Sze Wan

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

HK & Macau Day VII - Museums of Macau

Normally in my trip abroad, I would want to get the most out of it but i would love to sleep till late day...but in Macau, I have to woke up early as I have only few more hours in Macau.

I woke up at 7.30am. After a long hot shower, I went off sight seeing alone...didn't want to wake my friends from their comfort bed. I left my hotel room at 8.30am. First I moved out to Senado Square. I walked up straight to the ruins of the St Paul's church...It looked so beautiful under the broad daylight.

St Paul's ruins in daytime

The Museum of Sacred Art behind the wall opened at 9am. There was nothing much in the museum but the descriptions and photos of the ruins St Paul. However this place was a must for both day and night time. Then I walked downhill and stopped at 大三巴...this was a fast food pallor selling local famous delicacies...yummy 豬排包 and 珍珠奶茶. They were MOP20 only.

Next I visited the Holy House of Mercy. The collections were very limited but the exterior of the building was superb. This was the best place to see the whole of Senado Square. And not to forget the kind uncle. Uncle has been very helpful...he has suggested many great shots to me and offered to take photos of me...thanks uncle!

taken in the Holy House of Mercy

Then I walked to the Cultural Club blocks away. This club is situated in an old pawnshop along Av. Almeida Ribeiro. This was a superb place for Western tourists. They have a Boutique Gallery, Arts Plaza, Jin Yong Library, Water Teahouse, and the Bamboo Hut. Lots of Chinese art and culture offered here...tea drinking.

in the Cultural Club...lots of great artwork here

My 3rd museum visited of the day was Pawn Museum, Heritage Exhibition of a Traditional Pawnshop Business. Though there were nothing much left in the shop, but it was still a very interesting museum to pay a visit to. I loved the entrance ticket which they printed. With the shop stamp, it looked so real...really a unique pawnshop receipt.

按 (àn) literally means press. So in pawnshop one has to press in their properties for quick money

the Lisboa Casino

I was back at Metropark Hotel for check out at 11.15am. But my friends were lost...so I got to transfer all our luggage down to proceed with check out or else we would ended up paying for another night...After checking out, we left our luggage at lobby while we headed to the Museu Do Vinho or the Wine Museum and Museu Do Grande Premio or the Grand Prix Museum. These two museums were must go museum in Macau. They would only cost you MOP20 for the joint entrance ticket to both.

with my dream car...dream of having them but not driving them :-)

see me driving....ss only

The Grand Prix Museum has many cars for your admiration. Those AI cars were so nice....this was the first time I see them in real. I have been a fan of F1 many years ago but never got a chance to see them...the Wine Museum housed many old equipments used to make wine but what attracted me most was the wine tasting session. Lay Fang and I shared 1 glass of red wine and a glass of white wine. The red wine was very strong with mild sweetness while the white wine was sweet with nice fragrance. It taste a little like ice wine...it was cold in throat. We learned to taste wine here...we turned, smell and sip in small portion at a time. The wines were great...definitely worth more than what we paid... :-)

stealing grapes at the grape yard.... :P

models of Portugal wine maker

me + white wine = red face

2 of us have emptied our glass...2 more to go

We went back to hotel to catch the shuttle at 3pm. And we were in good luck to be able to catch the 3.30pm boat to HK. We rushed through the crowded custom and managed to board the boat....The ride was horrible. The sea was rough and bumpy. With the after effect of the wine, I was a little dizzy.

Arriving in Kowloon, he headed to our hostel straight. We were so tired and needed a short rest so badly. We rested till 6.30pm. We headed to the Cafe de Coral, 大家樂, a local fast food restaurant offering local dishes for dinner. The food range there was good with reasonable price and I was glad that I have no difficulty reading the dual language menu :-)

Then we walked along Avenue of Star where we watch the Symphony Of Light. The show was great. Watching it from Tsim Sha Tsui was better in terms of the light and music coordination. It felt like all the building came a live and dancing to the rhythm....bravo! Glad that I was able to catch the show from both shores.

prior to the Symphony of Light

Hong Kong gets alive every night at 8pm

symphony of light...the lasers and spotlights...eye-opening!

After the show, we split again. First I went to Espirit Outlet with Jessie and Siew Hoon....lucky enough to be able to get a nice pair of jeans for myself and 1 for my aunt...the price was half of what we pay in Msia. Then I went to Mong Kok alone. I wanted to get my bro's G10 lens. At first I could not get any better offer that what I have got days ago but finally settled with 1 telephoto lens, 1 wide angle+macro lens and an adapter for HKD1250...

And not to forget I rewarded myself with another great dessert from 許流山...yummy! It came in 3 small dishes. I love the mango sorbet and jelly most... :P

It was a fruitful days... lots of buying with great activities and great food... I love Macau! I love Hong Kong!

HK & Macau Day VI - The Historic Centre of Macao

This was a short day. Most of the time spent on waiting and traveling.

We left hotel for Tsim Sha Tsui Pier but only to discover that we were suppose to board our craft from the Hong Kong China Terminal. We arrived at the terminal soaked in our own sweat, carrying our luggage and for me I have to balance my drink, coffee from McD.

When we arrived at the terminal, it was very crowded. I guessed those must the the Casinos' frequent guests. Most were elderly and traveling in either a pair or quadruplet. We managed to get tickets to travel at 1pm...we have to wait for almost 2 hours and yet we have to pay more for that.

the seat were very comfortable

the ferry at Macau terminal

We finally arrived at Macau at close to 2pm but we were stuck in the terminal for quite sometime for custom clearing. At the terminal, I saw another interesting auto-teller machine. This time, the machine was by CTM, a local telco company. The machine has sim pack, prepaid card, Nokia 1650 handset and the most unbelievable item, Ipod Nano 8GB. I could not believe my own eye for a while. I was staring at the Ipod Nano for some time to see if those were real. It was sold at $1200 which was approximately RM600. "How safe is Macau?", I asked myself. If any telco would dare to put up such a thing in Malaysia, the whole machine would surely be gone over the night.

I could not believe to see Ipod Nano to be sold on auto teller machine

Then at the Tourist Office, we were happy to learn that our hotel for the night, Metropark Hotel did provide free shuttle transfer for us. So we board the bus and got to our hotel. Finally we got a decent room for a night in our trip. The price that we paid was the same for the lousy and stuffy room at Tai Wan Hotel in Hong Kong. We dropped our luggage then headed out right away.

We walked to the Senado Square. We only managed to admire the exterior of the "Leal Senado" Building and Holy House of Mercy. Then we visited the St. Dominic's Church. This church was filled with devotees and visitors.There was a small Museum of Sacred Art at the back of the building.

at Senado Square

St Dominic's Church

Then we walked into a less traveled path to the Cathedral and Lou Kau Mansion. The mansion was the home of old chinese merchant. It was a typical traditional Chinese house. It was a 2 stories building and the house was separated into few area and each with an open space compound in the middle for better lighting and ventilation.

in front of Catheral

so Christmas in Macau

typical Chinese house with high roof and carving....narrow structure with high roof

We then headed to the Portugal Embassy building but we got the wrong route which lead us to discover a hawker stall selling traditional Maltose Candy. The maltose was so sweet and thick. It came with 2 pieces of biscuits. Moving on we discovered stalls selling famous local snack雞蛋仔 and fruit juices. The 雞蛋仔 was crunchy at the side. It was made of flour batter with eggs and sugar. This snack was not as good as imagined but really very filling.

the maltose candy stall

sweet sweet sweet Maltose

my 雞蛋仔

While enjoying our food and drinks, we decided to continue to Macau Museum and Mount Fortess. We asked around for directions and walked very fast rushing up the hill. We took the wrong route, passing through housing area...climbing tiring steps....and when we finally arrived at the museum, we were told that the museum was closed. We arrived there about 15 minutes before the closing time but the last admittance time was 30 minutes prior....really a waste...

Anyway, we had more time for the fort then. We walked round the fort and enjoyed the busy city of Macau after dark. The neon lights from the casinos became so lively from the top of the hill. It was really a very beautiful city after dark. With the cannon and the buildings on the background, we could have lots of great shots here despite the drizzle.

St Paul's ruin front the fort

Macau Museum

going to shoot Grand Lisbao down?

We walked downhill to see the St Paul's ruin. We could only admire the pieces of it. The gate was close and we were not allowed into the building compound. Spent a lot time photographing here as I could not find good cameraman to take good shots of me here.

with my great travel companions

introducing the wall of ruins St Paul

On our back to our hotel, we stopped by at the famous bakery or souvenir shop, 鉅記餅家. I bought my first Macau Portuguese Egg Tart there. They were delicious. I have also bought home 6 boxes of almond cookies. My mum and sis have reminded me so many times before my visit that I must buy home almond cookies and they must be from this bakery only. I have tried some when I was there too...so anyone wish to get souvenir back from Macau, then Almond biscuit from Koi Kei Bakery would be superb.

tart from Koi Kei...yummy

the Largo Square after dark

In the evening, we went to the Grand Lisbao Casino....we were not really into gambling but we thought this visit was essential....a must to see in Macau. And indeed, that trip was eye opening. The casino was really very big....not sure if it was times bigger than Genting but surely more interesting than Genting....for at least they have pole dance here...And they have a special corner for new gamble, providing free gambling tuition class...haha....but not for me, I tried playing on the machine...really small bet....HKD0.20 per game. So with HKD20 notes, I got to spent very long time there....this game was cheaper than playing video games at video center....:P