Glimpses and Glances: Touching Moments, Experience Macau: Day 2

The entrance to Cafe Deco

For our second day in Macau, we were scheduled to go on a city tour that would take us to the other places that Macau has to offer (aside from the hotel-casinos). We woke up early since the tour guide was supposed to meet us at the West Lobby at 9:30 am.

We had a buffet breakfast at The Venetian Macau's Cafe Deco, which has a huge buffet spread with a selection of Asian or Western food. Their hash browns and banana muffins were my favorites.

Inside the huge restaurant

Just a small portion of the buffet spread

A Hummer limousine at the Galaxy Hotel

Right on time, our tour guide, Patrick, fetched us at the West Lobby and we soon boarded our tour bus and off we went to fetch the others at the other hotels and the Macau Ferry Terminal, who would join our tour group.

We were supposed to pick up a Filipino couple at the nearby Galaxy Hotel, but they never showed up. Our tour guide waited for them at the lobby and tried asking the hotel staff to call them but they never answered the phone in their room. After several minutes the tour guide decided we couldn't wait for them any longer as we were already behind schedule, so we left and crossed over to the Macau Peninsula to fetch another Filipino couple at the Metropole Hotel. Thankfully, we did not have to wait that long for this couple.

Our next stop was the Macau Ferry Terminal, where we had to pick up most of those who were part of the tour group, who were all arriving from Hong Kong, where they were staying. Our tour group, by the way, consisted of 37 people (originally 39 if the couple from the Galaxy Hotel had showed up). There were 28 Filipinos, and the rest were from Spain, Australia, and Germany.

The Macau Tower

One of the bridges linking Taipa Island and the Macau Peninsula

The first stop of our tour was Mount Fortress (or Fortaleza do Monte) which was built in the 16th century. This along with the nearby Ruins of St. Paul's, are officially listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

At the fortress

From the fortress, one can see the rest of Macau and even mainland China, which is separated from Macau by a river. In the old days, illegal immigrants would swim from mainland China to Macau. Now, people from Mainland China are required to have a Visa before entering Macau, to control the influx of the people. China has over 1 billion people, and Macau is just 30 square kilometers. I think that makes perfect sense.

The Macau Museum (Museu de Macau)

View from the fortress. The large building you see here is the Grand Lisboa , another hotel-casino which opened in 2008.

View of the rest of Macau and Mainland China (after the river).

Typical Macanese housing

After the fortress, we walked to the nearby Ruins of St. Paul's which is probably Macau's most famous tourist site. Postcards and travel guides would often feature this and associate it with Macau the most. It's somehow like the Rizal Park which is often used associated with the city of Manila.

The famous Ruins of St. Paul's

This structure used to be the facade of the Cathedral of St. Paul which was destroyed by a fire in 1835. According to our tour guide, the fire started in the kitchen. This area was officially listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.

View from the Ruins of St. Paul's. Below are shopping stalls.

Statue of Father Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit priest who was one of the founders of the Jesuit China Mission.

Souvenir shop sign. Other souvenir shops also had Malay, Bahasa Indonesia, or Korean signs.

Before moving on to the next stop of our tour, our tour guide allowed us to check out one of the many souvenir shops in the area, which had Filipino vendors. Here, you can buy typical souvenir items such as refrigerator magnets, T-shirts, keychains, mugs, and many others.

A close-up shot of typical Macanese housing

The next stop of our tour was the A-Ma Temple (Templo de A-Ma). This temple actually has several pavilions designed for the worship of different deities (Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and other folk beliefs). We no longer went inside the temple, however, since there were just too many people (and none of the members of the tour group adhered to any of the above-mentioned beliefs anyway) so our tour guide took us to the nearby Koi Kei Bakery (Pastelaria Koi Kei), a popular bakery chain with branches throughout Macau and Hong Kong. This is the perfect place to try out different Macanese goodies which you could also bring home as pasalubong or gifts to your friends and family back home.

But before that, here are some photos taken on our way to the temple and bakery:

The Portuguese Consulate. As of this writing, there are still around 3,000 Portuguese living in Macau

A statue of whatsisname. (Sorry, I don't remember who he is)

A trip to Macau wouldn't be complete without trying popular Macanese treats such as Portuguese Egg Tarts (a must-try--they're really delicious!), Almond Cookies, and Beef or Pork Jerky. As I mentioned, one of the best places to buy these is at Koi Kei Bakery.

The facade of Koi Kei Bakery near the A-Ma Temple

These Portuguese Egg Tarts are legen-wait for it-dary.

Beef or Pork Jerky, They're crunchy and just have the right amount of saltiness and sweetness.

If you want to make sure that what you're buying really tastes good, you may try out their samples which they place on plastic containers. You can have as many samples as you want.

Almond cookies in a box

An alternative place to get Portuguese Egg Tarts is Lord Stow's Bakery. The branch we went to was the one at the Grand Canal Shoppes. If you are really dying to taste one of these egg tarts, you do not have to go all the way to Macau just to buy them. Fortunately, Lord Stow's Bakery has opened several branches in Metro Manila, where you can get these egg tarts at P36 per piece. Some of these Lord Stow's locations in Metro Manila include Trinoma, Tomas Morato, The Podium, SM Mall of Asia, and Glorietta.

The next stop of our tour was the Riviera Hotel located at an upscale neighborhood called Beverly Hill, dubbed by our tour guide as the "rich people's place" in Macau. Here, we were treated to a free buffet lunch (courtesy of the travel agency), The food, however, was bland and was not something to rave about.

Inside the restaurant called Amigo at the Riviera Hotel where we had a buffet lunch

Our lunch consisted mainly of Macanese and Portuguese food

After lunch, our tour guide took us to the city centre, the last stop and the "highlight" of our tour. Here he gave us time to roam around so we could either shop or gamble at the Grand Lisboa.

After several years as a tour guide, Patrick was already well aware of what Filipinos prefer to do in Macau. He knew that Filipino tourists in Macau were not really into gambling and were more into sightseeing and most especially shopping. Patrick, being the expert, took some of us to this hidden place located at the third floor of a slightly run-down building, where they sold export overruns of brand such as Polo Ralph Lauren, Nike and Adidas. We were not able to buy anything here, however.

Senado Square on a busy Saturday afternoon

Since we still had over an hour to explore, my family and I proceded to Senado Square, another UNESCO World Heritage Site and a popular shopping district that is also a must-visit for all visitors to Macau. Here, you can find stores of brands such as Mango, Giordano, or Nike. This is also where you can find the St. Dominic's Church (Igreja de Sao Domingos) built in 1587. This is also one of the many churches that you may find throughout Macau.

People come here to shop, relax, or take pictures

A busy shopping street close to Senado Square

Inside St. Dominic's Church

As you may have noticed by now, there are basically three main places to see in Macau: places of worship, casinos, and shopping centers. A typical Macanese joke is that these places are to be visited in an exact order. First, people must come to the churches and temples to pray for good luck, then they head over to the casinos to gamble, then if their prayers were answered, the people would then have enough money to go shopping.

And just like that, our tour ended, though the day doesn't end there. After we were dropped off at our hotel, we decided to go hotel-hopping again. This time, we visited the Wynn Macau and the Galaxy Hotel. The Wynn is where you can go to check out the musical fountains, with shows every fifteen minutes. The fountain show here is smaller, though, in comparison to the ones at Las Vegas and Dubai.

The Wynn Macau where you can watch the musical fountain show

The fountains were choreographed to the song "Holding Out for a Hero". They used the Shrek 2 version.

Inside the Wynn Macau

At the hotel's shopping center which houses several luxury brands

A Louis Vuitton store at the Wynn Macau

The Wynn's fleet of Rolls Royce limousines

For dinner, we headed over to the Galaxy Hotel back at Taipa Island. The travel agency gave us coupons for dinner at any of the stalls at the Galaxy Hotel's shopping center's food court. Just like at the Grand Canal Shoppes, there were food stalls serving food from different countries. For dinner, we had fish fillet with some kind of sauce, mixed vegetables, rice, and seaweed soup. Again, the servings were huge.