Travel Log: Under the Pale Grey Sky (Day 5)

Previous Day: A Transit Day to Macao with more Foodssss

Destination: Hong Kong & Macao

Duration: 9 Days 8 Night (Nov 24~Dec 02, 2018)

Day 5: A Long Walking Day in Macao

The day started with breakfast in Metropole hotel which was included in our room rate. It’s kind of a ‘semi-buffet’ style where they have free-flow milk, fruit juices, coffee, tea & buns with a main course menu to choose from. We ordered Congee with shredded meat & century egg and Fried rice noodle with shredded meat.

Breakfast Main Course Menu from Hotel Metropole

Semi-buffet Section

The portion for the main course was really huge but the taste not really great. Lil one ended up eating more buns than congee or noodles. Thank goodness we bought some pastries from Elysee bakery yesterday for her to snack on – she loved the palmiers.

The Congee

Fried Rice Noodle served with Fried Egg & Vegetables

After the oversize breakfast, we began our journey to Historic Center of Macao. There were lots of renovation going on there for Christmas decorations. Even the General Post Office was partially covered by scaffolding! *facepalm* We visited the Leal Senado Building before taking more pictures of other historic buildings at Senado Square by following a walking tour map given by the hotel. There are a lot of insta-worthy spot with the colorful colonial building if you had a great camera phone with you (A great photographer is needed as well! & I’m sure someone will object and says a great model is needed too! *rolleyes).

Macao General Post Office with scaffolding!!!

Inside the Leal Senado Building

Christmas Deco inside the Building...

Outside View of the Leal Senado Building

Christmas Deco at Senado Square in Progress... =P

At a Random Alley

St. Dominic's Church!

The Interior

Kuan Tai Temple

We could see the crowd from afar before we even reached the Ruins of St Paul – the great landmark of Macao. People were everywhere around the ruins!!! You couldn’t take a pictures without people walking across! There was also a mini museum at the crypt of the church.

Walking towards the Ruins of St Paul

Look at the Crowds!

People Everywhere!!!

One of the Best Photos with all the Crowds there...

I think we better hide...

A Small Museum inside the Crypt

We continued on to the Mount Fortress (大炮台) – the historical military centre of Macau and it involved lots of stairs for climbing… *gasp* This was also where we found a great photo spot for the Ruins of St Paul from the side! The fortress also provided us a panoramic view of Macao from the top. There was also Macao Museum at the top of the fortress but we did not visit it.

Let's Hike to Mount Fortress in a maxi dress! *sweat*

Are we there yet?

Apparently NOT! More Stairs to come!

Finally!!! Let's bomb the Grand Lisboa!

Sammy makes an appearance

The Bell Tower

Can you spot the Ruins of St Paul there?

Now this is definitely the BEST spot to take a picture with the Ruins of St Paul...

After getting down from Mount Fortress, we discovered another spot to take picture of the Ruins. It was actually at a small alley with yellow houses at the right side of the base. The downside was tourists would always be in the shot as it’s unavoidable. The sky had started to drizzle by that time but we still continued our journey to visit some landmarks around the area.

The Yellow Building seems to be a good place for photo shooting....

If you turn around, there is the Ruins of St Paul again!

Na Tcha Temple

Lo & behold! We managed to find ‘THE ALLEY’ – the popular spot for wedding photography!!! The best part? There was no one there AT ALL!!! Hooray!!! So we took our own sweet time taking tons of photographs under the misty rain.

OMG! I have the alley all to myself!!!

Tam Kah Shark’s Fin (譚家翅) was right at the junction of this alley so we’d decided to give it a try since Shark’s Fin was one of Macao’s must-try delicacies. Pardon me on the No Shark Fin Pledge there… *facepalm* There were varieties of Shark’s Fin choices on the menu which could be super expensive to the affordable. The most affordable was of course the Shark’s Fin with Rice (HKD38) which we ordered 2 bowls + 1 bowl of Claypot Shark’s Fin soup (HKD55). The difference between the two was the Claypot Shark’s Fin soup was more flavorful than the cheaper counterpart. However, both were definitely palatable and lil one wolfed down the soup by her own!

Tam Kah Shark's Fin

The Menu

Our Orders... Yum Yum...

The Alley was full of people when we left Tam Kah...

After the sinful meal, we continued our journey to St Anthony Church by using Google map before arriving at the Fire Station Museum. Our next destination was Guia Hill but Google map brought us through Tap Seac Square which housed a lot of beautiful colonial period buildings such as the Macao Central Library. There were not much tourists there so we took our times to get more photos again. =P We also made a short visit to the St. Michael’s Chapel and Cemetery to take a picture of the iconic pastel green & white building.

More Stairs to come...

St Anthony Church

I don't even remember what building this is... =X

The Fire Station Museum

Miniature Fire Truck

A Real Size Fire Truck!

Lil one getting some snack along the way...

The Alley to Tap Seac Square

Macao Central Library

Cultural Institute

An almost empty Square!

St. Michael's Chapel

We continued on to Guia Fortress and little did we know Google Map brought us to the hiking trail rather than the cable car station!!! OMG! So it was up & up hiking for us until we finally reached fortress at 4pm++ - this was also the highest point on Macao. There were a lighthouse and a chapel in the complex and this was actually part of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There was hardly anyone there thus we were glad to enjoy the serenity atmosphere.

I can't believe Google Map points us to the hiking trail!!!

Where is Guia Fortress?!

Climbing...

Still Climbing...

Just Keep Climbing...

Just Keep Climbing Climbing Climbing...

Finally! The Guia Lighthouse!

The Chapel

The View from the Highest point in Macao

Giant Anchor!

A Photo with the View...

The Postcard View - Guia Lighthouse & Chapel!

We also managed to squeeze into the Guia Hill Military Tunnel just minutes before they closed. After that we had yet another long walk on Guia Hill to get to the Cable Car station. It was definitely a long long walk as we were wondering whether we missed the station somehow… it was already 5.30pm when we finally reached the base station.

Guia Military Tunnel

More Stairs to look for the Cable Car Station!

One of the exits of the Tunnels...

Are we lost?!

Finally! The Cable Car Station!

We took more pictures of other landmarks such as Sun Yat Sen Memorial Home (澳门国父纪念馆) before making a brief stop to get lil one some egg waffle from a random stall in our path. We also managed to sneak into 新鸿发咖啡美食 just before they closed to try out their famous pork chop bun & super thick French toast.

Sun Yat Sen Memorial Home

Lil one getting her egg waffle...

The Famous 新鸿发咖啡美食

The pork chop bun here was nicer than the one we bought last night as the meat seemed to be tenderer. However the star was definitely the French toast! OMG I’ve never seen a French toast so thick!!! Peanut butter was spread generously between the 2 thick toast which was fried and topped with a piece of butter. A whole jar of syrup was given for your pouring pleasure as well! This was the most sinfully delicious (and artery clogging) French toast ever. =P

Pork Chop Bun

Look at this!!! Sinful!!!

Oh dear.. my poor heart cannot take it anymore...

After dinner, we walked to the nearby Lou Lim Leoc Garden (盧廉若公園) for a stroll to burn off excess calories. The garden was styled per Chinese classical garden with ponds & pavilion. We would see people taking a rest or even having a takeaway meal at the pavilion. A really beautiful place for a stroll and there was no entrance fee!

Lou Lim Leoc Garden at night...

A very Classical Chinese Garden

The nine-turn bridge...

We’d decided to call it a night by walking back to our hotel. The Ruins of St Paul was on the way so we went there for some night photos and was pleasantly surprised when there were some lights being projected on the ruins! We only realised afterwards that there was a Macao Light Festival starting from Dec 02 (after our holiday)... bummer! Well at least we got a taste of the festival by taking picture of the ‘light testing’!!! =P

Oh hey! Testing Testing! This fails as it only covers the middle part! LOL!!!

OMG! I think this is even worse? Isn't this the 'rainbow screen' when broadcast went out?

Almost successful testing! The light just needs to be slightly higher!!!

A Last Minute Random Photo when we see the Light Changing again (still not covering the top part though)

Hb had decided to have some supper before returning to our hotel suddenly thus we walked to Tim Fat Vun Chai Chi (添发碗仔翅) at the "Street of Happiness" for our 2^nd Shark’s Fin Meal of the day… *facepalm* We ordered one normal soup & another claypot soup. The taste of the soup was totally different from Tam Kah but for some reason we still preferred the braised soup taste of Tam Kah. Thus this ended our long long walking day in Macao! =)

Shark's Fin at the "Street of Happiness"... Aptly named huh?

The Menu!

The Normal Version...

The Claypot Version

Next Day: Exploring the Las Vegas of the East