Macau : Travel to Portuguese Colonial Time

Ep. 18

MFM – Macau

“I enjoy my work. I enjoy every minute of my professional life.” – Jose Mourinho.

October 25^th, 2011

Me at the St. Paul Cathedral Ruins

This time I went out for a one day trip with Rara. The original plan was going to Shenzhen. Rara has a multi-tounge ability. She speaks like a professional Cantonese, fluent Mandarin, great English, but to be honest, medium Indonesian (peace, Ra!). Shenzhen plan was cancelled due to Rara exhaustion after her long haul flight, and as soon as she recovers, we made another plan, which is Macau day-trip.

Municipal Building Senado Square

Macau is a small island, which is located not really far away from Hong Kong. We could reach Macau by riding on a ferryboat for about approximately 1 hour from any Ferry pier in Hong Kong. That morning we agreed to meet up in Rara’s tower lobby at 10am. We ride 962 bus from Gold Coast (HKD 18.80) and got off at Sheung Wan Ferry Pier, Shun Tak Center. Ah! Don’t forget to bring your passport if you planned to go to Macau even for a one day trip. You’ll get at least 4 chop on your passport in a day! 

We bought our TurboJet ferry ticket to Macau, which cost us HKD 151 for each person per one way trip. The weather was nice at that time, so it should be not a rough sailing after all. Anyway, I never suffer from sea sick or whatever sick it is (sometimes I just amazed on how strong God made me). We bought the ticket for the 12.15 ferry departure, because the others were already sold out. Tips: go earlier to buy the earlier ferry departure. Rara and I decided to have our breakfast in the Shun Tak Center just 1 level below the departure hall. We had our Lai Cha (Milk Tea) and shared a Lo Mai Kai (dimsum). We queue early in the immigration and got into the ferry just in time. 1 hour of sailing, chit chatting, taking pictures (as always), and we’re set our feet in Macau.

Downtown Macau

Rara has browsed and planned for our trip and I would say she really put some efforts to do so. She took all the role of asking here and there about how to get here and there by bus. We walked out the ferry pier in Macau to the bus station and got on bus no 28A (MOP 4). MOP is Macau Patacca, the currency of Macau, which has 0.97 exchange value compare to HKD. But, no worries, you can always use HKD in Macau (not vice versa). We got off in the heart of town. It was the second time I visit Macau and this time it was different from my first visit (will be in another post). This area where we arrived is really a small village look a like, the one you can see by watching Boys Before Flower (Korean version) and Goong (where Pi Gung Mama exiled). I could sense a strong Portuguese architecture around the village and we stroll around to find some food. Ah! Forgot to mention, Rara is my ‘porky’ friend, both of us has the same big appetite that whenever we went out together, we will have at least lunch, tea time, dinner, and dessert time. 

Antonio

My feast! (the bottom one is Rara's)

We went to a souvenir shops, couldn’t decide on which restaurant should we enter, and ended up Rara ask the clerk of he souvenir shops for a recommendation. He told us there is a restaurant called Antonio that is just around the corner, which offers the local (read: Portuguese) menu. We bid him thank you and goodbye and go straight to Antonio. It was in a secluded area, a really nice little restaurant (Portuguese architectural). The restaurant if I may say, looked like a fine dining (can tell from the table set up. The capacity of the restaurant itself (based on my screening glimpse) is only around 30-40 pax. But it was a really homey and relax atmosphere. There were only one server in that restaurant and one cook, actually it was a couple (how romantic!). The price range, as expected was really a fine dining one. I managed to order myself a side dish only, my favorite Potato au Gratin for MOP 70, while Rara ordered a fish dish main course cost around MOP 160. We munched our fine dining slowly as it was really (repeat: really) tastes good. After we had our fine dining, we started our tour. We asked people around how to go to the Senado Square, where stands the municipal building and shops, and also to the St. Paul Ruins, a very famous historical building of Macau. 

Oops! Pork Bun in my mouth!

a piece of history

I was amazed on how Portuguese influent Macau in some ways. As we arrived in Senado Square, the first thing that I noticed was the pebbled path way on the whole surface of the square. Black and white pebbled arranged nicely in a unique pattern. There are a lot of small alleys where stores and shops sell many local sweets, such as the very famous Portuguese egg tart (don’t worry, we’ve planned   later) and souvenirs. We walked and followed he direction which points “to St.Paul Ruins”, which is a little bit up to the hill (hyperbolism). By the time we climbed up the pebbled path to the St.Paul Ruins, we stop by (thanks to Rara’s itinerary) the best pork bun shop in Macau. We bought ourselves a pork bun (cost MOP 24),  and ate them greedily (which we later regret). Why did we regret? Because just around the corner up to the end of the path, where we already had St.Paul Ruins in our sight, all of the stores and shops are selling the bbq pork slices (like Bee Cheng Hiang) and Portuguese sweets and souvenirs and (the best part is) they provides FREE tester. Can you imagine? The whole street is offering you free pork slices. HEAVEN! For me and Rara this is just we need. We munched all the way hop from on shop to another shop just to try the tester, which by all mean, at the end of the street we’re full already and porky!

the sacred holy tomb

Me and Rara

St.Paul Cathedral was built from 1582 to 1602 by the Jesuits, the cathedral was one of the largest Catholic churches in Asia at the time, and the royalty of Europe vied with each other to bestow upon the cathedral the best gifts. With the decline in importance of Macau, which was overtaken as the main port for the Pearl River Delta by Hong Kong, the cathedral's fortunes similarly ebbed, and it was destroyed by fire during a typhoon in 1835. The amazing thing is the front pillar is still stood still. No admission fee needed to visit the ruins. And of course before we explore the place, we took a picture or two (kidding! We took a lot!) ahahaha… Then we went inside the ruins where there were a sacred place (sort of a tomb), which is believed to be the place where holy spirit present. There was also a little museum room where we can see some statuettes, paintings and artifacts from the past. We climb the stairs to look over from one of the arches of the St.Paul (view from inside the building). After we finished our little tour in the cathedral (read: satisfied with all pictures we’ve taken), we continue our trip to our next stop: the most popular Portuguese egg tart in Macau.

Another munch of Egg tarts

Rara has browsed for the most popular Portuguese egg tart shop in Macau. There were actually two of them: Margaret’s Café e Nata and Lord Stow’s. Crave for some information and background story? There was a story about Madam Margaret and Lord Stow, both of them were married once, live happily together and opened a Portuguese egg tart shop together. But, something happened to their marriage and the got divorced. Both of them still open a Portuguese egg tart shop and (of course) become competitor to the other. Both shops are well known for its egg tart signature taste. Margaret’s is sweet and soft, while Lord Stow’s is less sweet and crispy. Enough for the story, Rara and I chose Margaret’s due to our solidarity to women (kidding!), because Margaret’s shop is on the same track of our tour. The cafe is a little difficult to find as it's tucked away in a hidden alley, it's near Hotel Sintra. When I arrived at the cafe, I was amazed by the long queue but fortunately the queue was fast and took me last than 15 minutes to place my order. The egg tarts were fresh from the oven and the moment i tasted it, mmmm so delicious and couldn't help but gobble it. It cost MOP 8 per tart, quite a reasonable price for a tasty tart (we even got a chance to see the famous Madam Margaret).

Venetian Canal

Our tummy was really pampered that day. We continue our trip, well it almost to the end. It was a little bit drizzling at that time that we decided to go to try our luck in the Venetian Casino. Anyway, what’s the point of going to Macau without gambling? Come on! It was the Las Vegas of Asia. Rara asked for some direction, which bus should we get on. I would rather say that Macau’s local people are quite nice. Even though they cannot explain to you in sentences, they will walk you to the place you asked. The rain got heavier that we ride on the bus without looking the number. And yes! We rode on the wrong bus such a waste of MOP 4. Rara talked to the bus driver in Cantonese and the bus driver show us where to hop off the bus and hop on another one to Venetian. The bus stop is just across the Venetian. We ran under the heavy rain, I used my cardi as my umbrella. Once we got in we went around the shopping arcade of Venetian (it is Mall + Hotel+ Casino in one place). We went into some shops and again we went to McDonald’s to grab some ice creams. Lucky enough, we walked across the performing band, singing some Italian song and (of course) we took a picture with them too. 

our piece of luck!

We started to try our luck in the casino, just HKD 100 each as capital and we promised each other that we will stop if we got doubled our money. We gamble our chips at the SicBo table or I would rather call it Da-Xiao, where you bet whether the dice rolled will result into Big or Small, as simple as that. In less than an hour, after winning and losing. I got at least my HKD 100 capital back, which means I neither lose nor win. Rara? She lost her HKD 100 capital. We decided to go back home then. There are free shuttle bus from the Venetian to the Ferry pier, you just have to walk to the West gate and there stood all the shuttle buses to all destination (what a pampering casino Hotel). There you can spot all kind of faces (winning or losing). 

 

Rara, Me and the Performing Band.

From Macau Ferry Pier, we bought a Cotai ferry ticket back to Sheung Wan Ferry Pier. Due to night departure (it was around 9 pm.), the price was raised into HKD 174 per person. Another 1 hour sail by ferry and we’re back in HK already. How did we spend our 1-hour sailing? Of course sleeping! We ride the 962 bus (operate 24-hour) to our sweet apartment and took a good sleep with beautiful memories. It was a nice short trip with a lot of foods and pictures. Rara and I will surely depart for another trip like this!

“I love to take pictures, it captures moments, the very minute and seconds that we wouldn’t able to repeat. A picture to me: time machine that freezes time.” –Me.