We woke up early in the morning and the weather does not look good. It was cloudy at times. We had breakfast in a local restaurant nearby. According to a worker in the restaurant, they are open for 24. I find it rather unusual for a local restaurant to be adopting such as concept. Ohya, I forgot to mention that almost everything in Macau is written in Chinese or Portuguese. For those who can’t read the language, you will have a difficult time ordering, unless you go for a classy restaurant.
Food in Macau is not cheap. My wanton noodle cost 20 HKD but the wanton was really huge, meaty and nice. There were prawns in the wanton! Jess’s meat ball was huge, meaty, soft and nice too.
We visited the heritage site after breakfast. We took the local bus and beware, if you take the bus at the wrong direction, you may ended up taking a very long journey. There is a flat rate for each ride (around 3.20 HKD) and bus drivers will not return you the balance if you pay extra. So, better prepare some small change. The local bus drivers drive really fast, as if they have quota or target to meet. Therefore, better sit tight once you get onboard. The frequency of buses is quite high. Don’t worry if you miss the bus.
If you think that the attractions at the heritage site are far apart, then you are very wrong. Even though from the map they look a bit far off, they are actually very near to each other. Senardo Square, the Cathedral churches, Nacha Temple, Ruins of St Paul, the fortress and Macau museum are all nearby. We managed to cover the area in around 2 hours, by foot. Once you have reached the heritage site, don’t worry that you will get lost as there will be plenty of signboards at the junctions.
p/s: If you are asking for directions with the name of the place in English, the locals may not know. I asked the locals for directions to Ruins of St Paul. They looked at me blank. Then, they asked me, is it “Dai Sang Ba” (in Cantonese)?The Portuguese egg tart was yummy. You can get it at around 6-7 HKD.
Then, we went to the famous A-Ma Temple. It was constructed in the year of 1488 of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to commemorate Mazu, the sacred sea goddess who blesses the fishermen of Macau. It is said that the goddess was called Lin Mo, and that she was born in Putian City, Fujian Province, and was more intelligent than other children her age. She could predict good or ill luck and after her death she often helped merchants and fishermen ward off calamities and turn danger into safety. Now there are a number of folktales about the great goddess narrated in the littoral lands (Travel China Guide website).
After that, we went back to the hotel to collect our baggage before departing to Macau Ferry Terminal with the hotel shuttle bus. The ferry terminal only has the basic infrastructure – the ticketing counter, washroom, some local products shops and ferry offices. We arrived there rather early, worrying that it may take a longer time for the ticketing. There are no seats around the terminal for people to sit or proper small restaurants for people to have a quick snack or food (though there is one which is currently under renovation). The funny part is we can only go into the departure hall 30 minutes prior to the scheduled ferry. We were walking around and eventually sat down at a corner near to the entrance of the departure hall while waiting for our ferry.
As there was a promo by New World First Ferry for purchases online, we managed to upgrade our seats for free from Ordinary class to Deluxe class, which is around 100 HKD more expensive. At the departure hall, there are spacious seats and a fridge of free juices. The apple juice was yummy~ In the ferry, we had spacious seats with free food and drinks. Thanks to the promotion, we were very happy customers of New World First Ferry. The ferry from Macau to Kowloon, HK took slightly more than an hour.
We arrived in HK at around 1.45pm. The feeling when we were in Macau and HK were so different. The officers there were very helpful and directed us to the immigration counters with less people. Once we got of the immigration section, there were numerous restaurants in the complex. Once we exited the complex, we saw people, vehicles, tall buildings and shops everywhere. For those who attempt to take MTR directly from the ferry terminal, beware of the long walking distance. It’s not near!
The hostel that we booked is located at Argyle Street, Mongkok. It’s very near to the Mongkok MTR station. As we arrived at the MTR, we got a shocked. It was so crowded. As we arrived in Mongkok, we were even shocked. There were tremendous crowd! The streets were busy and the people there were walking very fast.
We walked to our hostel at 7th floor, Sincere House. The building itself looked very scary but the room was clean and okay (with air conditioned, heater and toiletries), though it was narrow. Our room has windows facing the busy street and I started to worry that I may have difficulty sleeping later at night. We unloaded and baggage and started exploring the streets in Mongkok.
There were lots of people in almost every shop. We don’t get to relax and need to find our ways through the crowd. Our first stop is Hui Lau San, dessert shop. Their specialty is mango dessert and it was superb!
The cosmetic products there are cheaper and there are a wide variety of brands. The variety of products in SaSa there is much more compared to Malaysia. Giordano t-shirts are quite cheap as well. You can get 3 plain t-shirts at 100 HKD (around RM14.72 per piece). I regretted not buying them. There are many pharmacies everywhere and the variety of products and crowd are much more than in Malaysia. For the same type of oilmen, they have numerous brands.
p/s: For most of the shops, you will need to pay for the plastic bags (around 0.50 HKD each).
After a few hours of walking, we departed to the Avenue of Stars. We took MTR to TST station and walked for quite a distance before reaching a shopping complex near our destination. We had McDonald’s for dinner and the Crispy Chicken Burger was yummy. My Wasabi Fish Fillet burger was actually Fillet-O-Fish with Wasabi sauce, which was quite nice. They only provided us with ketchup sauce for the fries. Maybe the locals there don’t like chilly sauce.
There aren’t many proper signboards for directions to the Avenue of Stars. We need to ask around and many of them do not know the place. Avenue of Stars is actually located beside the mall. As we reached, there were people there singing, with the complete sound system and video recording. The singing was nice and it’s free! Though I have no idea who they were. The spectators there were very well mannered. They just stood there quietly, no one was pushing. The night view of HK from the Avenue of Stars was spectacular. But, the symphony of lights show at 8pm was a disappointment. There were just several lasers and lights shooting here and there.
We spent the rest of the night walking around TST, trying to find our way back to our hostel. We ended up walking passed a few interesting landmarks such as the Peninsula Hotel when we were on our way to the ferry terminal (Note: This terminal is for ferries between Kowloon and several other parts of HK only).
We sat at the upper deck of the bus so that we can get a nice view. Beware! The bus drivers in HK are almost equally scary as those in Macau. I sat at the first seat and felt like I was going to fly off whenever they make a stop. The distance with the vehicle in front was very close, as if the bus is going to hit them if they just move slightly in forward.
Tip: There are many exits for each MTR station. As most of the stations are crowded, you won’t have much time reading the signboards in the station. It is advisable to find out which exit you will need to take prior to your trip. It will save you a lot of time.
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