2. Have all your names of attractions or hotels be translated to Chinese before asking the local people for directions.
27 Jan
In Macau Airport , get these travel maps from the tourist information centre.
Orange route
Purple route
Blue route
Green route
These routes are downloaded from ttp://en.macautourism.gov.mo/plan/our_suggested_tours.php
Buy Macau Pass with 130 MOP (30 non-refundable card fees+100
card value but the remaining unused money is not refundable) at K Convenience
Store at Level 2. It’s not very worth it
but can ease bus fare payment. It’s not possible to finish 100 MOP in 2 days
but you can use the remaining amount to buy food at convenience stores. Bus fare in Macau
using Macau Pass is actually cheaper than the original fare.
Then, use bus no. 26 (筷子籍) to Kiangwu Hospital 镜湖医院.
If
you stand facing the hospital, walk towards your left and take the first right
turn. Then, you will see a roundabout. Spot 7 Eleven and Holiday Hotel is on
the same row as 7-11.
Using bus in Macau is easy as there are bus routes at every
bus stop, usually on a rotatable standing pole.
Blue route and Purple route can be connected. So, a full day
for these 2 is advisable.
Blue Route
After lunch at Honolulu near the hotel, we went to
Fisherman’s Wharf Theme Park 渔人码头. To go there, walk to Tap Seac
Multisport Complex 塔石运动场bus stop (On the way here, visit the St Lazarus
Church) and take bus 8 or 12. There are casino, Roman Colosseum, shops etc.
Next, walk to the Macau Science Center.
And walk to the Kun Iam Ecumenical Centre.
Then find a bus to the Macau Tower. If you are brave enough, try the Highest Bungy Jump in the World!
Take a bus to A-Ma temple.
Beside A-Ma temple, there is Macau Maritime Museum which is
closed on Tuesdays.
Purple route (All by walking)
We messed up the itinerary on our travel because we can’t
find Mandarin House and it’s quite late in the evening already. So, we walked
along the pink route twice on 2 separate days. But, I will just continue this
blog with the best plan.
From A-Ma temple, walk to the Mandarin’s House. It’s closed
on Wednesdays. Opening time is from 10am to 6pm. It’s hidden somewhere along a
road which we think it’s impossible to be there. Lol.. Actually, it’s just
opposite the Lilau square. So when we managed to find it the next day, it was
closed!
Mandarin's house is that white building beside the green building.
Next, visit the St. Lawrence’s Church.
After that, visit the Dom Pedro V Theatre.
St. Augustine Church
St. Joseph Seminary and Church
Sir Robert Ho Tung Library
Senado Square
Leal Senado Building which is opposite the Senado Square
In Macau, must try 猪扒包 and 辣鱼包. We
ate both of these at 西湾安记 near Senado Square.
Also visit St.Dominic Church which we missed to visit.
Then, walk to Grand Lisboa, another outstanding casino.
We had 猪柳包 (pork burger), which is not found
in Malaysia, for our dinner at Mc Donald near our hotel.
28 Jan
We visited the Venetian Macau, which is on another island of
Macau named Taipa. Its’ a really nice place to take photos. Here, you can see
around 30 tour bus and a sea of people flocking inside the main entrance. There
is also a large casino inside.
From the Venetian, you can walk to Galaxy Macau and take
some pictures. We only visited from the outside. Looking through pictures in
Google, inside of Galaxy Macau is actually fun!
After that, walk to 官也街. There are a lot of
eateries here.
Then, we took a bus to Black Sand Beach. It’s freezing cold
there!
Take a bus back to the hotel and enjoy the night view of Taipa
with lots of luxury hotels like Sheraton, Holiday Inn etc.
29 Jan-Kowloon
From the hotel, we walked to the landmark of Macau-Ruins of
St.Paul.
We bought Portuguese egg tarts for breakfast at Koi Kei Bakery around
Ruins of St.Paul.
Around Ruins of St.Paul, there are Macau Museum and Monte
Fort.
Monte Fort
If you have more time allowance in Macau, also visit the
Guia Cable Car-the shortest cable car in the world and Guia Fortress.
After checking out from hotel, we went to Terminal Maritomo 外港码头 for
our trip to Hong Kong by turbojet which costs 153 MOP and took 1 hour.
Buy an octopus card from the MTR station Sheung Wan which is
just a few floors below the arrival hall of the Macau-Hong Kong ferry terminal.
You can buy Octopus Card from all MTR stations actually including the airport.
It costs 150 HKD (50 refundable deposit+100 card value). Each top-up is minimum
50. If returned within 3 months from date of issue, 9HKD will be charged and
the remaining balance in the card will be returned to you.
Hong Kong MTR- everyone is rushing on a railway transit.
The directions of the train, stops, direction of exit are really excellent
The attractions in Hong Kong with the MTR stations nearby
Yesinn @ Fortress Hill is hard to find. From MTR Fortress
Hill Exit B, turn right and walk till you see a 7 Eleven. Yesinn check in
counter is located on 15th floor of Tower A of Continental Mansion
which is just right after the 7 Eleven and our room is on 10th floor
of Tower B where you need to get to the Ground Floor and use another escalator
at the back.
After checking in the hotel, we went to Tsim Sha Tsui
Promenade (MTR Tsim Sha Tsui Exit J). There are Museum of Art and Cultural
Centre here if you are interested.
Visit the Avenue of Stars and the Clock Tower along the
promenade.
At 8pm, watch the Symphony of Lights. The best view is from
a viewpoint with seats around the Clock Tower.
Then, we went to Temple Street Night Market (MTR Yau Ma Tei
Exit C/Jordan Exit A). Note: It’s actually very easy to navigate around Hong
Kong because in each MTR Station, a map is provided telling you which exit to go
to the attractions and outside the station, direction board is provided.
Extra: If you start your trip from the morning, visit
Nan Lian Garden, Chi Lin Nunnery, Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple, Sham Shui
Po-(see 2 Feb) and Ladies Market(see 30 Jan) before Temple Street Night Market.
30 Jan-Lantau Island
From MTR Tung Chung, take a cable car (one way 115 HKD,
return trip 160 HKD) to Ngong Ping Piazza. Big Buddha, Po Lin Monastery, Wisdom
Path are all located around here.
The Tau Foo Fa here is nice!
Pao Lin Monastery-Impressive!
Wisdom Path- amazing view! To get there, you need to walk quite a distance from the Big Buddha.
After that, we took a bus trip from a bus station here to
Tai O. Tai O is a fishing village where you can buy seafood and visit some
places of interest like temple, historic and cultural showroom and go for a
walk along the river besides visiting the villages.
We tried Hong Kong famous 鸡仔饼 for the first time here.
A lot of ancient tools and furnitures here.
Then, we took a bus back to MTR Tung Chung Station.
Alternatively, if you bought return trip for the cable car, you can take a bus
to Ngong Ping.
At night, we went to Ladies Market (MTR Mong Kok Exit E2).
31 Jan-Hong Kong Island
We visited the longest escalator system in the world-
Central-Mid Levels Escalator(MTR Central). Central refers to Hong Kong Central
whereas Mid-Levels refer to different roads uphill where people living uphill
can use the escalator to Central to work. The direction of escalator is uphill
after 10.30am.
Around mid-levels, there are a lot of attractions.
1) Lan Kwai Fong- A lot of bars here. Nothing much to see in
the morning.
2)Museum of Medical Sciences
3)Dr. Sun Yat Sen Museum
4)Hong Kong Zoological & Botanical Garden
Borneo Orang Utan
From the Botanical Garden, refer to the map around the park and follow the direction board to go
to the Peak Tram. It costs 40 HKD for a return trip. Price is higher if you add
on Madame Tussauds wax museum or SkyTerrace428 where you get to view Hong Kong from
atop.
The 4th generation of Peak Tram
Current peak tram
Outside MadamTussauds
From the Free Observation Deck, overlooking the Sky Terrace 428
There is a shopping complex, The Peak Galleria up here and a
free observation deck on the same level as the Trick Eye Museum.
After taking the return trip on the Peak Tram, we visited
the St.Joseph Cathedral around the main entrance of the Peak Tram.
Then, we
found another tram. It’s a tramway which connects the Hong Kong Island from
Kennedy Town, Central, Causeway Bay, Fortress Hill etc. and each ride costs
only 2.30 HKD. It’s much cheaper than MTR. Since then, we use this tramway as
our major transport.
How to know whether
you have reached the station you desired to get off?
At each tramway stop,
there is a relatively small signboard on the roof of the stop.
We went to Causeway Bay(Tramway Causeway Bay)- the shopping
district of Hong Kong. Here, you can really see a sea of people packed like
sardines. UNIQLO, G2000, Sasa, Forever 21 etc. are located here.
1 Feb-Lamma Island
To get to Lamma Island 南Y 岛 Yung
Shue Wan, take ferry(use octopus card to pay) from Central Piers (Tramway Central 中环). At
Lamma Island, you can try seafood and go for island trekking, strolling along
the beach. Walk till you reach Sok Kwu Wan.
They really have efficient signboards at all intersections so you don't have to worry about getting lost.
On the way, we spotted this famous Tau Foo Fa. 10HKD
From the first pier you saw, take a
ferry ride to Aberdeen 香港仔. There is Aberdeen Promenade here. If you are
interested in the Jumbo Restaurant, you can go there too.
Aberdeen-the traditional Chinese style
From Aberdeen, take a bus to Stanley Market. There is a
shopping complex and another promenade here. You can just relax around here. You
can see many locals and expats bring their dogs here for a walk.
After that, we went to Causeway Bay again. Haha..
2 Feb- Hong Kong University, Kowloon
We visited Hong Kong University (MTR HKU).
Then, we walked to HKU dental school and attended a 1 hour
lecture on anatomy of temporomandibular joint. LOL.. We just want to experience
HKU student life.
Next, we went to Nan Lian Garden(MTR
Diamond Hill).
Gorgeous views in Nan Lian Garden
The number of lines indicates the number of times of earthquake.
Beside Nan Lian garden, there is Chi Lin Nunnery
We went to Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple (MTR Wong Tai
Sin) too.
The 12 Chinese Zordiacs
A lot of prayers here.
In the temple, there is actually a beautiful garden but was
closed already when we found it.
Opening hours 9am to 5pm
A picture taken from the holes of the main gate
After that, we went to visit Sam Shui Po where fashion street
is located. There are a lot of shops selling inexpensive clothes here.
We walked till we reach Prince Edward 太子station
and decided to experience the locals’ life, so we just wandered around here.
Then we went to Admiralty 金钟 station.
There are 2 shopping malls here.
After that, we use tramway to go back to the hotel.
3 Feb- Bye Bye Hong Kong
After breakfast and check out, we took bus A11 from a bus stop, which is located just a short
distance from the hotel, to the airport. It costs 40 HKD only. Budget airlines
like AirAsia is located in Terminal 2 of the airport. Terminal 1 is for the
higher class airlines. Don’t forget to return your octopus card at MTR Airport
before departure.
Psst: Oh wait! How about Disneyland or Ocean Park?
We didn't visit these theme parks. Do include them in your itinerary if you are interested.
Hope you enjoy your travel in Hong Kong with this guide!
