I woke up really early and thought of having breakfast at 'Lin Heung Lau' Dim Sum place which is famous and renowned for its old-school style dim sum and atmosphere....cos i thought i didn't have many days left in HK and a glance at my packed schedule meant that this was an opportunity to go....Lin Heung Lau is in Central and so i took an MRT there then a taxi cos i really didn't have the time to be looking for it...it was interesting despite it being early in the morning 8ish..there were already Filipino domestic workers getting ready with their mats and stuff around Central being on a Sunday for their weekly Sunday gatherings in Central...
Above and below: Pix of Lin Heung Lau....very much like old dim sum places in Penang actually...another piece of evidence pointing at the similarities b/w Malaysia and Hong Kong...quite frankly, i still prefer the nice cosy dim sum restaurants in hotels..hahah..except the food here is good unlike the ones sold in old dim sum kopitiams in Penang which are not so good..omg, i hope i dun offend anyone who frequently visit those...maybe cos i grew up on the nice Shangri-La Hotel's dim sums n so am not used to the kopitiam ones, just different taste. I hope i dun sound snobbish n apologies if i offend anyone!
It was a mad rush like usual, since i seemed to be forever rushing somewhere during my time in Hong Kong....i took only 15 mins there and ate v.quickly all the dim sum which were reallly good but not good enough for me to wanna go a second time...i'd opt for the nice hotel dim sums ,hahaha..
Above Left : View towards Macau Ferry Pier Above Right: HK Immigration Customs.
Left for the Macau Ferry Pier and met up with my friend. We were lucky to have gotten a ticket to and fro at the times we wanted and didn't need to wait too long as ppl who came just a few mins later were informed that all tickets for the day had been sold out, cos it was a Sunday and everyone knows that as Macau has become one of the top tourist destinations nowadays in Asia, weekend ferry tickets sell out fast...
Above and below: Scenery of Macau n hotels and Casinos....
Below and to the Right: Macau city skyline...and interesting architecture...
Right and Below: Senado Square and interesting sign with both Chinese and Portuguese...
Right: The standard Hong Kong magazines and gossip mags which it is famous for...the biggest news during the time i was there: 'Vivian Chow Scandal' whereby her boyfriend of 19 yrs who had long been rumoured to be a big playboy was caught kissing a 23 yr old uni student from mainland China whom studies in HK n it was published on the internet and mags....they issued a separation announcement followed by a marriage announcement (yes, bizzare...within a week of each other to boot too!!!)..and the whole entertainment n mags top news/cover story was about how dumb Vivian was to forgive him, what a jerk and asshole he is to do this to her, his partner of 19 yrs and also the other girl being almost half their age...etc...you can see the cover on one of the mags with the vendors hands on it...
We basically took a bus from the Macau pier to Senado Square where the famous St Pauls Ruin is..walked around took alot of photos, had the famous Shrimp Dried Noodles of Macau as well as the famous Crab Porridge of Macau at Wong Chi Kei in Senado Sq..both of which can be seen on the right...it was just so-so i must say...there were alot, ALOT of tourists everywhere you walk in Macau...visited the St Paul's and took plentiful of shots...i didn't know u could actually climb up there which i did...then we headed off to find one of the off-the-tourist map food places which i had found recommended by one of the gourmet lover's blogs...it was quite difficult to find but walkable from the St Paul's area...we had to go walk about and kept asking ppl where this Lai Kei place was...we were about to give up when we finally found it..i heard from several bloggers that this was a good place for traditional red-bean ice sticks and so we went in...v.retro feel...promptly bought the red bean sticks and left...realllly nice..you can't get red bean sticks anymore in malaysia, it's hard to find......then we decided to head to The Venetian, the newest, grand Casino in Macau, famous for the ceiling in one part of it which resembles the heavens...
Below: Lai Kei Ice Cream Shop....
The Venetian was really big and took tons of photos, however my friend still hasn't send me the photos yet so i can't put any up here...
We had to rush to the pier as our departure time was coming up and when we got there in time (thank god!) all the tickets had been sold out for the day and so we were lucky we had pre-bought ours and made it in time.... I didn't get to go to the famous Macau Pork-Chop Bun place at Taipa or the famous A'Lorca Macanese Restaurant due to time constraints but it was a great trip overall as we managed to get around to all the places on our own without getting too lost...
Right and Below: Senado Square and interesting sign with both Chinese and Portuguese...
Right: The standard Hong Kong magazines and gossip mags which it is famous for...the biggest news during the time i was there: 'Vivian Chow Scandal' whereby her boyfriend of 19 yrs who had long been rumoured to be a big playboy was caught kissing a 23 yr old uni student from mainland China whom studies in HK n it was published on the internet and mags....they issued a separation announcement followed by a marriage announcement (yes, bizzare...within a week of each other to boot too!!!)..and the whole entertainment n mags top news/cover story was about how dumb Vivian was to forgive him, what a jerk and asshole he is to do this to her, his partner of 19 yrs and also the other girl being almost half their age...etc...you can see the cover on one of the mags with the vendors hands on it...
We basically took a bus from the Macau pier to Senado Square where the famous St Pauls Ruin is..walked around took alot of photos, had the famous Shrimp Dried Noodles of Macau as well as the famous Crab Porridge of Macau at Wong Chi Kei in Senado Sq..both of which can be seen on the right...it was just so-so i must say...there were alot, ALOT of tourists everywhere you walk in Macau...visited the St Paul's and took plentiful of shots...i didn't know u could actually climb up there which i did...then we headed off to find one of the off-the-tourist map food places which i had found recommended by one of the gourmet lover's blogs...it was quite difficult to find but walkable from the St Paul's area...we had to go walk about and kept asking ppl where this Lai Kei place was...we were about to give up when we finally found it..i heard from several bloggers that this was a good place for traditional red-bean ice sticks and so we went in...v.retro feel...promptly bought the red bean sticks and left...realllly nice..you can't get red bean sticks anymore in malaysia, it's hard to find......then we decided to head to The Venetian, the newest, grand Casino in Macau, famous for the ceiling in one part of it which resembles the heavens...
It was definitely v.big and as most of the gamblers/customers there are mainland chinese, almost all the employees were from the mainland..you can tell by their accents...
Below: Montage of photos from Macau......
Below: Lai Kei Ice Cream Shop....The Venetian was really big and took tons of photos, however my friend still hasn't send me the photos yet so i can't put any up here...
We had to rush to the pier as our departure time was coming up and when we got there in time (thank god!) all the tickets had been sold out for the day and so we were lucky we had pre-bought ours and made it in time.... I didn't get to go to the famous Macau Pork-Chop Bun place at Taipa or the famous A'Lorca Macanese Restaurant due to time constraints but it was a great trip overall as we managed to get around to all the places on our own without getting too lost...
We had to rush bck cos of the karaoke date with our fellow highschool classmates at 7 30pm but one of them cancelled on us last min (gosh, i'm kinda pissed at her, for alot of other reasons not just this one but let's not get into that...)but i said i'd still like to see what a hk karaoke place looked like and so we still went to this place called CEO in TST..its supposed to be the better ones in hk and abit more expensive but omg, we had the dinner buffet there AND IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have never seen so MUCH food at a karaoke place before and i asked my hk classmates whether this was normal...they said CEO is much better n other places dun have so much food for buffets...they took so much food that it was filled with a whole table...anyways, sang some songs and i left early cos they were gonna go all-night ‘唱通宵’(in chinese....) but i decided to go home early cos i had to wake up and meet my friend (the melbourne caucasian friend whom speaks both canto/manda mentioned earlier) at Lantau Island early the next morning...i just managed to catch the last train (thank god for Hong Kong's MRT system which runs very late and is so efficient...it is one of the latest running systems in the world in terms of operation hours..there was a train from East TST station at 1am with transfers to Kowloon Tong Sta..). 
Right: I saw this right in front of me as i walked out of the station at 1 30am in front of Kowloon Tong Sta...omg, is this a sign from god?? Why on earth was this sign left laying there and not picked up by someone??
I'm assuming there was some kind of demo/protest nearby on that day...it was so surreal to chance upon the sign that i just knew i had to take a photo! What ARE the chances of coming across this kind of sign in the middle of the night in Hong Kong??
It says: 'Respect Gays'!!
PS: I kid you not:-) That's what it says!
Got home and took a bath and put the Macau biscuits pack which i bought for HP and her mom on the kitchen table.
Off to Lantau Island for the Great Buddha tomorrow...:-)
Macau Foodie List: Below is a list of food places mentioned above as well as those which i intended to visit but didn't get to in the end:
1) Wong Chi Kei 黃枝記粥麵Travessa de Cinco de Outubro 51, R/C, Macau+853 2892 2271Basically in Senado Square
2) Lai Kei Ice Cream No. 12, Av. do Conselheiro Ferreira de AlmeidaMacau
3)Tai Lee Loi Kei Macau Pork Bun 大利來記咖啡室Largo Governador Tamagnini Barbosa 18Taipa, Macau(853) 827-150
4)A Lorcha 船屋葡國餐廳289, Rua do Almirante SergioMacau.澳門河邊新街289號Open: Wed-Mon 12:30-3pm and 6:30-11pm
2 comments:
What a fun day out! I went to Macau for the day when I was in HK last October and it was a manic rush for some reason. My mum's favourite are red bean ice lollies, but I didn't know about the place you wrote about. I'll have to go for a whole weekend next time to fit all the food in as I really wanted a pork chop bun! Had lots of Portuguese egg tarts though...
Helen: Hi there;indeed i'd like to go eat macanese food as well as the pork chop bun next time in macau! Also, i found out about the lai kei store from fellow food bloggers too..it's a nice feeling walking off the usual tourist route:-)
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