our bearings and what do you know? McDonald's Cafe literally around the corner! Score!
Day 1. We emerge from our hotel at 11AM. Well, actually, I emerged at 11AM, By then Mike had already gone to McDo to buy me breakfast, and a nearby 7-11 to buy water, and walked a bit in several directions to see what's around our hotel. I stayed in bed for as long as I could because IT WAS THE FIRST UNINTERRUPTED NIGHT'S SLEEP I'VE HAD IN 8 MONTHS! YEAH! And the only reason I got up as early as 9 was because my breasts were so full of milk I needed to pump. So there.
Henihoo, when we did manage to start the day, we walked around to see what there was to see. This is the Grand Lisboa, famous Macau Casino. It's a 5 min walk away from our hotel. We walked up to it, around it, up a crosswalk and saw a race car whiz by. Did I mention we were there during the Macau Grand Prix? Oh yeah. Race cars buzzing around us the whole time we were there. When we saw it in the street, we didn't feel the need to get tickets to watch from the stands anymore.
From Grand Lisboa, we walked back, up San Ma Lo, to Senado Square, around its little mosaic paved streets, and followed the signs that led us to the Ruins of St. Paul. It was really beautiful, built by the Jesuits, sadly destroyed by a fire but the facade was restored. After this we went to the fort nearby which housed the Macau Museum where we learned more about the Ruins of St. Paul, that it was actually a sermon set in stone with all the symbolic meanings to the images on the facade.
After we had lunch in a small chinese resto on Senado Square, we took a bus to the Grand Prix Museum. Lots of cool cars! There was even a display of a Filipino Macau Grand Prix winner. Right next door was the Wine Museum. We didn't take any pictures but we got to taste some pretty good wine. hehe.
That evening (after Mike napped while I pumped) we decided to see what Macau was like at night, so we strolled up San Ma Lo to some back streets which my internet research said was a former red light district that now had some cool restaurants and was lively at night. It was a bit of a let down, it was mostly bakeries and food stalls. Not a lot of people. So we each had an egg tart then walked back to Senado Square, seen here beautifully lit for evening shoppers and tambays. Seems like people just like to hang out here every evening. I don't blame them, it's a very pretty place to chill.
More walking and we caught the fountain show at the Wynn, which apparently occurs every 15 minutes from like 5pm to midnight. You could just sit there in front of the Wynn and watch the fountains all evening. Not a bad place to hang out either. By this time my feet were killing me. We walked A LOT. I am totally out of shape but Mike wasn't even tired. Fortunately he had mercy on me and we headed back to our hotel for the night.
Day 2. Again I emerged at 11. We had lunch at a cute little Portugese restaurant across the street from our hotel. I don't really recall much of what happened this morning because the day was reserved for going to the Venetian. We put on our best duds and hopped on a bus to Taipa island because we had tickets to Cirque du Soleil! Weee! It was truly the most dazzling spectacle ever! If you go to Macau JUST to see Zaia, my friend it is worth it! Considering how expensive it is to watch in Vegas or Paris. We LOVED it! Amazing!
Plus of course, how could you go to the Venetian and not ride a gondola?! Actually, I was surprised that it cost as much as it did but Mike said let's ride, so we did. And we got a real italian gondolier, she sang songs while paddling us up and down the canal, and we even kissed under a couple of bridges so that's good luck for us. We shared our gondola with a couple from Davao, and that was fun too.
We explored the Venetian well into the evening. The Canals are indoors and lined with shops and restaurants made to look like buildings in Venice. You can ride a gondola at 11PM and it's blue skies and aircon weather ALL DAY. The casino was huge! The Venetian was really beautiful. We didn't want to leave but my boobs were bursting so we took a bus back and after a short rest headed out to check out some nearby casinos like the Grand Emperor. We just looked though. Mike didn't see anything he liked to play.
Day 3. We had buffet breakfast at the hotel restaurant and then emerged late again because I just HAD to finish Mirrormask on AXN. Then we got on another bus and headed for Coloane, the southern most island of Macau. I'd like to say here that we were very proud of ourselves figuring out the bus system of Macau. It saved us A LOT of money and it wasn't that difficult at all since we were going at such a leisurely pace.
Anyway, we went to Coloane, which compared to the main area of Macau was very provincial and quiet. We headed straight for St. Francis Xavier Chapel where is bones used to be kept before it was transferred to another museum. There were some restaurants nearby where we had lunch. I had some rabbit stew, which wasn't really anything spectacular, but I just want to be able to say I've eaten rabbit. The honey lemon chicken was excellent though. I ate so much.
After lunch, we walked around a bit more, found a couple of traditional chinese temples and figured out that was all there was to see in sleepy little Coloane. We headed for the bus stop and Mike saw the Lord Stowe's and I just had to have an egg tart there. I know, I know, there's Lord Stowe's here in Manila but I've never been to a Lord Stowe's here and this was the ORIGINAL. Anyway we went in and I think it was at this particular bite of my second egg tart that gluttony started punishing me. I was so full I was nauseous. But I finished it anyway. It was that good.
We headed back to Macau by bus, rested in the hotel a bit and then took a leisurely walk to the Cathedral for Sunday Mass. Despite our best efforts, we arrived 30 minutes early. But anyway, we heard mass with probably the entire Filipino population of Macau because it was the only English mass in the area for the whole weekend.
After that we decided to have dinner in Fisherman's Wharf which is a theme park with some clubs and restaurants but when we got there it was practically empty and all the rides were already closed. Sayang, it looked like a really nice place. We found a food court and ate there. After that we walked to the Sands to look at the casino. ENORMOUS. But again, Mike didn't feel like playing there. We were tired so we took a cab back to our hotel.
Day 4. We spent the morning sleeping, having breakfast in the hotel and packing. At least, I did the sleeping. It was my last night of uninterrupted sleep, I wanted it to last as long as possible. But my mom caled and that jolted me awake. We were able to get a little pasalubong shopping done (at least, I shopped while Mike waited at a nearby Starbucks) and then we checked out, and went to the Macau Tower for lunch. We learned about the 360 degree rotating restaurant on top and decided to get lunch buffet tickets up there. This is a picture of my feet above 1,109 ft and I don't have a fear of heights but I couldn't stand there for more than a few seconds. Seriously. And people pay to get to walk out on the ledge of this thing? Unbelievable.
But the food was AMAZING. Oh, it was soooo good, I ate to the point of nausea again, I was beginning to think I was pregnant (I'm not).
From the Macau Tower, we took a cab to the Maritime Museum (we saved so much by taking buses, now we had to spend our remaining Patacas before going home). It was really cute, with all the little ships. And it was practically free because we had gotten a museum pass on Day 1. And here Mike cracked a joke that was so corny but which I got immediately that we knew it was time this whole just the two of us together thing to end. Hahaha!
Right next to the Maritime Museum is the Temple of A Ma who is the goddess of the Sea and to whom Macau is dedicated to. Is in fact named after. Mike took pictures of the outside but we didn't go in anymore because it's a place of worship and we didn't want to be rude tourists. Instead we spent some time sitting on a bench, watching children ride their bikes and tourists wandering around.
And finally, we headed back to the Wynn to find the Poker tables we couldn't find in any other freaking casino in all of Macau. This is a photo of the magnificent ceiling in an area in the Wynn called the Rotunda. It depicts the Chinese zodiac and below this amazing ceiling is a dome with the western zodiac constellations as its design.
Of all the casinos we explored, we like the Wynn best. It wasn't smelly or dark or crowded. Mike said it had a good atmosphere. It also had nice bathrooms I was comfortable enough to pump milk in one. After a lot of observing and choosing and deciding on Mike's part he finally settled at a blackjack table (Texas Hold Em was too expensive to play daw). Luckily, he nearly doubled his buy in just a few rounds of play and stopped when he started to lose (and it was time we headed for the airport.) I found that brief blackjack game so thrilling! Call me mababaw but I think we did extremely well if only because we didn't lose any money and even ended up HKD300 richer. Woot!
After cashing in our chips, we retrieved our luggage and went to the airport. It wasn't anything special so no pics there. The Cebu Pacific check in counters were still closed by the time we arrived. Sayang we could have played in the casino more. Haha! But anyway, aside from a brief delay, the trip home was pretty uneventful. We were just raring to get back to our children by then.
We didn't see EVERYTHING there was to see, but we did get to do everything we wanted to do and more. We got to watch Cirque, ride a gondola, eat a giant buffet lunch and gamble in a casino. But most importantly we got to rest and relax and just be with each other. We didn't force ourselves to be anywhere at any given time; no pressure to zip through as many sights as possible, we just did what we could and rested when we were tired, and ate when we were hungry. The weather was perfect. Sunny but cool wind chill in the shade. All in all, we enjoyed ourselves immensely we wouldn't mind coming back to Macau someday.
This year our Anniversary Trip was to Macau. We went last weekend but booked our flights back in May when the new Cebu Pacific international budget fares came out BEFORE fuel surcharges skyrocketed. But also before they offered the travel packages that come with hotel accommodations and city tours.
So I had half a year to prepare for this trip but did most of the research in the week before we left. So typical! Not that i wasn't excited. I was. I was even the one who chose Macau, mostly because I loved the pictures Judy (typershark ) had taken from last year. I just left it for the last minute because I didn't think it would be that difficult to plan our itinerary. In actuality, there were more things to do than I originally thought, because everyone kept telling me Macau is so small you could see everything in a couple of days. But we were there for four whole days and each day we did something new.
So in the tradition of blogging our travelogue through pictures like I did with our trip last year to Indonesia, here's what we did in Macau.
We left Manila Last Thursday, Nov 13 in the evening. Let's call this Day 0 because it was mostly spent getting to Macau. This is NAIA 3. It wasn't in Macau, I know, but it deserves mention because it's huge and EMPTY! Exclusively used by Cebu Pacific, it is officially the No Stress Airport. No lines, no hassles, nice friendly guards and check in ladies, immigration was a breeze going and coming. It makes us like traveling by Cebu Pacific again. Nevermind that there are no free meals on the plane, it's just a two hour flight, and the airport is no stress. Yay NAIA 3!
So anyway, we arrived in Macau at like 10PM, took a cab to the Metropole Hotel, a small and relatively cheap place right in the middle of tourist area Macau. We were settled in our room by 11PM. Mike was hungry so we decided to get out of our hotel to walk around and get our bearings and what do you know? McDonald's Cafe literally around the corner! Score!
Day 1. We emerge from our hotel at 11AM. Well, actually, I emerged at 11AM, By then Mike had already gone to McDo to buy me breakfast, and a nearby 7-11 to buy water, and walked a bit in several directions to see what's around our hotel. I stayed in bed for as long as I could because IT WAS THE FIRST UNINTERRUPTED NIGHT'S SLEEP I'VE HAD IN 8 MONTHS! YEAH! And the only reason I got up as early as 9 was because my breasts were so full of milk I needed to pump. So there.
Henihoo, when we did manage to start the day, we walked around to see what there was to see. This is the Grand Lisboa, famous Macau Casino. It's a 5 min walk away from our hotel. We walked up to it, around it, up a crosswalk and saw a race car whiz by. Did I mention we were there during the Macau Grand Prix? Oh yeah. Race cars buzzing around us the whole time we were there. When we saw it in the street, we didn't feel the need to get tickets to watch from the stands anymore.
From Grand Lisboa, we walked back, up San Ma Lo, to Senado Square, around its little mosaic paved streets, and followed the signs that led us to the Ruins of St. Paul. It was really beautiful, built by the Jesuits, sadly destroyed by a fire but the facade was restored. After this we went to the fort nearby which housed the Macau Museum where we learned more about the Ruins of St. Paul, that it was actually a sermon set in stone with all the symbolic meanings to the images on the facade.
After we had lunch in a small chinese resto on Senado Square, we took a bus to the Grand Prix Museum. Lots of cool cars! There was even a display of a Filipino Macau Grand Prix winner. Right next door was the Wine Museum. We didn't take any pictures but we got to taste some pretty good wine. hehe.
That evening (after Mike napped while I pumped) we decided to see what Macau was like at night, so we strolled up San Ma Lo to some back streets which my internet research said was a former red light district that now had some cool restaurants and was lively at night. It was a bit of a let down, it was mostly bakeries and food stalls. Not a lot of people. So we each had an egg tart then walked back to Senado Square, seen here beautifully lit for evening shoppers and tambays. Seems like people just like to hang out here every evening. I don't blame them, it's a very pretty place to chill.
More walking and we caught the fountain show at the Wynn, which apparently occurs every 15 minutes from like 5pm to midnight. You could just sit there in front of the Wynn and watch the fountains all evening. Not a bad place to hang out either. By this time my feet were killing me. We walked A LOT. I am totally out of shape but Mike wasn't even tired. Fortunately he had mercy on me and we headed back to our hotel for the night.
Day 2. Again I emerged at 11. We had lunch at a cute little Portugese restaurant across the street from our hotel. I don't really recall much of what happened this morning because the day was reserved for going to the Venetian. We put on our best duds and hopped on a bus to Taipa island because we had tickets to Cirque du Soleil! Weee! It was truly the most dazzling spectacle ever! If you go to Macau JUST to see Zaia, my friend it is worth it! Considering how expensive it is to watch in Vegas or Paris. We LOVED it! Amazing!
Plus of course, how could you go to the Venetian and not ride a gondola?! Actually, I was surprised that it cost as much as it did but Mike said let's ride, so we did. And we got a real italian gondolier, she sang songs while paddling us up and down the canal, and we even kissed under a couple of bridges so that's good luck for us. We shared our gondola with a couple from Davao, and that was fun too.
We explored the Venetian well into the evening. The Canals are indoors and lined with shops and restaurants made to look like buildings in Venice. You can ride a gondola at 11PM and it's blue skies and aircon weather ALL DAY. The casino was huge! The Venetian was really beautiful. We didn't want to leave but my boobs were bursting so we took a bus back and after a short rest headed out to check out some nearby casinos like the Grand Emperor. We just looked though. Mike didn't see anything he liked to play.
Day 3. We had buffet breakfast at the hotel restaurant and then emerged late again because I just HAD to finish Mirrormask on AXN. Then we got on another bus and headed for Coloane, the southern most island of Macau. I'd like to say here that we were very proud of ourselves figuring out the bus system of Macau. It saved us A LOT of money and it wasn't that difficult at all since we were going at such a leisurely pace.
Anyway, we went to Coloane, which compared to the main area of Macau was very provincial and quiet. We headed straight for St. Francis Xavier Chapel where is bones used to be kept before it was transferred to another museum. There were some restaurants nearby where we had lunch. I had some rabbit stew, which wasn't really anything spectacular, but I just want to be able to say I've eaten rabbit. The honey lemon chicken was excellent though. I ate so much.
After lunch, we walked around a bit more, found a couple of traditional chinese temples and figured out that was all there was to see in sleepy little Coloane. We headed for the bus stop and Mike saw the Lord Stowe's and I just had to have an egg tart there. I know, I know, there's Lord Stowe's here in Manila but I've never been to a Lord Stowe's here and this was the ORIGINAL. Anyway we went in and I think it was at this particular bite of my second egg tart that gluttony started punishing me. I was so full I was nauseous. But I finished it anyway. It was that good.
We headed back to Macau by bus, rested in the hotel a bit and then took a leisurely walk to the Cathedral for Sunday Mass. Despite our best efforts, we arrived 30 minutes early. But anyway, we heard mass with probably the entire Filipino population of Macau because it was the only English mass in the area for the whole weekend.
After that we decided to have dinner in Fisherman's Wharf which is a theme park with some clubs and restaurants but when we got there it was practically empty and all the rides were already closed. Sayang, it looked like a really nice place. We found a food court and ate there. After that we walked to the Sands to look at the casino. ENORMOUS. But again, Mike didn't feel like playing there. We were tired so we took a cab back to our hotel.
Day 4. We spent the morning sleeping, having breakfast in the hotel and packing. At least, I did the sleeping. It was my last night of uninterrupted sleep, I wanted it to last as long as possible. But my mom caled and that jolted me awake. We were able to get a little pasalubong shopping done (at least, I shopped while Mike waited at a nearby Starbucks) and then we checked out, and went to the Macau Tower for lunch. We learned about the 360 degree rotating restaurant on top and decided to get lunch buffet tickets up there. This is a picture of my feet above 1,109 ft and I don't have a fear of heights but I couldn't stand there for more than a few seconds. Seriously. And people pay to get to walk out on the ledge of this thing? Unbelievable.
But the food was AMAZING. Oh, it was soooo good, I ate to the point of nausea again, I was beginning to think I was pregnant (I'm not).
From the Macau Tower, we took a cab to the Maritime Museum (we saved so much by taking buses, now we had to spend our remaining Patacas before going home). It was really cute, with all the little ships. And it was practically free because we had gotten a museum pass on Day 1. And here Mike cracked a joke that was so corny but which I got immediately that we knew it was time this whole just the two of us together thing to end. Hahaha!
Right next to the Maritime Museum is the Temple of A Ma who is the goddess of the Sea and to whom Macau is dedicated to. Is in fact named after. Mike took pictures of the outside but we didn't go in anymore because it's a place of worship and we didn't want to be rude tourists. Instead we spent some time sitting on a bench, watching children ride their bikes and tourists wandering around.
And finally, we headed back to the Wynn to find the Poker tables we couldn't find in any other freaking casino in all of Macau. This is a photo of the magnificent ceiling in an area in the Wynn called the Rotunda. It depicts the Chinese zodiac and below this amazing ceiling is a dome with the western zodiac constellations as its design.
Of all the casinos we explored, we like the Wynn best. It wasn't smelly or dark or crowded. Mike said it had a good atmosphere. It also had nice bathrooms I was comfortable enough to pump milk in one. After a lot of observing and choosing and deciding on Mike's part he finally settled at a blackjack table (Texas Hold Em was too expensive to play daw). Luckily, he nearly doubled his buy in just a few rounds of play and stopped when he started to lose (and it was time we headed for the airport.) I found that brief blackjack game so thrilling! Call me mababaw but I think we did extremely well if only because we didn't lose any money and even ended up HKD300 richer. Woot!
After cashing in our chips, we retrieved our luggage and went to the airport. It wasn't anything special so no pics there. The Cebu Pacific check in counters were still closed by the time we arrived. Sayang we could have played in the casino more. Haha! But anyway, aside from a brief delay, the trip home was pretty uneventful. We were just raring to get back to our children by then.
We didn't see EVERYTHING there was to see, but we did get to do everything we wanted to do and more. We got to watch Cirque, ride a gondola, eat a giant buffet lunch and gamble in a casino. But most importantly we got to rest and relax and just be with each other. We didn't force ourselves to be anywhere at any given time; no pressure to zip through as many sights as possible, we just did what we could and rested when we were tired, and ate when we were hungry. The weather was perfect. Sunny but cool wind chill in the shade. All in all, we enjoyed ourselves immensely we wouldn't mind coming back to Macau someday.