Reviewing 2012

Happy 2013! 2012 had ended its run (that was fast!) and now we are in the brand new year, which means, all new travelling to be done. But, before we rush ahead, let's me count back to my extensive travelling that I had done since the commencement of this travel blog of mine (April 2011).

So, here goes:

Countries I've Visited (number of times):

Thailand (3), Cambodia, Macau (S.A.R. of China), Hong Kong (S.A.R. of China), Singapore (2), Indonesia, Vietnam, Brunei, Myanmar

Cities/Islands I've Been To:

Hat Yai (Thailand); Phnom Penh & Siem Reap (Cambodia); Bangkok (Thailand); Macau; Hong Kong; Kuching (Malaysia); Singapore; Langkawi (Malaysia); Semarang (Indonesia); Ho Chi Minh City, Hoi An & Hue (Vietnam); Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei); Labuan (Malaysia); Johor Bharu (Malaysia); Malacca (Malaysia); Yangon, Bagan & Inle Lake (Myanmar)

Cities/Islands that I've Visited Countless Times that it's Almost Like My Home:

Penang & Genting Highland

Numbers of Airports (excluding LCCT and KLIA): 7

Phnom Penh International Airport (Phnom Penh), Suvarnabhumi International Airport (Bangkok), Macau International Airport (Macau), Achmad Yani International Airport (Semarang), Tan Son Nhat International Airport (Ho Chi Minh City), Da Nang International Airport (Da Nang), Brunei International Airport (Brunei), Yangon International Airport (Yangon)

Numbers of Ferry Terminals: 6

Taipa Ferry Terminal - Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Pier, Kuala Kedah Ferry Terminal - Langkawi Jetty Point, Serasa Ferry Terminal - Labuan International Ferry Terminal

Numbers of UNESCO World Heritage Sites I've Been To: 7

Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca (Malaysia), Angkor (Cambodia), Historic Centre of Macau (Macau, SAR of China), Borobudur Temple Compounds (Indonesia), Hoi An Ancient Town (Vietnam), My Son Sanctuary (Vietnam) & Complex of Hue Monument (Vietnam)

Top 5 Most Memorable Trips:

5. Wicked in Singapore

My first live musical and it was amazing! Wicked is simply great. Worth every single pennies. Read about it here.

4. Hong Kong (Ocean Park, The Peak, etc)

Growing up with TVB series on regular staples, Hong Kong feels very familiar yet strange to me. It is like you can't believe you are actually in the island for real. Ocean Park, The Peak, Symposium of Light; all these Hong Kong attractions are must-do activities. All I can say is 4 days in Hong Kong is NOT enough. See for yourself what I have to say about Hong Kong.

3. Cycling to My Son Sanctuary from Hoi An

As I had blogged about recently, this adventure of mine is seriously mind blowing for me. 40 - 50 km in distance and I actually cycled to the place itself? In a foreign land with no knowledge of the language itself? Damn, I now know my limit is pretty non-existence.

2. Going to Cambodia with my University coursemates

4D/3N trip with late arrival and morning departure flights, and still manage to cover both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap? That's a feat that can't be defeated. No doubt it was all in a rush (we spent less than 4 hours in Angkor Wat!) but it was nothing but fun, fun, fun! A worthy farewell to our university years. Click here for my entries on Cambodia.

1. Bagan Archaeological Zone, Myanmar

Maybe it was my last trip of the year, hence, making it more memorable, but the vast landscape of Bagan is stunning. I spent 2D/2N there and still wasn't enough. Definitely not to be missed, sunrise and sunset in Bagan. You won't regret waking up super early for the view. More on Myanmar soon.

2012 has been a wonderful year for me with my travel resolution of visiting all ASEAN countries about to be realized comes this July 2013 (last on the list, Laos). For 2013, I'm expanding my Asia coverage to include either North Asia or South Asia into the itinerary. Plus, there will be one epic 2013 trip that I'm planning right now. Details are still fuzzy but one thing for sure, it will be LEGENDARY!

Macau (澳门) - Macau Maritime Museum

*Merry Christmas!!! Hope you guys have a wonderful and fantastic Christmas celebration!!!*

Other than the Macau Museum which we failed to visit, we also did go to another museum, which was the Macau Maritime Museum. Actually, it was the A-Ma Temple that we wanted to visit which was right next to the maritime museum but unfortunately, it was raining rather heavily at the time so we made a detour to the museum to have a look at the exhibition (and not wanting to be under the rain).

Macau Maritime Museum

Macau has a rich history in maritime as it was the major trading port back in the Portuguese colonial period in the 16th century. As you walked through the extensive exhibitions, you will get to be a step closer to the olden days of Macau. Models of boats and ships are on display as well as detailed maps of the routes taken by famous explorers.

Some of the replicas being on display...very detailed craft work

We spent about an hour or so, absorbing as much as we can in this educative detour. After that, when the rain had stopped, we went out to admire the temple. Due to the fact that all of us were rather dried up, we just stood out admiring this heritage building from afar. Maybe, next time, we will step our feet in it.

The A-Ma Temple, one of the UNESCO Heritage Site

That’s the end of the Hong Kong – Macau trip which took ages for me to finish. Laziness is my nature. Next stop, Kuching!

Sharing is caring. A word of advice and a piece of information.

The entrance fee for the Macau Maritime Museum is MOP5 for kids of 10 to 17 years old and MOP10 for 18 and above. Those under 10 and seniors over 65 can enter for free. The museum closed on every Tuesday so plan well if you want to visit it.

Macau (澳门) - Venetian Macao

*I just came back from my Singapore trip two days ago and suffice to say, I had a blast and fond memories to treasure. When I’m done with the last few posts on my Macau – Hong Kong trip and my short entries on Kuching (yes, it’s ages ago), I’ll share my adventures in Singapore.*

Macau, without going to casinos, is like haven’t been to Macau before and I had already wrote about my gambling fun here. But there is something worth sharing about one particular casino/hotel located in the Taipa Island. That particular casino/hotel is the brand new and well-known Venetian Macao.


The main entrance

The dome

Beautiful interior

Maybe it’s because the architecture of this casino is a replica of sort of the Italian style which is very grand and stylish that set it apart. For whatever the reason may be, it is a must see when you come to Macau. It is especially so for its signature attraction, the gondola rides.

Shopping has never been this eye soothing before

The clear blue 'sky'

Have a gondolier serenades you a song

Modeled after the beautiful town of Venice, there is a canal built inside the shopping strips where the gondoliers will navigate the gondolas and serenade songs to you. Do look up at the ceiling while enjoying the ride for you will see wonderful recreation of classical Italian arts of angels and all. Charming as it is, we did not go for the ride due to the fact we wanted to ‘explore’ the casino. Haha.

The exterior

View from the opposite side of the road

*TO BE CONTINUED*

Sharing is caring. A word of advice and a piece of information.

The gondola rides are MOP118/ride for adults and MOP88/ride for kids. If you want a private gondola, it is MOP472/ride. It is roughly equaled to RM 48, RM 36 and RM 192 respectively. Spare some time in the Venetian to admire its beauty. While you are at it, walk across to the City of Dreams and Hard Rock Hotel which basically means more casinos for you to go to. If you are having a bad stream of luck at Venetian, try again at either one of them.

Another grand hotel cum casino, City of Dream

澳门 (Macau) - Margaret’s Café e Nata

Speaking of Margaret’s Café e Nata, I missed its delicious pastries and sandwiches whose portions so hearty that it can serve as both your breakfast and lunch at the same time. It is like a buffet of sort, only that services are provided. The first thing you need to do is to determine what sort of breads you want to have. They have baguette, croissant, and so on for you to choose from. After choosing the bread, the next step is to choose the fillings. You can mix all sort of fillings they have, such as bacons, scrambled eggs, ham, and many more that my poor brain cannot remember. 

Margaret's Cafe e Nata

Croissant with ham for breakfast

Baguette with scrambled egg and minced pork the second day

Personally, I really liked the sandwiches that I bought there. It worth every single penny spent on it due to its wholesome portion and its tastiness. Nothing too special about it, yet there is something unique to it. Before heading to Macau, I had found out about this Margaret’s Café but only about its Portuguese egg tart, something that I craved for since the first time I had it back at Ipoh from King’s Confectionary. Originated from Macau, or at least famous in Macau, I had been on the Portuguese egg tart diet ever since my arrival there. 

Margaret's Portuguese egg tart

Koi Kei's famous version

I think I had at least one a day throughout my stay at Macau. I had tried the one from Margaret’s as well as the Pastalaria Koi Kei, the famous confectionary shop there. While both are delicious in its own way, I think I prefer the Koi Kei one better, if my memories served me well. Too ancient already the taste of it. Writing this makes me hungry and craving for it only.

There are a lot of it in Macau

The one and only Margaret's Cafe e Nata

*TO BE CONTINUED*

Sharing is caring. A word of advice and a piece of information.

If you are locating Margaret’s Café e Nata, you need to be very alert for it is located in a hidden alley. Walk along road heading to the Nam Pan Hotel and keep an eye out to the alleys on your left. It’s either the first or the second alley. To be precise, here’s the address:

Edifico Kam Loi,

Nam Van, Macau.

Macau (澳门) - Largo de Senado and Ruin of St. Paul

As I had mentioned in the last post on how casinos are scattered everywhere in Macau, sometimes, it can be very distracting to the real beauty of Macau. However, for those who are determined to experience the third world charms of the country, it is all within the heart of the country.

Look at this charming place...

After our hearty breakfast at Margaret’s Café which we accidentally stumbled upon (and will talk more about it), we went to Largo de Senado (Senado Square), which is the centre of Macau. This is the place where you get to absorb the colonial beauties of the Portuguese architectures which are aplenty and surrounding the square. Most of these buildings had been converted into souvenir shops and shopping areas while retaining the original architectures of the buildings.

with its charming road sign...

surrounded with distinctively Portuguese colours...

St. Dominic's Church

Macau (澳门) - Gamblers' Haven

Macau Tower from afar

There is no doubt that Macau is filled with old world charms, no thanks to the years of Portugal's reign of the island. However, Macau is more famous for its brightly lit neon signs, drawing tourists into the many big casinos that residing in the island. In my opinion, all these casinos, while no doubt being the main tourism drive for the island, are hindering it from being fully an historical city.

The many grand buildings gracing the streets of Macau

There is a reason as to why I'm more in love with Hong Kong than Macau (you can read about my Hong Kong trip adventures here). Both are islands with urban developments but here's the difference. For me, Hong Kong's developments are more to shopping and cityscape while Macau's delving into gambling world. There are simply too many casinos in the island, clouding all its colonial charms.

Water show at the front of Wynn Casino

More developments still to come

That's being said, I'm just a regular tourist and being in Macau, it is near impossible not to step my foot into the gambling world. While I'm no big time gambler, I do love a good game of chances, of course, preferring being the winner's end. Yet, luck's not at my side for throughout the three days stay, I did not win anything. I just lost a total of HKD 500 which was not much but for a student, that's quite a lot. Yet, this HKD 500 was well spent for I got to enjoy almost endless fun of 大小 (big small), roulette and baccarat.

Besides, you cannot say you had visited Macau without going to the casinos. And I had.

*TO BE CONTINUED*

Sharing is caring. A word of advice and a piece of information.

If you are a frequent to the casinos, then you should have noticed that there are no clocks being on displayed. It is part of the tricks of getting you to stay as long as possible in the premise. Therefore, unless you want to end up losing all your savings (or winning till the casinos cry, however unlikely that is), you better arm yourself with a watch to keep track of the time.

澳门 (Macau) - 新南滨宾馆 (Nam Pan Hotel) and 祥记面家 (Oja Sopa De Fita Cheong Kei)

Bidding farewell to Hong Kong was a hard thing to do considering all the fun time and great adventures we had in the island. We even procrastinated our departure for as long as we can but we can only delayed up to a certain hour and before we knew it, we were on our cruise back to where we came from - Macau, not Malaysia. 

Macau welcomes you

This time around, the ferry ride back was not as nauseating as it was the first time around. We managed to catch an hour's nap during the cruise. Once we reached the terminal and were done with the immigration works, we took the free shuttle bus to Grand Lisboa Hotel which was NOT our hotel. It's just a free ride to Nam Pan Hotel, a walking distance to all things to love about Macau.

About the hotel, things to compliment about it; friendly and helpful receptionist, spacious room, homey feeling, rather clean room and bathroom, free Internet access, and a good spot to go absolutely everywhere. The bad thing about it, its mattresses, or lack of it. It's like sleeping on the rock for the only thing separating the bed and us was a thing layer of 'mattress'. But considering how considerably cheap it was, there's nothing to complain.

Five minutes in and it's already messy