The Venetian Hotel

From Dai Sam Ba our tour bus then brought us to one of the largest hotel and casino in Macau, the Venetian.



As you can see from the pictures there are a lot of buses parked in front of the hotel. The Venetian seems to be also the hub for many buses which brings tourists around the Macau islands. Apart from this hotel, many big hotels such as Galaxy and so forth also provide shuttle buses from the airport for visitors to travel to their hotels at no charges. The coaches that they use are also of high quality with very spacious and comfortable leather seats. Therefore if you are not following any tour group, this is the way to travel around Macau without resorting to taxi all the time.



Once you step in the hotel doors you could really feel how grand this hotel is with all the flawless and exquisite decoration which exudes luxury with every step you take as all the Chanel and Dior and Tiffany & Co. surrounds you immediately as you enter.




There's a reason why this hotel is called 'The Venetian' because that's what the whole concept of the hotel is about. With a man made river across the hotel grounds and gondolas for tourists to hop on (at a fee), some people say it's even more beautiful that the real Venice. Add the recent Christmas decoration to that, everything is really a joy to behold in this hotel. The only down part is that everything is so expensive here as well, which was quite expected. :/








After wandering around the shopping area it was time to find some food to fuel my hungry stomach. The good thing about this place is that it has a really huge food court which offers a variety of food from all over the world. And this is also where I spent my first Macau dollar buying a Pork Chop burger which costs $36, which was really really over priced :/




Just a meat between 2 buns. =_= Grossly over priced and not that its THAT tasty.

Last but not least, let us not forget the main reason why people come to this place in the first place--- their casino! The size of the casino here really puts Genting Highland's casino pale by comparison and the betting stakes are much higher. I wanted to buy some chips back as souvenirs but it was not worth it for me :/ Anyway casinoes are not really my thing but I really did enjoy watching how people throw all their money down the drain in just a matter of seconds.


Recession? What recession?

This post has been edited by zstan: Nov 21 2013, 11:16 PM

ah yes, galaxy macau has much better routes. i will cover that in a separate post oh wow. you should share your experience and photos here as well, or videos even better. Really? this pork chop is from a famous branch? D: although the meat was marinated well but the lack of fillings turned me off. maybe i was too spoiled in Malaysia

Grandview Hotel

After a day's outing our tour guide then brings us back to our accommodation, which was the Grand View Hotel. The good thing about this hotel is that it is situated in downtown Taipa and nearby the airport (only 5 minutes drive). The hotel is also nearby the Macau Ferry Terminal so those who are interested to take a ferry to Hong Kong or some China islands nearby are convenient to do so.




And from their website, at the Portas de Cerco (Macau-China Border Gate), taxis are easily accessible, too. And just outside the border gate, you will easily find the Underground Public Bus Terminus where you can take #30 or #34 and alight at Grandview Bus Stop (Kuan I Tsau Tim) located at the left side of the hotel. The only downside of this hotel is located slightly far away from the main attractions of Macau (i.e St Paul Ruins etc.) as it is located on the island instead of the mainland. Nevertheless this hotel has its own casino (well almost all hotels have their in house casinos) so gamblers need to worry about travelling.





Prior to leaving to my next destination for the night, our tour guide also arranged dinner at this hotel at their Chinese restaurant. Taste wise it was pretty decent and the choices of food aplenty. Not too sure about the prices though. xD

This post has been edited by zstan: Nov 21 2013, 11:17 PM

Wynn Hotel



From Grandview hotel we then took a taxi and headed to Wynn Hotel (永利酒店) which took about 15 minutes. Apart from the casino and luxurious accommodation there are three very interesting attractions here at this hotel: the water fountain show, the money tree and dragon show.


Water fountain show venue

The water fountain is located just outside the hotel and the show is every 15 minutes so don't worry if you have missed it. However the type of music that plays along with the music is quite random. I watched 3 shows in total, hoping to catch a repeat of the first show which I felt was the best due to it being the most colorful show of all and having fire as one of the effects. Unfortunately it did not materialise, but the other shows were pretty nice as well!






It was really one of the most entertaining water fountain shows that I've witnessed and the best thing of all it was free of charge! From then we moved inside the hotel for the next show.



I am not sure how to put it in words but in the middle of the hotel is a special 'stage', as per the photo above. The ceiling and the ground beneath is able to open. Every 30 minutes, either a money tree or a dragon will rise from the grounds. It is really impressive and a lot of work must have been done to be able to fit such huge structures underground and being able to move around so fluently. I shall not spoil much of the surprise and will let the pictures do the talking and give you an idea what to expect. Overall I really enjoyed the show!








Amazing how they could change the colours of the money trees with such ease!

This post has been edited by zstan: Nov 21 2013, 11:18 PM

Grand Lisboa Hotel, Galaxy Hotel, and other random hotels

Moving on from Wynn hotel, we decided to visit the other surrounding nearby hotels by foot since the night was still rather young. Apparently there were well built underground tunnels but we took the longer away by crossing across roads and alleys.




Money changers are everywhere in the streets of Macau

Our first stop of the night was Hotel Grand Lisboa. If my interpretation is correct, this is a new hotel built to complement the aged Hotel Lisboa which was located next to it. As usual, the interiors and exteriors never fail to amaze me.








On our last day at Macau I also headed to the Galaxy Hotel after a long walk from Venetian Hotel to board a free shuttle bus to nearby St. Paul's Ruins and subsequently passed by a few hotels. It is worth noting that the 'bus station' at Galaxy hotel provides many free shuttle buses to most of the tourist attractions in Macau.





The 'bus stop' at Galaxy Hotel

This post has been edited by zstan: Nov 21 2013, 11:18 PM

tamron 17-50 & sony a77

Well sometimes I wished I had 2 more mm while taking shots of the buildings but the f2.8 aperture really helped a lot in low light.

Meixi Royal Stone Archways Tourist Area （梅溪牌坊)

Upon crossing the crowded border, we finally arrived at mainland China! Zhu Hai was one of the earliest province/city (unsure about the correct term here) to be opened to the world by China after all their restrictions to the foreign world (after the revolution if i was not mistaken) over the couple of decades. This place was one of the first to be developed and many investments were brought in. Alright that's about enough for history lessons.



The first place that we stepped in the was famous Gong Bei Underground Shopping Mall which I shall elaborate more on a separate post. From there on our tour guide led us to the bus station which was beneath the mall and we were brought to the first destination of the day, Meixi Royalk Stone Archways Tourist Area. Yes its a really bloody long name in English but basically its the residence of the guy who first developed Zhu Hai.



The guy's name was Chen Xi Ru who was born in Hawaii and a Yale University graduate. Long story short he felt the need to contribute back to his country and came back to develop this place. His residence is really impressive I must say, not expecting any less though considering the amount of money he had. I lost count the number of wives and children he had as well.










And finally, my first taste of China's food! It was pretty decent I must say. Some of the dishes were nice. Kinda exceeded my expectations. Not forgetting they always serve beer at meal every time. Beer is so cheap in China =_=.






This post has been edited by zstan: Nov 21 2013, 11:38 PM

Mermaid Statue (珠海漁女)

Another main attraction at Zhu Hai is their Mermaid Statue which is located nearby the famous Lover's Road. Lover's Road is basically a long stretch of road beside the sea and got its name by some big shot in a government who was bringing his wife while officiating the opening this road. Well, walking along this road on a breezy evening with the sunset in the background with your lover does indeed seem romantic, hence the name. On a side note, mermaid statues seem to be very popular all around the world. I remember seeing one in Songkhla, Thailand and I believe there is another famous statue at Denmark.



Unfortunately the weather on that afternoon was not very forgiving despite nearing winter. We left after taking some pictures for memories sake.





This post has been edited by zstan: Nov 21 2013, 11:51 PM

Jingshan Cableway (景山三特索道)

From the Mermaid Statue at the Lover's Road we then moved on to Jingshan Cableway for a trip up to the mountains for a bird's eye view of Zhu Hai! Although they call it cable way, technically its a chair lift ride. From the base of the mountain, it's a good 5-7 minutes ride up. There was no crowd on that day so we didn't had to wait too long for our turn.













The view atop the mountain was pretty decent and it will be even nicer by the time the sun sets. Not a bad place for a date as well. There are many souvenir stalls up here for tourists to do some tiny bit of shopping and I got myself a hand made handphone keychain which costed only 10 yuan.

In my opinion, the most interesting thing to do here is going downhill. There are three ways to do so, one is to walk, another is to take the chair lift down, and the last is to take this ride:



am not sure how do you call this ride but this is something like a roller coaster that only goes down hill. The ride was really intense with all the hard cornerings and the wind blowing hard against the face. On a sad note the person in charge did not allow me to video record/photograph the whole process of going down hill but nevertheless it was an exhilarating experience!






This post has been edited by zstan: Nov 21 2013, 11:52 PM

Jiuzhou Port (九洲港) to Hong Kong!

As mentioned in my earlier post that I have one free day in my itinerary so I decided board a ferry to Hong Kong instead! According to the ferry's schedule, the earliest ride to Hong Kong (China Ferry Terminal @ Tsim Sha Tsui,Kowloon) was at 8a.m so I wasted no time to get there from my hotel with a taxi.



Prior to this trip I have booked the tickets online at their website to ensure that I get seats since trips to Hong Kong are rather popular. To my utmost horror, the person at the counter told me I could only redeem the tickets at the Hong Kong office at not the ferry terminal. D: In my opinion this is quite stupid considering that the website offers sales of tickets of many places outside of Hong Kong and the only places to redeem those tickets are at Kowloon, Central (中環) and somewhere in Shanghai =_=. Without a choice I exchanged my Hong Kong dollars to Yuan with a shop to buy new tickets (175 yuan for 2 ways). The exchange rate was probably terrible but I didn't have much choice Thank goodness I was able to get a full refund when I arrived at Hong Kong. Quite a shocker early in the morning.





After settling my tickets I then proceeded to have my breakfast, at KFC. And yes I was looking for pork related food again =P



Along with a cup of soya bean, the whole set costed 17 yuan. I then proceeded to the departure hall to wait for my ferry. The entire set up and design looks pretty like an airport.









The ferry is huge!! Accommodating more than 300 people should be off no issue here. There are 3 types of seats available here, depending on the ferry company - normal, VIP and first class. I am guessing food and personal in-ferry entertainment will be available for those paying more. Hong Kong here I come!

This post has been edited by zstan: Nov 21 2013, 11:51 PM

yes you need to make a visa. at least one day would be nice.its more nicer to walk the streets of st paul at night. in my opinion

should be ok. their main tourists are from mainland china after all.

i stayed at grandview before. it's not exactly nearby the tourist attractions (on another island) but it's really near to the airport and ferry terminal. taxi is easy to get and they have their own casino.

http://zhishantan.blogspot.com/2013/01/mac...view-hotel.html

http://www.accuweather.com/en/mo/macau/600...-forecast/60090

i wouldn't mind eating their egg tarts for 4 days:P

Jelly i didn't eat for many many years liao