Macau Mix: Food, Culture, & Lights

The Famous Sky-illlusioned Venetian ceiling

We decided to visit Macau from Hongkong, without joining a travel tour nor group. With one of my besties, and her brother, we decided to just be guided by our instincts. With just 2,500 PHP (350 HKD) of roundtrip ferry ride fare, we were able to make it to Macau. After immigration, we noticed several attendants waiving the placards of their employer hotels and resorts. Luckily, one attendant noticed us (it could be our very obvious actions) checking on where to go. The attendant happened to be a Pinoy working for Venetian. There we met our first Macau angel :P He taught us some directions and suggested to visit Venetian Hotel first. After all, he is promoting the place and he is assigned to guide tourists to their free shuttle bus! When we reached Venetian, we were more than happy to stroll the place, did some pasalubong shopping, and decided to fill in our hungry stomachs. Never been to Vegas yet, but my travel buddy siblings said that the place is very much similar to the Venetian there.

The Venetian - Macau

Remembering the attendant's tip to take the shuttle bus from Venetian to Fisherman's Wharf, off we go. This is around 1 to 2pm. We stopped for some rest and photo ops.


After an hour, we were all by ourselves without tips to follow so we just spontaneously decided to ride a bus. Before proceeding to our seats, we just asked the driver first if it would go to the famous  Rua Sao Paolo. At first, we were hardly understood as we asked in English. Good thing, I just guessed the Portuguese version of the names of the places and it was easier for the driver to understand. Checking our maps, it says that we can get off at Leal Senado and we could just walk around the place. Being alert is helpful since when we saw the Leal Senado sign, we got off the bus. We just followed the street signs and then we are there. While rushing through St. Dominic's Church and Rua Sao Paolo, we passed by street stalls and stores that showcase the food only Macau can offer. In an instant, I fell in love with the beef jerkies and Portuguese tarts. After reaching several historical landmarks showing the Portuguese influence to Macau, we took some rest and I just realized how I love the mix of Macau's history. We ended the never-ending walking and a bit of food tripping by 5pm.

Fisherman's Wharf

We took our chance by riding a bus - again. We do not know where it is headed to. When we saw Lisboa and other casinos, we knew that we were back to the casino district. We strolled some more, and decided to drop by Macau Tower. In the bus ride we hopefully is going to the tower, we met our angel #2. A contract worker in Macau, we called our kababayan 'ate' and she told us that we were right in taking the bus. We asked where she is off to , and said that she's off to the Macau Food Festival. 'Ate' encouraged us to attend the festival after our trip to the tower. Up in the skydeck, the view is just lovely! Macau is just lovely especially at night. Past 7pm, we decided to drop by the Macau Food Festival and we are thankful that we did. Exotic and native food of Macau and from the nearby countries (including the Philippines) are being presented in the festival. There are musicians and live bands to make the event more festive. What can we say, but Pinoy talents are also showcased because most of the musicians are kababayans as well. To cap the night, I was dared to taste the sweet and sour crocodile. After almost saying no, I gave in and the taste..... was just yummy! :P

St. Dominic Church

At 9pm we were back to the Macau port to take  the ride back to HK. It was a fun 12 hour Macau sidetrip.

Macau at Night: View from Macau Tower Sky Deck

Travel Thoughts:
- Take advantage of the free shuttle to Venetian, not only because it is free..Mote importantly, the itinerary can be planned more clearly if the tour starts at Venetian. It is more strategic if one would like to visit almost all of the main tour spots in Macau. The route if the buses ,and its schedule, also makes it all the more strategic.

Macau Tower

- If lost, no worries. There are a lot of kababayans working at the famous tourist areas such as Venetian and Casino district. You can ask directions.

- Portuguese tart is a must try!
- Be prepared to walk. Some of the landmarks and tour spots are clustered together but there are a lot of stairs and twisted roads between.

Macau Food Festival

:) 

Macau from above

Hongkong High

HK Disneyland

Proximity is one of the reasons why we Pinoys would take a time to go out of the country and visit Hongkong. But, many of us know that there's more to Hongkong like - shopping, food trip, culture, and theme parks that make Hongkong one of the most frequently visited out-of-the-country destinations.

For a foodie, one would know that eating authentic HK dishes is a must on every visit. Fact is, sidewalk stalls are sometimes even more pricey than some fast food and restaurants in the malls.But still, foreigners flock to these stalls to enjoy authentic warm HK noodles and/or dimsum. Posh food trip in hotels and accessible restaurants is also worth to try. 

Ladies Heaven

As a shopper, one would enjoy the famous shopping areas like Nathan Road, Tsim Tsa Shiu, and  Mongkok to name a few. For the ladies, HK is just a fun destination because it is the nearest home to H&M! The bazaars and night markets never tire the tourists and shopping until the wee hours in the morning seems to be a normal routine.

Aberdeen Court

For tours that would give a glimpse of the history and capture a bit of the colorful culture of HK, Aberdeen Court and Harbour View are just two places to go to.

To feed the child-like hearts in us, Hongkong Disneyland and Ocean Park are always the top picks.

Travel thoughts:

- Best time to visit HK is December when weather is cool but not that cold yet. For shoppers, it is August because of the sale

- Sidewalk food stalls are sometimes 20% more expensive than some restaurants found int the malls. But, it is highly recommended for tourists to try.

- Sidetrips to Shenzhen and Macau ,in the middle of the whole duration of stay in HK, is recommended. 

Ferry rides are around two hours of travel time to these destinations.

- MTR card credits can be used as payments to some of 711 stores.

- It always works to visit Disneyland in the afternoon to enjoy the rides and the spots. Plus, the castle firework show, usually held from 7 to 8pm, is a good exclamation point to end the day in the theme park.