Macau in a Day

Macau 2010

Having lived in Hong Kong for over a year, it was so easy to get out and just take a ferry to see the vibrant city of Macau, known as the Las Vegas of the East. And what's so good and easy about it is that the ferry ride is only about 45 minutes so you can go in the morning and come back by night. 

I have visited Macau three times while I was living in Hong Kong. One of which is to see the the Macau Fireworks Competition and two of which I accompanied my friends visiting Hong Kong and Macau. It has been mostly always the case for me, living in a foreign country and then friends from back home contact me to visit so they can have free lodging and a tour guide as well. 

Anyway, I'll be showing some photos of the places we have visited. It's all within a day of visit.

Exploring Macau



My first time to visit Macau was with friends from home. Two of them were celebrating their birthdays and so we decided to take a ferry from Hong Kong and go to Macau. With only money and a map, we had no plans or any clue what we can see in Macau (of course apart from the casinos). Since we will just explore it in a day we didn't really need much of a plan so we just hopped on a ferry and just go.

Our first stop was the Ruins of St. Paul. This is a famous landmark in Macau and almost everyone who visits Macau wouldn't miss this. It was unexpectedly beautiful even in its ruined form. It was flocked by tourists so I didn't really had much of a chance to encapture it greatly in a photograph. There was a garden as well right down below of it that added appeal to this poster-card-like scenery.






Walking down a few meters down the Ruins of St. Paul, there was a long busy street filled with shops, selling mostly souvenirs and local delicacy.














Being colonised by the Portuguese, there is a high influence of Roman Catholicism in this city. Through our exploration, we spotted a lot of Roman Catholic Churches but there were still some other temples too.





 
Macau Tower



After several hours of walking, we decided to head off to Macau Tower. I'd say it's a must see because it will show you a great bird's-eye view of the city. I reckon it would be even more beautiful at night, when all the city lights are on. These are few of the pictures I have taken of the view from the top. 





The floors were transparent so it was a bit scary to step on it and look down below.







They also have a bungee jumping (about 233 meters). I would have loved to have tried it by that time, but we didn't have extra money to try it. It was quite pricey for me at that time. 






The Venetian Macau
Our last stop for the day trip was the Venetian Macau, one of the famous casinos in the city. It is designed and named after the Italian city of Venice, whereby they replicated the famous Italian canals.













Macau is lovelier the second time around

My third trip to this city was during Winter, with one of my good friends visiting from Manila. Having gone there before, I already knew where to take her. We have gone to most of the places where I have been to. 

Macau during Winter was even more colourful, with the Christmas spirit all over the city. They had massive lantern decorations and a lot of gigantic Panda lanterns.

[Ruins of St. Paul]









[Senado Square]








[The Venetian Macau]











Macau Fireworks Competition