03.22.08

last day in macau

Posted in travel thoughts tagged , , , , , , , , at 10:34 PM by vetlongwalks

on our second and last day in macau, line and i woke up late. darn! we were so beat the previous day that i woke up at around 10 a.m. with not much time to lose, i immediately hit the shower and woke up line as soon as i finished.

 quarter to 12, line and i were again ready to explore macau01.jpg

by this time, we’ve already packed our bags and on our way to check out of the hotel. as we’ve done the previous day, we left our bags at the hotel counter upon check-out. that way, we didn’t have to pay for an extra night [lest you forgot; we're budget travelers, hehe...]

prior to leaving the hotel, we agreed to do the following:

1) find the ruins of st. paul

2) find macau’s grand prix and wine museums

3) call our hostel in hong kong

4) do all these things by 5 o’clock

unfortunately, we were unable to do item 2. we got sidetracked by unexpected errands causing us to lose a few hours. first off was brunch. we didn’t know where to get decent food. by decent, something i recognize and something that looks palatable.  there’s a mc do estab near our hotel but since i swore off mc do, we had to find another place. our search led us to starbucks. blame this on my tendency to patronize things that are familiar, although, i haven’t been to starbucks here in the ph. well, it’s the most familiar among the many places which offer food with labels we could hardly read. then we had to find a hardware store in order to buy a 3-way plug and lock for line’s bag. the 3-way plug is a must since that’s what is used in hk and we need it in order that we can charged our batteries and cameras. as if we’ve enough time in our hands, we got lured by this little shop:

@ kin seng mobilias travessa fortuna02.jpg

line got so fascinated with the numerous jewel boxes03.jpg

haha, pabaga mi ug nawong and asked the tindera to take our pic. she happily obliged us since line and i each got a chess set @195 MOP[macau pattacas]. when we left the store, we learned that the tindera was filipina.04.jpg

the above store is situated on the road leading to the ruins of st. paul. on this stretch, there are numerous souvenir shops selling many interesting trinkets..

a few steps from the store, we could already see the top portion of the ruins. the feeling was total “exhilaration” when we saw the ruins. as in we couldn’t contain the excitement. haha, the ruins of st. paul was both our ultimate goal in coming to macau..

line. on the rare occasion that she would volunteer to be in the pic…hehe, one always has to prod line to pose before the cam..05.jpg

there were so many tourists when we reached the ruins. it was amazing as the tourists who came were a blend of asians, americans, and europeans..06.jpg

the ruins up close 07.jpg

the plaque telling a brief history of the ruins history-plaque.jpg

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back of the ruins. further back [the gray horizontal bar??] is the museum of sacred art [left] and the crypt [right]. the museum of sacred art houses silver altar pieces, gilded statues and paintings by 17th century japanese artists .09.jpg

on the left side of the picture above, there’s a steel ladder which allows people to climb the church’s facade ruins-back.jpg

original stone remnants of the church encased in glass10.jpg

the crypt 11.jpg

inside the crypt. it was eerily quiet. it was chilling looking at all those dead bones of people 12.jpg

at the sides of the pic above, one can see several rows of dead people’s bones13.jpg

line in action 15.jpg

view from below 16.jpg

me waiting for line to be finished… 17.jpg

the power of timer 18.jpg

me @ the museu de arte sacra 19.jpg

line and my big shadow separated by a glass enclosure 21.jpg

waiting for line 2. hehe, at this point my cam went low batt on me… 22.jpg

the crowd when we left the ruins [2 hours after]. line got fascinated with the little boys and girls in uniform on a saturday 23.jpg

free taste… but for some reason line and i didn’t sample these cookies 24.jpg

as soon as we left the ruins, we went looking for payphones in order to call our hostel in hong kong. there were payphones near the ruins, but unfortunately we couldn’t connect to the hostel’s number in hong kong. as we would be arriving in hk in the evening, we prioritized securing our accommodation. thus, we decided to forego checking out macau’s grand prix and wine museums…[going to the first museum was my second goal in going to macau, thus was a bit disappointed. yet, another reason to go back to macau]. after our failed attempt, we decided to look for an internet cafe to email our hostel. we went back to senado square and ended up in macau’s tourist business center

here, we were able to use the internet for 30 minutes free of charge. there are only two available computers here. tourists may use the unit free of charge for 30 minutes. first come, first served basis. as there were two other tourists using the pcs when we came in, we had to wait for 45 minutes for our turn. i sent an email message to the address which consistently answered my messages. however, this too failed. i got no response this time. 14-macau-btc.jpg

we left btc around 4 or 5 pm and headed back to our hotel to get our bags. as the hotel had a shuttle service, we waited for a couple of minutes for the shuttle to take us to macau ferry terminal. by this time, line and i no longer have enough pattacas to purchase ferry tickets for hong kong. thus, line used her reliable plastic to get us a ride via turbojet to hong kong.

line and i on board turbojet bound for hong kong 25.jpg

ticket fare costs 176MOP. travel time is roughly 60-75 minutes. turbojet docks at the shun tak center. a bit far from tsim sha tsui [tst].

end of our wonderful macau trip and the beginning of the hellish first night in hong kong

03.15.08

macau: day 1 [2 of 2]

Posted in travel thoughts tagged , , , , , , , at 6:08 PM by vetlongwalks

an hour or so into our exploration of macau, line and i were led from one alleyway to another. in one alleyway, we were led to this:

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one of the buildings near the fountain above 39-building.jpg

L: the plaza where the fountain is located// R: alleyway40-alleyways.jpg

if i’m not mistaken – line and i chanced upon macau’’s residential area 41-inner.jpg

wall art

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a little further, we came across this uninteresting building 43.jpg

as it turned out, the building is one of macau’s historical places. this place has been turned into a museum and people are welcome to check out the place free of charge. 44-lou-kau-1.jpg

 to see more of this place, check out my previous entry entitled “Lou Kau Mansion

insert vetlongwalks here…. hehe, habit – but pay attention to the nice flooring though45-vetlongwalks.jpg

i want these wooden frames in my house, but how??? 46.jpg 

gate of an apartment??? 47-apartment.jpg

ah sweets………..

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a closer look

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ice cream… line took this pix for jenny 50.jpg

starbucks — haha, if i didn’t come to macau, i wouldn’t have tasted starbucks’ coffee. hehe, i’m such a cheapskate that i avoid paying for highly-overpriced coffee drinks if i can help it. in this instance, however, line and i had to get coffee to ward off the cold [we had the coffee for breakfast the following day, though, not on this day. plus blame it on my tendency to buy something that's familiar, starbucks lang ang familiar na coffee shop.] 51-starbucks.jpg

back at senado square 52-back-at-senado.jpg

taking photos of the photographer 52-line-at-senado.jpg

another pix of line [or at least part of line] in action..

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another shot of me in senado square on our way back to the hotel54-me.jpg

we left senado square and headed to the other part of the city where modern buildings take center stage 55-pinko.jpg

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the side of casino lisboa. from this angle, the structure looked as if it were about to fall…[although, it's not that apparent in this picture. but it does look that way to me when i saw it then.56-side-of-lisboa.jpg

another shot of casino lisboa. sorry, this pix is a bit dark. promise, the succeeding pix are much clearer..57-lisboa.jpg

metropole hotel. our home for the night. booked this hotel through www.directrooms.com @$77/night.  senado square, the ruins of st. paul, the casino area [casino lisboa, the wynn, and other casinos] are just walking distance from the hotel. roughly 5 to 15 minutes walk.58-metropole-hotel.jpg

vetlongwalks at the hotel lobby… after 3 hours of walking, line and i decided to wait out the remaining hour at the lobby. hehe, kapoy na lakaw. nalukop na namo ang senado square and the casino area with only the porkchop sandwich to sustain us. 59-lobby-vetlongwalks.jpg

our room… gahi ang bed.  i didn’t mind kay anad ko ug folding bed, hehe. although nagsakit ang likod ni line the morning after. 60-our-room.jpg

disposable slippers provided by the hotel [don't mind the feet, though] /room’s carpet 61-vetlongwalks.jpg

another side of the room and our gubot things…62-other-side-of-room.jpg

an hour after we checked in, line and i were once again ready to hit the streets of macau. take note; we didn’t have a decent sleep the night before and yet we’re ready to make the most of our limited time in macau [we arrived in hk midnight of dec. 27. stayed at the airport until 2 a.m., left for macau at 7 a.m.]63-linevet-fresh.jpg

the top of casino lisboa [front view] 64-hotel-lisboa.jpg

line in front of casino lisboa 65-line-lisboa.jpg

my turn 66-vet-lisboa.jpg

 casino lisboa minus the “piña-like” top 67-casino-lisboa2.jpg

another side of casino lisboa. yup the casino is just one humongous building 67-casino-lisboa.jpg

at this point, line and i decided that we explore the casino area some more once we got back from coloane. coloane is another island in macau. haha, we were determined to find the church of st. francis xavier. hehe, suckers kaayo me sa princess hours. the church is where prince gian and princess janelle were wed. 

in front of hotel lisboa, there’s a bus stop for buses to macau’s two other islands [coloane and taipa]. we took the one going to coloane[ bus 21A as the church of st. francis xavier is in coloane island. the fare from lisboa to coloane island is 5 MOP [macau pattacas]. travel time from lisboa to coloane is roughly an hour or so [kalimut ko sa exact time.]  bus travel was a pleasure as there were many beautiful sights along its route. one of them is taipa island’s The Venetian [another humongous and beautiful casino].

of course we didn’t know where st. francis xavier was and we were so proud to ask around, thus we ended up getting past our right stop. we ended up at Hac-Sa Reservoir BBQ Park. at the end of this street, one can find a famous Portuguese restaurant. The place was jam-packed, thus – line and i didn’t check out the resto. Plus when i mistakenly reached their kitchen i saw the preparation of a “lechon de leche” hehe, nothing wrong was done. place was clean, i just didn’t like seeing the preparation of the dead little pig [lechon de leche], hehe…

at this point, my cam started to act up. thus, i don’t have much pix. i still have to borrow pix from line. hehe, sorry.

anyway,  after trial and error bus rides and lengthy walks, we finally found the church… 68-chapel-of-st-francis-xavier.jpg

vetlongwalks again!!! :) 69-vetlongwalks-coloane-village.jpg

notice the arcades of white and yellow arches at the sides of the church. under these arches are open air restaurants serving Portuguese and Chinese food.  i didn’t see these food establishments at the time of princess’ hour’s shoot, though. we didn’t eat here since we didn’t like the resto’s selection. plus it was already past 7 that we were afraid that there wouldn’t be any bus going back to macau proper.70-one-foot.jpg

as it was already past 7 pm, the church was closed. line spent several minutes here taking lotsa pix. after we had enough of the church, we decided to explore the area. the area was spookingly quite. i think people there retire very early. we found one little bakery and bought some tuna sandwich. around 8 p.m., we decided to leave the area and head back to lisboa. to complete our “saag experience” of the day, we again took the wrong bus and ended up at macau’s port area. it was night time and the area had a “dangerous” feel to it. we walked some more [hehe, me not wanting to take a cab kay mahal], checked the numerous bus route posters found in bus stop waiting sheds. we rode the bus which we thought would take us back to lisboa. we passed by one casino, which i couldn’t remember now, when the bus driver started to talk to us in rapid chinese. as we knew nothing of their language, we could only give him a blank stare for a reply. he got exasperated with us until one lady talked to us in english. she asked us where we were headed and then gave the driver instructions of where to drop us off before she got off the bus. apparently, the bus wouldn’t be passing lisboa’s front area. thus, we had to walk some more until we reached the familiar lisboa. hehe, the night lights were truly impressive and we were  confident that we’ve reached the right area this time as we could now see the “piña-head” of lisboa. before we head back to the hotel, we had dinner at one local restaurant. the staff didn’t speak english, thus line ended up pointing at pictures on the menu.

view from the restaurant where we ate.  darn, succeeding pix were truly blurry as my cam would conk on me from time to time 72-macau-at-nigh.jpg

macau at night 73-macau-at-nigh.jpg

lisboa at night [one side of it]74-lisboa-at-night.jpg

wynn and lisboa from afar. the pix doesn’t do justice to the place. but the whole casino area lit with beautiful lights was truly magnificent, reminiscent of las vegas 75-wyatt.jpg

wynn’s lake show poster 76-wynn.jpg

the show was truly beautiful. the water show runs for about 5 to 10 minutes. it was really a nice show to cap our day. all the saag-saag forgotten.

click on this link to see the video of the lake show…

enjoy macau!!!

will post about our last day in macau soon. be featuring the ruins of st. paul and the museum of art…

03.12.08

Lou Kau Mansion

Posted in travel thoughts tagged , , , , at 6:46 AM by vetlongwalks

On our first day in Macau, line and i searched for the famous Ruins of St. Paul. However, our poor sense of direction led us to this seemingly uninteresting building. 43.jpg

We soon learned that this uninteresting building is one of Macau’s famous historical places: The Lou Kau Mansion.

Click on this link to know more about the mansion.  

we got so fascinated with the place that i think we spent almost an hour here. i swear line used up most of her cam’s memory in taking all these high-resolution pictures [although the ones used here were resized for easier uploading.] 

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*all photos used here are Line’s. used with her permission.

03.02.08

palawan preview

Posted in travel thoughts tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , at 5:17 AM by vetlongwalks

okay. it’s been two weeks since i got back from my palawan trip [feb. 16-21, 2008]. i still haven’t blogged about it. it’s not because i don’t want to,  i just don’t have much time in my hands.  anyhow, i’ll just do this little preview thing – hehe, this way my college friends won’t kill me for not posting the pix as promised… you guys holler if you chance upon this [p.s. - ivz, i brought you some sand as promised, but darn i misplaced it. i still have to look for my little pouch. you see, i rushed from the airport to work, my mother did the unpacking of my bags and she couldn't remember where she placed the little bag containing the sand, darn!]

mayor hagedorn welcomes new arrivals 01-welcome.jpg

rizal avenue – puerto princesa’s main road [from the airport]02-rizal-avenue.jpg

souvenir shop along rizal avenue [there are around 5 or so souvenir shops in along this road]03-souvenir-shop.jpg

palawan provincial capitol 04-provincial-capitol.jpg

feb. 16 – 1st stop: palawan butterfly garden 04-butterfly.jpg

this butterfy loves me04-butterfly-2.jpg

2nd stop: crocodile farm and nature park05-crocs.jpg

3rd stop: rancho monica – the view from sen. mitra’s[+] house06-mitra.jpg

4th stop: baker’s hill – one neat cr they have at baker’s hill07-cr-bakers-hill.jpg

ahh, stomach upset08-gnome.jpg

back in puerto princesa; the provincial capitol at night04-provincial-capitol-night.jpg

feb. 17; beach by the gas station @ roxas – end of the 3-hour smooth road… a gruelling 3-hour travel follows09-roxas-stop.jpg

roxas stop: our rented van.. behind the van is the beach above10-stop.jpg

ahhhh spectacular sight - beachfront – view from our resort – this more than compensate the 3-hour bumpy ride [or the 6-hour trip]11-greenviews.jpg

hut 10; greenviews resort – corong-corong, el nido palawan12-accommodation.jpg

view of el nido beach13-el-nido-beach.jpg

famed rock of el nido beach [5-7 minutes away by van from our resort]13-el-nido-rock.jpg

el nido town16-el-nido-town.jpg

after lunch; view from the resort’s restaurant14-view-from-resto.jpg

another view from the restaurant15-view-from-resto2.jpg

el nido town hall at night17-el-nido-town-hall.jpg

dinner at balay tubay; cheap good food – loved their mashed potato [ a little place with the now defunct "kahayag" feel to it18-balay-tubay.jpg

balay tubay interior19-interior.jpg

feb 18; low tide in its truest sense [two of the motorized bancas in the pix were the ones we used for our whole day island hopping]20-low-tide.jpg

crystal clear water; vetlongwalks goes island hopping21-crystal-water.jpg

1st stop: cudugnon cave22-1st-stop-cave.jpg

the beach outside the cave 22-outside-1st-stop-cave.jpg

moi and al – on to our next stop22-vet-al.jpg

2nd stop: snake island [el nido's version; there's a bigger one in puerto princesa at honda bay if i'm not mistaken] [view from the mountain] 23-snake-island.jpg

3rd stop: pangalusian island24-pangalusian.jpg

corals – view from the banca, hehe, don’t know how to snorkel25-coral.jpg

amazing boulders… you’ll see lots of this – makes you think there really is a supreme being who created this 26-boulder.jpg

lunch stop: south miniloc island.. them foeigners stopped for lunch too27-lunch-stop.jpg

4th stop: the secret lagoon – to get here you’ve to do a 3-5 minute walk in knee-length wavy waters and then climb up to a small whole 28-hidden-lagoon.jpg

5th stop: the big lagoon29-big-lagoon.jpg

last stop; entrance to the small lagoon where i dared not venture [hehe, it's only 4 feet deep, but water past my waistline scares me to death]30-small-lagoon.jpg

feb 19; before going away pix31-last-pix-el-nido.jpg

van stucked in the mud [3 hours of bad road; worst when it's raining as in this case]32-van-stuck.jpg

lunch stop; roxas - end of the 3-hour rough road33-roxas.jpg

vietville – the last vietnamese village in palawan34-vietville.jpg

feb 20. underground river tour [official name of the underground river; changed to one below in order to meet the requirement of UNESCO - that is, a natural wonder should bear the name of the place where it's located]35-underground-river.jpg

boat station in sabang. the bancas will take tourists to the underground river [first come - first serve basis]36-sabang.jpg

on our way to the underground river37-entrance.jpg

mushroom stalactite38-mushroom.jpg

hehehe, camwhoring at the underground river [my sister's officemate paying close attention to the boatman as he explained the sights in the cave] 39-me-cave.jpg

the light; end of the underground river tour40-exit.jpg

the satisfied crew after the 45-minute tour41-after.jpg

lunch at sabang’s tribal restaurant after the tour42-resto.jpg

buenavista view deck [this dude here is a backpacker extraordinnaire!! - story soon]43-viewdecl.jpg

dinner at the famed ka lui restaurant [really strict reservation policy; advance warning - not for those who will not take off their slippers and shoes - the resto has squeaky clean - shiny wooden floorings]44-ka-lui.jpg

moi in one of the souvenir shops at rizal avenue on our last night in puerto princesa – shops are located beside ka lui’s]45-souvenir-me.jpg

feb 21.: packed and ready to be back in cebu [waiting for the apartelle's van to take us to the airport]46-packed.jpg

leaving puerto princesa. the end of my palawan trip47-leaving-palawan.jpg

this last pix says it all – one satisfied vacationer

minus the rough roads, the whole trip is the best i’ve had..

===

[yes, miss deb - i recommend palawan, but i don't think the kids would enjoy the long-hour drive to el nido and other nice places.]

enjoy palawan!!! will find time to write about the details of the trip so you out there who is planning on a trip will have an idea of what to expect. but be warned, i’m no professional.