Macau:The Quest for Food Begins

We certainly felt like amateur travellers on our first night in Macau. We were excited like little bunnies, but hungry like Sibu ducks which would eat even mud. And we didn't have a clue where to find food.

It was a maze. Finding authentic food was never as difficult as this. There was nothing original around.

Lonely planet was no help either. According to the book, there's supposed to be a long stretch of hawker food in the west coastal area but the taxi driver we asked said that there's only one store left.

We finally settled for a place near our hotel that looked decently decent - Chi Mei Mun Uk. Don't ask me what that meant. I'm a banana.

I know. It looked suspiciously commercial. 24 hours. At a glimpse, you could have just easily mistaken this place to be McD.

As I was an alien in Macau, & Nee's mandarin is limited to speaking, our fellow adventure traveller CK had to work the menu.

He worked hard, and we had these to eat.

Chicken Simmered in Abalone Sauce ~ Sounds good, looks good and hey it actually tastes good! 1/2 a chicken and we walloped everything. At that point in time, beggars cannot be choosers.


La Mien with Abalone slices ~ Quite nice. Not so oily but seriously very commercial.


Fried Hor Fun with XO beef slices ~ Not bad. The oil was not super fresh but at least it was not stinky smelly like some eateries which recycled theirs too many times.

Roast Pork Rice ~ Nice as well. Crispy and juicy.

We paid about MOP 120/RM 50+ for the four items. Like I said, it was some kind of franchised commercial food. But then again, I'd have to say that this was as good as it will ever get for that kind of level.

Macau: The Land of the Free

Macau is so full of casinos. A soon as you touch down at the airport, there's one waiting for you already.

Macau airport is located on an island south of the city centre. I suspect that it's situated on a landfill, surrounded by the sea. It's a different experience landing on a strip where you can see water on both sides of the runway. Certainly an experience unlike Ting Pek Khing's airport back in Kuching.

We took a cab from the airport straight to our hotel. It was a quick & scenic ride which brought us over the long stretch of bridge connecting the island to the city centre.

We didn't realise that our hotel was in a very strategic location. It only took us about 5 mins walk to reach the main casinos. Hotel Beverly Plaza (Fook Hao in Mandarin)costs around HKD740-780 (RM330-350) for a three person room with extra bed. Highly recommended as the the deal is good and the rooms are clean, practically odorless and big too. Single beds are bigger than usual. We found this at macao.com.

Tip No.1: Always book your hotel rooms on the internet. It's cheaper.

Tip No.2: Always find out the names of streets, places & hotels in Cantonese or Mandarin. Places with English & Portugese names are alien to taxi drivers.

If you've watched National Geographic or Discovery before, you'll understand how nature works.

Flies & other insects are strangely attracted to light.

That's why every year, gazillions of insects get zapped by electric fly traps.

Macau casinos use the same concept.

Except that they're not attracting flies.

Macau is The Land of the Free. I'm not talking about the great United States of America, nor am I talking about individual freedom. The kind of free that I'm talking about here is the Auntie kiasu kinda free. And the best casino in town for free loaders would probably have to be The Grand Lisboa.

They've got mountains of complimentary bottles of mineral water. They'll pour you glasses of complimentary soft drinks.

And they get dancers to dance for you on stage for free. Non-stop. 24-7. As long as you stay in there.

Everything is carefully calculated there. Even the shape of the entrance is designed to suck in unsuspecting humans.

The Journey to Macau

We flew to Macau on Jan 8.

When AirAsia first announced the KCH-MACAU direct flights for RM39.90, we grabbed the tickets, much like how the aunties grab stuff at super cheap sales.

The White Hair launching the direct flight. See his white beard growing? Election is coming soon.

Mr. AirAsia Tony Fernandez is a real money maker.

Just look at him. He is a very happy man.

When you buy a RM39.90 ticket, you actually end up paying about RM350 for everything. I've said it before & I'll say it again - He makes the money in between what you think you'd be paying & what you're actually paying.

Anyway, after reading what Terri went thru, we smuggled food & water for survival into the plane. The trip would take us about 3 hours 45 minutes. We did not want to die of hunger before we reach Macau. Nee actually contemplated making burgers with thick juicy pattys. I said no, it's a crazy idea.


Macau was very orderly & efficient. The immigration checkpoint seemed very properly administered. One of the first thing that you'd notice is that there were CCTVs everywhere. Then the second thing that would immediately come to mind is to reflect back on our system in Malaysia.


I was being very naughty. I took a few pics of the CCTVs. The lady officer saw me, stood up, & scolded me. But I get to keep the shot.


The next thing which made me reflect about Malaysia again was how the luggages came out right side up, standing.



When they arrive in front of you on the conveyer belt, all you need to do is to reach out your hand, and the handle will slip comfortably into your grasp. There was no need for any back-breaking weight-lifting effort.


It was just a few minutes after touch down & Malaysia lost hands down in every way to a little airport in Macao - except for airport size lah. But then again, everything in Malaysia is the tallest & the biggest, but always the emptiest.

Home Sweet Home!

Hi Everybody! We're finally back in Kuching. We actually spent 8 days away from our blog. Imagine that! It's just not acceptable. Our imaginary advertisers must be fuming mad by now.

Of course, our readers are wondering what has happened to us. We thank them for their sincere concern, and for missing us sooooooo much. Yeap, we are back in one, ehmm two pieces and will be sharing with you our great adventures in the Great Hong Kong and Macau. We have seen a lot, been to a lot of places and most importantly, ate a lot. NEE: Just weigh myself. 2 kg extra. Big Sigh...Weight loss program must start ASAP.

Home Sweet Home! No matter how great these places are. So happy to be back on our couch, big bed, stretching my hands without touching someone else or something.