On our first morning in Macau, which was also the first day of Chinese New Year, we took an open-top tour bus that took us around the city and then dropped us off at The Galaxy casino complex – the first casino of the day. The Galaxy stood out from the other casinos by having very high ceilings and big broad halls throughout.

Check out the big ass monitor.

Amongst the casinos that we visited, it also had the best food court. One shop that caught our eye was this one selling traditional HK/Macanese biscuits …

and glorious Portuguese egg tarts.

Here’s a close up.

We had time for one more casino for the day so we decided to check out the one that everyone who ever went to Macau always talked about – The Venetian. In the following pictures, you will see why it impresses people.

The Venetian’s shopping complex is the biggest in Macau and it is also the best with a wide range of shops.

So that’s how we spent the first day of Chinese New Year, at the casinos. Mind you, we didn’t gamble but you can’t get any more Chinese than that.

On our first morning in Macau, we decided to take an open-top double-decker bus tour of Macau. Big mistake! It was freezing cold! Hahaha. But it did allow for good photo-taking.

The urban landscape is very similar with that in Hong Kong – high rise apartments are everywhere.

As always, I find the colonial style buildings full of character.

The signs are in Chinese just like Hong Kong …

Everything else that’s usually in English though, are in Portuguese.

In the middle of the day, we visited two casino complexes: The Galaxy and The Venetian Macao. Photos of those will be in the next post as I want to focus on the streets and buildings of Macau in this post.

Later that night, we headed to a little Chinatown-like area (for lack of a better word) to have dinner.

The restaurant we were headed to served Macanese food, a fusion of Portuguese and Chinese food which I found fascinating. It was good and my aunty who is Macanese thought it to be quite authentic.

I think more people should explore Macau’s cultural aspects when they are here, because it is so much more than just the casinos.

On Sunday, January 22nd we checked out of our cruise ship and headed straight for the ferry terminal to catch a ferry to Macau.

The trip was to take about an hour. A hint that you are leaving HK are signs with Portuguese on them.

And a hint that you have landed in Macau? Shuttle buses to take you to any of the major casinos.

The hotel that we were staying at, Sofitel Macau have shuttle buses going to and from the terminal too which was very convenient. We will be staying on the older one of Macau’s two islands.

It was quite posh. Mom found very good rates (105AUD approx. per night) on Agoda. The buffet was amazing and the whole stay was a big bargain. It’s a shame that you can’t get it quite so cheap now.

And this is the view from our room window. This is towards the left. On the right of the picture where the green hill is, you can see a bit of the Ruins of St. Paul’s – Macau’s most famous landmark.

And towards the right, Macau’s downtown. That big funny looking building is the Grand Lisboa.

We spent 3 days there and I liked Macau very much, not so much for the casinos but primarily because I liked the look and feel of the place. More pics in the upcoming posts.

As interesting as Hong Kong is during the day, the place has a completely different vibe at night.

This was our only night here and we spent all of it in the Kowloon area, on Nathan Road to be specific.

All the bright lights and neon signs make it real easy to take good photos. And yes, that chick in the billboard is everywhere.

We first made a stop for dinner at a fish ball noodle place.

All fueled up, we proceeded to walk all along Nathan Road which is one long stretch of shops. If all you want to do in HK is shop, you can definitely spend all your time here.

Bamboo scaffolding and neon signs. Love it.

Our other objective for the night was to check out the Temple Street Markets. Like any of these places in Asia, there are always restaurants and eateries nearby.

The 500m-odd stretch of stalls sold a variety of knock off stuff: clothes, shoes and electronics, and knick-knacks. We didn’t buy anything but I like the atmosphere there, even though it’s very much a tourist trap.

What I found interesting also was that all of this are outside of people’s apartments. I wonder how they slept.

To end the night, we stopped by at a dessert place on the way back.

Amongst other things, we shared a mango birds-nest dessert. Yummo.

Yup, I love HK. The next morning, we would be taking the ferry to Macau.

On the final morning of the cruise, Saturday January 21, the ship docked into Hong Kong at the Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui in the Kowloon area. Hong Kong – I love the place! One thing that I can’t get enough of is its urban landscape. I’m sure people who live there feel differently about it but I love the look and feel of the place.

Especially the iconic double-decker buses …

the street signs …

and bamboo scaffolding!

Being one of the densest places on earth, the people are everywhere.

And because there’s so many people, the place is full of energy – it feels alive and buzzing all the time.

This is a shot of my cousin Shane, my brother Marvin and me on one of those busy streets taken by Shane’s wife Kirsten.

Yup, we loved the day that we spent there.

Next up, Hong Kong at night is a totally different but equally beautiful place.

Had an excellent dinner with Sel, Howe Chern and Simon on Thursday night. We went to Lapa Brazilian Barbecue to indulge/over-indulge in their $49 Endless Feast. This was the night in pictures.

Green means “More, please!”

guarana Antartica – original do Brasil. Low on fizz and very easy to drink. Zing!

We have meat and meat. And also, meat.

These chicken wrapped in bacon things were awesome.

It wasn’t all meat, mind you. There were complimentary desserts too. These are different kinds of caramel fudge things.

I also had a quindim – a super eggy and super sweet tart with coconut. I get a sugar high just looking at it.

On the left, me at the beginning of the night. On the right, after 10 rounds – food coma.

And red means “Game over”.

For me, Sanya was the most boring stop on the cruise. To be fair, I know Hainan Island has a lot more to offer but what I saw of Sanya was limited to what I saw whilst on the shuttle bus between the port and the mall that probably sponsored the shuttle buses. And because my mother’s knees decided to flare up quite a bit on the day, we couldn’t even venture around the mall – there was a nice beach nearby and my uncle who was walking around on his own found a place selling awesome beef noodles.

We got to the mall, walked 4 floors of it, didn’t buy anything, looked for food, gave up and took the shuttle bus two hours later back to the ship to have lunch on board.

It was a waste of our $60 Chinese visa methinks and my photos would have probably betrayed my boredom and generally meh-ness about the place. So I decided to play around with the new filters in Picasa to make them a little more interesting.

Sanya port – Lomo-ish.

My cousin Shane, who wisely stayed on board the ship for the day – Cross Process effect.

Chinese government vehicles at the port, always black, always German – Orton-ish.

Sanya street corner – 1960s effect.

Liberation Road – Lomo-ish.

Engrish sign in the mall – Orton-ish.

From the top floor of the mall – Orton-ish.

Another one from the top floor of the mall – Lomo-ish.

Next up, one day at sea and then Hong Kong! w00t!