Macau 1st day

Is has been a year since hubby and me visited Macau. An indeed a beautiful and romantic place. We took advantage of the cheap Air Asia flights and started a ten days journey covering Macau, Hong Kong & Shenzhen.

Looking out from the plane

We arrived Macau in the morning. Upon reaching the airport, we took a cab to the pier. We were told that we should stop at the pier to get hold of Macau map (we later learnt that we can get those from the hotel).It was the holiday season and the pier were packed with people. This would be the place to take the ferry across to Hong Kong. From the pier, you could take free shuttle buses to the hotels. Most of the buses were offered by 5 star hotels such as Venetian and Wynn.

Free shuttle buses offered by hotels

We took a bus to Hotel Metropole located near the famous San Senando Square. It was quite a challenge for us as we were not quite sure on where to stop. We chose to stop at the busiest street and what looked like San Senando Square from the pictures we have seen. We were right. We reached a busy streets, all lined up with jewellery shops, food and banks. Finding the hotel was quite a challenge as the map were all in Portugese. We took quite a lot of unnecessary walk with our heavy bags until we finally reach our hotel. Metropole Hotel, though not so big, is cosy and is actually quite near to San Senando Square.

Our hotel room in Metropole Hotel

Sightseeing is easy as we can easily walk across streets following the map. Our first stop was actually San Senando Square itself. The centre of San Senando Square was decorated with a big christmas tree and a stage for musical performance. The street were packed with people. Most of them, we gathered, were tourist from Hong Kong and China.

Busy street of San Senando Square

Our first stop was a restaurant. We had late lunch. I savoured the fried rice, which comes in quite a big portion. Food is costly in Macau. For light eaters, you can order a bowl and share with your partner.

Fried rice

After lunch, we had a leisure walk and chanced upon St Dominic's Church. A sense of peace and tranquility enveloped the prayer hall as we entered. There is a bell tower at the back of the building. It has been modified into a small museum of Sacred Art, exhibiting a collection of around 300 artifacts.

Artifacts displayed in St Dominic's Church

We continued with the walk in San Senando Square heading towards St Paul's Ruin. There were a lot of shops, adorn with latest fashion wears. We spotted a lot of young stylish girls with their high cut boots and thick furry coats. Weather was no doubt cool, but bearable alike an aircond room. Hubby and me could not help wondering why the need for such thick clothes as we were only dressed in t-shirts (we later realised that fashion supercedes praticality).

The road slope upwards as we walk towards St. Paul's Ruin. Being the holiday season, the place was really packed with tourist. Nevertheless, St. Paul's Ruin stood magnificently at the edge of the slope. History has it that the church caught fire three times and was rebuilt after each fire but the last fire in 1835 was the most serious one, where the most valuable part, the front wall remained.

St Paul's Ruin

We continued to venture into the whole street surrounding San Senando Square. The area was hyped up with a lot of shops selling array of clothes and handbags, and of course the famous Portugese tart. We paid about HKD10 for 2 pieces of Portugese tart. Is a must try for tart lovers despite the price being costly.

One of the shops selling souvenirs, portugese tarts & almond cookies

We decided to walk the streets and unexpectedly chanced upon an old mansion situated amongst the shops. It is the Lou Kau Mansion. The mansion was believed to be built in 1889. It is the home of a chinese merchant who owns many properties in the City. It is a 2 storey building and some of the rooms were decorated with chinese furniture. Entrance is free and you can easily walk in and out of the place.

Lou Kau Mansion

Walking in Macau are quite easy. You will find lanes to be small and even the backlanes have small little shops such as bakery shops. There were christmas ambience, the streets are clean and as the weather is cool, walking is quite pleasant. The place is rich with churches, we passed another church, The Cathedral as we continued our walk. By then, it was evening.

In front of The Cathedral

We continued our journey on foot and headed towards the city. As we walked, we passed by the Grand Lisboa Hotel, Wynn and MGM. The lights which adorned the buildings are magnificent to watch.

Hotel Grand Lisbao

MGM Grand

We continue to head on to an area where the pubs were. As we reached early, there was not much crowd. Just opposite the rows of pubs, stood the Goddess of Mercy statue which is 20 metres tall and made of special bronze. It was night by then and the Goddess of Mercy shone in the dark.

The Goddess of Mercy

We continued our walk and chanced upon a beautiful park. We were very much impressed with the size of the park and walkway. It is spacious but what fascinates us the most is the serenity of the park. We gathered that it is a safe place to be as girls can be seen sitting on the benches, relaxing.

We did a lot of walking in Macau, which was tiring. Nevertheless we were glad that the weather is cool which helps us to relax. We retire to bed later at night and prepared for the next day itinerary.

(More pics at Evershots)