Lost in Macao: Exhausting yet Memorable Experience

So, I want to share my not-very-long-ago experience about my trip to Macao, exactly in June 2019. It was a one day trip, but as my title says so, yes, it happened as what the title is saying.

I went to Hong Kong for five days vacation. Without using any tour guide or tour agent. Yes, my family is independent, haha, just kidding. It was just my father had been there for like many years ago, and he still remembered some of the places, environments, etc, so he was confident to ‘guide’ us there. More honestly, we did not want to spend much money on the vacation haha!

On my fourth day, we visited Macao for a day. This destination, my father had never been there. We had decided where to go: Ruins of St. Paul. Yes, it was the most iconic destination there and legend says “If you don’t go to Ruins of St. Paul, you’ve never been to Macao.” Just kidding, no one said that. Well, because it is a most popular attraction, so we MUST go there.

Macao by night (Credit: https://depositphotos.com/stock-photos/macau.html)

**Warning: while reading this story, please pardon our stupidity**

First thing in the morning, we took a breakfast near our hotel (we stayed in Tsim Sha Tsui district). After that, we went to a harbor, and turned out that it was not the harbor that took you from Hong Kong to Macao. Yes, we were tired walking to that Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry Pier (a harbor which takes you from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon Peninsula), well, then we walked to the ‘correct’ harbor: China Ferry Terminal, where there was an immigration office and stuffs. We bought the ticket and chose the destination without any hesitation. We only thought “It’s Macao area, so it’s fine.” I still remembered the officer there told that there were many Indonesians visiting Macao today. Indonesians everywhere, as always.

This is the ticket (Note: HKD 171 is Rp310.000,00)

Minutes later, we got into the ferry. It was a nice ferry and I enjoyed it very much. It took about one hour from Hong Kong island to Macao. The sea scenery was beautiful too. And the ferry slowly reached to Macao Harbor. 

Inside the ferry. It was very clean and comfortable

We arrived and asked to a some kind of tourism officer there about some destinations and took the city’s map. What had me interested the most is how the signs in this harbor are written in Portuguese, remembering the colonial event back in the past.

When we got out from the harbor, there were buses parked outside. My father suddenly shouted to us to hurry, saying that those buses were our transportation. We got to the bus with “Parisian Macao” word one without any suspicion, and sat there like a boss. There was no payment, so it was concluded that the bus was a FREE RIDE. Yippie! We were really proud to somehow “lucky” to be able to get in to the bus.

It was an enjoyable ride, until…

We arrived in another strange area. Yes, it was the Parisian Macao. Macao is very well-known as “Asia’s Las Vegas” for having many luxury hotels and casinos there. Gambling is very much acceptable and likeable, and sort of normal activity there. And this, we arrived in this LUXURY area. 

The view from the bus. Look at these hugeeee buildings

We were surprised when we got there. The driver just dropped us off in a very luxury and big hotel with crazy (it’s too magnificent) interior designs and decorations. Honestly, I’ve never entered in that kind of luxury hotel, so yeah, it was weird for myself to get into a hotel that suit only for crazy rich people. My family was amazed, yet confused, but managed to keep calm. We got into the hotel lobby and there was a shopping mall linked with that hotel. Because we did not have anything to do at that time, we just randomly entered the very luxury mall that stored many branded shops. I wonder why normal people like me got into this kind of mall. It was awkward, but yet, we tried to look cool. We went windows shopping without entering one of those shops haha. It was embarrassing though. 

Minutes later, we were outside the building, and we saw that big Eiffel Tower. Yes, it was the Macao’s version of Eiffel Tower. We took some pictures there with that background. It gave some of Paris vibes.

No, this is not Paris

This is what the buildings around there looks like. They are all HUUGEEEE

We then entered another LUXURY mall. Gosh, we were tired seeing things that we could not afford at all. This one mall was very memorable. Why? Because it was the filming location of Korean drama “Boys Over Flowers” haha. There was one scene when Geum Jan-di rode a gondola inside a mall. Yep, this was the mall! The mall’s name is Venetian Macao, as it resembles the tourist attraction (gondola) in Venice, Italy. We took pictures there. And then we continued our walk into another LUXURY hotel (Honestly, I don’t know how many hotels are there!). And this hotel was the one hotel where Geum Jan-di stayed in on that K-Drama haha. It was a short throwback, of course.

The hotel lobby of Venetian Macao

Not in Venice, Italy

We had enough seeing those branded things, so we decided to went outside. While wandering the mall to look for EXIT door, we also saw a casino area. It was my second time seeing a casino (The first one was at Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore), and there were some security guards there, and the area was half-closed with kind of boards, so I did not get to see it clearly, but the gambling tables were obviously seen, and there were some visitors there, but not very crowded. We also were not allowed to take pictures in that area.

We went downstairs to the side of the roads. The roads were also luxury and very clean; they were covered with pavements tidily. The cars crossing by the big streets and passing by the big roads were also luxury brand cars like Mercedes Benz, and others.  At that exact moment, while wandering on the side of the luxury big road, my sister realized that our location now was very far away from our main destination: Ruins of St. Paul's, because we were in the DIFFERENT ISLAND. Yes, Macao has two islands and one territory. Ruins of St. Paul is located on Island A, while UNLUCKILY  we were on Island B. Yes, we were landed by the ferry on different island.

My sister then tried to connect to the internet to browse some informations and opened the Google maps, but BOOM it failed. Macao had different internet provider from Hong Kong, and my sister’s phone already used the Hong Kong SIMCARD. Gosh, it was very depressing. I felt  very hopeless, because it was around 1.30 p.m. and it was hella hot. At this right moment,  I wanted to go back to Hong Kong and just wandered around there.

At some point, my father got information that the bus number that destinated to Ruins of St. Paul’s area is bus number X *I forgot*. We then patiently waited in the small bus stop. About 20 minutes later, our bus arrived and we got in. Thankfully, the bus here accepted payment by Octopus card, so we just paid by it. (Octopus is a payment card in Hong Kong. It is very useful because you can use it for MTR, bus, taxi, and other payments).

A few moments later, the bus had crossed the bridge which connects Island A with Island B, and without any further informations, my family got off. Yes, we did not realize we had reached there, and even the driver asked us to get off  from the bus because it was the last stop haha. We got off and confusedly wandered on the streets AGAIN. The streets were not as clean as in Hong Kong. And what made us more depressed was Macao does not give many road signs and directions, unlike Hong Kong who gives the road informations clearly, so the tourist will not be confused in travelling on foot.

After walking for like thirty minutes straight, we were very hungry and decided to have lunch in McDonald’s. We happened to see that in front of our eyes, so we just went in. We ordered food and took a rest there. My father went outside to the nearby supermarket, buying some drinks and also asked the cashier about the location of Ruins of St. Paul's. We finished eating and continued walking for some kilometers, based on the cashier’s guiding.

My father bought this while we were eating at McD

For about twenty five minutes later, we finally arrived in our MAIN DESTINATION: RUINS OF ST. PAUL'S, YEEAAAH. It was very tiring. Imagine yourself walking without any direction, yes it was really stressful and exhausting. The area surrounding there gives a lot of European vibes, yes, because Macao was once the colony of Portugal. We enjoyed and took a little rest in Ruins of St. Paul's and entered its history museum where it keeps Roman Catholic history and stuffs. We are not allowed to take pictures there. Well, in conclusion, it was a worth for walking many kilometers to reach that unique attraction.

Ruins of St. Paul's. Beautiful, isn’t it?

Closer look on Ruins of St. Paul's main building

We then continued walking to other attraction: Senado Square. It was a large park area with shopping district with Portugal vibes. And there was also an old Roman Catholic church there, named St. Dominic’s Church. I entered the church and also prayed there.

Senado Square

St. Dominic's Church

We took a little rest again, breathing the fresh air, because it was about 3.30 p.m., and the weather turned to be a little bit cloudy. Another walking session for many kilometers, and we wandered around the city’s main shopping district. 

We arrived in the bus stop. Surrounding that area, is a casino center. One of those casinos center, is the famous Casino Lisboa (The name adapted from the Portugal “Lisbon”), and beside that also located Grand Lisboa, the hotel. We were also able to see Macau Tower from far away. At about 4.30 p.m, we got on a bus that would take us to the island’s harbor. Yes, finally!

Casino Lisboa (taken during our walk to the nearby bus stop)

Grand Lisboa, a luxury hotel with unique design

Zooming in Macau Tower from the bus stop. Pardon for the blurry pic :))

We arrived in the harbor and bought the return ticket back to Hong Kong which was scheduled at 6 p.m. We sat in the waiting room and did not talk much to each other because we were freaking tired. Voila! Our ferry arrived and we got in there. While on the way nearby to the Hong Kong island, I looked out from the window and there was a light performance projected on the Hong Kong’s skyscrapers. Wow, it was beautiful and entertaining; reducing my exhausting spirit a lot. Unfortunately, I did not take some pictures in the ferry.

At 7 p.m., we arrived in the Hong Kong harbor. We passed the immigration, and wandered around the gate; smelling another suspicious stuff. At that time, while getting out from the harbor, we saw some different stores from what we saw in China Ferry Terminal. Yup, Something just DIDN'T feel right. We just calmly walked out from the harbor, believing it was the correct arrival area (Tsim Sha Tsui). We HAPPILY continued walking on the streets. Until we had walked for about 300 meters, we saw the International Finance Centre building; indicating that we were NOT in Tsim Sha Tsui, but in Central! (Yep, it was super sad, I know).

Exactly, we arrived in the harbor-we-did-not-want-to-arrive. Yes, the harbor is located in Central, Hong Kong Island, not the Kowloon Peninsula; where we started our trip from and of course my hotel’s location! (It was on different island and needed a MTR ride). Exhausting us already imagined of arriving in our hotel area, but yet turned out we AGAIN arrived on different island and we were super tired. The sad family (read: my exhausted family) was then forcedly somehow made a U-turn and looked for the nearest MTR Station. Before getting off to MTR, we still had an opportunity for stopping by in a minimarket and bought some drinks to freshen our spiritless (and a little hopeless) body lol.

       

The scenery outside the harbor. At this moment, we realized that we were in Central, not Tsim Sha Tsui *look at that International Finance Centre building!* (funfact: It was used for The Dark Knight’s filming location)

Then we took the MTR to Tsim Sha Tsui (my hotel’s location). It took about 15 minutes long to get there. Now, we were relieved  to really arrived in the destinated area. At around 8 p.m., we stopped by in a Chinese food restaurant and had dinner there. Gladly, it was really delicious and probably the most delicious Chinese food I’ve ever ate! Also, the prices were not very expensive and it was a worth-it dinner.

On our way to the hotel, because it is Tsim Sha Tsui (known as one of the shopping centres in Hong Kong because of its not-very-expensive-price-but-selling-good-stuffs), there are many small shops, and delicious street food and drink stalls. We stopped by to buy some drinks. I bought a Sharetea bubble Chocolate drink (yes, it is sold in my country but I had never tasted it before), while my mother bought a fresh juice. We were really satisfied and our energy had been boosted haha.

Nightwalk around Tsim Sha Tsui

Yes, it was very tiring and exhausting (and silly) one day trip. Also, turned out this day took the most steps among our other days' trips, in which we walked for over 15 kilometers. From not acknowledging anything and kinda lost in a city (somehow we were like bunch of dumb and dumber people) that we had never been there, it was really stressing, but trust  me it was very memorable. Yes, it was. Until today, I still remember detailedly about my moments there, from the starting to the finished point. It was a hopeless trip, but thanks to our unprepared-characters and (a little, or big?) stupidity of us, then it became a very unforgettable moment in my life. 

THANK YOU, MACAO!


**To continue reading the Hong Kong trip, click here.