Macau-HK Trip: Day 3

Weather: 15-19 Celcius

The temperature suddenly dropped. It was cold and occasionally drizzling. We took some noodles near our hostel and it was rather cheap – 10 HKD for my wanton noodle and 13 HKD for Jess’s beef noodle.

Our highlight for today is Ngong Ping 360 and Wax Museum. Ngong Ping 360 is one of the attractions in Lantau Island (it is known as “Tai Yu San” in Cantonese). Lantau Island is very different from HK Island and Kowloon. It has lots of greenies in its surroundings. The MTR from Mong Kong to Tung Chung station took around 30 minutes. Unlike the stations in Mongkok, this station is very spacious and less crowd.

Connecting to the Tung Chung station is the Citygate Outlets, a shopping complex with lots of factory outlets for brands such as Nike, Adidas and Coach. Comparatively, the price is cheaper than Malaysia but more expensive than in Taiwan.

It was a bit cloudy as we reached the bus station/ cable car terminal for Ngong Ping 360. We bought the cable car + unlimited bus ride around Lantau Island ticket at 104 HKD. The cable car ride was nice. However, it was not so nice when it was left hanging in the middle of nowhere and you can’t even see anything outside due to the mist (zero visibility).

The weather got worse as we arrived at the top of the mountain. We can’t see anything within a close distance. The vegetarian restaurant in Po Lin Monastry was packed of people and the buffet cost 60 HKD! The Giant Buddha was nowhere to be seen, covered up by the thick mist.

Feeling hungry due to the cold weather, we had lunch in a Japanese restaurant in Ngong Ping Village. I ordered an Udon noodle and it was nice. But, the soup tasted like the fish head noodle soup in Malaysia. Perhaps it is due to the local influence? After lunch, we moved to the shop next door, Honeymoon/Moon Kee for dessert. The desserts were nice! My favorite would be the Zhi Ma Wu with Tau Fu Fa.


Not many buses were operating. So, we took a bus down to Tai O and then from Tai O to Tung Chung. The waiting was very long and we had no idea when the bus will be coming. After a long wait, finally the bus arrived. There were 5 small seats per row and there were lots of passengers. We could barely move our bodies. The journey to Tai O was not too long. However, the journey from Tai O to Tung Chung was a very long one. The three of us fell asleep along the way and a lot of passengers came onboard along the way. These people were juggle trekking and they were all senior citizens. We also saw some village houses, something very different from HK Island and Kowloon.

Citygate Outlets was very crowded as we arrived. Compared to Taiwan, things here were not cheap. However, it is still cheaper than in Malaysia. We visited several shops before departing to Taste, a supermarket in the shopping complex.

There were many imported goods in Taste. I was very excited with the selections of seafood from Japan. The vegetarian abalone (free sample) was nice, though PJ finds it a bit salty. The fruits, e.g. the blue berry were cheap too (if I remember correctly, around RM5 for a small box). We bought some food from Taste as our dinner. Jess’s Durian dessert (take away from Honeymoon/Moon Kee) was delicious~ The taste of durian was just nice.

After dinner, we took the MTR to Hong Kong station and then took a bus to the Peak Road. Some of you may not know, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum is located in the same building as the Peak Tower. The night view as we were heading up to the Peak Road was very nice. Unfortunately, we were not able to take any photos as the bus was moving.

As we reached there, it was around 7pm. It was drizzling and the wind was strong. We had to walk in the open air for a short distance before reaching the Peak Tower. It reminded me of my typhoon experience in Busan many years ago.

In the Peak Tower, there are many shops selling cheap souvenirs. There is Disneyland ticketing counter in the building as well with a few statues of the cartoon characters. Madame Tussauds Wax Museum was one of the few places in the building which were packed with people. The entrance fee was 160 HKD per pax for adult.


We got very excited as we entered the museum. We saw many wax figures of familiar celebrities like Nicole Kidman, Andy Lau and Brad Pitt. As the entrance fee is so expensive, we decided to make full use of it by snapping each and every wax figures. However, we soon realized that it was a tiring process. The wax museum took up several floors in the tower. There were much more wax figures in the museum than we thought! There were many unfamiliar figures as well, which we just randomly snapped a few to make our money more worth while. We spent around 2 hours in the museum and we were exhausted. I would strongly recommend the visit to be done in the morning, when you are high, energetic and fresh.

p/s: The entrance fee for The Peak is 25 HKD.

For our journey back to Kowloon, we decided to take a ferry for a change. The ferry from Hong Kong Island to Tsim Tsa Tsui cost 2.40 HKD for one way. It was a worthy ride as you will be able to get a very nice night view of Hong Kong and the journey is only 5 minutes. Instead of purchasing the ticket at the counter, you will need to purchase the ferry ticket at the ticketing machine or scan with your Octopus card. For purchase via the ticketing machine, you will receive a small chip coin which will be used later to go through the barrier (sorry, you can’t keep it as a souvenir).

On our way back, we took the wrong bus and ended up in Wong Tai Sin, a huge housing area with many blocks of apartments. Prior to this, I have been wondering, where are all those apartments that I normally seen in HK drama series. Finally, we got a chance to see it, though not intentionally.

Macau-HK Trip: Day 2

Weather: 22-26 Celcius

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.

Macau-HK Trip: Day 1

For the past few days (March 5-8, 2010), I was traveling around Macau and Hong Kong with Jessica and Pey Jiuan.

Day 1

I woke up very early on the departure day and took a LRT to KL Central at around 9am. Then, I took the latest KLIA Transit to LCCT, which cost RM12.50 for one way. My experience with this service was good. The train arrived on time and immediately after I got out of the Salak Tinggi station, the AirAsia bus was already there. From KL Central to LCCT, it took around an hour.

For more information, you may refer to:
http://www.kliaekspres.com/erlsb/LCCT/LCCTSchedule/tabid/214/Default.aspx

I reached LCCT at around 11am and met up with Jess and PJ at McD, LCCT. Prior to my arrival, Jess had already informed me that our Toastmasters club member, Uthaya Kumar was also there, waiting for a domestic flight. I haven’t seen Kumar since I left Penang almost 2 years ago. He has now lost some weight.

Around 12pm, we moved over to Old Town for lunch, a bad choice indeed. The service there was slow. After waited for around half an hour, Jess asked one of the waitresses if the food can be served fast as we need to catch a flight. The waitress did not seem to bother and asked us to leave if we cannot wait. When we were about to leave, our food arrived. We ran over to the departure hall after a fast meal.

The journey from the departure hall to the plane was long and hot. The plane was almost full but the seats were not too bad. The air stewards and stewardess were helpful. There was a slight delay and the flight departed at around 1.15pm.

We reached Macau at around 5pm and the sky was getting dark. The weather was cooling, around 23-24 Celcius. We took a cab to Metropark Hotel, which is located in the heart of Macau. The journey was approximately 15 minutes. The cab including the charges for the 3 baggage cost 76 HKD! Expensive! According to the cab driver, before Macau returned to China, there was only 1 casino in Macau, which is Lisboa. Many of the hotels here come with casino.

There were a number of guests at the hotel lobby, queuing for check-in as we arrived. Unbelievably, they were still using manual filling for their records (Note: This is a 4 star hotel). The receptionist’s English was not very good and I had difficulty understanding some of the messages that she was trying to convey. I tried to speak to her in Cantonese to make our life easier but she replied with English. Argh… just let it be. The whole check-in took quite some time.

Feeling hungry, we walked across a few streets and had dinner at a small restaurant opposite Rio Casino. Jess took the meal combo which includes a meal and a drink at 20 HKD. I ordered crab porridge, which is one of the famous local dishes. The porridge was very smooth, with a faint taste of the crab. They gave me the whole crab and surprisingly, the shell of the crab was so soft and crunchy that I can just eat it without using my hands to take off the shell. This cost 48 HKD.

After dinner, we went for casino tour. Our first stop was Lisboa, where we snapped a few photos before departing to Wynn for the fountain show. Wynn is not as flashy as the other casinos. It does not have very bright lightings, but the interior design was really nice. The theme really blends well. Shows in casinos are free. The fountain and prosperity tree show in Wynn amazed me in different ways.

There are free shuttle buses from major casinos and if you want to get free transport around Macau, just hop on one of them. We hopped into one of the buses from Wynn to Macau Ferry Terminal. It was a nice short journey which gave us an overview of Macau. We wanted to catch our hotel bus back. Unfortunately, after much waiting, the bus did not come as per scheduled. Feeling disappointed and tired, we took a shuttle bas to Grand Lisboa, which is near to our hotel.

The crowd in Grand Lisboa was much more than Wynn. There were people at almost every corner in the casino. The workers there were generally older. The interior design looks really grand and flashy. Their customers, surprisingly consists of a number of youngsters, who were in their 20s.

After some tour around the hotel, we finally understood why there were more customers here than Wynn. The shows here seemed to appeal more to the customers – the free show here includes dances by sexy ladies in bikini suits.

On the contrary, the decos in Grand Lisboa did not seem to blend well. But, a lot of the decos are worth photographing. According to Jess, it maybe due to “feng shui” reasons that they were having such decos.

We took a scroll back to our hotel and along the way back, we were surprised that many of the shops were still open as it was already near midnight.

p/s: HKD is widely accepted in Macau. The rate is almost the same as its local currency MOP. For example, if the price of a good is 20 MOP, you can pay as 20 HKD.

My Product

During my last December vacation, I went to Yenji to make some clay toys. Well, they aren’t really “toys”. Here’s my product after a long time, a present for my cousin’s wedding. I spent 2 days making this.

Ampang Look-Out Point

I heard about this place from BJun. According to her, the KL night view there is magnificent.

I visited this place a few weeks ago with YS and surprised to see a few restaurants at the lookout tower. It was about to rain when we reached there and the view was not clear. We randomly picked a restaurant called Haven. Looking at the setting of the restaurant, I was a bit worried that the food will be pricy. Well, it turned out to be okay. I ordered a lamb chop for about RM20 (inclusive of tax and service charge). The food is also quite nice.

At around 8pm, the sky was starting to clear and we were able to get a nice view of KL. Too bad my handphone is not good enough to capture it nicely.