Last Day in Macao

Our AirAsia Flight No. AK 489 leaving Macao was in the evening, so we had the whole day to explore the tourists attraction and shop for souvenirs around there. Our walking tour started at Largo de Senado, the most beautiful square in Macao.

The floor is covered with two-tone cobble stones to form a wavy pattern.

There are many historical buildings at this square, dating back to the Portuguese Colonisation.

Although Starbucks is an American culture, it is turned Portuguese in Macao.

There is never lacking of shops along this walking tour from Largo de Senado to the Ruins of St. Paul's.

It was just a short walking tour and the Ruins of St. Paul's was already in sight.

There are many ways of taking good photos of the tourist attraction. It all depends on what position you are comfortable with.

The Ruins of St. Paul's is what was left of the St. Paul's Church after the fire in 1835.

This is the angle where most of the souvenirs on Ruins of St. Paul's are crafted.

On our way back, we stopped by some shops to spend what was left in our wallets before returning home.

Can't Have Enough of the Portuguese Egg Tarts

Portuguese egg tarts are everywhere in Macao, but we went all the way to Coloane Village for the one that is featured all over in blogs and magazines. We were quite curious whether the other cafes do served the egg tarts with the same quality, so we tried.

Margaret's Cafe e Nata is located at the shop houses next to the shop where we had everything with pork chop.

The egg tarts actually looked and tasted the same as those at Lord Stow's Bakery. So, you don't have to actually take the trouble to travel quite a distance to Coloane Village if you are in a hurry. Margaret's Cafe e Nata is just right in the heart of Macao's city centre.

The egg tarts I brought back to Kuching for my family were from Margaret's Cafe e Nata, and they liked them very much.

Everything about Pork Chop

When we were hunting for a place for breakfast in Macao on one day, we smelled something good coming out from a small lane just opposite the Grand Lisboa. So, we ventured in! To our surprise, there was a row of shop houses lined with eateries. We chose the one with the most customers to be on the safe side.

The interior has no decor to talk about. It is just a typical coffee shop where the people congregate.

Macao is famous for anything to do with pork chop, so I ordered a bowl of pork-chop noodles (猪扒麵) with the wiggly noodles (公仔麵). This was really a nice bowl of noodles! I'm still craving for it now!

The pork chop in a bun (猪扒包) is also a must have item in Macao, so, even I was already satisfied with the bowl of noodles, I still gobbled up one bun.

If you see a small lane lined with motorcycles, you are very near to the food already.

Still can't find the place? Look for this place on the map or just ask the local people for direction. If you are somewhere near Grand Lisboa, you are very close to this place already.

Venice is in China

The latest hangout place for the gamblers is probably The Venetian which was only open a couple of months back. Almost every landmark in Venice has been replicated here. If you just look at those landmarks from a distance, you would have thought that you are really in Venice.

The Campanile (bell tower) was built with all the details intake.

The scaled-down Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace) also looks like the real structure in Venice.

The lining up of replicas did not stop at the outdoor structures, it is actually extended to the interior. Oh my! They really want you to have hallucination!

I was expecting to see the replica of Basilica di San Marco at the St. Mark's Square but unfortunately it wasn't built. Only the clock tower was there.

There were also 'replicas' of street artistes.

The washroom was definitely well-worth a visit, as I know now the definition of a 'golden toilet.'

Even the mosaics on the ceiling were replicated, except that the replica was painted on.

I almost believed that I was in Venice, if not for the noise of dice rolling and playing cards shuffling.

Macao Food Got Enough

After a few days of indulgence in food, shopping and sight-seeing in Hong Kong, we headed back to Macao to spend our last two days of vacation. We weren't paying much attention to the casinos anymore. What we cared about was food!

After the incidence of having difficulty to find the authentic Macao food, we decided to look for food further away from the town centre. So we boarded the bus heading to Coloane Village, whilst fighting for space with the school children!

There is a legendary bakery at the Coloane Town Square that is said to serve the best Portuguese egg tarts. Any food hunter in Macao wouldn't miss that. That includes the three of us!

All the egg tarts are hand-made by these experienced aunties, so there shouldn't be any compromise on quality in this 19-year old bakery.

There were many other things around, but they just couldn't catch much of our attention.

All we cared about were the the egg tarts!

Most of the patrons like to sit on the benches outside the bakery but the three of us preferred to be different. So, we went hunting for a more cosy place to indulge ourselves in the egg tarts.

The slightly charred custard surface and the multi-layered pastry make them different from the egg tarts in Hong Kong.

After tasting the egg tarts, Macao had salvaged itself from my criticism of 'Macao Food No Enough.' Feeling satisfied, we went strolling the historical streets around Coloane Town Square to admire the charm of old times.

When we were about to leave, there were still many people flocking into Lord Stow's Bakery for the egg tarts although it was already near closing time.

Leaving Macao

As I've mentioned in my previous post, we had a hard time looking for food, I mean good food, in Macao during the evening of our arrival. We asked the hotel staff where to find authentic food and they scratched their head too. Some of them recommended the hotel restaurant and we kind of believed them and decided to try the complimentary breakfast.

It seams that all the function rooms in the hotel were fully booked for that day. Hmmm... impressive!

We felt cheated by the hotel staff after looking at what was offered on the breakfast selection. We could have wandered the street again to find better food.

However, I found the pork congee quite alright after adding loads of topping.

I think that was what was worth showing up here. The rest of the food was just not worth mentioning. The other better food here is the toast with butter. Do you need a picture of that? I don't think so.

After an unsatisfying breakfast, we wanted to get out of this land of no-good-food as quickly as possible, so we hopped on to the free shuttle bus to the Macao-Hong Kong ferry terminal (港澳码头).

Although Wynn lost hands down to Lisboa and Grand Lisboa in terms of flashy neon lights and blinking bulbs, it was trying to win back one round with the picketing at the ferry terminal.

The ferry terminal doesn't look like one! It's more like a shopping mall to me. That's why we had no clue of where to get the ferry tickets when we first got into the terminal building.

A travel agent representative spotted the three disorientated tourists and offered to bring us to get the tickets, and we were directed to the travel agent and showed the way to the departure hall.

I was so happy to see a trendy vessel. I thought I was going to go for the ride on this one.

But apparently it was not!

However, I was just judging the book by its cover. The interior of the vessel looks like a well-maintained commercial jetliner, but this vessel allows the passengers to bring in their own food, and this gentlemen actually opened up a packet of roasted and barbecue meat with rice!

Hong Kong, here we come!