Hong Kong & Macau Day Three & Four

Today's itinerary is #Macau.We had breakfast at this mall opposite our hotel - #Windsor. Most of the restaurants werent open yet by the time we got there but this dimsum place on the 5th (?) floor was already opened. Thank goodness. Food was alright. We spent 200++HKD there. 

After lunch we went over to the ferry terminal. We got there around before mid day but the earliest ferry we could board was almost 2pm. So we heard this guy shouting, selling tickets to the same #Turbojet ferry we were trying to get tickets for and the next ferry timing was right about then! So we got tickets from him. The guy said we can come back anytime before the time stated on the return ticket which was 9pm ish. We compared the prices stated on the tickets he got us and the original #Turbojet tickets and there was a difference alright but it wasn't what you would expect when people tout sell tickets to you. It was definitely worth the not having to wait for 2 more hours before we could board the ferry. Ferry ride was smooth. Seats were allocated - not free seating that I expected. Seats were comfy and spacious. Journey was smooth sailing, not nauseating at all. We reached Macau after around an hours ride. Slept for most of it so I didn't pay attention to the time at all. 

After we cleared immigration, Jan and Amy were approached by their homies offering us day tour for 100HKD each. I went over to the tourist information counter which is right near the exit of the building and took some maps and found out that there are buses that could take us to the places we wanted to go. 

So we opted for the buses in the end. We took bus to nearby #SenadoSquare and it cost 3.20HKD each. You pay with exact change which you slot into the fare box. No tickets issued. Turns out, Macau is very small! The bus ride took no time at all. One thing is, the names are all in Portuguese (?) so it took some time to get used to match the road names. Just peel your eyes to look for road signs or see what's stated on the bus led display - though i think it doesn't really match the map, either that or I'm really really bad at all this scout business. We managed to get off nearby the Square. Had to ask for direction and after a short walk we were there. It was crowded - probably because it was Sunday. We took some pictures at the square and walked over to the Ruins of St. Pauls. There were small alleys leading to the ruins. And in those alleys it's crowded till you gotta walk inches by inches and rub your bodies against strangers. But.. it's a short walk also. There were signages everywhere. That's what good about Macau. It's small and filled with directions - till you gotta take the bus then you're on your own then. 

Many people at #StPaulsRuins but there were some nice spots left on the staircases if you were the kind who would sit down, enjoy the scenery and observe silly tourists like us. We were whooping out the monopod again. Got some stares and a group of Chinese uncles with DSLRs who came up and asked about the stick, how do you keep it (shorten?) and how do you take pictures with it - showed them my #shutterball, it's visible on almost all the pictures. Me holding this tiny green ball, that's the remote hahah. We're so well equipped. If only I had this earlier for Korea. Oh well... April, cherry blossoms, here I come! So we spent quite some time taking pictures from all angles. Saw a lot of stalls selling dried meat. Few selling egg tarts - think I just saw 1 or 2 of those. And loads selling meat bun and dried peanut cookies? There are samples everywhere. Some are even freshly baked. We just swooped in and grab from this big plate they display the samples from - warm and fresh. Too dry for my liking. We had to squeeze our way through the crowd to get back to the square. Turns out the bus stop was really nearby. We went the wrong way so it felt further away than it actually was. 

Ticket to the Venetian costs 6ish HKD. Exact cash again. You can relax for the whole ride till you cross this long bridge to #Taipa district. That's where the #Venetian is. So once you cross over, few more stops and you will see the Venetian. There are 1 or 2 bus stop for you to alight from, it's right across the Venetian, not exactly nearby but you just have to cross over, there's a long overhead bridge that direct you to Venetian. Picture taken some distance from the bus stop, near the overhead bridge. My orange sweater is from Artbox Korea. #loveit. Can't wait to go back to get more. 

It was kinda crowded in Venetian. There was a small stage where singers would perform. Saw few of my indo homies using the monopod too. I swear they mouthed #tongsis when they saw me holding it. Hahahah The place is beautiful. Kinda like MBS but more crowded and better settings, not just shops on both lanes, it has a square too. 

Lots of people were busy taking pictures. We happen to be by this lamp pillar and start taking pictures, I dont know why but this lady decided to come nearby and lean against the pillar I have my arms around that I can feel her body squashing my hand. Oh hello, there are many other lamps around. Why do you need to use the one I'm hogging? You is kidding me right? #somepeoplearejust ...

We had lunch at the food court and the food there were so expensive. Around 100HKD per person. I know it's around the same amount of what we've paid so far for our meals but it's in a foodcourt so I expected it to be much less. HKD and Macau Dollar is 1 to 1. If they need to break your cash, they will give you change in Macau Dollar. 

After the meal and photoshoot, we went back out to take our free shuttle to the ferry terminal. The awesome thing about this bus is there is free wifi hahaha.. Forgot to post something on my Instagram. I wanted to stamp in on the location to fill my maps. #obsessed It was only a short ride to the ferry terminal. Maybe 15 minutes. I didn't even notice it. The bus driver counted the passangers so everyone would have a seat. 

So we reached the ferry terminal. Have no clue what the sign says because of the different vessels and gates and I asked this ticket guy, he said our ship is at 9pm so we can't board this one. We reached around 6pm ish. That freaking ticket seller didn't tell us! we thought it as an open return ticket. Good thing is we could line up as standby passengers meaning if the current ferry has spots left, people queuing up there could get a seat and leave earlier than their ticket timing. When we got there, the queue was already very long, maybe there were around 30 people in front of us. But... we managed to board that ferry! Best thing is, we were given priority seats near the exits hahaha.. #awesomeness

The immigration line back into Hongkong was so unbelievably crowded. Our line's immigration officer was really doing a very thorough job checking everybody's documents. I think for every 5 people next to our line who pass through, he only cleared one from our line #comeondude. I think we waited around 30-40mins to reach our turn even though there were probably less than 15 people in front of us.

We went to ladies market after we got back to Hongkong. Did a quick walk, didn't buy anything there. They didn't have my phone casing too. So disappointed. 

For our last day, we checked in for our flight at Hong Kong station and walked around IFC. After a while, all shopping centers feel the same to me. We bought some junk food from the supermarket and while Jan met up with her friend Amy and I went around getting macarons from these two cafes. First time having a cheese flavoured macaron - I'm still sold. Hahah 

We took the airport express to Airport. Oh yeah! There's a free shuttle bus from Park Lane hotel to Hong Kong station and viceversa. But beware.. the traffic in front of park lane is bad. There are also cars parked by the road side and because of that it becomes a one lane road only. I had to ran out and flag the bus once I saw it. We had to wait 20 more minutes if we had missed it. No help with the luggages so please  bring what you yourself  can carry and none of that "oh my luggage is so heavy i can't carry it" princess syndrome. Super convenient. This is how we reached the hotel when we arrived. Airport express to Hongkong station, get the 3 days MTR pass (300HKD each - not cheap but includes 2 way airport express so it was alright I guess) and took the free shuttle to our hotel. 

I don't know what we did at the airport but we ended up in this restaurant, ordered and turned out the timing was very near to our boarding time. So we had to change our orders to take away - waiters weren't happy at all but i guess we might not be the first customers to do that to them and rushed to the immigration. We had the food in the plane. I think the people behind us were like #wth when they saw us passing food back and fro. I watched Dallas Buyers Club in the plane and was busy doing the photo collages for this trip. Good trip HK, luckily it wasnt hot. See you next time.