Touching Moments, Experience Macau (and Hong Kong!): Day 3 and 4

For the third day of our trip, we decided to head over to Hong Kong, a mere hour-long ferry ride from the Macau Ferry Terminal. From The Venetian Macau, we took a cab to the Macau Ferry Terminal (which cost us about Mop64). Although there are free shuttle buses to the ferry terminal, the first one leaves The Venetian at 9:30 am, and we just didn't have time to wait for it--we wanted to make the most out of our day trip to Hong Kong.

A typical cab in Macau. All cabs in Macau are Toyota Corollas.

We bought tickets for four for the 9:30 am Turbojet Ferry to Kowloon. Note that there are ferry services between Macau and Kowloon and Macau and Hong Kong. Ferry services to Hong Kong operate 24 hours a day, with one ferry leaving every 15 minutes. Ferry services to between Macau and Kowloon, meanwhile, operate between 7:00 am-10:30 pm and leave every 30 minutes. Another alternative would be to take the ferry from the Taipa Ferry Terminal, though the only ferry that leaves Macau for Hong Kong is scheduled at 5 pm. 

Purchasing tickets for the 9:30 am ferry to Kowloon

Boarding the Turbojet Ferry

Our Turbojet ferry left at exactly 9:30 am--right on the dot. They wouldn't care if the ferry only had a few passengers; if the ferry is scheduled to leave, it will leave. Since it was a Sunday morning, our ferry was barely filled with passengers. Although passengers are assigned specific seats, passengers may opt to transfer to a preferred vacant seat once the ferry leaves the port, especially if there are only a few passengers.

A reminder: Since you are crossing over to a different territory, you need to have your passport with you. Just like when riding a plane, you will have to fill out an arrival or immigration card on board the ferry, and you would have to go through immigration at your departure and arrival points.

The nearly-empty economy class section of the ferry

The ferry we were on was huge and spacious, even in economy class. The leather seats were wide and comfortable, allowing passengers to get enough rest to prepare for the day ahead. There was not much to do on-board, though--it's best to bring a book, an iPad, or iPod or whatever to keep yourself entertained. The seat pockets behind every seat only had seasickness bags, a safety instruction manual, and a copy of Horizon, Turbojet's official magazine. Towards the front section of the ferry, there were TV screens that were just showing some advertisements. There is no WiFi on board, either.

The ferry ride was generally smooth, though there were moments when the ferry would encounter some huge waves. Seasickness is a possibility, so it is best to be prepared and have some medicines and bottled water with you.

Our ferry docked at the China Ferry Terminal along Canton Road in Kowloon just a little past 10:30 am. From there we walked to the East Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station, the next leg of our journey to our intended destination: Hong Kong Disneyland!

Walking along Canton Road, which was quite busy even on a Sunday morning

A busy intersection along Canton Road

Hong Kong's MTR system may be a bit confusing for clueless tourists. Luckily, there were some Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) at the MTR terminal who helped us figure out how to purchase tickets through the ticketing machines. On board the MTR terminal, we encountered a few more Filipina migrant workers who helped us figure out the different stations and MTR lines we had to go to to reach Disneyland.

Inside an MTR train

From the East Tsim Sha Tsui Station, we took the Tsuen Wan Line to the Lai King Sation. From there, we transferred to the Tung Chung Line going to the Sunny Bay Station. From there, the Disneyland Resort Line takes you directly to Disneyland.

The train that takes you straight to Disneyland--it's quite obvious, don't you think?

The journey by MTR from the East Tsim Sha Tsui station to Disneyland takes about half an hour, or a little over that. The Hong Kong MTR system is fast, reliable, clean, and most certainly user-friendly (especially once you have figured it out). 

Since it was a Sunday, Hong Kong Disneyland was packed with people--both locals and foreign tourists. On board the train people (both children and adults) looked very happy and excited to visit the place which calls itself the "most magical place on Earth". We weren't really that excited, though, since we've already been there back in 2006. 

Seeing this sign alone easily gets first-timers so excited

Since we've already been to Disneyland before, we decided to go to the rides/parts of the resort that weren't open yet during our first trip there six years ago. These sections or rides were It's a Small World and Toy Story Land. Once we were done exploring these sections, we then went to the other parts of the resort that we've already seen before.

Sleeping Beauty Castle

The Disneyland Marching Band entertaining the visitors along Main Street, USA.

Going to the "It's a Small World" musical boat ride

Once you pass this, you will hear the dolls singing the Hindi version of "It's a Small World"

These dolls were singing something like "Kay liit ng mundo". My apologies for the blurred photo.

The other new section of the resort, Toy Story Land, was a disappointment, in my opinion. This section of the park was given much hype before and after its opening. I would often see advertisements of Toy Story Land on the Disney Channel. When we got there, however, we were disappointed to see that this section was tiny and there were only a few rides, all of which had very long queues. It took us about 45 minutes to wait in line for the Slinky Dog Zig Zag Spin, a ride which took just about 1-2 minutes. I don't think we would be going to check this section out again. 

The entrance to Toy Story Land

We had to wait 45 minutes for this ride which lasted just about a minute

The RC Racer ride

Since we were running on a tight schedule, we did not have enough time to explore the entire resort. After having a burger-and-fries lunch at Starliner Diner (which we went to after the "It's a Small World" ride), we went to go see Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Mickey's PhilharMagic (which we still enjoyed even the second time around), Toy Story Land, and the Jungle Cruise. After finishing our Mickey Mouse-shaped Nestle Ice Cream and a quick stop at one of the souvenir shops along Main Street, USA, we were already on the train back to Kowloon by 4:30 pm. 

After we had arrived from Macau earlier in the day, we immediately purchased tickets for the ferry ride back to Macau. For the ferry ride back to Macau, we were allowed to take any of the scheduled Turbojet or First Ferry services, as long as we don't go beyond 10:30 pm, which is when the last ferry back to Macau is scheduled to leave.

After a bit of confusion on where to go and which lines to take or which platform we should be waiting, we made our way back to Kowloon, where we decided to do  a bit of exploring and shopping first. Kowloon was absolutely busy on that day, and the streets were full of people who were likewise doing the same thing as we were. 

The vibrant streets of Kowloon (picture taken at Nathan Road)

Hong Kong is certainly a livelier city than Macau, though Macau has its own charms too

A Prada Store along Canton Road

One of the places we went to was the enormous H&M store along Canton Road. The store is huge and was packed with people eager to get their hands on reasonably-priced H&M clothing. The lines to the fitting rooms were long and you would need some patience to get through it. I was able to buy a collared T-shirt for HKD199.

By 8 pm, our ferry back to Macau left the China Ferry Terminal. The ride was to Macau was a bit better than the ride to Kowloon. We arrived in Macau an hour later, and we were soon back at The Venetian Macau, where we did more shopping at the Grand Canal Shoppes. We already ate dinner at McDonalds back in Kowloon before we left, so we just bought bread at Lord Stow's which we could eat in our suite if ever we got hungry in the middle of the night. 

The ferry back to Macau was also barely filled with people

One of the bridges at Macau, viewed at night

Day 4

Check-out time at The Venetian Macau is at 11 am, so after breakfast we didn't really have anything else to do except pack our things and prepare for our 4:10 pm flight back to Manila. After check-out, we first left our luggage at the hotel's baggage service located at the West Lobby, since we were still scheduled to be picked up from our hotel to the airport at 2:30 pm. In the meantime, we decided to do some last-minute shopping at the Grand Canal Shoppes, and also took a stroll at The Shoppes at Four Seasons, another shopping center adjacent to The Venetian Macau and the Grand Canal Shoppes. This shopping area is home to several luxury brands. 

Shortly before 3pm, we arrived at the Macau International Airport. Since there was just over an hour before our scheduled departure time, the lines at the Philippine Airlines check-in counters were very long. I was surprised to see that several of those who had been on the same flight to Macau a few days before were also on this very same flight as we were back to Manila. 

PR 353 back to Manila, a few minutes before boarding

Passengers waiting to board the Philippine Airlines flight. The cute little girl in pink looked like Dora the Explorer.

The flight back to Manila was smooth, though we were warned of possible moderate turbulence on approach to Manila due to Typhoon Ambo. The turbulence wasn't really that severe, though. The flight attendants, just like on the flight to Macau, were friendly and efficient, though the flight attendants on this flight (except for one male flight attendant) all looked like they were in their 40s or 50s. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I've heard of stories of PAL's older flight attendants being cranky or masungit. The flight attendants on this flight, thankfully, weren't. 

Our flight touched down at the Ninoy Aquino International Airpot at exactly 6:00 pm, 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Just less than an hour later, we were already on the airport taxi, headed for home. 

Conclusion

When my parents made the decision to go on a vacation to Macau a few months back, I was honestly not too keen on the idea and thought that it would be better to go to another place instead. I thought that there wouldn't really be anything to do there except gamble and check out the Las Vegas-ish bright lights. Macau, however, far exceeded my expectations and I actually now think that it is a place definitely worth visiting. Although 4 days may be more than enough to explore Macau, I don't think this would be the case in the coming years. There are LOTS of great hotels here that were designed for leisure (unlike the ones in Hong Kong which are mostly business hotels with nothing much to offer in terms of entertainment), and Macau also has a variety of great restaurants and shopping areas that could easily rival those in popular tourist destinations such as Paris, New York, or Singapore. The "cultural" side of Macau is also quite interesting. Overall, this trip is one of the most memorable (yet exhausting) ones I've ever had. 

I will be back.