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MACAU
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City of
Dream – Macau
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Venetian
Resort – Macau
We were so
drained after such a hectic lining up experience yesterday, so today we woke up
pretty late. Yesterday was our
last night staying at Kingston Building. Tonight we’re going to Macau and stay
there for one night at Sintra Hotel – Macau. First we packed our things and packed
several clothes in our backpack that
we’re going to bring along to Macau. We didn’t bring our luggage since Chris
allowed us to keep the rest of our
belongings here at the building for one night. After a quick breakfast, we
headed to Wan Chai Ferry pier and purchased our TurboJet Ferry tickets to Macau
for HK$ 151 / adult. Unfortunately, we were a little bit late to catch on the
latest ferry schedule, so we had to wait 2 hours for the next ferry schedule.
This would highly impact my Macau
itinerary because our arrival there would be very late for sure. Luckily, we could drop by
at several stores and mall to kill
the boredom.
It took
less than an hour to get to Macau from Hong Kong by ferry. For this trip to Macau, I’ve also done my
research. It’s being said that you don’t have
to be worry about transportation in Macau. Even more, you can save
your transportation money as much
as possible by hitchhiking free shuttle buses. That’s why, you should really
know your hotel location and the places you want to visit as well, in
order to know which shuttle bus you should take, which will bring you to your exact destination. There are several shuttle buses you should know :
- Venetian Resort – Ferry Terminal Shuttle Bus (blue dominant color)
- Wynn Hotel Shuttle Bus (maroon color)
- Starworld Shuttle Bus (yellow color)
- City of Dreams Shuttle Bus (purple-white-blue color)
- Grand Lisboa Hotel Shuttle Bus (green dominant color)
This is how you do it. Every shuttle bus
usually goes from the ferry terminal to each different destination based on its own route and then come back again to the terminal. If you want to go
somewhere, for example my place of staying that night - Sintra hotel, all I had
to do was just find the right shuttle bus which destination was the nearest one
from my hotel and,... rode it for free. In this case, I rode the green Grand
Lisboa bus because Sintra Hotel was just a couple blocks away from Lisboa. It
doesn’t matter if you’re not a Lisboa hotel guests, just ride it for free. We arrived at Grand Lisboa
main entrance but turned away for a bit and walked to our actual hotel for 5 minutes. Well, it’s not as big and
extravagant as Grand Lisboa, but I heard Sintra and Lisboa were still in the
same group/company. Our room was quite big for 4
people and of course more comfortable than our previous room at Causeway Bay. Plus, it was so nice having more spaces to move
along in the bathroom.
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| Lisboa Casino |
One more thing I love about Sintra Hotel,
its strategic location (again, the most crucial aspect for all travelers). There
is a shuttle
bus waiting sign just in front of the hotel lobby which will
bring us
to City of Dream casino hotel. According to my Macau tourism map (which you can get at the
information center at the
ferry terminal), Venetian Resort and City of Dream hotel were so close to each
other. So we rode the bus, again for free, enjoyed our first Macau sightseeing.
Geographically, Macau is divided by 4
districts: Macau Peninsula, the most crowded district at the north side
; Taipa, where Macau International Airport is located ; Cotai,
heaven for all gamblers where they can find many extravagant hotel/casino such
as Venetian, the biggest casino in the world ; and Coloane, a good place for
hiking and golfing at the south. People in Macau usually speaks Chinese and
Portuguese, but in Cotai area, most of them can speak English fluently because
that area is the most commonly visited by tourists from all over the world. They
use MOP as their money currency (HKD100.00 = MOP103.20), but Hong Kong Dollars
are still acceptable here at Macau, so don’t worry.
We arrived at City of Dream - Cotai district. This district looked so different from Macau Peninsula. The building exteriors here were so gorgeous and bright. Each building has its own taste and concept, for example the Venetian’s european style or the futuristic sea world at City of Dream. According to my travel book, you can find many seasonal attraction and show in City of Dream Hotel, such as Dragon Treasure Bubble Show and House of the Dancing Water. As for the last one mentioned, it’s a two-hour show and cost MOP380.00 – MOP 1.280.00, depends on the type of seats you want. It’s the most wanted attraction here and I saw a bunch of great reviews for the show, but we didn’t go for it because of our tight schedule. We only stay in Macau for one night and we had to go back to Hong Kong the next day. We wandered around and found a locket for the famous Dragon Treasure’s show. It’s only a 15-minute show so we tried it. We spent $200 for 4 adult tickets. It’s a really cool laser-light show, which has a similar concept with Singapore’s Song of The Sea but still different and unique on its own as well. You should definitely try that one.
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| Dragon Treasure's Show |
We crossed the lobby hotel to the outside
park, and we could already see the beautiful, Roman-taste Venetian Resort. I
couldn’t help myself from taking as many pictures as I can. After being stunned by its magnificent exterior, it’s time to be more
awed by its magical interior. The lobby, the restaurant, the casino were just
extraordinary. I’ve never seen a hotel that has its own “kingdom” inside like
this one before. It’s more
like a Roman King Palace. Venetian Resort is so famous for its Gondola Ride along the “artificial venetian river”. Yes, of
course you have to pay and line up patiently to experience this memorable ride.
One gondola can be filled with 4-5 people + 1 guide who dressed up like a real Venetian, and one more thing, they can sing
so beautifully for the passengers along the ride!
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| Venetian Resort |
While wandering from stores to stores, I found a shop that sells the most well-known snack in Macau: Lord Stow’s Portuguese egg tart. Actually the original Lord Stow Bakery is located at Coloane Town Square, Macau, but they just opened a new branch here at the Grand Canal Shoppes, Venetian Resort. This egg tart should be included in your Macau-lists!
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| Lord Stow Egg Tart |
Most of the shops here sell luxurious branded items and to be honest, it’s definitely not the best choice if you want to spend as little money as possible for shopping. I didn’t buy anything either, but yes I got some gorgeous new pictures for my facebook page :) We also saw the famous Venetian casino, but unfortunately, it’s late already and we had to get back to our hotel. You don’t have to dress in a suit or dress to get into the casino but you have to be 18 y.o or above to pass the casino guard.
We
went back to City of Dream hotel, down to the basement, and took its shuttle bus
to our sweet comfortable hotel room. Feel free to ask the officer about the bus destination, just to make
sure you get into the right bus. Fee for transportation today = 0.
See? ;)
(to be continued)
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