Our charming MACAU trip

We landed in Macau Airport through a thick bed of fog. I instantly felt like we were far away from home even though the flight was a mere hour and a half. Not only was the weather different but so were the architecture, the signs (English/Cantonese/Portugese), and the general atmoshere.


Signs in Portugese and Chinese

After breezing through customs Nuni and I looked for transportation to the city. There are several ways to get to the city center:

take the cab

take the AP1 bus

make friends with a fellow country(wo)man and take the scenic route to the city



Nuni by the bay

Note: if you have Patacas or HK dollars bring them with you. You don't want to change money at the airport.

From the airport you should take the AP1 bus. But since Macau is so small you can afford to be adventurous and find your way to the city using any bus. We befriended a Filipina woman who had been there before. She took us to a bus stop just outside the main avenue San Ma Lo. It was a 20 minute walk (longer because we were carrying our bags) through some hilly neighborhoods.

Buses in Macau are quite cheap. You pay a flat fee to get where you want to go and they don't go for more than 20 Patacas. You can get a map of the bus routes and the city at the airport. When you get to the city you'll probably be getting around on foot, bus, and taxi.


Me after a good meal

Accomodation

There are several affordable (P1200-P1800) hotels in the San Ma Lo area. Have a walk around and you shouldn't have much trouble finding one. We stayed at Hotel Nam Tin in the heart of the city for only 1400 pesos/night(approx). The location is nice and it's near the trendy part of the city.



Hotel Nam Tin(Travende da prande Grande N4)

Restaurants

We didn't get to eat at Fernando's but apparently it's one of the best in Macau.

There are many things to do in Macau and I think they can be done in a matter of days. Casinos await all you gamblers out there and at the same time there are many historical sites to be visited. The area around San Ma Lo is very charming, especially at night and I highly recommend you go for a stroll around here and look for a good gelato stand.


yummy gelato!


Charming fusion of the old and the modern

Nuni and I spent a little less than 48 hours in Macau. It was good enough for us and we felt we had done all that we'd wanted to do so we decided to set off for Hong Kong...


Clean and lovely city

Now this...

ANNOYING things about nuni. Oooopsss...it's livi's fault!

This is in response to Nuni's annoying entry

Nuni didn't pack a good pair of walking shoes. Plus I take bigger strides when I walk. Often she'd lag behind. Tsk tsk.

I thought we could've spent our money a bit more wisely. Sometimes we ate at overpriced restaurants (because nuni wanted to) and didn't get enough street food even though all the streets smelled like food. =PPP


Nuni behind a huge closed church door in Macau

If you have questions about Macau, you can leave us a comment here or email:nuniadventures@gmail.com.


NEXT: Our Hong Kong Adventure!

5 Annoying Things about Nunu (A modified version of Livi’s tag)

This is in response to Livi and Ruy's tag

It’s true; you get to discover a lot about the person you travel with. I learned the value of this statement when Nunu and I went to Macau and Hong Kong a few months ago. It was our first out-of-the-country trip as a couple and it was the week of my birthday too (so you can just imagine how I was sooo looking forward to the trip…).

Well, here are some of the not-so-good (read: ANNOYING!) experiences and discoveries I had to endure because of him:

1.Nunu likes to walk. He likes to explore the city by foot and he can walk for miles without getting tired. Now, I like to explore and walk as well but I can hardly keep up with his long strides. I like to walk leisurely while he likes to rush. He is also 6’3 tall and I’m only 5’2 so - go figure! Anyway, I ended up getting calluses and corns (ewww) in my feet because of too much walking. That was the most annoying thing that ever happened to me in a foreign country.

2.Nunu doesn’t have good memory. We arrived in Macau the day before my big day. Guess what? The following day, he almost forgot it was my birthday! We were on our way to the ferry terminal (en route to HK), when he stopped dead on his tracks to say: Oh my, it’s your birthday today!

3.Nunu doesn’t like following instructions. We decided to go to Shenzhen, China from HK and we took the train to the border. We didn’t know where to get our visas so I asked one of the guards. The guard (who doesn’t speak English) pointed to the immigration counter and told me to fall in line. I told Nunu to do the same but he mumbled something about “what he read in a magazine” and started going around the place looking for something. I didn’t really have a choice so I followed him, the whole time asking him about why we are doing such a thing. Anyway, to make the long story short, we ended up going about in circles, only to realize (after 30 minutes) that the place he was looking for is on the other side of the border.

4. Nunu is a bitch! =P When we arrived in Shenzhen (after paying 150 HK dollars for the visa), we didn’t know where to go. Everything was in Chinese! But we already prepared for this eventuality so I made sure that I had with me a cut-out from a magazine – giving instructions on where to go. Nunu had this cut-out on his pocket and lost it. You heard that right, he LOST it. So, we ended up staying in one mall and going back to HK after a few hours. Isn’t that a great way to visit another country?

5.Nunu is a hard-headed fatcat. On our way back to Manila, we had to go back to Macau from HK. We rode the ferry again and from the Macau terminal, planned to get the bus to the Macau Airport. Our ferry got delayed so when we arrived in the Macau terminal, I told Nunu to just get the cab. He said no, insisting that we can take the bus instead. I told him that we can’t risk it because we don’t know where the bus stop is exactly or what time it will arrive. He said we can just wait right there (where all the buses stops) and wait for the AP1 bus (that’s the bus to the airport). I told him: “Are you sure this is where the bus stops?” He said: “Yes.” I said, “Are you sure this is a good idea?” He said, with all certainty: “Yes.” OK. So we waited. And waited. Finally, the AP1 bus came and just when we were ready to ride it, the driver asked where we are going and said “No, this is not the bus” in his broken English. We waited for another bus just to get a stupid stare from the driver when we said: “Airport?” Apparently, the driver doesn’t speak English at all. Ending: We lined up for a taxi and ran to the departure area of the Macau Airport. We made it there 10 minutes before it closed. We were lucky.


I’m supposed to write about the annoying things about myself but Nunu and I decided to write about the annoying things about each other while traveling instead. So, wait for his reply (he will write his version) and let’s see how annoying that could be – for me! Ha! =PPP