Venetian Hotel & Historical Site of Macau

On Friday we managed to get a hotel in Macau which are very crowded during weekend. It's very tight time when we departed from apartment in Hongkong to the ferry terminal for Jet Cotai, we still needed to change the voucher with the boarding ticket. It's less than half an hour before boarding time, I was very worried, lucky that we could catch the ferry right before departure after passing through immigration post in Hongkong.

Arriving at Macau, we rode the free shuttle bus to the hotel. Venetian Macao Resort & Hotel where we stayed for a night is very luxury and beautiful. It's very huge hotel with 3000 suite rooms. Lucky there's Carnivale 2014 event starting on that day in the hotel. Check in time starting at 13:00 o'clock, so we put our luggage at the concierge for easier going around before check in time. The golden statue in the main lobby is beautiful, it's connected to the beautiful golden aisle towards the world largest casino (550,000 square feet).

We went to the Venetian canal where guests could ride a serenading gondoliers, we also met and took picture with a couple who were wearing the Spanish ancient traditional clothes for dancing party. The ceiling was like a blue sky, they could control the light, to become lighter or darker. Many grandeur shops featuring world renowned brands entertained guests to shop. After taking some beautiful pictures, we went for lunch as my sisters were starving. We had to walk further to find the food court, it's very crowded, so many kind of food provided from Vietnam, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Chinese food, etc. My mom shared her lunch with me for teriyaki chicken rice, it's very delicious.

After lunch, we went back to the main lobby for check in, it's queue already. We ordered Bella Suites with 2 Queen size beds as 4 of us are adult. It took a long way to walk from the main lobby to our room, it's very spacious, 70 sqm with aristocrat style. A sunken living room area with its comfortable sofa was facing to the windows with its own TV. An elegant huge marble bathroom with bathtub and shower completed with dressing table. A big plasma TV were provided for watching from the beautiful beds. Although the rooms were very huge, the hotel only provided 2 small bottles of water. After taking a rest for a while, we decided to go to the other side of Macau.

Asking the direction from the concierge, they were kind enough to inform that there was a free shuttle bus from city of dream which was across Venetian hotel to Sintra hotel in the old Macau. Waiting for the bus for a few minutes, it took around half an hour to go across the bridge to go to the old Macau. Reaching Sintra, we walked to Senado square as Macau's urban center for centuries. Taking some pictures on the square surrounded by neo-classical buildings, we decided to carry on the journey. Strolling through Senado we passed by the beautiful St. Dominic's Church dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary which dates back to the early 1600s, when it was founded by the Dominicans.

We didn't know the direction so I kept asking the people on the way by showing the Macau map pointing to the Ruins of St. Paul's picture. Lucky we could find it before dark, the façade of the old St. Paul's Church which opened in the 16th century and served as Asia's first Western college. The Ruins of St. Paul’s was officially listed in 2005 as part of the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Historic Centre of Macau. It's very crowded, after taking some pictures with the Macau iconic place, we took a rest. My mom was very tired as she got accident in Hongkong, fell down on the escalator impacted fractured to her tail bone. She could not walk or sit too long and she had to take a pain killer medicine twice a day to be able to continue the journey.

The popular snack store on the corner was attracted us, as they provided the tester, so we could buy any snack we like after tested it. The packaging was very beautiful, it seems that we would like to buy all of them, unfortunately we had a limited space in our luggage. They also sold the nice pork meat, but I preferred the other store also sold pork meat which I had tested on the way up to St. Paul. My sisters and my mom bought the popular Portuguese egg tart, they loved it. It's nice to eat while it's hot. On the way down from St Paul, most of the snack stores providing tester on the way, so I felt full tasting it, it's fun anyway.

Still had a chance to take picture of beautiful shining Senado square at night. Finding public toilet was very difficult in Senado square, finally we found walking to the left side of the square. We went back to the Sintra hotel direction, we stopped by for dinner before going back by free shuttle. Actually I would like to bring them exploring the beautiful hotels with its free entertainment of lighting and fountain, such as Grand Lisboa, Wynn, MGM, etc. Unfortunately all of us were very tired, so we could not walk too far anymore.

Reaching our hotel, it's just in time to see the 15 minutes lightening show performance on the lagoon. There's also live music and some stalls selling food and beverages, but we're too tired to enjoy it, so we went directly to our room for taking a rest. We're quite satisfied with our trip that day.

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Journey to Senado Square Macau from Hongkong

Landing in Hongkong airport, I decided to buy Turbojet ticket to Macau, it cost HK$260. It’s quite convenience, you don’t need to go out the airport, even you don’t need to pass the immigration to take the luggage. Give the luggage tag to the teller when you buy the ticket, they would take the luggage for you and put directly to the boat free of charge, but at least you have to be an hour before boat’s departure. The boat to Macau from Hongkong airport is not every hour, so please see the schedule carefully to get the best time for you to depart.


It took around an hour from Hongkong to Macau by the speedboat, no drink is available on the boat for the passenger, please be ready to bring water before you go on to the boat. Arrived in the Macau harbour, I didn’t have any map or clue how to go to the hotel with our big luggages, my friend and I decided to take a taxi. If we didn't bring luggage, bus riding bus was the best option. We also saw some ricksaws park in front of the harbour.

We were hurry going to the taxi queue, it was quite long, it took more than half an hour to get a taxi. We showed the hotel name and address to the driver, unfortunately he didn’t understand English, lucky that he had a book contained hotel list in Macau. I appointed London, because it’s the most similar name with Ole London, but I was not so sure whether it’s the correct hotel, so on the way I called the hotel using my Indonesian number, and asked her to talk directly to the driver. To avoid paying an expensive roaming, I was in hurry when giving my mobile phone to the driver, it’s not a proper time at all. At that time he was taking a U-turn while receiving my phone, and a big bus was right behind us, fortunately he was quite agile to avoid the accident.


Not taking a long time we arrived safely at the hotel, it’s a budget hotel called Ole London Hotel (Praca de Ponte e Horta 4-6 Macau City, phone: +85328937765) cost HK$400 without breakfast. The hotel reception was very welcome and friendly, the room was clean and simple with modern style, equiped with plasma TV, king size bed with nice and clean soft bed and white bed cover, a sophisticated shower. Shortly it’s quite comfortable to take a rest. The hotel location was quite strategies, just a distance walk (10 minutes) to Sedona square.


Along the way you could find many small restaurants which open since early morning, so you also could have a breakfast. It’s around 18:00, we decided to stop by at a small restaurant having dinner before exploring Macau. My wonton noodle portion was quite big, so I asked my friend’s help to finish it, the soup and thin yellow noodle tasted good. The weather was quite cold, around 14 degree Celcius, it’s a good food to warm our body.

Senado square was crowded with many tourists, it’s the central city where people gathered for relaxing. There is a fountain in the middle of the square with a metal globe in the middle of the fountain. The street was built from small black and white wavy pavement. Pastel-colored neo classical buildings surrounding the square created a consistent and harmonious Mediterranean atmosphere. Institute of Civic & Municipal Affairs was built in 1784 decorated with magnificent blue and white Portuguese tiles. A magnificent building with yellow and blue light was used as tourism information center at the left side of the square.

Many food stalls were available at the aisle of the main street, where you could find fruits, fried snacks, peanuts, etc. If you like to shops, on the main streets are available various shops such as Giordano, Bossini, Bauhaus, Sasa (parfumes and cosmetics), Body Shop, Mac Donald, etc.


Walking along the street we met a beautiful St. Dominique church with yellow wall, unfortunately it didn’t open at that time, so we could not go inside. I heard the Maria statue inside is very beautiful. My friend brought SLR camera with wide lense, his camera is much better than mine to get the whole building from a near distance while mine, pocket camera only could catch half of it. We ignored the crowded, tried to get a good angle and pose, to take the picture we had to sit on the street.


Continue strolling Senado area we arrived at The Cathedral of Macau (re-built in 1937) at Largo de Se, Macau. The church was quite beautiful and shiny connected to pastor dormitory. It has two solid towers and massive doors and fine stained-glass window. It’s very difficult to get the whole area using my camera, so my friend was kind enough to take my picture with his camera to capture the beautiful elegant Catholic church. This is the end of Senado square area, so many benches available on the park beside the church, people were sitting there enjoy the mild night.

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Spectacular Sparkling Night at Macau

My friend and I finally reached the central of light, the first hotel we visited was Grand Lisboa, it’s built as lotus, the symbol of Macau. A big dome was built from mirror crystal that could shine with colorful light. The lobby’s very luxury with crystal chain and sparkling golden interior, so amazing. There were some good quality statues made of gold, wood, jade, etc, also some big porcelain jug.


A shallow pool inside the hotel was decorated with lotus, bird, eagle and sparkling chandelier, it’s very beautiful. The lobby was decorated under hanging beautiful crystal chain. I’m sure the decoration inside the hotel casino is also luxurious, but we didn’t try to play gambling. We just wanted to see and enjoy the beautiful night in Macau with its light.




The next hotel was just next to Grand Lisboa was Lisboa Hotel, this hotel was the old version of Grand Lisboa. After visiting the extravaganza Grand Lisboa, we felt that this hotel was not too interesting. It’s much less modern and sophisticated comparing to the new one, although it’s still big and shiny.


Firework was attracted us after leaving Lisboa. It seems that the source was very far away from our place, but when we crossed the street, we saw the river, and that's the good spot to enjoy the attraction. Some people already sat on the wall at the edge of the river to enjoy it, we joined them. With the white bridge cut across the river giving a good background for the show. Every good firework performance, all spectators gave applause by clapping hands. The show had last around 15 minutes.


In front of Wynn hotel, there was a big pool, which played dancing fountain every half an hour. While waiting for the show, we entered the lobby dominated with red and golden color interior, we could see the beautiful swimming pool guidance by a couple of camel through the window in the lobby. Many high-class boutique, such as LV, Dior were available in this hotel. The beautiful dancing fountain was played accompanying with music and light. Fire effects were also taken part during the show. We were very tired, although we still wanted to visit Venetian Hotel, but we had walked since 7 o’clock, almost 4 hours long, we didn’t have any energy to go across the island (Venetian hotel is on the another island)

On the way home we passed MGM hotel, it seemed the backside of the hotel, because it’s not crowded and not too luxury such as other lobby hotels that we had visited. Although tired, I still had a chance to take picture in front of the golden bear statue.

Macau is very amazing at night, although you don't want to play gambling, you still could enjoy the sparkling light. You should stay overnight to experience it. So many hotels are available depends from your preference and budget, from the competitive (budget) hotel price to the most expensive one.

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Macau Fisherman's Wharf Theme Park

Macau Fisherman’s wharf or Macau's Xanadu is the first theme park in Macau with 111,500 square meters area located in Macau Peninsula where you could find many restaurants provide international dining, a casino, a 72-room luxury hotel and over 150 shopping venues were build with different world seaports such as Cape Town, Amsterdam and Venice. It’s a free admission entertainment complex, which is rapidly emerging as a popular landmark and meeting point for both tourists and Macau citizens.


We joined a city tour to the place, unfortunately we didn’t have much time to enjoy it. Before arriving there, we could see the area from the bus, and taking some pictures. The HK$1.9 billion Fisherman's Wharf offers nightly explosions of the complex's 40-meter-high volcano called Vulcania, which erupts every evening and inside of which the “River of fire” white-water and ‘dragon quest’roller coaster rides are housed. This is one of the 6 children attrraction rides that Fisherman’s Wharf has. The exterior of Vulcania includes walkways styled on the Potala Palace in Lhasa Tibet.

There are 3 parts of the theme, e.g. Dynasty Wharf (encapsulates Chinese history), Macau Eats Meets West (Volcano with rides as Indiana Jones experience, African fort, and Greek Square), Legend Wharf (features the leaning tower Pisa). Unfortunately we didn’t have a change to go around exploring all parts of the area. One of the owner developer and CEO is David Chow, had long been conceiving his plan to build an educational, family-oriented theme park.

Having quick buffet lunch in Miami food court, continue with just less than an hour free time. Coming out from the restaurant, we were in Louisiana area with a train miniature and some benches outside the building for people to take a rest or eating.



Continue walking along the street, we met a carriage which would bring us going around the area. We tried to stop them, but the driver asked us to aboard from the station (that we didn’t know where), and we were also afraid that we won’t have enough time to wait for the next turn. Legend Boulevard was the next area that we’ve explored.


The scenery was wonderful, with many beautiful buildings, some black metal statues and blue sky tempted me to take many pictures. Not many stores and restaurants open at that time, so we only walked along the theme street. When some visitors from Indonesia who joined our tour passed by us, I asked them to take picture together with me. It's a pity I forgot to ask their address, so we could not contact each other again. Do you know them?

A beautiful long pool with fountain was attracted us at the end of the Legend Boulevard. The water was so cold, I took a picture with the building behind and the blue sky as the background, it’s very awesome. There is another area adjacent to the pool, it seemed the Roman Colloseum, but we had to go back to the bus unless they would leave us behind.





Macau Fisherman's Wharf will certainly give the growing crowds of visitors to Macau something to cherish. It’s the right place for the family to enjoy the life.




Some pictures above were taken by Dwi CN, thanks for sharing it with us

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