People, Places, Food, Travel and Lifestyle....: Con't....Day 2: My 2012 vacation to Hong Kong

Colosseum

After our half day city tour of Hong Kong. We then proceeded to Macau - City of Dreams. It took us an hour and a half via ferry going to Macau. By 4:30 pm, we arrived at the terminal and meet our tour guide in Macau.

According to our tour guide, Macau is a city in southern China's Guangdong province, and was until 20 December 1999 an overseas Portuguese territory, founded in 1557. It is now a special administrative region (SAR) within the People's Republic of China, which agreed to recognize the city's special social and economic system for a period of fifty years.

A-ma - Chinese Goddess

The name Macau is derived from the Chinese A-ma-gao Bay of A-Ma. A-ma was the name of a Chinese goddess, popular with the Chinese seafarers and fishermen who had a temple on the peninsula when the Portuguese first anchored there in 1513. Macau is located on a small peninsula and lies at the western shore of the great Pearl River Delta, opposite Hong Kong. Together with its two islands, Taipa and Coloane (connected to the peninsula by large bridges), it measures only some 8.5 square miles (22 square kilometers). Before inclusion into China in December 1999, Macau was separated from the mainland by the Barrier Gate (Portas do Cêrco) frontier. The city has good air links, and ferry and hydrofoil service to the neighboring islands, the mainland, and Hong Kong. A large international airport was opened in 1995.

The first stop we visited was the Macau Fisherman's Wharf is the first theme park in Macau. It is located in the Macau Peninsula, near the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Pier and the famous Sands Casino. We took a lot of pictures of this wonderful place and left by 4:50 pm.

We then proceeded with our tour around the city We've seen the Chinese goddess statue: A-ma and took some pictures of it. Then we where brought to one of Macau's sweets and delicacies shop for "pasalubong".

The Sands Casino

It was 5:20 pm when we reached the St. Paul Ruins, the ruins now consist of the southern stone façade—intricately carved between 1620 and 1627 by Japanese Christians in exile from their homeland and local craftsmen under the direction of Italian Jesuit Carlo Spinola—and the crypts of the Jesuits who established and maintained the Cathedral. The façade sits on a small hill, with 66 stone steps leading up to it. The carvings include Jesuit images with Oriental themes, such as a woman stepping on a seven-headed hydra, described by Chinese characters as ' Holy Mother tramples the heads of the dragon'. A few of the other carvings are the founders of the Jesuit Order, the conquest of Death by Jesus, and at the very top, a dove with wings outstretched. We took some pictures of this historical site and left by 5:40 pm.

St. Paul's Ruins

Wynn's Musical Fountain

Add caption

After enjoying the ruins, we proceeded to nearby souvenir shop and bought some stuff for remembrance. By 6 pm, we toured the different casinos. Our tour guide parked his van in the center island round - about and took some pictures of the world class casinos in Macau like Wynn, MGM, Grand Lisboa and others. By 7 pm, we stopped at Wynn's resort and watched their 10 minutes musical dancing fountain. Our tour guide is telling us that this is not included in the tour package and we where very lucky to witness this magical show. In return, we gave her our sincere "Thank you!".

Macau Tower

Next is the Macau Tower, we just took some pictures of this magnificent tower and left for the Galaxy hotel and the Venetian resort hotel in Cotai strip. We stayed and have dinner at the Venetian hotel since it is 7:30 pm already. We need to catch the free Venetian shuttle bus going to the ferry terminal before 9 pm. The last trip for Hong Kong is at 10 pm.

The Venetian

We did not waste any time at the Venetian and explored the hotel resort before leaving. Like the Gondola ride, its casino, high end shops and Chinese Macau's delicacies. We left the Venetian by 8:45 pm and reached the terminal by 9:15 pm. Good thing! We have bought our return tickets before the Macau tour and booked us for the 10 pm departure to Hong Kong. No more hassles lining for the tickets.

Venetian - Gondola

We arrived at Hong Kong terminal by 11:15 pm. There were taxi's waiting at the parking area of the ferry terminal and paid 80 HKD going to Rambler Oasis Hotel. We reached our Hotel room by 11:35 pm.

The following day at 7 am, we were fetched by our tour guide for our departure to Manila. Since our scheduled flight was 9:45 am, we had our breakfast at the Hong Kong International Airport.
We arrived at Manila at 11:55 am.