Sneak Peek Into A Life...: Macau Bem Vido #2

Continuing from the first part, we checked into tis Beverly Plaza Hotel in the Macau town area on Day 2. The room not as grand as Venetian Macao but equally comfortable. Took a shuttle bus to the newly built Macau Fisherman Wharf & had lunch in a Shanghainese restaurant inside. Our hotel is stone throw away from all the major casinos. Here, we have the locally owned casionos such as Grand Lisboa & Fortuna. There's also MGM, Wynn, Sands - the major Vegas chains are all here. It's been years since the local government stopped the monopolization of the local gambling business from a certain Stanley Ho (one of Asia's richest men) & opened up to the international chains. No wonder tis place called Vegas of the East. Anyways, in 2007, it's reported that Macau has overtook Las Vegas as the no.1 gambiling destination in the world based on $$$ turnover.

With bro in Fisherman's Wharf

For dinner, went to tis Wong Chi Kei restaurant situated in Senado Square, which serves the signature wan tan mee. They even got their own website: http://www.wongchikei.com.hk/ The restaurant is famous throughout Macau & HK for its technique of making noodles with the bamboo sticks - a century old traditional Cantonese style. The prawn dumplings were filled with super fresh medium sized prawns. Truly delicious & a must-try for any noodle lovers. For supper deserts, we tried to search for tis "tong sui"(sweetened soups) shop. After 1 hour of walking, finally found it at secluded corner (can't remember the shop name) Here, we have their specialties; sweetened water chestnut soup, wheat, black glutinous rice, sweet potatoes & other unknown desert. It was a tantalising treat with generous servings of ginkgo in almost all soups in huge bowls. Bills came up to about RM 200.00 for 10 of us, with each bowl costs RM 15.00!!!

Braised wan tan mee with shrimp dumplings from Wong Chi Kei

Great array of "tong sui"

Beautifully lighted Macau Tourism office building in Senado Square

Day 3

We had this half day tour on a hired coach with a local tour agent with the first stop at St. Paul's Ruins, which I descibed as the symbol of Macau. With the legendary landmark as the background, photo session is a must. Nearby is the Macau Museum, which showcased the history of Macau's early days. We were then brought to the A-Ma temple, St Francis Xavier church & had Portugese lunch at Dumbo restaurant. In between the places, went to the famous Macau pastry shops, situated strategically near the tourist attractions. There are 2 household names for pastries, "Choi Heung Yuen" & "Koi Kei". You will always see the 2 shops situated not far from each other anywhere in main Macau streets. I was told almond cookies is a must-buy for souvenirs while others such as pineapple cookies, peanut candies, egg cakes are not to be left out either. Having a thing for pastries, I just can't help but to try out & buy each packet of these cookies from the 2 shops. My personal opinion is "Koi Kei" has slight edge over its rival as its cookies are more tastier & had more varieties of cookies. So, do hop over to any of those 2 shops if ur in Macau.

My one resolution before this trip is to check out the famous Portugese tarts & see if it's taste is as good as claimed. Tried the ones sold in few shops & mind u, the taste of the tart in it's birthplace Macau (i guess so) is really out of the world. The egg portion in the tart is soft & tender unlike the one sold in KL which is more like a jelly. So, when we eat the original version, it felt as if the egg melted in our mouth. Talking about the currencies used, most shops here actually accept 3 main currencies, Macao dollars (MOP), HK dollars (HKD) & renminbi yuan (CNY) & most cash registers had the daily rates set in them. So, if the price of the item costs MOP15 & when we give HKD20, we will receive changes slightly more than MOP5 based on the daily rate.

Bro & myself went out on our own at nite, setting ourselves to prowl the whole Macau streets while the others tried their lucks again. Started walking after seeing off the others in Wynn casino but we decided to go back to Senado Square for dinner in Wong Chi Kei. It was drizzling & there was a procession going on in the square since it was Good Friday. Tried my best to go in front to catch glimpses of the people but the crowd was too huge. After filling our hungers with wan tan mee, pork chop buns & sui kow soup, we explored every corner of many connecting streets around the square. Little that we realised we actually walked as far as reached the St Paul Ruins again. Truly majestic sight of the landmark at night. A must-visit place in Macau at nite. Walked back to our hotel using the long way in order to see more of the town at nite. Along the way, there's beautiful display of lights on building of Grand Lisboa Hotel & Casino, entertaining magical fountain performance outside Wynn & also stopped over for dim sum supper at a Taiwanese shop.