Day 1
Took the midnight flight by Jetstar Asia to Macau which cost me $277. Erm.. actually more than that coz i cancelled my previous flight due to Minzhen's wedding and Retrolicious.
When i reached Macau, we took a cab to Metropole Hotel. I wanted to leave my luggage there
till i checked in but the hotel didnt allow me to do so.
Dun understand why their service was so bad. I tried the same thing in Tokyo and the hotel very kind-heartedly took care of my luggage and even let me checked in earlier. What a vast difference.
I had no choice but to pay for another day's room rate to check in earlier. After checking in, i realised the info in internet cheated me. It stated that the hotel had paid internet but the receptionist told me that there was none and advised me to go Macdonald instead. When we reached Macdonald, the wifi signal was too weak for me to surf internet and do my work. Thus we went to walk around the casinos' area. Our hotel location was very good. The tourist attractions and casinos were all within walking distance.
Day 2
In the morning, we lost our way quite a bit when we went for breakfast. We passed by their local market which really looked like our wet market. Fortunately, we accidentally bumped into the Portuguese cafe which i wanted to try too. So we ate the baked chicken rice for lunch instead. We waited quite some time for the rice and i saw the lady frying the rice, cleaning the chicken to stuff the fried rice inside. After microwaving the chicken, she fried it before serving to us. Sylvia said it tasted like tomato rice.
Actually, the Macau Dollar was weak but we couldn't change Macau Dollar in Singapore. We had no choice but to use Hong Kong Dollar. They accepted Hong Kong Dollar and Ren Min Bi there but the exchange rate was 1:1. It was disadvantage to us but we had no other choice.
After this, we went to He Lan Yuan and visited a free exhibition that used chinese words for painting.
Next, we managed to find our way to the Guia Fortress after a long walk. It was a pretty and quiet place. A japanese uncle even thought that we were japanese and took picture of us while i was eating my bread at the entrance before i left.
For snack, we went to Xin Jiao to try the pork bun recommended by my guidebook. It was inside an ulu corner and we made 3 circles in order to find it. The bun was hot and soft with melting butter and juicy pork. The uncle was very friendly too. He told me that i should go Zhuhai and if i want to go Shenzhen, i should go to the border gate to take bus so that it will be cheaper.
After that, we walked for a while and suddenly realised that we have reached the ruins of St Paul's. A lot of people were climbing the bridge but there wasn't anything interesting up there. We headed to the shopping street after this. I like the shopping area there. Very interesting. I bought the famous cookies and egg wraps according to famous brands recommended by my guidebook. I wasn't a fan of almonds and egg wraps but i bought them for my family and colleagues. Further up was the Leal Square and i really like the buildings there. The historical buildings were tourist attactions and also shopping areas for us. Very pretty and interesting.
For dinner, i ate a very yummy dumplings soup which was a famous shop in Macau. After dinner, we walked a super long distance to the Macau Tower. But it was too dark for Sylvia to try her bungee jump. As we had nothing to do, we headed to makan supper at a restaurant near our hotel. The pork porridge was yummy even without eating the ingredients. No wonder it was recommended by so many celebrities.
That night, we decided to stay another 2 nights in our hotel. Dunno why the hotel suddenly decided to give me breakfast coupons. Their breakfast had very yummy porridge and i looked forward to it every morning.
Day 3
We went to the Sands to see whether it was the same as the one in Singapore. But i never been to the one in Singapore so i couldnt tell the difference. The Sands was very posh and they served mineral water and orange juice to the people in the casino. They also offered free buses every 10 mins to various areas such as Venetian, Ferry and Border Gate.
We took the free bus to Venetian. I really like this casino. Very italian and no wonder "Boys over Flowers" used this as their film site.
Coz Chris, our musical site designer, introduced me to watch the House of Dancing Water, i went to City of Dreams to purchase tickets. But all the tickets were sold out so we had no choice but to go walk around Hard Rock Hotel instead.
This part of Macau was not as developed as the other part but it was slowly developing with a lot of interesting casinos in the building process. Using Sylvia's Iphone application, we managed to find the crab porridge which i wanted to try. It was recommended by Alam Tam and other TVB artistes. Very yummy. But the crab was too small for me.
Next, i went to buy some souvenirs along the street. I even bought a postcard to send to myself using the postbox there. The stamp was actually more expensive than the postcard. $4 airmail stamp for a $3 postcard.
Wanted to try the popular muffins but the shop was not opened yet. But i bumped into the pudding shop that was recommended by My Star Tour Guide. Sylvia tried the durian one and the taste was quite strong.
After this, we crossed the road to eat the shark fins noodle which was another recommended eatery. I like the soup noodle and the shark fins balls. Very interesting idea.
While trying to find our way back, we accidentally found the pork bun coffee shop recommended by My Star Tour Guide. It was right next to the museum. And coincidentally, it was 3pm. The timing that they started selling the freshly baked buns. The french loaf was a bit hard for my liking but the pork was yummy. Maybe next time i should eat the pork chop noodle instead. I saw a lot of people eating the noodles.
Next, we took bus 33 for $4.20 from the primary school bus stop opposite the pork bun coffeeshop back to our hotel coz i needed to charge my camera battery and Sylvia didnt bring her spare camera battery too.
From the hotel, we turned left to walk across the junction and turned right to walk to the bus stop so as to take bus 3A for $3.20 to go to the Fisherman Wharf. After walking for so long the day before, we have decided to take bus whenever we could. Fisherman Wharf was a very quiet tourist attraction. Almost everything was under renovation. All we could do was to take photos of the architectures. We got so bored that we decided to take the free bus from the Sands back to the Venetian again.
For dinner, we went to try the fried bitter gourd egg recommended by Cai Lan. The waitress there was so rude to us. She must be thinking that we were some China girls who dunno how to speak cantonese. I was totally upset with her for the entire meal. She just couldn't reply my questions in a nice way. Luckily, the young cashier, who looked like he was the son of the restaurant's boss, was a friendly guy. He would come and help me when he thought that i needed some help and nobody seem to react upon it. The meal was so not satisfying, especially when the fish soup was full of bones. Sian.
Day 4
After breakfast in the hotel, we went to find the famous egg tarts which was very near our hotel. But it was in a corner which was so difficult to find. I doubt we would find it without my map. Margaret's Cafe sold the egg tart for $8 each. It was stated in my guidebook that it was the originator of the KFC egg tart recipe.
Margaret's english was very good. I managed to talk to her while i ordered my drinks in English. I think she was trying to help her cashier to answer my questions. The signboard was in English so i forgot to say in Mandarin when ordering. I think their egg tarts were really good. I dun eat egg tarts but i finished mine without having to struggle.
By the time we went back to the hotel, we decided to check out and took the free bus to the ferry terminal. Actually, we should have checked the ferry timing. We waited quite a while for the next ferry. The ferry took us 1 hour to reach Shekou which was the ferry terminal at Shenzhen.
Shenzhen
Day 1
When we reached Shenzhen, a lot of cab drivers approached us to ask whether we want to take cab. But i worried that we would get cheated so i didnt agree. Instead, I asked around and took the bus 113 at the left hand side for $5. It took us almost an hour before we reached Novotel Hotel. But the bad news was that it was under renovation when we reached! With no other choices, i went to ask around whether there was any hotel nearby which had internet facility. I really need internet so that i could check Aaron's number and also look for another hotel to stay. I tried to ask a few policemen but they acted so strangely that we felt that they might be
some bad guys. In the end, we didnt trust them and went to ask somebody else instead. Finally, we went to a budget hotel called 7 Days Inn. When we got there by cab, a guy was arguing with a policeman and the receptionist regarding his lost of IC. So scary but we have no other choice but to stay 1 night there. It was a decent hotel just that the entrance was really scary. We had to passed by a dark hole which had leaking ceiling and uneven wet floor.
After surfing net for quite some time, we finally decided to go Dongmen. By the time we reached there, all the shops were closed so we didnt have the chance to go anywhere. Our dinner there tasted quite awful too. It was salty and with a lot of bones.
I suggested to go to the Book City after that coz it was quite late and i couldn't think of anywhere else to go. When we reached the Book City, there was an Er Hu performance with Music Vox setting. It was so interesting that i recorded it down for my CO. I wanted to ask them to do similar performance in future.
Oh ya, i was very impressed by the Book City. It had a huge segment on Music books. So many scores selling at so low prices. I think my CO would go crazy if they see this. I wanted to buy something for them but i was too confused. Dunno which one they like so i decided not to buy. Next time must bring them to China. Anyway, i bought my limited edition Summer Desires, Magic book and Health book. So happy!
Day 2
The next day, we checked in to the Shanghai Hotel which i found in internet. It looked very posh and we liked it a lot. Aaron kept asking me to change to the hotel nearer to his house but i refused coz it was too troublesome and i dunno whether his hotel would be better than mine. To play safe, it was better to stay put.
For lunch, we went to eat the Pizza Hut near the train station. It was a posh restaurant and the waitresses were all wearing halloween costumes. We ordered the 2 person set lunch. Mine was quite nice but the portion was too big for us.
After lunch, we went to Luohu Commercial City coz Sylvia's friend recommended that place for shopping. But i didnt really like that place. Too messy. A lot of people tried to sell us fake branded stuff. We met Sylvia's uncle at a golf shop there and he bought golf gloves for us. The shop assistant recommended him a place to buy fake Ipad for $600. But we just reached there so we didn't follow him there.
Coz I wanted to meet Aaron for dinner, we went to the Window of the World after our Luohu trip. The place was near his working place so it would be more convenient for us to meet. But by the time we reached there, it was turning dark soon. We only had time to take a few photos. We queued for an hour before we took the super popular ride "Flying over America". Luckily, we sat at the last row. It was the highest among all the seats. The ride was so much more
interesting than the 4D ride that i took at the Singapore Discovery Centre. The sky turned dark
around 6pm but we wanted to watch the musical at 7.30pm. So we stayed on.
Nothing to do so we walked around to had a taste of the Halloween atmosphere. It was really scary coz the park was empty and the lightings plus eerie sounds made the park super scary. I told Sylvia that i didnt want to join the halloween party after the musical. It would be too scary for me. But after the 1 hour interesting musical revolving around different famous love stories from various countries, i decided to go for the halloween party. I saw a lot of people going so in order not to miss the fun, i decided to brave myself to go. We went to a lot of huanted houses. Very interesting but there were too many people. I didnt feel scared at all. By the time we finished with the halloween party, it was too late for us to meet Aaron. We ate at the KFC outside the theme park instead.
Day 3
Today, we met Aaron for lunch and went to Dongmen after that. I love that place. Coz i bought a lot of cute stationery there and did my manicure for only $10. Coz they were too tired, Aaron suggested to go for tea at Da Jia Le. I love the bun there. Aaron said it was very famous in Hong Kong and wondered why i didnt eat it when i was at Hong Kong previously.
At night, Aaron brought us to his area and did our foot massage there. After the "too soft" massage, we went to eat the fish pot recommended by Aaron. It stated that the fish and ingredients had some nutritional effects. But the queue was very long, we needed to wait till 10pm or 11pm for our turn. As we have nothing to do while waiting, we went to visit the flea market next to it. The flea market was very interesting, i bought some pouches and notebooks for my colleagues. So pretty. Sylvia also bought a car model for her friend.
After the dinner, we went to a pub on a ship which was recommended by Aaron. It was a nice place which i think was super suitable for gatherings.
Day 4
We went to the Library, Concert Hall and Museum in the morning. The statues at the Concert Hall were very pretty and i liked it a lot. There were also free performances near the area of the Concert Hall. After that, we went to the Museum to visit the free exhibition. The exhibition theme was Bing Ma Yong from Wu Xi. There were some other history exhibitions too but we didnt have the time to visit every single one. We rushed back to check out and went to Aaron's
house to put our luggages coz his house was near to the ferry terminal.
After that, we went to Ajisen to have our lunch and went to Carrefour to buy my tibits and instant noodles. Btw, i was super happy to find my favourite instant noodle there. It is no longer selling in Singapore. Before going back to collect our luggage, we went to eat desserts at Man Ji. Coz Sylvia never been to Hong Kong, we wanted to let her try the Hong Kong desserts.
We took the last ferry back to Macau. My luggage was super heavy and there were a lot of steps. Luckily, the guys working there were very helpful. They helped me whenever they felt that i couldn't manage. I was so lucky.
After we reached Macau, we wanted to go Casino to play a few games. So we took the free shuttle bus to Lisboa Casino but the Lisboa Casino didnt allow me to bring in my luggage. We had no choice but to walk around. Btw, while we were walking around in the casino, we saw a lot of super good figure girls who looked really indecent. I think they were having "business" there.
While waiting for our flight timing, we decided to go and eat my prawn paste noodles to kill some time. After makaning, we still had too much time, so we went to the Leal Square to use internet and bought more local tibits before we go to the airport to continue our internet surfing.
Conclusion - I love Macau and Shenzhen. I think i will go back again soon.
