Macau Day Trip

St. Paul Ruins

My Travel Buddies at the Venetian

written by my travel buddy: Ma. Denise R. Nery

Macau was well anticipated during our trip. Not only because it was our first time to visit the place, but basically because our 20-year old selves was so enthusiastic to enter world-class casinos, that we couldn’t do back home. The legal age to enter casinos in Manila is 21, but in Macau, foreigners can go at a young and legal age of 18. Score!

During our trip planning a few months earlier, I came across this website called GrouponHongKong, and luckily, we got to buy ferry tickets (via Cotai Strip) which was actually very nice inside and out + a dinner buffet at City of Dreams Macau for only P1,500. Isn’t that a steal? The only issue was, we needed to claim our tickets at some office in Hongkong, where the staff don’t speak English, but generally very helpful and friendly anyway, so we didn’t have any problem at all. We rode a taxi to the address, and voila! We got our tickets. There’s no stopping us in our little exciting adventure now.

We were originally planning to take the earliest ferry to Macau (I think around 7am was their first trip) and spend the entire day there, but our friends back home, talked us out of it, saying that “Macau is boring, there’s nothing to do there, it’s not fun, just go there in the afternoon blah blahblah, yadahyadahyadah…” Us, being good and trusting friends, believed and obliged. I am telling you this early, that this was the biggest mistake that we did. I will let you know during this blogpost why.

We boarded the Cotai Strip Ferry around lunch time. Let me tell you a little secret. I. GET. SEA. SICK. A. LOT.

I cannot even express how horrified I am of boarding the ferry and enduring the 1 hour ride. I know, I know. For those of you who don’t get sea sick, you might think that I’m just overreacting and stuff. I wish I was, but I’m not. My insides feel like they’re being strangled by a bouncer, my intestines feel like being twisted into all sorts of shape and whatnots, my gastric juices are like going on a fun run up my throat, and I can’t even see properly. See, that’s how you feel when you get sea sick. Now thank the Big Man up there that you’re not like me.

Back to our journey, we got to Macau Ferry Port around 1pm. It was a nice sunny day, perfect for three friends who are about to explore and conquer the Las Vegas of Asia: Macau. YAY!

The first thing that you see when you get to Macau are endless Hotel and Casino promoters handing out flyers and promotional information about their hotel. Most of the time, they’ll give you fans, keychains, and other souvenirs too. It’s not a bad idea to take them and bring them home with you. Bastalibre, sige, diba? We had no idea where to go first and how do we get there, I mean, we have an itinerary, but knowing how spontaneous we are, man, we’d hop on the first bus that we see and take it from there. Guess what? That’s really what we did. 

So we hopped on the bus of Venetian Macau, and we found ourselves in their WONDERFUL hotel/casino within a few minutes. It was really so beautiful, with no mix of exaggeration. We were in awe, literally. The paintings, the lights, the structure, the river canal, everything was close to perfect. We were just so happy and giddy and excited about it all. We first went to the casino to try our luck (hi mommy and daddy, hihi). We applied for a membership, and to our surprise, we were all given a scratch card, which gave us 100 HKD each to use! Isn’t that wonderful? It was all our first time to be inside a casino, so everything was new and exciting. Imagine the look on our faces when we were given money to burn, free food and drinks to take, and hundreds of slot machines and tables which were all brightly lit. We looked like hungry and famished kids in a candy store, or vicious lions seeing a group of gazelles in a safari. Whatever you want to call it, you get the point.

So after spending a couple of hours inside the casino, we decided to head out, with more than 400 HKD winnings in our pockets, which we plan to use for egg tarts, porkchop buns, and beef jerky. We walked around The Venetian for a while, appreciating its beauty and all the stores inside. A little bit of shopping happened too, of course.

We got on a bus taking us to the other side of Macau, where you’d pass by the big bridge that resembled the Brooklyn Bridge or the San Francisco Bridge. Very picturesque. We walked and passed by the busy streets of Macau, which was so beautiful because it doesn’t look like Asia, it makes you feel like you’re walking on a street or a plaza in Portugal. See, Macau, for a long time, was under the Portuguese government, which explains a lot about their culture, infrastructure, and food.

 

The plan is to go to the St.Paul Ruins by foot, to enjoy and appreciate the things and places as we go along, which you can’t clearly do when you’re on a moving vehicle. We were approached by a couple of very friendly Filipinos, which made us happy, because seeing Filipinos outside the Philippines made us feel very safe and at home. On our way to the Ruins, there is this street full of Beef Jerky stores. That road smelled so good and flavorful, and the best part is, they would endlessly offer you to sample their products. It’s very rude to refuse, right? Once again, bastalibre, sige.

At the end of the long road, not only were our hands full of beef jerky pasalubong for our friends and family, but they were also greasy because of all the jerkies that we got and ate. I swear we got so full because of the free samples. Yum.

We also wanted to try the famous porkchop buns and egg tarts Macau is known for, so we went to this store that was featured in Boys Over Flowers that sells them. It was a cute little stall, which even showed video clips of their exposure in the said TV series. In all honesty, I, together with my friends, were disappointed with the porkchop buns (10 HKD) L We heard so much review about it so it made our expectations even higher. They used a normal kind of bread for their buns, not that I’m expecting buttery brioche buns but hey, I wasn’t expecting a big monay too. The porkchop inside was meh.... normal. Like it was seasoned with salt and pepper, that’s it. The egg tarts (6 HKD) on the other hand was awesome. It will definitely make up for the porkchop buns, but I guess you’d find a better tasting egg tart in other places too.

We reached the Ruins and took photos as souvenirs. It was so nice to look at, and it has a different feel when you’re there, it feels solemn and religious. I can’t really put it into words, but when you’re in Macau, please go there.

It was already beginning to get dark, and we needed to get to City of Dreams for our dinner buffet. We were so tired and exhausted with all the walking, our feet were killing us, and we needed to take a break and eat. City of Dreams was also fantastic. We think all the hotels here are. It’s like luring us to stay here forever. If only we could.

The dinner buffet at City of Dreams composed of Macanese-Portuguese cuisine, but to make the long story short, I guess we weren’t all a fan of it. It was filling, but it wasn’t that kind of meal that you would remember for the rest of your life. As they say, Food without flavor, is like life without passion.

The beautiful hotel made up for it, though. Hahaha

As we go outside the City of Dreams, rain started to pour. But we still wanted to see the other hotels before going home, so the rain didn’t stop us from doing so. We passed by MGM, Wyn, and Galaxy, which were all equally beautiful, fantastic, and mind-blowing. We signed up for memberships, got free stuff as well, but nothing compares to the bribe money we got from Venetian. *wink*

Even though we really  wanted to stay a few hours more, we decided to head back to the port to catch the ferry. It was raining, we didn’t have an umbrella, and we have to get on a bus in order to get to the port. We missed the bus by a minute or two, and this taught us that buses in Macau are WAY DIFFERENT than buses in Manila. They leave on the dot, and wouldn’t stop if it was not on a bus stop. (Yes, we tried hailing a bus, forgive us.) This was actually great, because this teaches people discipline. Ehem, Manila.

Eventually we got on a bus, we were panicking and restless because we felt like we are going to be late for the ferry and might need to pay for our ticket back to HongKong, which was expensive, by the way. We got to the port, we were literally running, and the unexpected happened: We got to the wrong port. Uh oh.

This is when our friendship is literally tested. We were yelling and cursing in tagalog, blaming each other for being careless and stupid, or for whatever else we can think of. Gosh, we were so confused, puzzled, mortified, and problematic. Note that I’m leaving for Manila early in the morning the next day so I have to get my ass back to HongKong or else I’m dead meat. The other two were thinking of what to do, should we just stay for the night, should I call my airline and rebook my ticket or what. The possibilities were endless. LOCKED UP ABROAD NA TO, SHET.

Anyway, we decided to go to the right port and try our luck. We plan to still use our ticket (the trip that we already missed) and pretend like we’re not aware or whatever. HAHAHA this makes me laugh until now, geez. So we got to the right port, gave the lady our tickets, and ALAS, she gave us boarding passes. We were smirking uncontrollably while we were walking to the waiting area. We felt like criminals that got away for doing something really bad. (insert evil laugh here) Moments later, she walked towards us.. We were whispering to ourselves, shit, itona, alamnaniya, locked up abroad na to”. She asked us to come over the ticket booth and we obliged. We got all our things, looked really really guilty criminals, and walked slowly towards the booth. Only to let us know that she forgot to give us stickers. OMFG. THANK YOU LORD. Sweet baby Jesus.Hahahahaha! We were laughing our asses off, literally. Gosh that was intense. It was like a scene from a movie. Three guilty girls who thought they’ve been caught red handed.

We got back to HongKong past midnight, only bringing with us great memories of the trip. We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, just laughing about everything that happened. It was such a great experience. We were just mad that we listened to our friends to only spend half of the day there, because we got so bitin. We realized that they didn’t enjoy their Macau trip mainly because they went with their family. They were restricted, hence, couldn’t fully enjoy the perks and privileges of wonderful Macau. 

 

Macau Travel Tips

·         You can go to Macau and not spend a single centavo on transportation.

·         Make use of the free hotel shuttle bus to get to your next stop!

·         Go to Macau with your friends, it will be legendary, I promise.

·         Go  casino hopping!

·         Stay as long as you can, one day or half day isn’t enough.

·         Walk and appreciate the surroundings, it’s healthy, it burns calories, and it gives you a better look of everything.

·         Taste everything you see, nothing beats experience---either good and bad

·         Breathe in and enjoy the little things

Macau Day Trip Budget

Item	Cost
Roundtrip Hongkong- Macau Ferry  Ride	300    HKD
Food Expenses	50
Miscellaneous Expenses	30
Transportation ( Free Hotel Shuttle Bus Rides)	Free
Total	380     HKD

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