To complete your Hongkong vacation, it is highly suggested to take a side trip to its borderline country, Macau. Famous for its diverse & interesting blend of Chinese & Portuguese architecture & culture [due to hundreds of years of colonial rule of Portugal in Macau] and gambling industry--it is no wonder why it is often tag as the gambling capital of Asia. Unless you enjoy gambling, you could pretty much explore Macau in just a whole day. That is why many tourists from Hongkong and other neighboring countries opt for only a day tour in Macau like we did.
How to go to Macau from Tsim Tsa Tsui:
From our hotel accommodation, the China Ferry Terminal to Macau is just around 15-20minutes walk.
If you're coming from Tsim Tsa Tsui, cross the street of Nathan Road and walk down to Haiphong Road until you reach Canton Road. Continue walking the Canton Road until you see the China Hongkong City Mall in your left. The China Ferry terminal is adjacent to that mall. We arrived in the terminal at around 9am and was able to catch the 9:30am sailing. We also bought our return ticket at 8:00pm. Our roundtrip ticket for two via Turbojet for economy seat was HK$706 .. so that's around HK$315 per person.
On our way to Macau. The ride takes around 90minutes... and the ride was a little bumpy. yay!
Macau has a separate immigration regime from Hongkong, Mainland China and Taiwan. All travelers from the mentioned countries [and all foreign countries] have to go through immigration & custom check. It was rainy when we arrived in Macau. We initially planned to go to St. Paul Ruins but because of the rain, we opted to visit the Venetian Hotel first and had our lunch at the hotel's food court. From the terminal, we hop the free shuttle of Venetian hotel.
And ofcourse picture-picture to the Venice-inspired hotel with the beautiful fake blue sky which I thought was really a real sky before.
After lunch and a short stroll to the boutique shops along grand canal of venetian hotel, we rode the shuttle bus back to terminal. From there, we rode a taxi to Senado Square to meet my friend, Aj, who works as a bartender in one of the hotels in Macau. Our taxi fare was MOP38. Hongkong dollar is highly accepted in Macau with 1:1 exchange rate.
With my college friend, Aj at Mcdonalds Senado Square.
We decided to spend our entire time in Macau around Senado Square and St. Paul Ruins as Casino hopping doesn't seem so appealing to us. We spent an hour at Starbucks [just beside the Ruins] and also tried out their famed Portuguese egg tart from a local store.
Senado Square
On our way to the St. Paul Ruins we passed by to many stores selling egg tarts & other Macau delicacies
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The famed Portuguese egg tart
St. Paul Ruins
Famous souvenir store in St. Paul Ruins
On our way back to the terminal, we had a difficult time catching a taxi from Senado square so we walked towards Grand Lisboa hotel and rode the No. 12 bus to the terminal. When you're visiting countries like Hongkong and Macau.. be sure to wear comfy shoes as it requires a LOT of walking.
Wynn Hotel
Grand Lisboa Hotel
We arrived in Hongkong around 9pm and ended our day with a dinner in Mcdo and some more souvenir shopping at a store located at the ground floor of Mirador Mansion.
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Our tour was only like 4D4N because we had an early flight back to Manila on our 5th day in Hongkong. We checked out Modern Inn at around 5:30 am and rode the A21 bus to the airport that conveniently passes by across our hotel accommodation. A little piece of advise: Allot atleast 2hours allowance before your flight . Hongkong International Airport is so huge.. In our case, PAL's ticketing/reservation booth [to get our boarding pass] is on Terminal 2 but the boarding gate was located in the Terminal 1. Although free train ride is available that connects between the two terminals but I tell you, it was really time consuming.
So that concludes our Hongkong-Macau trip. This trip wasn't the best trip we had so far but definitely an unforgettable first trip abroad as a couple. We would definitely want to see and experience more of what these countries have to offer in our next visit!
Always,
