Turbo Jetting to Hong Kong

I had very little encounter with boats before. I was told that when I was a baby, my parents brought me to Sibu (just after I was born) in the infamous lightning-speed Kuai Teng (Express boat). They don't sail. They fly. So in a way, you could say I flew to Sibu.

There's another kind of boat that flies, well... float actually. And here's Jackie Chan getting squashed & runover by one in Rumble in the Bronx.

And I think we were on a similar kind of hovercraft-ey boat when we crossed the straits from Macau to Hong Kong.

We had to take the boat at the ferry terminal, which didn't look like a boat terminal, but neither did we know how it was supposed to look like anyway.

It was strange, almost surreal-like. We thought some kind of Canto-pop superstar called Wynn was arriving in Hong Kong. Turns out that's the name of a casino. Heheheh, actually we knew that lah!

This was how the inside looked like. We were lost & didn't know how & where to get the tix.

CK was trying to find his bearings. And Nee was trying to attract some attention by standing right at the centre.

Fortunately a lady came over to us & brought us upstairs to the tickets counter. At first we thought she was a pirated boat operator. While we were following her, we felt a bit of regret as images of us being forced to cramp in a dark & rocking sampan flashed into our minds. We thought that could be the end of us. We were going to be sold off as kitchen slaves in Shenzhen.

But of course, we were not in KL. This was Macau, and pirated transportation does not exist.

The Turbo Jet tickets cost about HK134 each for a one-way trip. That's about RM60.

My excitement grew when I saw the boats.


And I didn't even know they had some kind of built-in hovercraft technology.

The old folks in front probably have taken this a thousand times. To them, it was probably as common as drinking water. To me, it was as good as going to Disneyland.

Wahhh. So like first class. Got TV some more.
Nee was a bit dissapointed that they didn't show TVB series.

The Cantonese usually have altars in their homes, and in their shops, or when they're shooting a filmThis is the first time I saw one on the docks.

The boat very professional. Got Sea Steward to take your food order.

The tickets did not actually include food. You've got to buy them like AirAsia. But some people brought their own Char Siew rice & McDs.

Goodbye Macau! We don't miss your food but we will see you again on the 8th day & we shall have our revenge!

Macau: A Quest Failed

This couldn't be happening. After the first nite's out, Macau gave us the impression that it's just a place for casinos. Everyone's there for just one reason.

Nobody seemed to care about food, except us. We were beginning to wonder whether we've landed at the wrong place - a group of enthusiastic food adventurers in a land where the only thing people eat are casino chips.

And we started believing the hotel (Beverly Plaza) people that probably their breakfast buffet was as good as they claimed to be. So the next morning we became very good little boys & girls, and obediently went down to the hotel restaurant.

At the entrance of the restaurant, I saw a guy writing calligraphy on a red notice plate on the wall. When I whipped out my camera, he perked up & gave everything he got with a loud kung fu like yell.

Good showmanship. Incidentally the name he was swishing with his brush was mine which was Huang (or Wong in Cantonese).

But then again, everyone's probably named Wong (including the variations of Wee, Ooi, Ng, Ngui, etc.) in Macau & Hong Kong. You could probably even call the place Wongcau or Wong Kong. Sorry, stupid joke. Had to get it outof my system.

Immediately, I felt good karma & vibe surrounding this place. Maybe the food IS good, & we're destined for it.

But I thought wrong.

Looks stiff & plasticky don't they?

It seemed that the good vibes only hovered & stayed at the entrance. They didn't come in with us.

Porridge with Yu Tiaw. It's just the typical hotel standard.

Now this turned out to be the only best thing available there - Toast with imported butter & European Honey. It's a bit pathetic, with everything imported, how authentically Macau can that get?

At that point, we ran out of time. Our first nite/day in Macau was over. We had to check out to take the ferry over to Hong Kong. If this was the Amazing Race for authentic food, we would have lost with our faces flat on the ground.

But we knew we'd be back again on the last nite. So we left with revenge in our minds, & also in our unsatisfied stomachs.

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.