After few hours in Lantau Island, I took MTR back to Hong Kong Island and alighted at Sheung Wan station. Reached Shun Tak shopping centre about 2.30pm and bought a ferry ticket to Macau. There are two ferry services (I guess) but I bought from TurboJet. One way ticket costs me HK$ 146. The ferry departs at 3.15pm so I took my time to wander in the shopping centre. Looked around and went to Watson to get some mineral water. Didn’t have drinking water and my lunch had only vegetarian food in Lantau Island. Oh ya, remember to bring passport along if you want to go to Macau. One of my friend forgot to bring his so he stayed in HK only (but he wasn’t travelling with me in the morning). Like Hong Kong, some countries do not require visa to visit Macau. Both the countries are SAR (Special Administrative Region) although they are part of China.
The ferry was an hour ride and it can accomodate more than 200 ppl. I sat on the upper deck. I spent my hour watching some japanese contest show. At abour 4.20pm, I arrived at Macau.
Here’s the view at outside the ferry terminal.
There are visitors information centre at the ferry terminal. So, you can go there and grab the information booklets about Macau. Ranging from accomodation to places of interest and things to do in Macau, you should be able to make your way around Macau. I took a map and started to find my way to the old Macau town. But you’ll need to be in Macau during office hours when the centre operates. Oh ya, when you stepped out of the ferry terminal, beware of dozens of taxi drivers. They will go right up to you and offer to take you around the scenic spots around Macau. IF you wish to take their offer, make sure you bargain hard. I’m not sure about the market rate but there were people who offered me a ride between HK$ 250 - HK$ 500. I did not take any of those. I took bus to travel around. Macau people speak Cantonese as well but they do understand some mandarin and english.
Travelling around Macau:
I feel that the transportation isn’t as efficient as Hong Kong’s. Mode of travelling around would be by buses and taxis (as far as I observed). The map does show the bus numbers so you can roughly figure out how to get your way around. If not, then go to the bus stop and search for bus route.
Since Macau was a Portuguese colony previously, I find it extremely difficult to travel around looking at their road names. Trying superbly hard to match them with the names on the map to figure out how to travel around. The photo below is an easy name. And I took this photo because it’s significant in the sense that Malacca was also previously under Portuguese rule.
Others sound like Avenida Infante D. Henrique and Rua das Estalagens. Oh man, it’s like playing search and match on the map to locate where I am. Quite difficult for me to ask people how to reach the street. So, I point on the map instead and asked them how to go there.
I only managed to visit several places in Macau as the sun set at about 6 pm. One of the place near the terminal is the gold-plated Lotus Flower. It’s also the place where reunification took place (I guess). Sidenote: This also means I have been to both the reunification places of Hong Kong and Macau. :p
Background with the gold-tinted windows is the Sands Casino, one of the newest casinos. I went inside at night. It’s a very nice casino.
By the way, Macau uses the currency known as Macau Patacas (MOP$). But Hong Kong dollar is also acceptable. The exchange rate is almost the same (MOP$ 8 == HK$ 8 ~~ US$ 1). If you take bus, bring coins along unless you know where to buy the tap-and-go transport card like Hong Kong’s Octopus card. I did not get Macau’s one because I was there for a few hours only.
I think the most famous site which relates to Macau closely would be the Ruins of St. Paul’s Church. This was the place which I told myself that I must visit and I did. After taking a long time to find the bus stop which has the service that reaches the old city, I finally reached there after following the road signs in the old city. My parents went there before more than two decades ago. It was really nice view from their photo so I must see the beauty of the building myself.
And yup, it’s REALLY REALLY a very nice church. (I mean the church wall). It was completed in 1602 by the Jesuits but a fire erupted and engulfed the whole building except the front wall in 1835. It was restored in the 1990s and is now a World Heritage Site.
This was me in 2007.
This was the photo taken by my parents last time. 
The structure is still as elegant as ever.
Here’s the side view of the church. Look at it. The building really left with the front wall only.
You can also go up the second level of the church because they built a metal structure behind it. Must climb up when you reach here to take a look.
And here’s the view of Macau old town from the centre window.
There’s also this “underground” Crypt and Sacred Art Museum. And in the crypt, there are REAL bones of the martyrs of Japan and Vietnam. They are exhibited in urns, opened on the side. This is a place for worshippers to express their devotion. The huge stones in the photo could be the holiest sanctuary of the church which was built in 1602.
In the museum, there are invaluable collections of paintings, scupltures and church regalia from churches in Macau from 16th to 19th century. Quite interesting I must say.
I must consider myself very lucky to have come into the museum as well as going up the second level of Ruins of St. Paul church. This was because few minutes after I stepped out of the place, they locked the entrance door of the church. It was 6pm then. Well, my main mission to Macau was accomplished.
Nearby was the Mount Fortress or Monte Forte. The fort was initially built in the 16th century for protecting the properties of Jesuit in Macau. Later it was seized by the Governor, for the defense of Macau. The cannons can confirm that.
On the hill, The Museum of Macau was built. But you can’t see in the photo because I forgot to take.
After that, I toured around the old city to find something nice to fill my hungry stomach. Had only not that fulling vegetarian food for lunch. I walked along the alley and just join in the rest of the people when they crowd around one stall. Should be delicioud since so many people queuing, I though to myself. I realised that there isn’t many hawker stalls in Macau. But I found one stall selling “lok-lok” (Their style was fishball, vege, meat or whatever that you choose- all put in hot water to cook, then put in a bowl with curry sauce)
There are also a lot of shops selling chinese dried meat (Bak Kwa). And also there’s this Macau almond cookies. Bought one for MOP$ 28. Or you can buy four at MOP$ 100. Then again, you can get them in Hong Kong too. Of course at a higher price between HK$ 32 and HK$ 40.
Here’s the night view in the old Macau city.
I tried to find some Macau memento but most of the shops have closed. Tried very hard to find and in the end, I only found one shop. It sells the replica of Ruins of St. Paul church. Though the price didn’t fit the memento, I still bought it. At least I came to Macau before. That’s my personality- to try to get something from the place that I have visited.
I started to walk again based on the map in my hand and found my way to Casino Lisboa, one of the most famous casinos. The original casino and 12-storey round hotel tower were built in 1970 by Stanley Ho. Went into a casino for the first time in my life. I thought that it would be Genting’s one but I ended up going to Macau’s. Decided to see how people bet. And I must say- they bet like nobody’s business. Win or lose 10 k chip is nothing to them.
I wanna just try my luck on the jackpot machine although I knew I’ll lose for sure. And this is how I realise another thing. You cannot use Macau COINS in Macau’s casino (for Casino Lisboa). They accept Hong Kong notes, Macau notes and Hong Kong coins but NOT Macau coins. Very very strange. I cannot even exchange the coins at the counter. Only way is to use Hong Kong note but I only had big notes at that time. So I thought it’s just not my day to try my luck on the machine. My Hong Kong coins were in my bag which was deposited before I enter.
After 45 minutes in Casino Lisboa, I left and decided to go to another casino- Sands. Walked all the way there and saw a lot of casinos along the way.
Compared to Lisboa, I feel Sands is a totally different class. Lisboa was old, dirty and smoky. Some gamblers just spit on the carpets in Lisboa. On the other hand, Sands has a higher class look. And the place is big too. I was in Sands for a much shorter time. My feet grew bubbles and my muscle ache after carrying the heavy bag along.
I walked back to the ferry terminal and bought my return ticket to Hong Kong at HK$ 176 (night ferry is more expensive). I reached there at 9.30pm, thinking that I will be able to catch the 10pm ferry. To my surprise, the earliest would be 11pm. Or I can choose to pay additional HK$ 200 for the First Class seat for 10pm ferry. I decided to keep the money to myself.
So I spent my time in the terminal watching Hong Kong drama series. Didn’t feel like taking a walk anymore because I was just too tired. Oh ya, sidetrack: There are lots of shuttle buses at the ferry terminal to bring the visitors to the casinos. And they are really many many of them. Maybe this is how Macau overtook Las Vegas to be the highest turn-over gambling location.
Reached Hong Kong at 12am and I’ll spend another 45 mins to go back to hostel. It was really a tiring day. But it was also a memorable day. Many sweet and (one real) bad memories. (my camera and tripod). One last day in Hong Kong before my flight back to Singapore. I do miss the places.
Oh ya, this is my 100th posts. Wow, didn’t know that I’ll write so much.
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