Ruins of St. Paul/Dai Sam Ba (大三巴) and St. Paul Street

As the skies opened in torrent, we moved onwards to our next destination which was Macau's most significant symbol : the ruins of St Paul or Dai Sam Ba in Cantonese. It was raining quite heavily now and everyone was either donning a rain coat or having an umbrella in their hands. Taking photographs with an umbrella with one hand and a 1kg DSLT in another proves quite challenging as I did not bring along my camera strap for this trip. It is also here that I realised that I have forgotten to bring my battery charge so I only had 2 batteries for the next 4 days and I had to really conserve and squeeze every juice out of it. For the record I managed to take almost 1000 shots including a 2 minute full HD video using the a77.






Since it was raining quite heavily, the skies were very dull and gloomy, which was kind of reflected in the photos. There's nothing much of interest at the ruins here unless you are a very historical person who wants to know what was the purpose of this structure.




Going down the stairs brings you the St Paul streets which reminded me of Korea's Myeongdong and Namdaemun in a way. There are a lot of shops and eateries here for tourists to shop and eat around while enjoying the cooling wind, especially in the evening. I only explored this area on my last day back in Macau in an extremely rushed manner and I will certainly come back here to visit again at a slower pace.





There seems to be only one souvenir shop in this area and I bought some casino look alike chips for my friends and some other goodies. The chips were relatively cheap. only 40HKD for 12 pieces. Oh by the way, you could use Hong Kong dollars in Macau as well instead of Macau dollars as their value are roughly the same. Some shops even accept China's Ren Min Bi but the exchange rate is much higher.





This post has been edited by zstan: Nov 21 2013, 11:15 PM

Looks like they are starting to dismantled those Christmas tree at Senado Square when you visited. When I was there 4 days before Christmas, they were all lighted up.

Also, probably because of the rain, there is less tourist at the Ruins of St. Paul. When I was there on 20th Dec, the whole place was full of tourists from China taking group photo. They virtually occupied the whole staircase so much so we can't find a spot to take photos.

On the way back after visited the Macau Museum, they close off the landing area in front of the facade and prepared for a parade. Many participants dressed in Portugese costumes are lining up for the parade on the road (on the left of the flower area in your photo) leading to the facade. It was almost impossible to get out of the area without pushing our way through. We didn't stay for the parade as it got too crowded and went off to find Margaret Cafe e Nata. Unfortunately it was closed for that day so we had Lord Stow's portuguse tarts instead in the evening.

i wil be going macau+hk on 20th jan. how is the weather? :-D

Type "macau weather forecast" on Google and see what it said.

This post has been edited by AskDS: Jan 7 2013, 04:19 PM

16 c. seems vy cold. lol!

Oh you're a female...if male will recommend you to rest at a spa

i m male!! lol! jz planning to get t shirt and some shirt which is not so thick over thr. hav to repack. @.@

Oh my bad, actually I just saw the first page and answered TS..haha...if you're a male, make sure try the spa

weeweet. whr and how they charge?

Margaret Cafe is not situated here Ruins of St. Paul. It is at least about 15 minutes walk (casual) from the entrance to Senado Square. Here is what I remembered when I was there last month.

From Senado Square, walk left toward Grand Lisboa, along Avenida do Infante D. Henrique road, you'll find Luk Fook Jewelly at the corner (from here you can see the whole of Grand Lisboa hotel). Turn left at Luk Fook Jewelly, and immediately turn left into an alley, you should be able to see the Margaret Cafe e. Nata sign on the wall as you about to turn into the alley.

Attached is an image from Google map of the sign:

Click Margaret Cafe e Nata for the Google map location

I read in some blogs that Margaret Cafe is closed on Wednesday but when I was there on a Thursday, it was closed!

What we did on one trip, which we emphasize more on Zhuhai and surroundings:
- Get single-entry (we know we only enter once)
- Reach Macau
- Straight enter Gongbei (take bus from macau airport to border), then check-in hotel, visit few days, hot-spring.
- Few days later, depart and enter to Macau, stay in Macau.
- Fly back from Macau.

nope. i went before christmas. they were just starting to build the tree yeah the rain was quite annoying

thanks for the information. will edit it in my post! hmm maybe they were closed for christmas celebrations? honestly i can tell the tastes apart

This post has been edited by zstan: Jan 7 2013, 05:56 PM

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

Actually I found that Galaxy Macau offer better routes for tourist. I stayed at the Venetian Macau during my trip so what I did was to take the free shuttle bus to Galaxy Macau, and then use the Galaxy Macau free shuttle bus to various destination like Senado Square (stop at Metropark hotel), Old Taipa, Starworld etc.


During the Christmas period, Venetian Macau has a 3D light show near the main entrance. I think they did a great job in showcasing the concept of the hotel and it various architecture.



Well you have tried the pork chop burger of the branch of the famous Cafe Tai Lei in old Taipa. I was told that at the main branch, you can only get the pork chop burger from 3pm onward while in the Venetian Macau branch you can get it anytime. I had one too and I quite like the taste as it was better than the one I tried at Senado Square.

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

Yeah, I haven't got the time to upload my photo to the photo sharing site yet as I have been travelling quite often since I came back from Hong Kong and Macau. I will share some of my experience and photos when I am done with that.

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

hey! i'll be at Macau 26th

will be at zhuhai 22-23
23-26 will be at HK.
26-27 Macau.

any clashes? we can meetup for drinks or whatsoever.

maybe can meet at at hk. wil be @ hk 21-24.haha