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.

’09 Christmas Deco

Last year I didn’t have much time to go for Christmas shopping. *sob sob* So, there are very few photos of the deco.

Queensbay Mall, Penang

The Curve

White christmas @ 1U - my favourite

Ginger bread house @ KLCC

Semester 3: 95%

Finally, I feel a bit more relax. All of my assignments have been submitted and my tough paper is finally over (1 more paper to go). This semester, I encountered a lot of non-contributors, imagine only a few people have been working actively on the assignment. Your guess is right - I was working like hell for my group assignments. I have spent some days during my year end vacation working on them. Luckily, I have supporters along the way, who have given me the strength and support that I need to survive through this.

Perak 1 Day Trip

It’s been a long time since I joined my ex-colleagues for a trip. I received a call from HS/CJ/Jason one day. No details were given except that it is a “makan” trip and the date. A few days before the trip, I received a sms from Queena asking me for my confirmation and to bring a swimming suit. I was shocked as no one prior to that told me that we will be going to the Lost World of Tambun!

Anyway, everything ended well. 10 of us departed from Penang at around 6.30am in 2 cars. I was so sleepy that I almost slept through the whole journey there. We had dim sum at Mei Ge, opposite the new Fu San. As we just reached, the waiter and waitress put all the food on our table to let us choose. Yummy~

After dim sum, we went for white coffee before departing to the Lost World of Tambun.

CJ borrowed me her swimming suit and luckily, the right size. The rental of each locker cost RM10 – very expensive. Jason was trying to squeeze everything into 3 lockers, but not successful. We are a bit disappointed with the theme park as they have very little choices when it comes to water games and obviously, even fewer choices when it comes to non-water games. The queue at the counter was super long as you will need to buy coupon first before ordering. We were starving and feeling dizzy after riding the “pirate ship”. In the end, we took twisties, some biscuits and soft drinks for “lunch”.

After that, we drove for about 30 minutes to Kampar, near UTAR for Curry Chicken Bread. Looking at the aunty as she sliced the freshly bake bread and the curry chicken with sauce inside the bread, it’s really mouth watering.

Then, we departed back to Ipoh for Lou Wong Bean Sprout Chicken Koay Teow. Crunchy bean sprout, smooth “bak zhang” chicken, fish balls and meat balls - yummy~ “kam kat” (a drink) there is nice too.

Klang Bak Kuh Teh

Recently, I visited 2 Bak Kuh Teh shops in Klang – Mo Sang Kor and Seng Huat. According to my “tour guide”, in Klang, Bak Kuh Teh is served in a small bowl in the morning and normally, they only serve claypot Bak Kuh Teh at night.

For Mo Sang Kor, they have 3 outlets in Klang. The meat is very soft and tender and the taste is just nice, not too thick or watery. The funny part is they don’t sell Yao Zha Guai. You will need to get them from somewhere else.

Seng Huat has been established for many years and they have more variety for its side products, such as tofu. It is normally known as “under the bridge”. Comparatively, their Bak Kuh Teh is more salty and the customer service is not so good.

Semester 3: 70%

This semester is extremely hectic. I was stuck in classes, assignment and work almost all the time. For many weeks I had been having sleepless nights and working endlessly on my assignments. Guess my coursemates were suffering too. Suddenly, I felt that I am an assignment producing robot, “printing” assignment after assignment. With 4 assignments due around my birthday week, I really had little time to enjoy the celebration.

Semester 3: 0%

Next week marks the beginning of my Term 3. I have just collected my course materials for this term and was marking down the important dates on my calendar. A number of things will need to be completed on the first 2 weeks of December – 3 assignments due and 1 presentation. Looks like I won’t be able to enjoy my birthday this year. Gosh… I really need to plan ahead.

PCGHS Alumni?

Phaik Imm informed me that our high school has an alumni association in KL/Selangor! I browsed through the website for more info and they have being around for more than 30 years! The seniors in the photos (I believe) are as old as my mum or perhaps even older! I checked the activities list, they are quite active – karaoke, dinners, classes etc.

http://pcghsalumni.com.my/

More of Chili's

The portion, the taste… … really value for money.

Triple Play

Chicken Fajitas

Foong Lian Claypot Chicken Rice

This restaurant at Jalan Yew was recommended by Anil. I like the “lak cheong” in the claypot chicken rice and its soup. It is really delicious. One small claypot chicken rice cost RM7.50.

Chilly Pan Mee

This place in Kota Damansara was recommended by CC sometime ago. Normally the shop is packed. The noodle is tasteless without the chilly. But, it tastes much nice after adding in the chilly.

Jobstreet: The Malaysian Youth Career Survey 2009

I have just read the results of this survey and find it interesting. Do you agree with the results?

http://results.youthsays.com/jobstreet/

Ketam Steamboat Seafood

This place in Bandar Menjalara was recommended by Jason. According to him, the Tomyam soup there is not bad. Well, it is much better compared to the other Tomyam that I have tasted in KL. We ordered the steamboat set for 2 pax and the portion was huge. The portion for 2 pax is actually recommended for 3 pax.


The kuih that the people are selling here is quite nice as well. A bit pricy though.

Farewells

There were quite a number of farewells for these few months – Edmond, Steve and Falah. All the best guys! On the other hand, there are a number of new faces as well.

Sakura @ Jalan Imbi

Sakura is not a Japanese restaurant but a Malaysian restaurant at Jalan Imbi, KL. This restaurant seemed to be one of the popular dining places for tour groups. It is famous for its Nasi Lemak and indeed, it was really nice and the portion was very huge. The environment and service was good too.

Of course, it comes with a price. After tax and service charge, the Nasi Lemak costs RM17.

p/s: I heard from my colleague that this restaurant is the parent company of Madam Kwan.

Kim Tek Bak Kuh Teh

Recently, YS introduced to me this Bak Kuh Teh shop at Kepong/Selayang. According to him, the Bak Kuh Teh here is very popular. Normally, it will be sold out before 12pm. Indeed, the meat is very tender.

MMU Convo

Recently, I attended the convocation of my 2 juniors, Lisa and Loo Mun. It had been a really long time since I met them and Lisa can’t recognize me at first. *sob sob* It was a nice hang out with some old friends and I met a few new people as well.

Nette, omedetou!

Congratulations Nette! You have made it for the JAGAM scholarship. I am really happy for you. Keep up with that spirit when you are in Japan.