My Life... My Path...

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Macau & Zhuhai (Part 4)

11-16 Feb 2009

Continue from Macau & Zhuhai (Part 3)

Day 5: 15/2/09 Sun (Macau)

We had planned our day at Taipa 氹仔(dang4zai3) today. We took free shuttle from our hotel to the Macau Ferry Terminal for transit to The Venetian Macao Resort & Hotel (澳门威尼斯人酒店）. There were many Venetian shuttle buses, the interval was about 10-15mins. While for other casinos/hotels, around 15-30mins. Upon arrival, I was shocked that the check in counter to the hotel was crowded with guests. I was puzzled because this 5 star hotel room rates were very high. As the time was still early for lunch, we toured this newly built hotel. I could not use words to describe this building, it's huge, unique, elegant and grand. It's very impressive and amazing!

Wow!!! Very beautiful car porch ceiling at the main entrance...

Indoor sky ceiling at food court area were very nice. I was thinking it would be better if the sky could change from morning to night according to the time. The canoe riding was very romantic, there were real person singing while maneuvering the canoes.

Next, we planned to head to Taipa Rua Do Cunha (官也街) for lunch.

Here we were at Villa Da Taipa氹仔(dang4zai3), it was just about 15-25mins walk from The Venetian.

One of our reasons to visit Taipa village on Sunday was to shop at the Sunday Taipa Flea Market （跳蚤市场) between Rua do Cunha　(官也街)　and Rua de Regedor (地堡街）(Bombeiros Square). But to our disappointment, there were just merely less than 10 stalls. The stalls were selling handmade stuff like bric-a-brac, momentos, knitted jumpers and shirts, handicrafts, souvenirs, old $ notes & coins. Hmm... :-( We ended up buying nothing.

The time was around 12pm and we headed straight to Seng Cheong 诚昌饭店（氹仔官也街28-30号), we put our name in the waiting list and they asked us to return at 1.30pm. Wow! As expected long queue in their list on Sunday.

We continued to walk around Rua do Cunha　(官也街), this little lane was crowded with tourists. There was this old biscuits shop Pastelaria Fong Kei ( 晃记饼家）with a lot of people queuing outside the shop. Later there was a moment that was no queue so my mum quickly bought some of the biscuits too. After trying, the biscuits were nice but I still prefer the Koi Kee's biscuits.

Let’s have some ice cream dessert from Gelatina Mok Yi Kei (莫义记).

Enjoying my ice cream by sitting in the middle of Rua do Cunha (官也街), while my mum buying some sweets at Old Cherykoff （老牌车厘哥夫）as souvenirs.

It’s 1pm and we went back to Seng Cheong 诚昌饭店 to check out whether any empty table for us and we were lucky. We ordered the famous crab porridge水蟹粥, basically most of the tables ordered this dish. I like it very much not so much for my parents. Nevertheless, for such price, tried once is enough for me.

Eel (鳗鱼) is another specialty here. It’s nice but the serving was too big.

This lunch costs us about MOP400+. We could have better meal for 4 in KL.

I overheard the conversation next to our table that they were going for Tau Fu Fa later. But I didn’t see that in the recommendation leaflet/brochure. But we found the stall that they were saying 馨发豆花 in another small lane perpendicular to Rua do Cunha (官也街), which was Rua dos Clerigos 木鐸街.

There were many flavours of tau fu fa, the lady boss who’s very friendly recommended us to take their specialty hot & sour soya bean curd 酸辣汤豆花, all the flavours were too fancy therefore one of us dare to try. I was the only one that had the courage to order and ended up ordering 虾皮豆花 also recommended by the owner. It was not like normal bean curd that was sweet. It was salty with some salted vege & dried prawns. The bean curd did not look nice but it was very smooth and tasted very nice!

My mum ordered something more traditional, which was the grinded black sesame dessert (黑芝麻糊) which tasted good too! Too bad that we had heavy meal for lunch, else I would have tried more of the tau fu fa.

Last but not least, our final mission at Taipa was to try the famous pork chop bun (猪扒包）at Tai Lei Loi Kee（大利来记） which were only ready after 3pm. It was our unlucky day that this shop was closed for 1 week, it will only reopen in 2 days time. Oh no! We just missed it as we were leaving Macau tomorrow. Sob…sob!! I was very very upset! The Tau Fu Fa boss recommended us another shop also famous for pork chop bun (猪扒包) at San Hou Lei (新好利咖啡饼店), located at Rua de Regedor (地堡街), just opposite McDonald's. According to her, this shop was about 80% as good as Tai Lei Loi Kee. Outside and inside the shop was a lot of people. I saw some magazine cuttings introducing about this café, so I expected this to be good.

We waited a while as the tarts and buns were all freshly baked. I took away pork chop bun猪扒饱(MOP12-15?) and bird nest tart燕窝挞 (MOP15). The pork chop bun was excellent!!

Along the Rua de Regedor (地堡街)

That’s all at Taipa. And we were leaving back to The Venetian Casino. And in the late afternoon, we took the free shuttle back to our hotel. My parents went back to hotel for rest while me & hubby went to Grand Emperor Casino （英皇娱乐酒店）and also around the Fisherman’s Wharf（渔人码头).

We for last night's place for our dinner at again at Rua da Felicidade (福隆新街). We had shark-fin soup at Tim Fatt 添发碗仔翅美食. We were lucky that we did not have to wait like last night. We ordered their famous “sea cucumber, fish maw & shark fin soup” served in clay port (海篸鱼肚砂锅翅) at MOP230, which was enough for sharing. Thumb up for this!

Next, we had meat ball porridge (猪肉丸粥/金银丸粥）and mixed intestine & meat porridge （及第粥）at MOP17/bowl at Sam Un Loja De Ganja (三元粥品专家). It was scrumptious! Must try!

It was best to stroll around Senado Square after dinner. The night scenery and lightings were totally different compared to the morning. All the lightings and festive decorations were temporary and it was dissembled on the next day.

Continue to Macau & Zhuhai (Part 5)

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Macau & Zhuhai (Part 3)

11-16 Feb 2009

Continue from Macau & Zhuhai (Part 2)

Day 3: 13/2/09 Mon (Macau)
Took a "private taxi" from the border to Macau...
We checked into Hotel Metropole (京都）to get our rooms. Because the time is too early our room were not ready yet. There were lot of maps and tourist guides at the lobby. The location is good, nearby Hotel Grand Emperor and Senado Square（议事亭前地）. We placed our luggage at the hotel concierge and started our journey around Macau...

We had an attached room, not too spacious but clean. Quite expensive too!

We walked to the Senado Square which is just 5 mins away, to change some MOP. Then we headed straight to feed our stomach. I was very excited, as we had done our homework and listed out the food that we must try... Hehe!!

Our first mission was of course to hunt for food..... PORK CHOP BUN!! Here is our first stop for food at Jin Ma Lun (金马伦咖啡饼店）at Rua dos Mercadores (营地大街）. The shop is really small and cramp, we went up stair to sit and the table is very mini oh! There is a signage saying the tables are to share. And the staff here were not too friendly. I can tell that half of the customers were tourists, as they were holding cameras and road maps.

We ordered pork chop bun, garlic bread and iced milk tea. Yummy!! In general, the milk tea in Macau tasted good.

It was raining after we finished our food. Not too many people on the street. Luckily, the rain started to drizzle after a while and we started our journey of strolling through "The Historic Centre of Macau". There were a total of 25 buildings classified as Macau World Heritage.

1. Senado Square （议事亭前地）- Macau's urban centre for centuries. It's popular venue for public events & celebrations. Chinese New Year just passed, we could still see the decorations. So it's a bit different from what we seen before and I was searching for the small fountain. Because I didn't know that I was actually standing at the square.

We visited Yi Shun Milk Company (义顺） which is also at the Senado Square for red bean double layered milk（红豆双皮炖奶）at MOP18. We also tried their specialty plain double layered milk（双皮炖奶）at MOP16. This was best for milk lover like me. Minimum spending at this shop is MOP5 per pax. So, the next day I returned to take another bowl of plain double layered milk alone.

One of the side lanes near Senado Square. The place is very clean. In addition, the floor interlocking design and landscaping had caused the city to be special.

2. Sam Ka Vui Kun Temple（三街会馆－关帝庙）- We went in to pray and made donation to the temple.

3. Holy House of Mercy (仁慈堂大楼）－responsible for founding in Macau the first western-style medical clinic and several other social welfare structures that still function to this day.

4. Lou Kau Mansion (卢家大屋）- built in 1889, this was the home of Lou Kau, a prominent Chinese merchant who owned several imposing properties in the city. There were some old wooden furniture displayed in the living area but other parts of the house were empty. The house was quite small, wonder why they called it mansion. I saw many of mansions stayed by the rich in China which were even bigger and more beautiful than this.

5. Cathedral（大堂／主教座堂）－Solid brick structure built in 1622, and repaired in 1743.

Outside of the "Cathedral". My parents posing and resting in front of a fountain. We saw a team of crews and an actress/model shooting movie.

6. St. Dominic's Church（玫瑰堂）－ this church was founded in 1587.

7. Ruins of St. Paul's（大三巴牌坊）－refer to the facade of what was originally the Church of Mater Dei build in 1602-1640, destroyed by fire in 1835, and the ruins of St. Paul's College, which stood adjacent to the Church.
It was very crowded, and everyone who comes to Macau must for sure to shoot photos here. Nowadays, this remaining facade functions symbolically as an altar to Macau city.

I climbed up the stairs to the center of the ruin and took some snapshots.

8. Na Cha Temple( 哪吒庙）- This temple is dedicated to the worship of Na Cha, built in 1888. This temple is very much smaller compared to my expectation.

9. Mount Fortress（大炮台）-This was the city's principal military defense structure. The fortress was equipped with cannons, military barracks and wells. The fortress covers an area of 10,000 m2.
The fortress is located next to the ruins of St. Paul's, me and hubby following the signages that led up climbing up steps and stairs all the way up to the hill. When we reached the top, we was shocked to see my mum, she told us that she would wait for us at the ruins. How could she reached the hill before us??? She then laughed and told us she came up using the escalator on the other side of the building. #$%@^!!!! WHAT'S THE SIGNAGES FOR?? HUH?? Made us more tired by taking the harder way? And then she showed us the way down the hill. :-(

Ok. Our "Historic Walk" had come to a halt. This was the end of Part and we shall continue the 2nd part the next day, not tomorrow, the day after which was our final day.

To and back from the Ruins of St. Paul's, we passed through this small lane that was very crowded. Along the way, we were offered a lot free food samples, biscuits, dried meat.. etc.

The most famous one was of course the almond biscuits. We tried few brands but we ended up buying at Pastelaria Koi Kee (钜记手信）, although their price was more expensive than the others. I believed it has the most number of outlets in Macau, we could see the outlets everywhere in Macau. Even along this street, within such a short distance, there're at least 3 outlets (if i wasn't mistaken). Wow! Amazing!

Time for rest after whole day of walking and exploring. We bought some fish balls, pork balls and sausages in curry soup. All the shops were very small, they did not have extra spaces for seats. We took away our food and ate by the road side and yet we felt comfortable of the surroundings. The breeze was cooling, the place was clean and no car passing through.

Imported ice cream from Lemon Cello Gelato... can't recall the price, but very expensive. But I think those imported ice cream

Even the 地主公 was of smaller version that we used to see in Malaysia. The land was so precious oh!

Next in our list of itinerary was continue with food hunt too! Haha!! More ice cream, let's try local ice cream at Lai Kei Ice Cream (礼记雪糕饮冰) located at 12-12A, Av. Conselheiro Ferreira de Almeida (荷兰园大马路）, which was famous for their red bean ice-cream. We ordered red bean ice potong（雪条）, ice cream topped with red beans and few of other ice cream that were different flavours.

We explored our dinner along Rua da Felicidade 福隆新街. It's a weekend and also Valentines' Day, there was long queue for food at most of the dining places. Look at the queue... They were waiting for shark fin soup- 添发碗仔翅美食. I took a closer look at the price list, hmm... reasonably cheap. Luckily we spent 2 nights here in Macau, so i put that restaurant name down in my list, we must come back for this tomorrow. For now, we did not want to spend time lining up.

Another Pastelaria Koi Kee (钜记手信) outlet and yet filled with customers. This is their HQ at Rua da Felicidade 福隆新街. We regretted to buy the biscuits earlier today because we had to carry all the way to walking back to our hotel. This outlet was only 5-10mins walk away from our hotel... so near.

Here we were in front of Loja Sopa De Fita Cheong Kei(祥记面家) 福隆新街68号 We were lucky that we did not need to wait too long for our seats. We ordered their specialty prawn noodle 虾子捞面, the noodle was too dry, I Diderot quite like it in general and I was quite disappointed because this was one of the famous dishes in Macau.

Fish skin in soy sauce 白灼鱼皮, Nothing special about it but fish skin is one of my favourites.

Fish ball but served without soup 鲮鱼丸，braised pork nuckle卤猪脚.

We spotted another good business shop with people queuing outside... Sam Un Loja De Ganja (三元粥品专家) Oh! They were selling porridge. No extra room for it now, let's add into tomorrow's itinerary for dinner.

We saw a stall with long queue again, out of curiosity, we walked nearer to find out. Oh! It's selling braised beef and cow intestine. The cooking area was so messy, and yet the hawker could find which part of the intestines that the customer ordered. We did not try it, but should be delicious by looking at the queue.

Other than historical places and food, casinos are the main attractions of Macau. We headed to Casino Grand Lisboa to try our luck. The neon lights outside the buildings were very colourful and fabulous. There were 2 buildings, old and new, Grand Lisboa refers to as the new casino, while the old one was Casino Lisboa.

Grand Lisboa 新葡京酒店 (New Building)