We spent four days in Macau / HK.
TL;DR
Macau
- Senado Square is commercial but very tourist friendly and the Ruin de St Paul is a must see.
- If you gamble, gamble at the Venetian because they are the biggest casino with the most games.
- The House of Dancing Water show is worth watching.
Hong Kong
- Transportation = Octopus Card + MTR
- Tsim Sha Tsui for the view, Mong Kok for the shopping.
- Good food is everywhere but Tim Ho Wan is a must do
- Find peace at the Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Liang Garden.
- Take the gondola to visit the big Buddha before you fly out.
Day 1 - Monday, March 2nd
8:55 am - Depart Taipei
10:45 am - Arrive in Macau.
The first thing I noticed when we arrived in Macau was that my T-Mobile data service was not working despite T-mobile's claim that data would be unlimited and free. The data had worked fine in Taiwan but in Macau, I kept getting some form of PDP error when logging onto the internet.
After we collected our luggage, we took the free shuttle to the Conrad Hotel. The Conrad hotel is the highest rated hotel on Tripadvisor -- typically we don't stay at such nice hotels but my wife was able to book the hotel using airline miles so we stayed for free.
11 am - Check in at the Conrad
We checked in but couldnt go to the room yet since normal check-in is at 3pm. We dropped off luggage at hotel, exchanged a small amount of USD to MOP and took a taxi to Senado Square. In hindsight, we should have taken the free bus to the macau ferry terminal and then either took a cab or bus from there to senado square from there as the ride would have been shorter and cheaper.
I should also note that we only exchanged $20 USD at the hotel - enough to take the taxi as the hotel advised us to change money at a bank as the exchange rate would be better. When we got to the square, we changed USD to HKD since HKD is widely used in Macau but Macau's currency is not used in HK.
Macau Historic Center
1pm - 6pm Macau Historic Center
Our first stop was at Margaret's cafe. The cafe is hard to find, located in a small alley behind a ICBC bank a couple blocks from the square but you will know when you find it because of the numerous customers and large signage.
Magaret’s Cafe e Nata - Portugese Egg Tarts
Gum Loi Building, Rua Alm Costa Cabral R/C
Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro, Macau
Eat lunch around Senado Square. There's lots of street food and restaurants there. We had the taiwanese fried chicken and a pork chop sandwich. The taiwanese fried chicken was pretty good but the pork bun was just ok (at least from the place we got it from). There were a number of ko kai bakeries - perhaps too many, selling portugese egg tarts, pastries, and all kinds of jerky.
Directional signs are pretty good in this area. Don't worry about finding things as you'll be able to find signs / maps all around. We started at Senado Square and then walked 10 mins. to Ruin of Saint Paul's. The Ruin is pretty interesting and the highlight of the trip. Don't miss the short but free crypts attraction below the ruin.
After the ruins, we walked up to the nearby fort and Museum. I should note that the Museum was closed on Monday so we didnt have a chance to go in. We walked back to Senado Square and visited St. Augustine's Church and then walked further down to Mandarin's House via St. Lawrence's Church. From there, we took a 10 mins walk from Mandarin House to A-Ma Temple.
At this point, we thought about visiting Taipa village but we were pretty tired and without internet access, it was hard to get directions so we took a #11 bus at the across the street from A-Ma temple and went back across the bridge to cut down on taxi costs before taking a taxi back to the hotel.
6:30pm - Dinner
We had dinner at the 3rd floor food court next to the Conrad Hotel. The food court had a lot of pretty good food and was relatively cheaper with more local flavor than the buffets. The seafood stall in the food court stood out with its clean, live, seafood.
8pm - House of Dancing Water Show
The show is 85 minutes. Located within the city of dreams, which is basically a short walk from the conrad / hilton inn hotels. The House of Dancing water was probably the best circus de solei show i have seen and the stage was pretty amazing in how quickly it transformed from water, to land, to etc. Having said that, we were pretty exhausted from the day and it was hard not to fall asleep at times in the dark room despite the amazing feats going on in front of us.
Day 2 - Tuesday, March 3rd
if you are going to gamble, gamble at the venetian because it is the largest and has the most games. many of the other hotels do not have texas holdem and some do not have craps but the venetian has both.
Taipa village
10am
We walked across the Macau strip and through the Venetian as we planned on going to the Seng Cheong Restaurant for breakfast but when we arrived at 10am, we discovered they did not open until noon. In fact, most of Taipa village seemed to be lethargic until noon. Since we arrived early, we got a overpriced but well needed foot massage to pass some time. In hindsight, we should have explored the Venetian in the morning before heading to Taipa village at noon.
Seng Cheong Restaurant
28-30 Rua da Cunha | Taipa Island, Macau, China
Famous for their crab congee and crab, I thought it was not very good. The trip advisor reviews seem to be pretty accurate for this place.
Hong Kong
Ferry to HK is very frequent (perhaps every 30 minutes or sooner) and costs around 150 HKD during the weekday during the day for an economy ticket.
When you arrive in Hong Kong, grab an Octopus Card to store money and use on buses, trains and in convenience stores. It will save you a lot of time queuing or fishing for change. It is basically a prepaid credit card where you pay 150 HKD, of which 100HKD goes onto the card for use and 50HKD goes onto the card for deposit. You get any unused cash and the deposit less 9 HKD back when you return the card to any MRT station.
We checked into Airbnb:
25 Man Ying St Apt, Jordan, Hong Kong
This airbnb was disappointing because the reviews were so good. The room itself was ok but the building seemed somewhat ghetto, especially once you exit the elevator on the 16th floor and have to walk up a flight.
In hindsight, I wish I had studied the HK MTR subway map more closely before the trip. Unlike the BART stations in the US, not all of the trains stop in the same places so transferring between lines can be a fairly long walk. Specifically, the central / hong kong lines and the East TST / TST lines are fairly far apart. Additionally, if i had studied the MTR map, i would have discovered that Mong Kok was a better place to live than Austin as Austin's line went east / west whereas Mong Kok's line went north / south.
7:30pm - Dinner at Tim Ho Wan
Tim Ho Wan is Michelin Star Dim Sum at affordable prices. We ate way too much here. The pork buns were particularly good and different from any other pork bun we'd ever had before. There are four Tim Ho Wan's in Hong Kong. We went to this one located outside of the Olympic City mall, just ask around where the restaurant is as its somewhat difficult to find:
Shop 72, G/F, Olympian City 2, 18 Hoi Ting Road, Tai Kok Tsui 大角咀海庭道18號奧海城二期G樓72號舖 Tel 2332 2896 Nearest MTR station: Olympic, Exit D3
Day 3 - Wednesday, March 4th
10am - Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Lian Garden
The nunnery is located across the street from the Diamond Hill MRT exit and is definitely worth visiting. We spent two hours here and at the Nin Liang Garden. Religious chants are repeated throughout the nunnery and the various buddhist related figures have English and Chinese descriptions telling their background. The Nan Lian Garden is across the bridge from the Chi Lin Nunnery entrance. It's a well maintained garden with vegetarian restaurant located underneath a waterfall. There are numerous Koi fish in the main pool.
1pm - HK Museum of History
Spent 2 hours here which seemed like the right amount of time. Reading other travel blogs, we had fairly high expectations and the museum met those expectations. Learning about the native settlers, opium wars, japanese occupation, etc. There were small theater shows for each era which provided a nice place to rest our feet after walking.
4pm - Mong Kok
Ladies Market
The Ladies Market is a street full of vendors, tourists and locals. Souvineers, local art, and all kinds of mass produced goods can be bought here. Many of the vendors sell similar products and bargaining is expected. Try to get an idea of how much things should sell for by walking away -- there will definitely be another vendor selling similar products not too far down the street.
Goldfish Street
Going a little further down the same street as the Ladies Market, you will come across Goldfish street which is full of pet stores and fish stores. Walking down this street is interesting, you can't help but feel a little sad for how the animals are treated.
There is a night market one block off which is worth walking through on your way back.
7pm - Tsim Sha Tsui
avenue of stars
The view of Hong Kong island is pretty nice here. Try to do this on a clear warm evening to see the city lights without getting too cold
Star Ferry
The star ferry is a quick 10 minute boat ride from kowloon to hong kong island. We took the 2.5 HKD ride back and forth before the city light show.
8pm - City Lights
The city lights is touted as a major attraction and if it wasn't so windy, foggy, and if our feet weren't so tired, it might have been more fun for us. Unfortunately, the weather and our feet didn't enjoy the 15 minute show much.
10pm - Temple Street Night Market
Seafood, souvineers, etc
Day 4 - Thursday, March 5th
This was our last day in Hong Kong. If you are flying out, there is a airport luggage check in available at the Kowloon and Hong Kong MTR stations which let you check in your luggage a day before your flight. Not all the airlines provide this service so look into this if you plan to use it.
10am - dim sum at dimdim sum in Jordan.
Was supposedly the best dim sum in 2012 but it was just ok. We thought tim ho wan was better. Dimdim sum opens at 10am
The airport and Tung Chung are fairly close together. We rearranged our original plans of spending an entire day at Lantau Island to spending half the day there before our flight. It worked out well as the two are fairly close together and a fair distance from the rest of Hong Kong. Additionally, the lines for the gondola are fairly short during the weekday. If you go on the weekend, people recommend either buying tickets beforehand or taking a bus / taxi to the buddha and then taking the gondola down.
1 pm - Gondola
The Gondola is located next to the Tung Chung MTR line and Citygate outlets. This is a good place to kill time between flights with shopping, a cinema, and restaurants. We took the S1 bus from the Airport to the tung chung station, which cost around 3.5 HKD per person and took about 30 minutes. Alternatively, the S56 is a more direct bus and takes about 9 minutes. Both buses leave the airport at the same location.
The Gondola itself a 30-40 minute trip up to a village, big buddha, and monastery. If you decide to go up, I recommend giving yourself at least four or five hours for the entire journey from the Airport. It was a pretty windy day when we took the Gondola and one of the people in the Gondola felt either scared or sick from how much the Gondola swayed in the wind. Personally, I didnt mind it much though.
2 pm - Big Buddha
The big buddha is hard to miss. You can walk up the stairs to the base of the buddha.
3 pm - Po Lin Monastery
The Po Lin Monastery is a nice place to grab a vegetarian snack. I had turnip cake and sweet tofu, both of which were pretty good.
4 pm - Head back to the airport
7:30pm - Depart Hong Kong - EVA air 872
Planned but didnt do
Victoria Peak
Bus 15 from Exchange Square bus terminus (near MTR Hong Kong Station, Exit D)
peak circle walk
This is typically a must do in Hong Kong but the weather didnt cooperate as it was foggy.
