Finally I have time to continue writing about my trip, these past few days has been tremendously busy with so many things to do plus the hot humid weather in Ipoh isn’t helping either.

Anyhow, back to my Hong Kong trip story, day 4 is probably the grandest and most expensive therefore the budget for the day was pretty high. We started the day off by skipping breakfast with a quick cuppa of Milo each before dashing to Sheung Wan to board the ferry to Macau.

From Mong Kok, we followed the Tsuen Wan line till we reached  Central stop before interchanging to the Island Line and got off at Sheung Wan. From the Sheung Wan MTR exit, keep a look out for signs directing you to the Ferry Terminal and there shouldn’t be any problem as there are ample signs around therefore the chances of getting lost is very minimal.

By following the signs, you will somehow end up in Shun Tak Center whereby it’s a shopping mall plus ferry terminal. You will have to go up till the 3rd floor where the ticket offices are located and there are several ferries to choose from and we chose TurboJet. We even got the tickets cheaper too, if you were to buy from the TurboJet ticket counter it would cost 134 HKD each but there is a nearby agent stall that sells the tickets for 130 HKD each. So we got a cheaper deal by 8 bucks.

The inside of the TurboJet ferry is very comfortable, even more so than my Cathay Pacific flight. The seats were comfortable and spacious, and prior to boarding the ferry you will have to submit your tickets to the counter where they will allocate your seats with stickers.

Once on board, there is a menu of food and beverages to choose from and the prices is even more ridiculous than AirAsia’s but we skipped breakfast plus we did not “tapau” anything during our journey to the ferry terminal, we ended buying a 20 HKD ham and cheese sandwich on board. It wasn’t anything spectacular like Subway’s or Delifrance’s, think 4 slices of Gardenia with a slice of ham and cheese and voila, that will cost you 20 HKD.

We were both exhausted with all the extensive travelling to the ferry terminal so when it was time to board all we can think of is dozing off during the journey which in the end neither of us did. The journey from Hong Kong to Macau takes approximately 50 minutes and I must say, I am very pleased with TurboJet’s  service because it wasn’t bumpy unlike my return to Hong Kong via CotaiJet where I had some slight motion sickness. Or maybe I was just tired but it was definitely bumpy!

Although it was a Monday, many people were going to Macau for a getaway so upon reaching Macau, the one hour spent going to Macau was topped up with another hour of queueing for the Immigration counter. There was just so many people!

We consulted Stanley, the boss from our hostel in Mong Kok about how to navigate around Macau.  Since it’s a one day trip, best is to hire a tourguide to save time. Don’t worry, as you exit the Immigration hall to the exit of the Macau Ferry Terminal, there are  tour agency counters around and even tourguides bombarding you with tour packages.

We got Sunny Lau, from Goldfield Travel Services Limited and he was a good tourguide with his in depth explanation of Macau. It costs 250 HKD per person, and I do think it was a pretty expensive tourguide but his skills made up for the price. Did I mention we traveled around in a Toyota Estima?

We started of our tour by visiting the Fisherman’s Wharf which is just beside the ferry terminal and it was blahhhhh nothing special to see. The sky was cloudy and hazy plus the “attractions” there were close to dead. Next!

We drove around the city for a bit looking at the infrastructure of Macau. This is a police station, I think. Almost everywhere you turn, there’s always a casino. We drove around for about 20 minutes before heading to lunch, Sunny recommended us to try out some famous local Portuguese dishes like the Curry Crab and the Macau Styled Chicken.

The signs in Macau is either in Chinese or Portuguese, so yea I was pretty lost there unlike Hong Kong where they have English plastered on their signs.

Our lunch was at Praia Grande, and upon entering the restaurant it looked pretty classy and quaint but it was probably still early at it was only 12pm and there’s only a man having his lunch in the restaurant.

The prices of the dishes would make your eyes pop a little but we were thinking, for the past three days we’ve been under budget for meals so why not splurge a little for this meal? And by splurge a little we ended up splurging a lot.

We had garlic and sweet bread as appetizers, and it tasted really good. The garlic is sweet and fragrant with no hint of garlicky stench that would scare off vampires.

While we were digging into our appetizers, two out of the three guys working at the restaurant picked up their guitars and began singing for the restaurant guests. They even sang Besame Mucho and a Teresa Teng song, plus a Malay song too which I have never heard of.  Oh yea, there were two Japanese ladies entering the restaurant while they were singing and these two guys switched to singing some Japanese folk song upon their request. Kudos man.

The first dish arrived, which is the Macau Styled Chicken and it costs 90 Patacas. In Macau, the currency is Patacas but they still do accept HKD, although the rate of the Patacas is slightly lower than HKD. Avoiding the reality of the price, it actually tasted damn good! It has a rich aroma of spices and the chicken is very tender, like the meat would peel off from the bones kinda tender. Very highly recommended dish that goes well with rice.

Next up is the meanest badass crab, the Curry Crab which costs 286 Patacas. It tasted like creamy curry crab rich with tumeric, another great dish to go with rice. Plus, if you have a close look at the gravy, those are shredded crabmeat and the dish is abundant with it. Hugo even went to the extend of gentleman-ism by finishing the two pinchers and left me with the unmeaty crab torso and legs.

After finishing our meal, we were required to sign their guestbook and I saw writing’s from people from Korea, Thailand, Wales, New Zealand and all parts of the world, so I guess this restaurant is a pretty established one. For more info, you can log on to their website for their recognitions.

Funny thing is, tourist might think that these guys working here are born and bred Portuguese but I went to ask them, and they replied with a “No, we’re actually Phillipino’s.” And they even said, ” You’re from Malaysia, very near to us,  so we’re neighbours.”

The total of our lunch was at 467.50 Patacas, and the water was the most overpriced thing we paid. Our “plain water” was in the form of a 1.5 L bottle of mineral water, and it costs 35 Patacas which is RM 17.50 for a bottle of mineral water. The reason it is that expensive is, the bottle of water is imported from Portugal!

After lunch, it was to the Ruins of St.Paul’s. I’ve seen movies and pictures of this place but to actually visit it, it was pretty nice. I totally loved the architecture of Macau, so delicate with all the patterns and lines.

The weather in Macau is similar to Hong Kong’s, except that Macau is a tad warmer probably because it’s a smaller island but it was still good, until we climbed higher to the forts where I started sweating profusely.

Going further into the Ruins of St.Paul’s, you will reach a mini museum of artifacts dating from the 17th century.  There were paintings, crosses, holy cup and also statues.

Our next stop is the Macau Maritime Museum and the A-Ma temple which is just beside. We started off by visiting the Maritime Museum and it costs 10 Patacas per entry.

The museum is divided into 4 sections, Maritime Ethnology, Maritime History, Maritime Technology and Aquarium. In the museum you will see a lot of tools and techniques used by fishermen and sailors, plus the history of Macau with the Portuguese settlements explained in great detail.

We went to the A-Ma temple next, which to me is nothing special because it looks like any old Chinese Temple but the history behind it is pretty special. The name Macau is thought to be derived from the temple. It is said that when the Portuguese sailors landed at the coast just outside the temple and asked the name of the place, the natives replied “A-Ma-Gao” (Bay of A-Ma). The Portuguese then named the peninsula Macau.

The second last stop of our whirlwind Macau tour was the Macau Sky Tower. Soaring 338 meters into the heaven with 61 storeies , it is the 8th tallest tower in the world. But our very own KL tower is still taller. The cost for entering the tower is 85 Patacas but our tourguide Sunny also sells tickets and he charged us 70 Patacas for the Sky Tower tickets.

We went up to the observation deck at the 60th floor to have a look of the city. The view from the tower is amazing, it’s 360 degrees of Macau but too bad the weather was bad, therefore pictures are mostly blurry and low in contrast.

Up at the 61st floor is the bungee, skywalk area where for about 1488 Patacas, you can have a death defying bungee jump from the highest tower bungee jump in the world. Other packages are available and you shall be warned that they are not cheap!

While up in the tower, best is to wear a jacket as the wind is very chilly and you can also observe those who are waiting for their turns to defy gravity. Seriously, seeing someone jump down was scary.

Our last stop (finally!) of the day was The Venetian, another casino, shopping mall, hotel rolled into one. It was hugeeee and it was pretyyyy! There’s also gondola rides there, but the price was pretty expensive. Being all worn out and tired, I was just randomly walking around without peering into any shops as the prices of the things there are overrated.

For a 360 panoramic view of The Venetian, click here. Courtesy of Hugo.

Somehow I feel Hugo looks so 70’s here, with the bootleg pants and the striped collar T-shirt. The reason we made Venetian our last stop was because of two things: Portuguese Egg Tarts and Shuttle Bus.

Sunny told us that, the Koi Kee Portuguese Egg Tarts is a popular snack among Macau-ians (is it even correct?) and we decided to give it a try at 7 Patacas per piece. We bought five, ate one on the spot and brought back the other four for supper and tomorrow’s breakfast.

Another thing in the Venetian is the free shuttle bus ride to the Macau Ferry Terminal. There are two ferry terminals in Macau and since we are at the other side of the island from where we started, it is advised to board from the nearer ferry terminal. So we can skip paying for taxi or public bus with a free shuttle bus ride.

One bad thing about boarding from this terminal is, there’s only one ferry service available which is the CotaiJet. Another bad thing is, the price of tickets returning to Hong Kong is much more expensive than going to Macau. Return tickets are standardized at 176 HKD.

While waiting for our ride, there was time to spare plus free wifi so I took out my useless E71 which had been dormant for the past 4 days because I had no international roaming to check some mails and Facebook. Macau has been a great place to visit although the price to pay was a little heart wrenching but it’ll be years to come before I return to Macau so it’s alright.

Installed for day 5 is just random places around Hong Kong, more to places we’ve decided on last minute. Plus, camera enthusiasts would love the place we visited.

♥ Wendy