Macau Archives - Escapes From The Little Red Dot

Macau and Hong Kong 2016 Day 3 – Ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui

Posted on January 28, 2016June 2, 2020 by ziyi

Learning from the previous day, we woke up at 8am to start the day early. Baby K woke up twice again, once at 230am and another at 630am but my biological clock was already in tune to his feeding time.

The light sound of thunder could be heard and the showers came. Though we were going to leave Macau, it was going to be difficult if the showers continued.

Preparing the food for cooking while wife started packing and baby K still snoozing made us highly productive. We even had time for breakfast which we packed from the day earlier. Only when baby K woke up was when we had to keep an eye on him so that he didn’t hurt himself.

Breakfast bread from the Macau Tower bakery.

After we were all packed, changed and ready, it was past 1030 and we proceeded to first check out the room and then deposit our luggage before visiting the Macau 3D World within the hotel, that was like the Alive museum. It was another 48Hkd for one as we already had a free ticket from the hotel stay.

There were quite some numbers of wall paintings but some were really not that good. The first exhibit had Michael Jackson and some of his album related displays. Then it was dinosaurs and other random but local related activities. We didn’t spend much time there as baby K soon napped as mommy carried him. There was another floor with very limited display of a moving Trex and a dinosaur video superimposed with our image. We left only after 30mins.

Baby K continued to snooze while we explore the 6th floor of the hotel that had some restaurants and fitness center and pool but the food wasn’t affordable and so we ended up waiting at the reception level at one of the chairs of the restaurant. However, we were asked to move as we weren’t customers of the restaurants and so we went back to the 6th floor as there were cushion seats there as well but not other guests that had packed the reception level seating area.

Baby K woke up after 1hr of nap and we proceeded to wait for the free shuttle bus to the terminal just outside the reception, under shelter thankfully, away from the harsh chill and rain outside. Bus frequency was said to be 15mins but it took about 30. We were the 2nd in queue and loaded up the bus quickly. The luggage and stroller was all placed at the front row seats. There were people who couldn’t get up and had to wait which wasn’t long as the 2nd bus came, picked up what’s left and was long gone while the luggage was still being loaded up on our bus.

Queue for shuttle bus to the ferry terminal. Shuttle bus is the same size as that in the photo.

The bus ride to the ferry terminal was rather quick, about 20mins and soon we were at the ferry terminal’s bus stop. However, the alighting point was not sheltered to the bus and so we had to quickly unload the luggage and move it to the shelter. I made the second trip to get the stroller while mommy carried baby K.

Luckily for lifts on both sides of the bus stop and the terminal, we got to the 3rd floor of the ferry terminal for some lunch at 南北麵點小廚 after checking out the next timing for the ferry to Kowloon. Ate at dim sum restaurant 187Hkd which had good noodles but the rest was so so. After that we bought some Portuguese egg tarts from the local products store on the 3rd floor and proceeded to 2nd floor for tickets.

Purchased the 335pm ferry for 444Hkd (baby K had to pay if over 1 year old) which gave us an hour to be ready. However we still had to wait to check in our luggage and was told to come back at 3pm. For 3 pieces including the stroller, it cost us 75Hkd.

After going through the immigrations quickly, we waited a short while at the small waiting area at the gate before boarding the ferry. The weather was not as cold as before. Seated in the middle row, the ferry raced though the seas whereas it was pretty bumpy at times. That made us a little nauseous.

View from waiting area. — View of the rainy weather from waiting area.

Baby K became cranky and when he couldn’t fall asleep, I made a bottle of milk with the lukewarm water because of the leaky vacuum flask and he immediately devoured and went to sleep.

An hour’s ride and we arrived at the ferry terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui. Took the elevator to the arrivals hall where we had to give in to some China tourists who did not give way to us even when we had a sleeping baby in the stroller, pretty annoying. At the immigrations, the queue cleared in 10mins though we had to shift the stroller for the officer to see baby K.

Picked up the luggage that was left on the belt, the last 2 in fact. Left the arrivals and immediately some steps away was the elevator to our hotel – the Royal Pacific hotel. This was so accessible, especially for parents tugging 2 large luggage and a stroller containing my sleeping boy. We made 2 trips up the escalator as I couldn’t find a lift and the checked in was rather quick, given a 19th floor room which had a “ok” view.

Baby K continued to snooze while his parents did a little washing and a whole lot of resting. When he did wake up, he was again on his feet climbing here and there and after changing out his diapers after he pooed, we went downstairs to shop.

As the hotel was smacked in the China Hong Kong city (CHKC), it was just too convenient to have Marketplace by Jasons and shopping at our doorstep. The Marketplace was not really huge though and we didn’t really find fresh fish to cook. There were packets of milk available.

Later we visited the Esprit outlet and while mommy shopped, baby K practiced walking around with me, having fun. As we left, we noticed that there were a few outlet stores here and thought we would returned to check out the other outlets (since there were closed already).

Baby K pooed again and we visited the baby room which was pretty clean but didn’t have a lot of facilities.

At 8 pm we left for dinner but there weren’t many options left as many were closed. We got to an area called podium of restaurants and went into one Kung Fu Dim Sum. Ordered pork ribs rice and beef brisket noodles and a plate of Chee Chiong Fun with Char Siew. The food wasn’t really good. Baby K was cranky as well as the food he ate was a little cold.

Kung Fu Dim Sum restaurant. Manual as a menu.

Went back to room to bath baby K and prepare for the night. The long journey today was tired enough for us to go to bed early.

Macau 2016 Day 1 – Arrival in Macau bypassing Hong Kong

Posted on January 26, 2016June 3, 2020 by ziyi

It was a rather hectic week and we had only completed packing on the night before the flight. Equally crazy was baby K’s choice to be cranky on the night before, resulting in the parents clocking only 5hrs of sleep before waking up at 6am to get ready for the 10am flight to Hong Kong.

By 730am, we left the house but having to repeatedly return to pick up the milk and the stroller that we had left behind.

The PIE had sections of slow moving traffic as Tuesday was after all a working day for most. We got to the airport by 830am and checked in at the counter for our 2 luggage and the stroller. Had some drinks at the nearby cafe before bidding farewell to our parents for ferrying us to the airport.

Our flight was at the end of terminal 1 and before getting on the flight, had changed baby K’s diapers and picked up some hot water from the hot water dispenser.

Our bassinet seat was immediately on the right upon boarding which made it easy for us, having tugged along 3 hand carries and a baby. Made formula milk packed in disposable plastic packets (like those storage bags for breast milk but for formula milk powder instead) for baby K and while he happily finished the bottle and dozed off even before taking off. It was a short 1 hr break for us while he snoozed in my arms.

After waking up we had to keep him entertained through the inflight tiny TV and magazines. Had our lunch individually as always, and fed him home cooked porridge after we were done with ours.

The flight was smooth though weather was expected to be rainy with the crazy cold snap coming in on the weekends before we flew. It was still busy and tiring to manage the newly 14month old toddler though.

After touching down at Hong Kong international airport, we could feel the cold bite while at the walkway to the arrivals and immediately put baby K into his one-piece down jacket. This made him more difficult to carry with the puffier size and the slippery surface.

Mommy had gone to purchase the Cotai ferry tickets to Macau, without the need to go through immigrations. At the counters, we only had to provide the luggage tag to the staff who would ensure that the luggage was brought on board the ferry for us. Paid 640hkd in all for the tickets, including a 140hkd for baby K for the 415pm schedule to Taipa (not the main terminal), the only closest time slot we could get (the other one was at 5pm).

Ticketing counter for the ferry tickets.

Made some milk for baby K after changing him out of his diapers and checked that our luggage was retrieved at the ticket checker. We were only allowed to proceed to the gate at the time written on our tickets, supposedly to prevent overcrowding at the gate. There was a short train ride to SkyPier where the ferry was.

Machine to check luggage status, by scanning your tickets.

The road to boarding the ferry was extremely cold as it was opened to the outside. Once on board, we got some nap time for ourselves as baby K had also already fallen asleep on mommy shoulders while waiting for the boarding.

The ride to Macau was slightly bumpy but that had baby K in the snooze for a good hour. We arrived close to 6pm, after an hour and a half on the seas.

Going through immigrations, baby K had us on priority and we were taken to a short queue and we cleared rather quickly. Proceeded to retrieve our luggage at an enclosed area where everyone just stood around and waited. The luggage was to be brought into the room by human labour as there weren’t any belt there. After the doors opened, the luggage containers were brought in while the personnel unloaded the luggage. However collection could only be started after all the luggage was offloaded.

We waited for the crowd to clear before retrieving. The personnel were really kind to offer mommy a seat near the area as she tried to feed baby K and another offered to bring our luggage out on a trolley seeing that we were tugging a lot of luggage but we didn’t accept the offer.

Once out, I checked with one of the staff nearby only to find that there weren’t any free shuttle bus to Sofitel Ponte 16 (which was situated at the other island). So we had to queue for a taxi which had a couple of people before us already waiting. It was too long before we got onto one ourselves and I had issues loading the luggage and the stroller in. The stroller ended up on the front passenger seat with a rather unimpressed taxi driver.

The trip from the Taipa terminal to Sofitel was about 40mins due to the horrendous traffic jams along the way. Upon stopping at the luxurious lobby of Sofitel, a porter helped us unload, we paid about 100hkd for the trip.

Checking in was easy but there was some marketing going on as the receptionist tried to sell upgrades to suites and club privileges but we rejected it. We were given the 15th floor room that had a pretty good view of the sea and the room was luxuriously furnished. Porter came with our luggage some 10mins later.

Prepared some cereal mixed with the baby meal from the flight for baby K, which surprisingly, he liked and finished eating. I was tasked to go get dinner as room service wasn’t affordable and mommy found the cold uninviting for her to step foot outside again for tonight.

Just taking the bigger road, I walked away from the hotel and looked around. Saw some bright signboards and headed to a noodle shop (Loja Sopa Da Fita Cheong Kei) that had tripadvisor sticker on it and asked if taking away was available. Was immediately invited to sit in where it was nice and warm and then decide what I wanted. Ordered wanton noodle and their special. 10 mins and 63hkd later, I left with 2 small package of dinner.

Loja Sopa De Fita Cheong Kei noodle shop.

The food was rather delicious but I wasn’t sure that was biased due to my hunger or not. The portions were small though.

The hotel did not seem to have a good aircon to warm up the place and bathing for baby K was challenging. I filled the tub with warmer-than-usual warm water and after quickly stripping baby K, brought him to the tub and he got used to the water rather well. Unfortunately it seemed like there was some leakage and I had to warm up the tub by reintroducing warm water into the tub.

After getting out of the water, we had to quickly dry baby K and apply the lotion and wear the long sleeve shirt and pants to prepare him for bed. He was shivering a bit before we could finally dressed him.

It was clean up time on the bottles and cooker and containers but all these were far easier than back in the days of breastfeeding where there was simply a hell lot of bottles and equipment to clean.

Baby K snoozed deeply after downing a bottle of milk and the rest of the night was sleep, after a long day to get to Macau.

Macau and Hong Kong 2015 day 3 – Macau and Victoria Park

Posted on September 26, 2015June 3, 2020 by ziyi

Our day started really late, after all we only slept at 1 am. After waking up at 9am and carrying out the tasks of bathing the baby in the tub and cleaning up the bottles, we finally left the hotel at 11am.

Left the luggage at the luggage deposit and took the free bus to the terminal. Going back to the terminal and at the immediate right of the terminal was a bus and taxi queue. Initially wanted to take the bus (bus 3A, 3.20 MOP per trip) to the famous ruins of St. Pauls but in the end took the taxi instead for about 50MOP ( in bad traffic) to Almeida Riveria Road. The streets were particular busy with hordes of people, probably because it was a Chinese long weekend due to mid Autumn festival.

Buses that going to the various attractions.

As we walked towards the direction of the church, it started to drizzle so we diverted to a cafe THS Honolulu for lunch. The meal we ordered was a tasty pork chop rice and so-so Portuguese fried rice. The soup of the day of carrot and radish pork soup was good though. The set came up to about 58MOP per meal.

After our meal and a very cranky baby (as he didn’t have his porridge and we had to give him rice and soup and Heinz pumpkin purée), it was still drizzling and so we had to give up and go back, through the same route on a taxi. It cost about 80MOP to get back to the hotel where we got our luggage and boarded the free bus to the Cotai jet terminal (Taipa).

Macau tower from taxi. Drizzle on the outside.

Interesting shapes of the casinos. Grand Lisboa was the huge golden odd shape building.

Upon arrival, we found that the route Tsim Sha Tsui was sold out till 5pm. As we were rushing for time to meet up with my sister who were on their way to Macau and require my mom to babysit him tonight, we took the route to Shueng Wan instead.

Cotai jet ticketing counter at the Taipa ferry terminal.

Checked in the luggage at the same price (although the staff tried to overcharge us so we made him weigh all the luggage) of 75MOP, and waited at the waiting room right after going through immigrations quickly. Fed baby K some milk where he then fell asleep as we walked a 5mins walk to the jet cruise. Another 1hr and we should arrive in Hong Kong hopefully in better weather.

As the jet rocked slightly with the waves, the weather didn’t seem to improve. There was even lightning that we saw. We fell asleep easily as the baby was also asleep in my wife’s arms.

1hr later, we arrived in Hong Kong and had to go through immigrations again. It took a while longer as the officer was more strict and had used quite a bit of time to go through the document. Our luggage was ready just behind the immigration counter, not at the luggage reclaim area.

Upon exit, which was the same entrance as we first took to board the cruise jet, we met up with my sister’s family and our Hong Kong relative. The relative had been of the greatest help, if not for them, we would not have been able to meet up in time. After my sister left for Macau, we loaded up the luggage into the relative car and they drove us to Tsim Sha Tsui YMCA hotel.

Check in was done quickly while the porters helped with the luggage (even helped to bandaged one of the broken handles on my Samsonite which had an exposed metal piece). The room was a lot smaller than the one we had in Sheung Wan but it was adequately equipped. No tub though.

My mom left with my nephew and relative as they went back to my sister hotel while my wife had to expressed milk. Baby K became incredibly cranky so I brought him down for a stroll, which was when he amused himself with the various lights of the Hong Kong street. It was mentally exhausting sometimes.

Went back when he was a little calmer, fed him porridge before we went to Causeway Bay for makan. Exited near Sogo but couldn’t find anything to eat so we went to Itacho. There was a queue waiting and so I went around the building and found a local noodles store. We decided to move since the queue wasn’t moving.

It was a great choice as the Prince noodles was yummy. My beef noodles had soft meat mixed with Q noodles and tasty soup base. My wife’s pork noodles was equally nice, the similar Q noodles. The iceless iced tea was a little disappointing as it wasn’t cold enough and the red bean drink was a tad bit too sweet. For 115 HKD, it wasn’t cheap but it was tasty.

We took the MTR one more stop to Tin Hou and walked towards Victoria Park. There was a Mid Autumn festival exhibition of lanterns going on and there was a crowd there. Baby K who fell asleep while at the noodles store woke up to find lights and lanterns all around, naturally amusing him. It was actually quite a big area but there were so many people and the weather was extremely humid.

We bought a toy with spinning lights (not a exactly a lantern) for baby K and took some photos before we felt droplets of rain on our arms. We decided not to test our luck, especially when we don’t even have an umbrella on hand and left for the MTR. It even started to drizzle a bit before we reached the MTR entrance. Bad luck with the weather.

The train ride back was smooth. I was offered seats by the passengers twice because I had baby K on my hip seat, good folks of Hong Kong!

Back in the hotel and it was all about entertaining the baby till bedtime including the cleaning up. The trip was ending soon and tiredness was creeping in.

Hong Kong and Macau 2015 Day 2 – Prada outlet and Bon Jovi asia tour in Macau

Posted on September 25, 2015June 3, 2020 by ziyi

It started at 730am, and with all the preparations in mind, the target to leave at 10am. It wasn’t enough as cooking porridge took a long time. I had to pump and deflate his bathtub for his bath. Chopping the baby carrots and the sweet potato with a tiny knife and a cheap daiso chopping board was really difficult. The biggest challenge however was to keep a watch out for baby K as he moved around on the baby.

We were finally ready at 11 am to move out. Left the luggage at the reception but disappointed to find that they do not have a refrigerator to store milk.

Went over to Yuen Kee restaurant (where we had dinner the night before) for our meals. Ordered macaroni abalone slice and turkey ham set that came with bread and egg coupled with milk tea while wife had the traditional bread bun and ovaltine.

Restaurant menu, under the glass typically.

All was well until baby K, who was roaming about on the seat, picked on the container of chili oil and spill it all over the table. I had to bring him to the tiniest toilet in the restaurant to wash up, as fortunately, only some parts of his arm and leg got it. We had to shift tables so that the staff could clean it up, though they didn’t looked happy about it. The food costs 75HKD.

We went back to the hotel to ask for help on getting taxi but they said no one was picking up since it was peak period and were advised that we walked one street down to flag instead. Called mom to postpone our meet up to 230pm.

Went to flag the taxi at the next street (Rumsey street) where there was a taxi stand in front of the mall and it wasn’t long before we boarded. Gave the destination in lousy Cantonese accent (Marina Square, East commercial block) and the taxi driver immediately knew where we wanted to go. Baby K drank some milk and fell asleep. Then my arm started to feel a burning sensation. It must have been due to the chili oil that I might have not washed off completely!

20mins and about 100HKD away, we arrived at Marina East center and Prada outlet store could be seen. It seemed like a really out of place store since the rest of the center was either selling market food stuff or other mama store stuff. The store was quite large with a collection of mostly women products with a small section of Men and Miu Miu products. My wife shopped for a while my baby awoke from his sleep. She bought a bag and a wallet and we left on a taxi flagged from the road, another 100HKD back.

Marina square east with Prada just next to it.

We went to the shopping mall next to our hotel, Infinitus Plaza and ate Cafe de Coral, since the other places on the 2nd floor were actually pretty expensive. Had pork chop baked rice and my wife had curry rice. Had to change diapers for baby K but there weren’t any nursing room in the mall, so I had to use the cubicle in the small toilet.

Baked pork rice. — Baked pork chop rice.

When we arrived back at the hotel, my mom and aunt was already there. Repacked the luggage and walked to the Macau ferry terminal through the MTR underpass. The first stairway didn’t have a escalator and thankfully my aunt helped us with the luggage. The journey up was easier since there was an escalator going up to Shun Tak Center, where the ferry terminal was located.

The tickets office was located at the 3rd floor of the building and we purchased our tickets at Turbojet. Didn’t know that babies under 1 didn’t require tickets and had to refund the 149HKD for the child ticket. The adults one cost 164HKD each one way.

We checked in 3 luggage en route to the jet boat for 25HKD per piece and that was a good choice later we found that there was a stairway down to the jet boarding pier, which would be treacherous to negotiate with a baby. We had to go through immigrations counter, after all we were heading to another country. We had our seats given by lining up at the counter next to the gate and the staff giving us a seat number by pasting stickers on our tickets. Boarding was quick and we were soon jetting to Macau, with an active and noisy baby keeping me busy throughout the 1hour smooth journey.

Tickets with the luggage tag. — Tickets with the green luggage tag.

Tickets with the seats allocation stickers.

Gate in which the passengers board. The counter beside the gate was where the seats were allocated.

As we disembarked, it was some walking journey. First we went through the immigrations, the lack of queue meant we got through in about 10mins. Immediately to the right after the counter was our luggage reclaim area, but it was out of sight and if we didn’t follow the sign, we would have left the control area without our luggage, which my mom did.

The inside of Macau Outer Harbour ferry terminal.

To take the free bus to the hotel, we had to cross the road by going through the underpass. Luckily, there were elevators available at both sides. The main big hotels (like Sands) had their rows of buses immediately on the front of the elevator. Our Holiday Inn bus was provided under a group name of Cotai Central. The bus was scheduled to leave at 5pm, with or without a full bus.

Exterior of the Outer Harbour ferry terminal.

Upon arrival some 20mins later, we were at one of the grandest Holiday Inn I have ever seen. We were check in rather quickly with the short queue. The recept said there were 2 upgrades, one was an upgrade to deluxe and the other was a later check out timing at 12 noon. Wasn’t exceptional but fine.

The room had 2 queens as requested since mom was staying over. The view was the one facing Conrad so it was nothing. Otherwise, it was a nice room expected of a casino hotel room. Rested a while and prepared meal for baby but found our portable rice cooker was dead and even short circuited the room’s electrical socket outlet. We had to shamelessly called reception to send in the engineer to fix the trip out.

Then we went in search of cheap dinner options and found it in the form of Koufu at level 3. The food was not nice though. Right next to Koufu was a large toy store which I brought baby K to walk around as he was cranky.

Integrated shopping mall near the hotel.

Almost 8 and we proceeded to Venetian arena for our Bon Jovi concert, leaving baby K with granny to babysit for the night. We had earlier on picked up the tickets at the counter in Holiday Inn and 15mins of walk through many luxury stores and a made real city of Venice, we arrived at the Arena.

Once through the ticket collection gates, we proceeded to line up for the merchandise. Took a while and they only accepted cash, so I could only buy one for myself. There wasn’t a size small enough for my petite wife so it was ok. The concert started at about 30mins past its official start time but we only finish buying when the band started their first song.

List of countries included in the tour. — List of countries included in this 2015 Asia tour.

The concert was overall nice though we had expect more popular hits to be sung. There were still hits like “Its my life”, “Keep the Faith”, “Because we can” and the encore “Living on a prayer”. Atmosphere was nice, expected of a rock concert though it could have been better, guess both the fans and the band have grown older and more orderly? There were also many new songs that weren’t so well received by ourselves.

The concert ended about 30mins past 10pm and so we strolled back towards Holiday Inn and exited, crossed the road towards the City of Dreams, where Hard Rock Hotel was located. Purchased ourselves some tees and heard some bands jamming to old Bon Jovi songs. We went back to our rooms after all the shopping.

Baby K was fast asleep in granny’s arms but awoke rather quickly. We cleaned up the bottles a bit before going to the ground floor for some photo taking at the fountain and the Dreamworks exhibits since baby K was awoke.

Fountain area that had cardboard Dreamworks characters for photo taking.

Nice fountain that went all the way up to the roof.

Went back to the room after taking some free bottled mineral water from the casino. As we all finished the cleaning and prepared for bed, baby K also went to snooze. We wished baby K and ourselves a peaceful sleep full night.