Travel Blog 19: back in MACAU2012

february2012

this is Nanay's birthday trip for 2012... so basically what that means is that were traveling somewhere near the country and, were likely gonna spend most of our stay in our hotel room and/or in its vicinity since the birthday girl is not too keen on long walks... it's the knees people, blame the bum knees!

this is not my first visit to this part of China. Nnylanna and i were here in 2006 and boy, the development after only six years is astounding! The Cotai Strip is now crowded by the biggest hotel chains in the world! and of course, we are going to stay in one of them... The Venetian...

*credit to the owner of the pic

holy moly... we *my mother, sister and brother* walked inside the hotel and it's... it's... it's just too much!  too much gold, too much burloloy and waaay too many people... many of whom are not even hotel guests but tourists who are there to have their picture taken amongst all that ostentatiousness... haha, is that even a word ^^ *i checked and merriam-webster says it is^^

look!

now, here's our hotel room...

here's my short video of the room...

we 3 girls went to see the Cirque de Soleil show in the hotel and our bro went to hit the casino.  as expected, fab show ^^

we went around the hotel early the next day... and i mean verrry early.  we want to appreciate the  place while people are still fast asleep to avoid the chaos that comes with human traffic... excellent idea, as you can see from our pictures, everything is calm and serene^^

Nnylanna booked a city tour for us 4, i honestly didn't want to go..."been there, done that"... but, it's with our mother this time around so...owkay^^  here are the pics from the city tour... first stop is a famous temple. if im not mistaken, it's called A-Ma Temple... Nnylanna and i have been here before so here are the 1st time Macau tourists posing for posterity...

we left our tour group in the temple and we went straight to the souvenir shops.  our tour guide was surprised to see us already loading our grocery baskets with tons of goodies from a famous local bakery *we bought a lot of stuff here on our 1st visit too^^* how many of this bag we brought home with us as pasalubong, i cannot recall, what i do remember is ...we bought A LOT!

of this entire day tour, i'm only ever interested in going up the Macau Tower. We didn't go up the 1st time we were here but you know my sister and i and our "tower tours"... we JUST HAVE TO go up there...

just look at that glass floor people... it made a lot of difference from all the "tower tours" we have done in the past... yes indeed!  there were kids and even adults who couldn't take a step on those glass floors*my bro...cough* :)  some can't even go near it*my mother,cough* :) :) :)  i know it doesn't seem so in the vid that i took below but believe me people, i was scared too...weak-in-the-knees scared!!!
here's my video of  Macau Tower...

again, not my first time in these places but nevertheless... next stop was Senado Square and one of the places to check out around that area is the St. Paul Ruins...

other photos from Senado Square, Macau...

a not-so-funny thing happened on our way back to our tour bus... i got separated from the group!  No, i did not wander around on my own,  the group turned right and i went ahead and did not do that.  My excuse, the place was too crowded that when i turned to look back to see if my sister and mother were behind me, that's when the rest of the group took a right turn and i did not see them.  No worries,  i immediately stopped and stayed where i last saw them and waited for someone to go back and look for me and that someone was my brother dear... haist,  i cannot make a phone call, the batteries on my mobile phone was dead... sooo embarrasing *Orz*
i'm not exactly sure what this next and final stop is called, so let me just describe it... they are the houses used by Macau's Portuguese elite back in the days when they first ruled this place... or something like that...

went back to the hotel with my sister trying to convince my mother to ride the gondola but failed! hehehe... i must admit that it would have been a really good photo-op but still... to ride a glamorized boat in an indoor fake canal... ... ... would still look fab on pics! ok, so lets just have our picture taken where we were suppose to ride'em...

on a side note, while it may not be properly documented via photos ...hehe... my brother made some money at the casino on the 2 nights that he played and guess what... he took us shopping  at the hotel shops and treated us to a fancy dinner on the same night... galante^^ 
we went to The City Of Dreams on our last day...

and that's just about it for Macau... for now.