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>Sweet Getaway to Hong Kong & Macau (Episode 4)

Posted by: dianateodt on: October 14, 2010

In: Asia Trip | Bits 'n' Bites | Goin' Places | Macau | Travel
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>17th September 2010 – Macau (Part I)

Today, it is the last day of our Macau trip before heading back to Hong Kong. We woke up at 9 am and had our complimentary American breakfast before check+ing out. We decided to take shuttle bus to The Sands in order for us to deposit our luggage, so that it will be easy for us to tour around Macau. This is what most of us keep saying “fully utilise their facilities mah”.

Like what I said in my previous post, today we plan to look towards Macau main attraction places. Once again, hopping on shuttle bus from The Sands to the main attractions.

It is not difficult to find the places that we want to go as there is sign showing us the way and good thing for a banana people like me is that it’s written in English.

What a sunny day in the city of Asia’s Las Vegas?

I’ m so love with this “M” sign wherever I’m travelling. Too bad never had the chance to try it

As what recommended by most bloggers, I decided to search Senado Square (which I do not exactly what place is all about at the first place, not until when I reach there)….

Gosh. It’s awesome but too bad it is damn hot than Malaysia. Hardly to believe!

Took for a few pictures and we’re move on to the next destination. All along the way, you can stopby for shopping. Giordano, Bossini and etc, stopby and shop. We plan to shop at Hong Kong as we do not want to bring a big and heavy bag all along our way back to Hong Kong. Besides that, there is a church nearby.

St. Dominic’s Church (left); Interior of the church (right)

While busy glance glance at the shops, streets and even people around us, never thought we had reached the place that “must-visit when in Macau”. Yes, the Ruins of St. Pauls. When watching tv and saw this facade, sure will say “That place is Macau”.

From far far away…

Now getting closer to it

Finally more closer to it

Saw this advertisement nearby and it caught my eyes

It was really really really a hot weather and we decided to take a quick photo and went off. In the mean time, we were looking around to hunt for Portuguese most famous food; Portuguese egg tart and pork chop bun.

Saw this lovely small shop with cute signboard, we decided to try the egg tart and the pork chop bun.

Pork chop bun

The result: The Portuguese egg tart (HK$5) is not as crispy as what most of the bloggers recommend. The pork chop bun is so so only. No need to shout out for it. Maybe should try the other in famous shop by the way.

Then, we heading to Lisboa Casino as one of my friend would like to try his luck in gambling. Maybe no luck, he then changed his mind and wanted to go The Sands to try his luck again. Maybe today wasn’t his day. I’m not sure how much he lose but seems like a huge amount (==”)

The building of Sand. In chinese, they call “Golden Sands”. Just like the building

There is theme park nearby The Sands. Did I heard wrong? Theme park in Macau? No kidding. The name of this theme park is Macau Fisherman’s Wharf. But due to our time is so limited, a big “NO” to this as we preferred to save our “ka-ching” for Hong Kong’s theme park. Or maybe next time when we have more spare time.

Photo of Macau Fisherman’s Wharf by Vincent

At 4 pm, we took speedboat back to Hong Kong. Finally, I get to ride on the red ferry, Turbojet. By the way, no differences compare to the previous speedboat which I took. 😛

We had to queue and wait for further instruction in order to for us to board on 5 pm as the time shown in our ticket is 8pm. Luckily we have the patient to wait or else, we end up taking the onwards ferry where we need to queue from the beginning again. Like my sis always tell me “Orang Sabah mesti Sabar bah!” Hahaha.. I love this.

Goodbye Macau. Gonna miss you

Next post: A spectacular night view of Hong Kong

>Sweet Getaway to Hong Kong & Macau (Episode 3)

Posted by: dianateodt on: October 11, 2010

In: Asia Trip | Bits 'n' Bites | Goin' Places | Macau | Travel
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>16th September 2010 – Macau (Part II)

After taking a break for half an hour (refer previous post), we moved on to our next destination, The Venetian Macau Resort Hotel.

Besides a large casino and 5-star hotel, it is also one stop for shop luxury stores. But what breathtaking is the Venice replicas. Built on the second floor, this Venetian themes comes with canal system and you could take for a gondola ride. You could feel like you are visiting Italy instead of Macau. What’s the different is that you can avoid from the hot weather or even heavy rain, you still can stroll by the canals under the mesmerizing and impressive Venice faux sky.

San Luca canal

~dt~ in The Venetian

So regret for not shopping more at this shop

This clock reminds me of Prague, Crezc Republic which I had not yet blog about it

Since The Venetian is the place for us to take pic but not shopping and gambling, we hang around for less than an hour. Outside the Venetian, we saw Hard Rock Hotel which was opened last year June.

Group photo outside The Venetian

Hard Rock Hotel, located in City of Dreams

We walk around Hard Rock Hotel for a short period of time before heading for the dinner.

This one took by me. Not copy and paste from other source. Nice or not?

I took this pic while waiting for bus. Outside The Hardrock Cafe. Damn nice and beautiful.

Our dinner for the night is in Cozinha Pinocchio, which serve Portuguese cuisine. It is located in Taipa Village by famous “Rua de Cunha” where there are numerous souvenir shops. We took shutter bus from Hard Rock Hotel to there. Then, a short walking distance before reaching the restaurant.

Another famous restaurant in Macau – Dumbo Restaurant.

This is the one we dine in.

Cozinha Pinocchio menu

Road of Rua de Cunha

Before back to the hotel, we stopby one of the famous bakery shop to buy their local biscuits and snacks. As the night is still young, we plan to walk around our hotel as we saw the night scenery is so pretty during our journey back to the hotel inside the bus.

Beautiful night scenary of Macau

Macau-Taipa Bridge

Behind us is the Macau Tower.

That’s my first visit to Macau. Next post is the main spots in Macau and our journey back to Hong Kong. Stay tune~

>Sweet Getaway to Hong Kong & Macau (Episode 2)

Posted by: dianateodt on: October 10, 2010

In: Asia Trip | Goin' Places | Hong Kong | Macau | Travel | TTM
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>16th September 2010 – Macau (Part 1)

Our initial plan to Macau is suppose to be the last day before we back to KK but since Teh’s uncle saw promotion for Macau hotel together with ferry ticket in local newspaper (not Malaysian local newspaper, its Hong Kong newspaper), so we decided to go Macau a day after we reached Hong Kong.

This special promotion is absolutely superb duper cheap. HK$700 for 2 people; 1 night for 5 star hotel and 2 return tickets to Macau. For a normal price ticket, it would cost HK$134 – HK$142 for only one single ticket. So do your maths and try calculate how much we pay for the accommodation.

We took bus from Tin Shui Wai to Sheung Wan station. This is the station to depart to Macau.

Boarding Hall. This is depart to Tapai, not Macau main port.

Turbojet Counter

I thought that we are going to Macau by this red ferry which known as Turbojet but we are travel using blue ferry which is known as Cotai Jet. However, this Cotai Jet does not depart to the main Macau Ferry Terminal. It depart to another ferry terminal which known as Tapai Temporary Ferry Terminal.

Cotai Jet

Start our day with sausage with egg burger and milk tea from Mc D.
By the way, it’s pork burger. I’m just loving it when comes to Mc D Hong Kong

The journey took almost 1 hour. Once we stepped outside the pier, we saw that Macau International airport is nearby. Unlike Hong Kong, there is no railways in Macau. Not to worry as there are many free shutter bus. In Macau, buses and taxis are major public transport. Most of the casinos operate their own fleet of shuttle bus service such as Lisboa Casino, The Venetians, The Sands and etc. And it is free!

As we arrived earlier than we plan, we took The Sands shuttle bus before check in to our hotel. The Sands is a big and luxury casino in Macau. It is the sister hotel of the Venetian. Before proceeded to the casino, we deposited our baggage at the baggage counter. What I like about this sands is there are plentiful of free drinks; fruit juice, warm milk and even hot drinks such as coffee and etc.

The Sands Macau

Japanese buffet at The Sands. That is Teh’s uncle at the bottom right pic.

After having Japanese buffet which located at the second floor of The Sands as our lunch, we took the shuttle bus heading to Macau Ferry Terminal and wait for another shuttle bus which provided by the hotel that we will check in to. The hotel shuttle bus pick the passagers every half an hour. We stayed in Riviera Hotel (formerly known as Ritz Hotel Macau). The room was very spacious as well as the bathroom.

Definitely I would like to stay here again

Next post: The mesmerizing of Venice replica

>Ocean Cafe

Posted by: dianateodt on: October 9, 2010

In: Bits 'n' Bites | Family
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Here go another backdate post again! This post were way back long, where it was almost 2 months ago.

Now, here I am again to post on western foods which me and my family having for our dinner. At first, my 1st younger bro choose Little Italy but ends up, we went to Ocean Park, which nearby CKS Taman Millenium since my mom would like to drop by CKS Supermarket to buy some groceries.

From the poster which they sticked outside their cafe, I thought there are many choices to choose from. But with dissapointly when the waitress said they only serve western foods. Both of my younger bros love western foods especially chicken chop.

And both of them order the same meal;
Grilled Chicken Chop with Cheese Mushroom Cream Sauce (RM13.90)

Besides mushroom cream sauce, it served with cheddar cheese on the top of the chicken. Comments from my both bros, “Hilltop serve much better!”

Me and my mom sharing 1 meal as both of us can’t having too much during night time. So, we decided to order Spagetti Bolognese. It comes with 1 piece of garlic bread which it’s so crispy. For the spagetti, well for my own opinion, its taste normal. No extraordinary.

Location: Taman Millenium (Opposite of CKS Supermarket)

>Funky Town

Posted by: dianateodt on: October 9, 2010

In: Bits 'n' Bites
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>A little break for “Bits & Bites” moment before continue for my sweet getaway trip.

Me and my TTM having lunch with my dearest best buddy, Wawa on a day before we went for Hong Kong & Macau trip. Well, for an unemployed person like her (hehehe…), nothing to do but just hanging around while waiting to find a job.

At first plan to eat at Kaze Japanese House but since both of us had never try Funky Town, which located nearby my office, so we plan to have a try. The ambiance of this restaurant almost alike Upperstar and Texas but just a bit smaller in terms of space. What’s the differences from the others is Funky Town not only serve western foods, but they did serve eastern foods too. What i means here is Asian foods like noodle soup and etc.

Wawa’s meal; Fried rice with lemon chicken (RM7.90)

The chicken is so crispy but when u look at the chicken, you must be wondering, where had been all the lemon sauce been? Once you putting in your mouth, my gosh, there is a lemon taste. Not bad this meal.

My meal; Grilled chicken with mushroom sauce (RM13.90)

Served with frieds and salad like others normal shop/restaurant which serve western foods. The chicken is so tender and the sauce is taste nice. I recommend this by the way if you plan to have meal at Funky Town.

Location: Damai (in the middle of Mr Bread and Maple Cafe)
Opening Hours: Off on Monday.

>Sweet Getaway to Hong Kong & Macau (Episode 1)

Posted by: dianateodt on: October 7, 2010

In: Asia Trip | Bits 'n' Bites | Goin' Places | Hong Kong | Travel | TTM
2 Comments

>15th September 2010

At last, having the holiday I want. No more worries about works. Left behind for the whole week and all I need to do is enjoy the holiday to the fullest.

At first, we booked our destination to Macau but starting from July onwards (if not mistaken), flight from Kota Kinabalu to Macau had been stopped. But luckily, we still got choice to fly to Hong Kong.

This is my 3rd trip to Hong Kong but first visit to Macau. Therefore, there are few places that I will been for the 2nd times.

My new luggage bag, Hush Puppies. Purposely bought for this trip 😛

View of Hong Kong from the top

Reach airport after almost 3 hours flight. By the way, our flight delay for almost 1 and half hours

Let me introduce, Sabah F4 😛
(From left: Sam, Teh, Aaron and Vincent)

Hong Kong International Airport. It is bigger than KLIA

Once we reached Hong Kong International Airport, Teh’s uncle welcoming us at the arrival hall patiently and brought us to the Octopus Card counter to buy the public transport ticket before taking us to the next destination. It’s useful for us to buy that ticket instead of buying single ticket. Why? Later you will find out.

We took bus from airport to the place we will overnight for the whole trip. We stayed in Teh’s uncle’s house, which located in Tin Shui Wai. Since we reached Hong Kong around 6-7 pm, (due to the delay), his uncle brought us for dinner. By the way, we were damn hungry since the last meal we had was around 11am – 12pm. Planned to buy meal in the cabin but it’s not worth it.

5 of us order different meals at YLK Restaurant, Kingswood Ginza, Tin Shui Wai

After dinner with Teh’s uncle and whole family, they brought us to the condo which nearby the our dinner place.

Clockwise: Master bedroom, Kitchen, Double decker bed room, Living room

This is my first experience of living the lifestyle of Hong Kong people. Although known as condo, but their space is limited. This is because their land is extremely expensive. However, we are grateful that we have place to stay as we can save more cost for this trip.

Next post: First step in Macau

DT: Travel & Living Journal