#aph macau

We arrived by Turbojet ferry on the Outer Ferry side, the mainland side. It takes about an hour to get to Macau this way from Hong Kong (which I'll talk about in another post). It's recommended to use the ferry, or else you'd be stuck in traffic and immigration if you take the bus over. As both Hong Kong and Macau are Special Administrative Regions, they have their own immigration procedures. You get unique visas and everything!

I was amazed to see Portuguese printed everywhere on signs and streets, but hardly anyone speaks it nowadays. Most locals speak Cantonese with a little sprinkle of Mandarin and English.

**Something to note is that the buses only accept cash or a special mainland Octopus/Alipay card payment if you're able to get those to work. All fares are a flat $6 MOP/HKD per person. Be sure to have exact fare because the buses won't give change!

The picturesque Senado Square. It's a great place to get your bearings and embrace the Portuguese hodgepodge of cuisine, architecture, and weather! My gosh it started pouring hot rain when we arrived, and hot heavy rain means thunderstorms! Not great!

We could see the iconic Grand Lisboa peeking out in the distance. Our itinerary couldn't squeeze time to see it up close unfortunately.

We came across the only Mixue in Macau. Such a treat! For those who don't know, Mixue is a drink chain that's all the rage in China and other parts of Asia (even new locations now in LA and NYC). Anytime we come across one, I always try to grab something. It's cheap and delicious...so much so that you might be tempted to get multiple drinks! However, it's also quite popular, so sometimes you might have to wait a bit.

We also found a shop that sells the notable double-skinned milk pudding. It's a delicate milk-based pudding with a layer of what seems like scalded milk skin on top. It's not too difficult to make yourself. We were also pleased to find that the shop made porkchop buns, a Macanese staple. It's made with a little baguette and a pan-fried slab of porkchop. Standard stuff and without any frills, though I can see how it can be easily enjoyed anytime and anywhere.

After a little stroll through tourist alleys and following the signs, we made it to the famous St. Paul's Ruins! Nowadays it's just a wall and some underground tunnels and tombs, but it's a lot bigger than I thought it'd be. It burned down twice in its lifetime, and it's amazing that anything survived. If you want to cool off, there's a Uniqlo at the foot of the stairs that's nicely air-conditioned.

Lunch at Restaurante Litoral. Apparently there are two locations because I made reservations for the one in Taipa, not the one on the mainland side that we ended up going to (oops)! Fortunately, the restaurant was accommodating, and it was a slow day, so we were able to be seated ha ha. Everything was delicious and service top notch! We had seafood rice, duck rice, African chicken, cod balls, and some meringue soufflé dessert whose name escapes me. Another famous dish the the suckling pig, but we were so full that I think it was good that we didn't order it!

**The Mandarin House is closed on Wednesdays! T-T I did not know this and was very disappointed. We were only able to get a glimpse of the outside, which was rather uninteresting. I was so sad that I didn't even take a picture of the Closed sign.

At least it's close by the historical A-Ma Temple, the oldest place of worship in Macau dedicated to a sea goddess. It's a fascinating place with interesting multi-tiered little temples and long coiled incense. You can purchase artifacts of worship for reasonable prices. There is also an old ice cream vendor right outside the temple grounds. It was the tiniest ice cream cone I've ever had! It was melon-flavored and delicious, but not worth the $22 MOP I paid ^^'

Next up was Taipa! That's the island side with all the happening casinos. We hopped on a bus and got a glance at Macau Tower.

There are waves of tall apartment complexes on the way to the casino strip. I wonder if a majority of the residents work in hospitality and tourism of some kind. A lot of the region seems to be propped up by such things.

And at last we landed at the Cotai Strip! Up close was the City of Dreams. There is a crane with a dining table that you can make reservations to dine in the sky. We were too full, alas. Also pictured are the Londoner, Conrad, Parisian, Studio City, and Four Seasons. So glitzy, so extravagant. It's surreal to see, as if you look on Google StreetView, most of the casinos pictured were still in construction or nonexistent back in 2008.

What I did appreciate was that since it's a tropical region, there was a lot more greenery than you'd see compared to Las Vegas. Everything feels a little larger, a little newer, and a little cleaner! I'm pretty sure Macau wants to make you feel like this is a place to spend money haha.

Before heading back to the City of Dreams, my friend and I got a sneak peek at the Venetian. It's similar to the one in Las Vegas, but maybe a little cleaner and a little more Asian. We also found a Lord Stowe's inside! The OG is in Coloane, but any location is a must-see in Macau! It's the home of the Macanese egg tart, the superior egg tart to end all egg tarts! The tart is flaky and hefty and the custard rich and runny with a toasted top layer. It was amazing to see how many tarts are made live! I wish I had a better picture. I had to quickly inhale my egg tart before a show because food (except purchased popcorn) wasn't allowed...

Just in time for the very cool House of Dancing Water show in the City of Dreams! The stage and effects are very cool! I was constantly amazed at how the pool could shift from deep diving pool to a solid platform for...motorcycles...? The story was nonsensical and hilarious at points because I was trying to make sense of wtf was happening, but everyone really enjoyed it!

As a final treat before ending the day (and beautiful weather!), we caught a nighttime fountain show in front of Wynn Palace. What's cool is that all of the cable cart and street lights shut off during the show to let the fountain lights shine. It's hard to say whether or not this or the show at the Bellagio in Las Vegas is better, though the one in Macau is admittedly more picturesque. If you come after 4pm, you'll see the SkyCable carts moving along the front!

Bonus MGM at night and interior of the Wynn Palace during my quest to find a bathroom lol. The bathrooms in the casino-hotels are VERY fancy! A must-use!

**Quite a few casinos have a free shuttling service that takes you to various casinos across the Taipa side and even to the Taipa ferry and airport! They're very convenient if you want to go to and back on the Taipa side--not the Outer Ferry side!

By the way, the casino floors are all in the center of the hotel grounds and walled-off through a security checkpoint. I didn't take pictures, but the staff are hard-wired to profile you and approach if you're not gambling. They're very convincing in signing you up on bonus money to start gambling or call secret players to make tables lose if you're winning too much money ^^' Also for whatever reason, you need to gamble in HKD. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's usually Hong Kongers coming over to gamble? The exchange rate for MOP to HKD is almost 1:1, so...