into the inlet gates

i just returned home from my journey to the east, and i am just so exhausted.

it's ironic how relaxing work is nowadays, and days on travel is far more hectic. i rushed flight departure time more frequent than boss' assignments dealines. i felt like working is actually my new weekend.

on the recent long deepavali weekend, we did the amazing race across macau, hong kong and shenzhen, rushing from spot to spot checking out local scenes and products. at the end of the day, we didn't win any money of course, heck we even got fake money in the process, but at least, we have gigas of photos and sunburn lines to tell our tales.

oh and impaired smell sense too due to over-exposed to that stinking tofu.

hereby, i'm gonna call this trip, the oriental express.



oriental express travellogue : part 1

of all the budget airlines i've taken, and this year has been A LOT, this recent trip must be the longest one. the journey i mean.

still, i was really convinced the airlines put in enough fuel inside and they were NOT comprimising anything in the safety department. hey budget airlines have flown all the way to london, right? compared to that, this trip must be just like visiting the neighbours.


we touched down at macau international airport on time at 3.30pm. the weather was clowdy. that weather bitch lady the day before must be lying on our faces when she said it would be thunderstorm.

we were greeted by the sight of a ferries-wheel on top of the building.

what a funny place to build that at huh?


we only stayed one night in macau, and it was at this grandview hotel. taxi fare from the airport was 20MOP, which we paid by HKD. HKD is only slightly bigger than MOP, so I guess it was an excepted transcation islandwide. after all, they gain, you lose.

i booked this hotel via latestays.com for only 80 SGD per night, which is cheap for a 4-star hotel in macau.

pretty nice place, although not exceptionally what you called 'grand'. only that it is in taipa island, but macau islands are small anyway, so moving around should be a breeze.


plus, our plan was just to visit casinos for that night, and what's better place to start other than the venetian macau at the nearby cotai strip?


venetian macau is very prominent on that cotai-strip. it looks exactly the same as the one in las vegas, so i wasn't really head over heel over the sight.

i don't even have a proper photo shot of the building, so i substituted with the one with me inside it. someone said BOF, that korean show, had a scene here. hah, no wonder people stare at me, they must have thought i was one of the actor....

the venetian macau

the grand canal was on the higher floor, and unlike the one in vegas, this one has very less people. it was easy to snap photos without people walking passed by in front of your camera making you wanted to strangle them alive. made me wonder, how could these shops here survived? the nasi lemak auntie in front of my block back home have more customers...

from the venetian, we hopped on the shuttle bus to get to the sands in macau island. you see, all these casino hotels each have their own shuttle buses, mainly to the ferry terminal. the venetian for example, have extra shuttles to the sands and the airport.

they are free, and the deal is, they won't ask you any question when to take them. so it all screamed 'let's abuse the system', like we did when we took the the shuttle bus to the sands when we actually wanted to go to the Wynn and MGM grand just beside it.

left:casinos at cotai strip, right:nearby wynn at macau island

after the grand canal at venetian, the insides of other casinos looked less impressive. we just briskly passed through the gambling dens then moved to others. MGM Grand was not bad with fake pandas scattered all over the hall. MGM = Panda? I don't see the connection. lion, yes, but never panda. whatever..

we returned to our hotel using our hotel's shuttle bus from the ferry terminal close to midnight, and then turned in for the night. god knows how our beds going to be in subsequent nights, so we better cherished the comfortable grandview beds. we got to wake up early to catch the early ferry to hong kong the next day. there were places left to venture in macau but we were going to do that when we returned to macau on our last day before flying back.

sounds like a plan?

...ed