MACAU - Day 1

26/10/2008 (Sunday)

Flight Departure time : 6:30 a.m.
Basically very little sleep the night before due to excitement.
Huby sent to airport. Left home at 4a.m. to pick up Fung.
Boys still sleeping soundly with 'potato' minding them.
Arrived LCCT approx.ly 5a.m.
Fah & Farn already having super early breakfast and we joined shortly.

All with 'panda' sleepy eyes !!
Me, Fung, Farn & Fah

But very soon, the 4 'MOUTHS' got warmed up after the boost of a cuppa coffee!!
With the exception of Fung & myself (who prefer to be 'followers' when it comes to traveling),
both Fah & Farn seemed to be well prepared hence fully equipped to lead the tour!!
Just check out the list of itineraries prepared to be ventured .....

shopping list, food list & sight-seeing list !!
i just went 'awwww'....... yet impressed !!

Thankfully, this time there wasn't much delay with the flight, in about 3 & half hour, we reached Macau & getting thru the Custom was a bliss (no hassle, no queue)
Board a cab to hotel.

1st Day at POUSADA DE COLOANE hotel !!

Pousada de Coloane is situated on Cheoc-Van beach surrounded by green tree-clad mountains and set in the quiet country-side of Coloane Island. This family hotel is a unique venue, romantic, peaceful and relaxing place. Operated by the same family for more than 25 years. The hotel has recently undergone a major renovation and is decorated in typical rustic Portuguese style. The 30 double rooms , all with privates balconies, overlook Cheoc-van beach and in the distance, the mountains of Mainland china. Located in the 2^nd Island of Macau, Takes 20 mins driving from the Macau ferry terminal and 10 mins from the Macau International Airport to / and the hotel.

Macau is basically divided into 3 parts:
major being the Macau island, at the north and Taipa island which is connected to Coloane island, at the south.

Since the following 2 days, we'll be staying in the city centre of the Macau island, we chose to stay a day somewhat further down south from the hectics of tourist spots with an opportunity to grasp some breezing air and the sight of beach & sea that will certainly please the eyes !!!

According to the taxi uncle, this area is also known as the fishing village.

It was indeed a built that came with strong & rich taste of the Portugese cultures !!

... Fronting the sea ...

Very family oriented style .... intimacy !!

... Super antique furnishes & fixtures ...

While it was good to be able to taste the quiet village living for a day, the slightly AGED & ROTTEN condition of the amenities & atmosphere left an unpleasing feeling in some of us (who obviously had preference over modern & contemporary style) !!!

As it was still early for check-in, we left our luggages at the lobby & stormed out to the city of Coloane island. Although it was only a less than 5 minutes bus ride, the hot weather simply shoved aside the idea of walking. Furthermore, it was pretty cheap & convenient travelling in bus, MOB2.50 / RM1.25 per way ...... arghh......what is that amount, rite??!!!

Our first hunt was the renowned, infamous & lagendary PORTUGESE TART !!!!

I don't know what luck it was, the very original & pioneer of the Portugese tart bakery was situated right opposite the bus stop where we got down. Though we were not aware of it initially and it took us a little walk around that area and 'findings' from the locals, we eventually discovered the place with very much thrills !!
Fah came to know from Internet that the tart was called "an te lu" tart in Mandarin and if you were to translate that, it should be 'Andrew tart' BUT we were wrong....little did we expect that the place that sell this was instead call the LORD STOW's Cafe !!!!

Oh boy....everyone was so excited & full of anticipation to try out the virgin taste of this tart despite the fact that we'd eaten many of this in our own country!!

Guess what?? Absolutely DELICIOUS, HEAVEN & NO DISAPPOINTMENT at all !!

Since it was near to lunch time, we decided to savour the western food offerings by the Cafe, in Portugese style of course !! I actually doubted if it was the hungry bugs symptoms or simply the excitement that gave such a good ratings to the foods ....... they were just so tasty & appetizing!!
In particular was the below pumpkin pasta meal ..... arghh, simply mouth-watering !!

Bacon, mushroom baked on potatoes !!

After our very 1st satisfactory meal, we just took a stroll surround the place.
We literally need to walk with the umbrella as the hot sun was so irritating despite lots of shades from the big trees !!!

We stumbled upon a small temple & decided to gave a little respect. As we gave our little tributes, we were informed to "TOUCH" this golden dragon boat from the head right up to the tail as it claims to give us GOOD LUCK !!! So we just went ahead with the advice .....
and started our "molest" job.....

A little late in the afternoon, we turned back to the hotel to finish off with our room check-in & gave ourselves a wash plus a short rest!!

Though it was a little hard to leave the bed then, we forced ourselves out by 4pm. This time, we proceeded further up to Taipa. The ultimate search at this place was none other than another famous delicacies of Macau i.e. the " Chue Phar Pao "/ Pork Chop Bun.
As it was a very famous meal, we could find the place very easily, alas with a distance of walks there !! We saw the long queue but thankfully it moved very fast !!

I have to acknowledged that the pork chop does taste good but eating it PLAINLY with the bun just wasn't a thing that a Malaysian would love!! Being the chili lover that i am, it would certainly delights me more if they offer me a bottle of chili sauce for me to squeeze n squeeze but sadly there wasn't any at all...........yuck, it was just so so so dry !! But the rest of the ladies appreciated the bun very much still apart from the pork chop!!

After walloping the bun, we proceeded to the souvenir street

Tasted some jelly...emm, mango so sweet !!

Then as we walked along, it was pure coincidence that we stumbled upon this restaurant that served the CRAB PORRIDGE which happened to be in our FOOD LIST !! So we continued to 'pollute' our stomach with more food & food......never had i sumptuous such a fresh scented porridge before. And the 'sotong'/squid balls were awesome too !!!

By then our pity stomachs were already throwing tantrum, protesting against food anymore !!! So we spent our night exploring the much-talked about VENETIAN which was located at the Taipa island too!!

Well, my first impression of the place was purely stunning!! The beauties of the place was simply beyond words could described. Now....i finally had a 'feel' of how Venice should be like.... ahem, ahem....am now wondering when will my dream of being there one day be realised ???!!!

Apart from enjoying & appreciating the artistics achitectures of the place, we also enjoyed our window shopping very much !! Guess too much of it until our dearie Fah cheh got too engrossed and slipped her foot step at a staircase causing her a real sprain to the ankle!!
Immediately after the twist, she quickly took a seat nearby & initially i didn't thought much about it until the swell looked so worrying!! True enough she couldn't walked for that moment, seriously no joke.....arghh, could that be a symptom that our bone at such age has became so fragile?? We frantically searched around for clinic & pharmacy but only a chinese medical hall was found. So we bought a muscle pain relief cream for her. She had the application done & poor thing Fah cheh got to bear resting by herself while the 3 of us continued our exploration of the Venetian. After about an hour of rest, we decided to call the day off.

.... here's the sexy feet ....

Obviously we need to catch a taxi back to the hotel. After washing, we gathered in a room thinking of continuing our chat but sleepiness just ruled over everything....... my eyes just couldn't take it & we dozed off in no time !!!

Guess what was Fah's FATE, moving on with our trip after her ankle injury???

stay tune ya......ahhh, very sleepy now !!!