Macau, The City of Dreams and the The Las Vegas of Asia. Having zero knowledge of gambling, I turned to Mr. Google to know more about what seems to be a magical city. I searched for the usual things I look for when creating an itinerary, tourist spots, museums, arts and crafts store, things to do and food to try and the like. There were the famous landmarks such as Senado Square, Ruins of St. Paul, Macau Tower, yes they were a part of their history, but I cannot seem to grasp how this city could be magical.
But I guess I was wrong, while touring the place, I loved it so much it felt like a dream! Macau was all sorts of beautiful. Every architecture was well thought of, the hotels were lavishly decorated with gold, jade and ivory to name a few. Tourism in Macau is sky rocketing which is very evident with the number of tourists roaming around the streets. The taxi and bus stops are conveniently located and city buses offers easy access to famous landmarks. The Philippines would be even more beautiful if we can adopt an organized system just like in our neighboring countries.
What I also loved most about Macau is that you are free to enter and roam around their hotels. The hotels are wonderfully decorated and they mimic the ambience of being in a museum, interesting and intimidating at the same time. As you go around Senado Square, don't forget to pass by Pastelaria Koi Kei! When mom and I was hungry, we bought egg tarts and went inside for free sampless of their delicious pastries. They are known for their peanut cookies and beef jerkies, since beef have no appeal on me, I took home some almond and peanut cookies :)
My favorite places around Macau would be the following:
1.) Senado Square - you can easily locate The Ruins of St. Paul, Sto. Domingo Church, The Museum of the Holy House of Mercy, Casa De Lou Kau and you can also do some souvenir shopping here.
2.) The Venetian - stroll around or ride a gondola for relaxation
3.) The City of Dreams - must watch "The House of the Dancing Water"
4.) Wynn Hotel and Casino - must watch The Tree of Prosperity and The Dragon of Fortune show. It's for free! wink wink
 |
| Sto. Domingo Church |
 |
| Ruins of St. Paul |
 |
| Museu de Macau |
1.) Print out the address of your hotel preferably in their native language (and writing) so that you can easily show it to the cab or bus driver. When you book via Agoda, they usually provide you this information for you to print out.
2.) When exchanging money, it's better to change your USD to HKD as Macau's Pataca is not widely accepted, unlike HKD. It will also come in handy if you plan to take a ferry to Hong Kong.
4.) Bring a raincoat if you can. Macau's unpredictable weather is the same as. While we were there, it was scorching hot in the morning and there were occasional rain fall in the afternoon.
5.) Tourist spots are usually located on the same area so keep on walking and you'll easily reach your destination. We stayed at Hotel Sintra, a strategically located hotel near Senado Square.
6.) Well known hotels usually offer free bus rides to tourists spots. In our case, we rode the complimentary bus of The Grand Emperor Hotel to The Venetian and The City of Dreams and rode a free bus again back to the Grand Emperor. If you plan to cross Hong Kong via Ferry, there are also free buses to the terminal. Yay for saving! <3
There you have it, I hope you enjoyed reading this post :)
Keep on dreaming!
Gelibee
