Macau & Zhuhai (October 2-4, 2009)

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Armed with only our "Wikitravel" knowledge of Macau and Zhuhai, Hubby and I went ahead with our "semi" backpacker journey to these 2 places. Good thing he has a few days off from work due to the National Day celebration in China and also due to the Mooncake Festival.

Day 1: We hired a private car to take us to Zhuhai which is a city in the mainland that borders with Macau to the south. Our specific target destination in Zhuhai is the Gongbei District because this is where the Macau border crossing is located. The driver picked us up at 6.30AM to avoid the morning rush and so as a result, the drive to Gongbei only took us 1.5 hours compared to maybe 3 hours if we left later on in the day. It was interesting to note how close we are actually located to Macau considering that from our district, we only went through one major district, which is called Zhongshan, before reaching Zhuhai.

Upon reaching Gongbei, the first thing we did was to look for accommodation. This is why I mentioned that this trip is a "semi" backpacking trip. We never booked for any accommodation in advance. The reason being that I find it so hard to look for accommodations here in the mainland. Most hotels don have their own website and if they do, it is always at least 5-7 years outdated! Also another thing, there are plenty of travel sites featuring accommodations but you will never really know which one to believe as they have all sorts of different rates published. Lastly, we tried to contact some hotels I found in Wikitravel but nobody answered their phones!!!

So after looking at 3 hotels near the border crossing, we finally decided on the Fu Hai Gang Hotel much to my regret (more on this later). This hotel is quite old but at least its clean except for cigarette smoke stinch in the bedroom. Well anyway, since you can just smoke anywhere in China, then you don have much choice really. No matter where you go I think it will still be the same.

Anyway, after checking in and dropping our bags in the room, we started our "crossing" towards Macau on foot. It was already 9.30AM and by that time, the queue going towards the customs building for clearing was already so long (and thick). Finally, after an hour outside, we were able to enter the building and queue up once again to get clearance to exit China. Luckily, since we are foreigners, our line was not that long. However, once we were already there and more foreigners were already queuing up behind us, Hubby and I realized that we were not able to fill up the departure card. It was also too late to leave the place to look for the form and we were also not sure if they have them near the entrance door. The Malaysian couple behind us were so friendly though and they assured us that the counter should have them. But Im still not satisfied and luckily to my relief, the woman in front of me was actually a fellow Pinoy and when I asked her, she actually had 2 extra blank forms with her. She was our angel that time! Finally, after the short drama, we were able to clear customs, enter Macau and start our sightseeing.

We were not really planning to go to the Cotai strip to see the casinos there but due to the suggestion of the Malaysian couple we met at the crossing, Hubby and I found ourselves on our way to The Venetian Hotel as our first destination in Macau. I didn know the history behind The Venetian in Macau but once I saw it, I immediately recognized it as it is really designed like the one in Las Vegas which Ive visited back in 2002. Its also very beautiful inside and out. Inside you will really feel like you are in Venice with all the canals and gondolas you can see plus the shops on the side of the canals. It was good to share that experience with Hubby.

We spent almost the whole day inside the hotel admiring its design and taking photos before deciding to cross to the other side of the road to see the City of Dreams Macau where the Crown Tower is located. I remembered seeing the opening of this tower in the news in Australia a few months back but I didn expect to be able to come here at all. Because we were already so tired, Hubby and I just decided to have coffee in the hotel cafe and do a little tour inside. After that, we decided to leave Cotai to go to the Grand Lisboa which was also recommended by the couple.

Much to my disappointment, the Grand Lisboa is just a casino with sparkling lights. There are really no nice attractions inside for non-gamblers like us. So the only thing Hubby and I did was to look for the exit so that we can finally reach our planned destination of Largo do Senado (LDS). Luckily, LDS is just a short walk from the Grand Lisboa and it is absolutely amazing. Not knowing the history of Macau, I wasn expecting that they were once a Portuguese colony. It was refreshing to see all street names, building names and even some business names in Portuguese (with Chinese translation of course). Unfortunately, maybe Hubby and I expected Macau to be the same as Hong Kong in terms of the number of restaurants and how easy it is to find them. We were absolutely wrong. They have all sorts of tourist attractions but for me, I think they forgot about food and putting lots of restaurants on the streets! Finally, we were able to decide on having dinner at McDonalds in the LDS and just look for a proper restaurant the next day.

Day 2: Today we decided to do the heritage walk which was really supposed to be the main purpose of our Macau trip. The heritage walk will take you from LDS to all the Portuguese churches, cemeteries, temples and many other old buildings you can find in Macau. But first, we decided we will not start the day unless we have the Portuguese egg tart as our breakfast. These egg tarts are scattered all throughout LDS but the best ones are from the Pastelaria Koi Kei (theres one at the foot of the Ruins of St. Pauls and one near the A-Ma Temple).

After loading up ourselves with as much egg tarts as we can, we headed off for our own version of the heritage walk crossing the Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro towards the Calcada do Tronco Velho. It was an uphill walk and once we were on top, we saw the St. Josephs Seminary and Church, Sir Robert Ho Tung Library, St. Augustines Church and Square and the Dom Pedro V Theatre. After taking photos in each of these buildings, we continued to walk and now its downhill towards Rua Central until it becomes Rua do Padre Antonio. Here we saw St. Lawrences Church. Continuing on this path, we passed by the Mandarins House, Lilau Square and the Moorish Barracks. And finally, at the end of Calcada da Barra, we found A-Ma Temple and the restaurant that I had been looking for, A Lorcha. By then it was already lunch time!

Getting a table in A Lorcha proved to be difficult as it is quite popular with tourists. Luckily I found that a lot of fellow Pinoys work there so we were able to get a table after less than 15 minutes of waiting at the door. We were so excited because we can finally eat Portuguese chicken and African chicken which are highly recommended in Wikitravel. We never expected that that would be our most expensive lunch in China-Hong Kong-Macau combined. LOL!

After lunch we headed back to LDS taking the same route we took and again by foot. On the way back I discovered that just below the Dom Pedro V Theatre, there is actually a Pinoy store selling all kinds of Pinoy groceries. I went in and bought my ever-loving Skyflakes crackers and Mr. Chips. LOL!

Back in LDS, Hubby took more pictures of the ruins and the famous St. Dominics Church while I went to look for some souvenirs and found a shop manned by a very friendly Pinoy. You bet, Pinoys are scattered in Macau but be careful in making friends as there are also some that are doing illegal stuff over there. We didn really finish the whole heritage walk as our feet were already aching by the time we came back to LDS. But theres always another time some time in the future to do that.

We went back to the hotel that night earlier than the previous night to have dinner inside our room (some leftovers from our chicken lunch plus we bought some more egg tarts before heading out of LDS). Unbeknownst to us, theres going to be drama unfolding in a few minutes...

The case of the missing shirt: After dinner and a little rest, we decided to take a shower to refresh ourselves before going to bed as the day in Macau was very hot. While Hubby was taking his shower, I went and prepared his sleeping clothes which he also wore the night before. Unfortunately, no matter where I looked I really could not find his white shirt. We called reception and reported it to them and the night receptionist told us they will check with the cleaners in the morning since the cleaners have already gone home. We were supposed to be planning to go back to Macau in the morning to go to Sands but because of this incident, I have decided against it because now there is nowhere for us to leave our belongings when we check out the next day (I don trust the people in the hotel anymore).

Day 3: This was the last day of our trip and instead of spending it once more in Macau, we ended up going home earlier than planned. I have lost interest in continuing our sightseeing because of the missing shirt. Hubby and I just decided to follow up on his missing shirt with the day receptionist but the guy just kept on arguing with us (in Chinese by the way as none of them can speak English!). Instead of checking with the other departments, he just kept on asking us if we really brought the shirt with us and then he told us that they actually have a video camera in the hotel and that we can have a look to see for ourselves. I agreed to do that upon check-out. After that useless conversation, Hubby and I went to check out the mall which is just across our hotel. It is quite a huge mall but it proved useless as well.

We came back to the hotel, collected our bags from the bedroom and called reception telling them we are already checking out. Voila! They told us that they already have Hubbys shirt with them. Their excuse was that it went with the laundry and was found in the laundry shops car. I wonder how it could end up with the laundry when I placed it neatly on the chair the day before? Weird, huh.

Anyway, all is well that ends well. We called up our driver and he arrived 2 hours later. Besides the drama with the missing shirt, I can say that the trip was alright. But from now on, I would be very cautious indeed when staying in China hotels again. Maybe next time, I will just become a full-fledged backpacker and carry a rucksack with all my belongings instead.

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