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

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.
Buses that going to the various attractions.
Black taxis of Macau.
Black taxis of Macau.
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.
Carrot soup.
Carrot soup.
Portuguese fried rice.
Portuguese fried rice.
Pork chop rice.
Pork chop rice.
THS Honolulu.
THS Honolulu.
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.
Macau tower from taxi. Drizzle on the outside.
Interesting shapes of the casinos.
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.
Cotai jet ticketing counter at the Taipa ferry terminal.
Jet tickets.
Jet tickets.
Waiting area before boarding.
Waiting area before boarding.
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.
Bedroom.
Bedroom.
Small toilet.
Small toilet.
Reception area of the hotel.
Reception area of the hotel.
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.
Beef noodles.
Beef noodles with the iceless ice tea and red bean dessert drink.
Pork Noodles.
Pork Noodles.
Prince noodles store.
Prince noodles store.
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.
Event map in Victoria Park.
Event map in Victoria Park.
Stalls selling stuff.
Stalls selling stuff.
Lantern exhibits.
Lantern exhibits.
Dragon lantern.
Dragon lantern.
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.