0 Less than 12 hour in Macau: What to do, to see, to buy?

Okay. I was all excited for Macau, China. If you are a friend of mine on the Facebook, then you might remember my status saying, "I think I can retire in Macau."

I still love Malaysia though. To be exact, Sabah, and when i was back home seeing that status again, i realised that it is not possible and yet not too impossible.  Is Macau so amazing til one would thinking about retiring there, as i am not a nationale at all!  I am sure that it will not be that easy for me even if Macau governors are easier on foreigners.

Yes, I love Macau, everything in it. Except for the gambling part. I did accidentally barged in into the casino in The Venetian when Steven and I lost our friends when we stucked at an  autoshow. I made him took this photo of me.....

and i took more..

 and more.....i do not know why. I just snapped them outta blue. Just enjoy it, fella.

 

Back to the main agenda of this entry again. I am the person who takes long journey before go to the point.

First and foremost you gotta visit in the Ruins of St Paul's, the most famous landmark in Macau. It used to be a largest cathedral in Asia back in the days the Portuguese's reign in Macau. However it was destroyed by fire during a typhoon on 1835. During my visit, it was raining but still there's a lot of people came here. And you gotta find a good spot to take photos. It is almost impossible not to take any photos inter framed with other visitors.

For instance, some pink headed woman in yellow umbrella at the back of these boys.

and mine...a lot! You can see that there is a lot of people up there. I was going down the stairs already. I did not had a chance to get any nearer to the facade like in the following photo because it is just too crowded on that day. 

Hey, can you spot me in this photo?

So, after visiting the Ruins of St Paul's , we just walked on along the Senado Square which is very near to the Ruins of St Paul's where we bought souvenirs along the way. There's a lot of souvenirs shop there offered low prices on souvenirs therefore, we looked around for few shops first before really buying to get good deal.

The Leal Senado building

Senado Square is not only meant for business, but it was also listed by UNESCO as the historic centre of Macau. This area has come a long way since the Portuguese reign too. It was kinda a place where the Macau authorities reviews the troops on their inaugurations. Nowadays, it i always used for cultural activities especially during the Chinese Spring Festival and Christmas. However, during my visit there, there was none but a giant Christmas tree was standing tall in front of the Leal Senado. If i stayed longer maybe i can see more.

The floor was marbled in Portuguese style and meant for pedestrians only

The Senado Square consists of business zone, where there's a lot of shops there, selling low end stuff, from attires and women's and men's accessories to restaurants etc..etc.. One basically can do a lot of shopping in Macau here if you targeting on buying the lower end brands of products. I didn't buy anything for myself here but souvenirs. Except!! The Portuguese egg tart. It does taste a lot better than one we usually get from bakery shops in town. I did not bought them as souvenirs because i don't think it can survive few days before i reached to KK.He he he.. I am drooling as i type this, okay. I am helpless for i have no ideas where to find it in Malaysia! Where? If YOU know where, inform me, please !

We saw so many people queued up in front of a bakery shop (Koi Kei Bakery, it is quite well known in Macau) so we jumped in too for some.

Here in Senado Square too, also stand the St Domingo's church. I did not have enough time to go inside even for a quick tour. Now, I regret it for i could have been , if i insisted going in.

 
Next up attraction that i had been during my short stay in Macau is tour around The Venetian. Sounds, Italian? Yes, it is. Here i had a chance to experience Venice atmosphere in The Venetian. Inside is resorts, casinos and shoppes. The shoppes has the Venice-like building and even has the gondola ride across  San Luca canal. It was really like the one in the Venice has. The boats were beautiful and there even had  singing gondolier when the boat came passing below a bridge.

Isn't the scenery behind us just beautiful?There were just so many people here walking around. Wonder how they close this place for shooting few scenes on a famous Korean series, Boys Over Flower. 

 Well, we were quite disappointed actually here because we were supposed to go for the gondola ride, which one of the things that we were really looking forward for The Venetian tour. We were technically like Cinderella. We had to wave goodbye to Macau at 3 p.m. for we had to catch the ferry to Hong Kong and flight back to Clark, Manila before midnight. So there's no way we could queue for 3 consequence 15 minutes ride before our turn!

So, we got over it already.

 Another interesting things about the Venetian is , it has a man made blue sky, which gives only sunrise and sunset effect at the canal and shoppes that is automated by computer.  So, there will never be nightime there!

It was during sunset when we were there. Outrageous because outside this building , cloudy all over.

I would also like to rest some facts on The Venetian. So, i am just gonna throw it to your face like this.

It has largest casino in the world, largest building in Asia, 6th largest building in the world. It is  owned by Las Vegas Sands, in USA. There's a lot to do inside the building aside from what us boring people does, from gaming and gambling, entertainment like musical and magic show as well as shopping the high end stuff and there even hotels.

I had a night stay in Taipa Island at Grandview Hotel. It was a very nice 4 stars hotel with staggering bathroom wall, transparent glass where you can actually watch your roomate showering from the bed! I must say, what a sexy room. Sorry , i was a dork for forgetting about taking the photos of the room.

Actually he was too tired for the night tour but i made him go anyway since we were misinformed by the guide that we only having the tour around Macau inside the hotel bus. But, actually we were dropped at the bus terminal and took another bus to go to Wynn.

We reached at the hotel around 9-10 p.m.  we were too tired after shopping at Gongbei underground shopping mall and walking on foot crossing the border gate from Zhuhai. But, we figured that Macau was known for its nightlife, so though we knew that the tour guide wouldn't take us anywhere except sending us with hotel transportation to the bus terminal where we could take on another buses to go whichever casinos we would like to go.

Each casinos has its own shuttle bus , but we were told to take one to Wynn so that it will be convenient for us to walk on to the musical fountain at the back of the hotel.. He he he, we were not actually looking for casinos to try some lucks , just looking for interesting thing to see, to take photos and post it here. Yeah yeah...i am that boring person.

Doing some camwhoring with Fredley as the photog before the musical fountain gets in action. Behind us, is the building of Grand Lisboa. We did not walked reach it, we went back hotel after the musical fountain stops at first we reached. We were like old folks.

The fountain was magical ! It really does dance better than anyone else in the world. It followed on some broadway music which will makes you ticked to dance along too as it was played.  You might wanna check out the video of it here.

Our tour guide also suggested that we went to see the Tree of Prosperity at Wynn. At first , i really thought that it was a huge tree just standing tall. Okay, it was inside the building. So it was not supposed to be that huge but, cute, with dangly fairy lights and maybe apples! What was i thinking?

When we enter the center atrium, we saw a  massive golden carving on the ceiling! It is nothing like  a tree.  But, it was so beautiful, carved with the Chinese and Western Zodiac. And below the ceiling was a giant globe like..i think that it was only one third of the northern hemisphere here..

 Well, actually the tree was inside the globe behind me. It was supposed to be a show, where the golden Tree of Prosperity coming out from the globe while the ceiling above, there will come out a fairy lights extending to the tree of life. Unfortunately, it was not a good night for us for it is going under renovation for some time now thus, there was no tree show. Put on a sulking face. If you wanna know more about this tree or to see the amazingness of the show, check out this link, http://www.wynnmacau.com/en/entertainment/tree_of_prosperity.html. Well did you click it already? You'd better. I am not paid for this okay, i am just sharing that the clips from the link really will feast your eyes.

Apart from this eye feast at night, we had a chance to walk around the city too like a regular Macanese or tourist. It was okay and can say a safe place to be even if you are walking around in the middle of the night. It is maybe because of the high living that the people there possess and the city is just


 never sleeps.

Walking around, you might also like to check out the Jackie Chan's casino, the Grand Emperor. The lobby's floor was made from 999 carat gold! I did not walked reach the famous actor's casino too. Told ya, i am too old to walk that even for few blocks away in the middle of the night!

The other thing that tick me to go to Macau besides the Venetian was the , bungee jumping and the observation deck at Macau Tower. They has the highest bungee jump in the world! I envied Anthony Bourdain, Sazzy Falak and husband. One has to pay 2000 HKD to take that jump and sign an agreement and get a free t-shirt. The observation deck was not so pricey as i heard but, we skipped the tour to Macau Tower too. Someday, i will stop by at Macau again during another trip and went up to the tower. 


 Now, down to what to buy in Macau as souvenirs for family..I am just gonna list down what my tour guide had suggested and what i bought. These are not expensive, and i think worth the penny as Malaysian or other nationality might rarely or never found one yet at your locals.
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Husband and wife cookies. Husband's has salty fillings, wife's has sweet fillings. If you find that i had mixed it up, please correct me fella.
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 Charcoal roast almond cookies.
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Must try Portuguese egg tart
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Eggrolls

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Smoked meat.

I had best time in Macau though it was really a short stay there, less than 12 hours as i recalled. But, i am lucky to have efficient tour guide that makes the tour worth an amazing experience in this country. At least we did visit almost all the main attraction of Macau.

I must say, Macau is so interesting and AMAZING! There is a lot to do in a country that is smaller than Singapore even i only got less than 12 hours to be there. The night views of the city from all angle, either from Taipa, Coloane or the peninsula, there were all amazing! Added the mixed cultures from Portuguese as we know it , Indonesia, Japanese and more of Macanese have, that transpire through their architectures and food.  Must i say too, that lots of Macanese does understand English better so, it is easier to communicate with the people there than in other parts of China.

can't believe we still take photo with the gondolier even if we hadn't ride the gondola with him. He actually understand a bit of Malay!