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Published: June 30th 2019
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Ruins of St Paul Macau, a Special Administrative Region(SAR) of China is popularly known as “Las Vegas of Asia” because of Cotai Strip’s malls and Casinos. Macau currency is called Macanes Pataca but Hong Kong dollar is widely accepted in Macau. Influence of Portugal can be seen in architecture and food. I felt people were more friendly and courteous as compared to Hong Kong.
I was on a week’s holiday to Hong Kong with my husband and this was our second trip so he suggested to cover Macau this time . I am not much into gambling so had doubts about exploring Macau, I was of the opinion to stay back in Hong Kong because all that I heard and know, people majorly visit Macau for Casinos. Then my partner suggested me to wipe out all pre-notions or rigidity and give it a shot. So we randomly planed 2 days Macau trip.
Its quite easy from Hong Kong to Macau. Next morning we had breakfast and board a jetty and in less than 1.5 hrs we were in Macau. We took Turbo Jet ferry from kowloon to Taipa as we booked hotel Holiday Inn Cotai.
Transportation in Macau is very convenient as most of hotels/casinos
Parisian provide free shuttle/bus service. Upon arrival, we identified our bus and got seated. Few hotel escorts were standing near buses to guide incase you are confused in identifying right bus. I was amazed by the huge and fancy structures in Cotai. Venetian, City of Dreams, Parisian with an Eiffel tower, Galaxy. As far as I can see, Super luxury all around. Now I was getting the rush of excitement.
Bus droped us 2-3 lanes before Sanedo Square at a designated hotel bus stop and bus staff guided us the way to Sanedo Square. Multi-lingual sign boards on road were self explanatory and properly placed in the entire area.
We checked inn and our room was on 35th floor with partial views of Macau airport , sea , bridge connecting Hong Kong & Macau and the Venetian on the other side.
We got fresh and was all set to explore the city. I enquired at reception and they suggested me to take a 2 min walk to City of Dreams and catch a free shuttle bus to tourists spot. One can always take a cab but again this is quite convenient and easy on pocket.
We roamed around
Gandola ride. ...Venetian..the place and clicked some pictures. Here Portugal colony was so imprinted that anybody will believe I am in Europe looking at my pictures.
Next we moved towards UNESCO heritage site, Ruins of St. Paul. I am a vegetarian and thus the path to it was bit disturbing for me. No offence, but hawkers were selling eatables on both the side of streets and the fumes of meat was in the air. Also the streets are very narow and congested. Once I reached the site it was all good and I saw the long stairs followed by the facade of the church. Built in the 16th century, the site was actually a complex of a church and an academic institution. The church itself was constructed later in the 17th century. Today, only the facade remains the only structure standing after being battered by a typhoon and three fires. Adjacent to this is a Fort. After all this I was very hungry and to my surprise ther was nothing to eat for a vegetarian. Finally I bought some fruits at Senado Square with a expectation of lavish dinner in hotel. As we were tired, we went back to hotel and
planed to visit tomorrow fresh. I took some rest and all set to have diiner in Golden Peacock restaurant in Venetian. By this time I was not aware that all these 5-6 hotels at cotai are inter connected by a comman bridge. We asked hotel staff about the way to restaurant, I realised that many of them don’t understand English. They were trying to help in best possible way but language was a big disconnect and thus we almost took half n hour to 45 mins to reach restaurant. We literally used goggle maps to reach restaurant. Its a huge labyrinth within hotel. As I only had breakfast in Hong Kong and some fruits in noon I was literally starving and to my surprise restaurant closing time was 9.45 pm and we were late as last order time has crossed. I was super excited about Golden Peacock but without wasting time we headed to a cafe next to it and I made my mind to gulp any junk availabe to feed myself. Again a twist in tale and that cafe served us authentic Indian meal. I truly enjoyed the meal. Food never tasted so good before.
After fuelling my body
Eiffel Tower we roamed around Cotai strip in the night. The streets were quite vacant, obviously you know where the crowd must be. But the street was dazzling with lights all around. It was good breezy and sparkling night
Next morning, very poor arrangements for vegetarian in buffet breakfast. It was there but as if totally neglected. Again fruits and yogurt came for my saviour. As it was raining heavily since morning we decided to explore the property. My heart was pondering with such wide range of shopping. All brands around the world, you name it and you will get it. After some shopping we saw few of the major attractions of these hotels like the gandola ride in Venetian and Eiffel Tower in Parisian. Later we took ferry and back to Hong Kong.
Next time may be I can plan and have better experience in terms of food, I think Venetian must be having enough vegetarian breakfast option. Please do let me know bout your experiences. I enjoyed this short trip with many return tickets ( after all pictures are the return ticket to the moments otherwise gone..!!)
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