Macau Day 2 February 28, 2011
Posted by ~ bjlcm ~ in All About Myself, Foods, Free & Easy, Friends, General, Rides.2 comments
People is saying to us that being 5 days at Macau is just too much as it’s very small to walk about as you’ll bored to death nearing the end of the trip. Worried that we might run out of idea where to go about with so many days in Macau, we slotted in 珠海 as one of the destination in our Macau trip plan. After getting ready, we gather at the hotel lobby to start today’s activities. As to go over to 珠海, we took bus to get ourselves to the 澳门珠海關閘 (Praça das Portas do Cerco) border custom which is about 10 minutes away from 新马路.
At the 澳门珠海關閘 (Praça das Portas do Cerco) border custom, it was very crowded then. I find the immigration officer was not so friendly, they seem to look fierce and the way/attitude they work is like they were having PMS and 不愿意 to work. They’ll just take your passport, look at you one kind and throw back to you after completed. Oh well, not to criticised, maybe that’s the policy, they were just adhering to it. By the way, it’s seriously a lot of people moving in/out 澳门珠海 even not on the weekend.
珠海, it’s the very first place in China I’ve ever step my leg on and the experience was … nothing much different from Malaysia actually. Only that you can easily differentiate the local and the outsider by the way they dress up. The local seem to be a bit old fashion in term of dressing, typical shirt with slack pants and a very retro style cotton jacket 😉
We’ve identify the first place we would go at 珠海 is the 五月花酒楼 but we just couldn’t find it. Comparing against the landmark on where we were, it should be the place nearby but it’s just nowhere to be seem. Tired of searching it, we decided to ask around as it should be one of the famous 酒楼 around but to my surprise, not many of them know about it. Finally we come to found out that it has actually move to somewhere else from one of the few patrol police around the area. Quite disappointing actually and not sure of what to have for our brunch, we ask advise from the local for nice 酒楼 around. We were told of 益健 so without wasting much time, there we headed to 😉
It’s the 点心 style foods offered here. Ok, we were 点心 kaki also so no problem for us. We ordered quite a number of item initially, about 11 items and that surprise the waitress who double confirm with us is that all we wanted? Feeling a bit confuse, we ask her the portion size and also look at neighbouring table dishes, we thought it’s not a small portion actually, so we cut 2 away to make it 9 items instead. As for the tea, I remember Jesse saying to us that let’s order the most “laubeh” tea since we don’t really know how to enjoy it and the word “laubeh” make the waitress had a laugh at us. Oh well, we thought the word was only understand by the Malaysian 😛
After the 点心, we went to the 拱北口岸 (Port Shopping Plaza) for the girls to have their shopping spree there. It’s not really something to be shopped about especially for guy as not many shop that actually catch my attention. However it’s a great place for you to bargain if you really enjoy it, after all, you don’t need to speak a lot as what I’ve experience there. I was looking for a cheap tripod which I can use for group photo taking but not really willing to pay a lot for it since I won’t be needing it back home in Malaysia, maybe just a cheap one as temporary stuff. At one stall, I ask the lady how much is a tripod they are selling, initially she told me it’s CNY100. Heard of the price and I was like wow, that’s expensive … then I told the lady just forget about it as I know I won’t be doing lotsa bargain. She then started to offer me, how about CNY80 … CNY70 … CNY60 and just before I walk away, she offer me the final price at CNY40. That’s more than 50% cheaper than the initial price, I was a bit tempted then but on second thought, the tripod actually look not very solid though. Myself and Lee JL walk around for about 45 minutes just looking around to kill our time while the girls is enjoying on their own. We meet up with the girls at about 1:30pm at the main entrance and they wanted to have more time there while obviously the guys already bored of it. Finally we decided that myself and Lee JL will go around nearby place to check it out while the girls continue to shop and shall meet again at about 4:00pm later.
Checking out the area around, we conclude that 珠海 is definitely not a place for us. We ended up tired legs and hungry. We were not really keen on the local foods … mainly were turn off when we look at the surrounding environment which is (to be kind) not so clean and pleasing. It kill off my appetite almost immediately. McD seem to be the only food that we’re sure of the preparation should be much better than those of the local stall/shop. We had the 火腿 burger set meal. We ended up resting and kill our time at McD for more than an hours.
At the same time, the girls shop til they forgot that they’ve not taken their lunch. They only realise it when we meet again at the time set (they were late for more than 30 minutes lol). We went to 真功夫 fast foods restaurant for a quick meal as they wanted to walk a while more before heading back to Macau.
We also went to the KFC to try out something new which is not available in Malaysia’s KFC, the crab meal. It’s crabs shell that filled with crab meat … a lot of it lol 😉 After the KFC meal, we continue to walk around together until almost 7:30pm before we move back to Macau.
Once we reaches Macau, we went back to our hotel to get ourselves refresh and clean up. It’s at about 9:00pm we went out again to nearby shop to have our dinner … or maybe also can call as supper then. We went to the 样記麺家 to try out their recommended homemade noodles. I really wonder how they make their noodles to be so special. By looking at the dishes, it seem to be very simple, just noodles with shrimp powder topping with onions yet it can be quite tasty at the same time. We also ordered 牛腩麺, 鱿鱼麺 and fried fish ball. The fried fish ball (米通鱼球) come with sauce that made of 蚶 and tasted weird lol 😛
On our way back, we also stop by a 甜品 shop tp further fill our stomach with something. Just wanted to try out some 甜品, we ordered 4 different 甜品 which is the 金瓜 sago, 椰汁 sago, 木瓜 sago and 黑芝麻杏仁. Taste, of course it’s nice and I think it’s just nice, not too sweet but is tasty enough to bring you back again I supposed but it’s a bit pricey though I know, that’s the standard of Macau food price. It cost us about MOP90 for 4 甜品.
A lot of walking today plus some rather bored trip to 珠海, at least for myself. It’s only the 点心 that I enjoyed most there. However it’s a nice experience though and … I swear I would never get myself there unless I have no choice but I believe the girls enjoy it a lot lol 😉 Food in Macau, it’s just simply nice 😀
Macau Day 1 February 27, 2011
Posted by ~ bjlcm ~ in All About Myself, Foods, Free & Easy, Friends, General, Interesting.2 comments
The long await day has finally come, it’s as early as 4:30am we were already awake getting ready for our first holiday of the year and also I would say a real holiday ever since quite a while. It’s a holiday of two couples, myself and Jane and another couple, Jesse and Lee JL. Feeling a bit excited, Jane’s called her senior Goh PS as she would be fetching us to the airport. Thanks to Goh PS 😉
Our flight is at the 7:10am and expected to reach LCCT at 8:00am. It was earlier flight that our connecting flight to Macau would be at 12:20pm instead, as we worried there would be delay on Air Asia flight. We went to Old Town Cafe for our breakfast and gosh, it’s the most expensive Old Town breakfast I ever had. The price is very big different compare to regular Old Town cafe and the choices is very limited as well. After spending about an hour plus there, we decided we should go somewhere else. Walking around aimlessly, it’s kinda suffering actually so again, we stop by this time at the McD. We ordered two large Minute Maid orange juice to prolong our stay at the McD while Jane and Jesse work on Macau trip plan.
However during the wait, I’ve received call from the office and I knew something bad has happened. It’s the month end inventory data was not transmitted to Japan and it was a big mess back in office then. My boss intervene to get thing done while I went on board and letting office to my colleagues.
On board to Macau, it took about 4 hours to reach the destination. Expected arrival time would be at the 4:06pm. Since it’s gonna be quite a while, we pre-ordered nasi lemak combo meal to fill our stomach with. It’s the first time I had meal on Air Asia and hmmm, the nasi lemak taste not bad. We reaches Macau as scheduled 😉
Right the moment we step out from the plane, it was cooling wind breezing through the air. It’s quite cooling and I guess it should be only about 20ͦc of temperature the most. It’s nice and I love the weather here, just like when I was at the Cameron Highland. The very first silly thing I did in Macau was I almost went in the ladies, luckily I was very alert to realise that I got to the wrong WC. After collecting our luggage, we took taxi to our identified hotel. It’s the 康泰酒店, a 2 stars hotel I suppose as the facilities and look of it is not up to standard. However since we would not be at the hotel most of the time, naturally it’s not a priority to go for expensive nice hotel. Furthermore we were on budget travelling, I would rather spend more money on foods than stay (poor people saying :P). We tried to bargain for better price and finally we deal at MOP450 per night for room for two.
After check in and drop our luggage at the hotel, we went to walk around nearby area to check out for our dinner. Along the walk, we had a cup of herbal tea and also some nice 咖喱鱼丸 lok lok. It’s quite nice though, the curry gravy was very similar to our maggi instant noodle curry flavour but slightly hot. When added on with various variety of foods, it’s a great combination. I love the one which Jane choose, the fish ball with cheese filling 😉
By just walking and keep walking, we didn’t realise that we’ve already reach the Senado Square which was suppose to be a place we’ll visit on the 3rd day. Then I realise that Macau is actually much smaller than what I’ve expect it to be small. Since we’ve found ourselves at the Senado Square, with all the lighting and decoration, it was quite tempting. We thought maybe we can see Senado Square on both day and night. As we walk, we too tried to search for several landmark shop which was recommended in travel book as place to have some meal around the area. We took several photo there and some window shop as well.
Taking photo is actually quite fun but pain in the arse job. Not wanting to use flash as it would damage the photo, at the same time lighting is bad, it’s really difficult to take photo here. I need to be real steady trying not to shake my hand as much as possible as also ask the subject not to move too much. The nicest photo must be the one I took by setting timer on the camera and took a group photo at the tiny little lane.
As for dinner, we went to 黄枝記. It’s one of the shop recommended so not wasting much time, we went ahead. We ordered a plate of fried wan tan, porridge and fried noodle which specially hand made by themselves. It’s not available anywhere else as per my understanding 😉 The fried wan tan is really nice, the crispy portion was even tastier with it’s sweet sour source. The porridge might look a bit plain but it really taste nice, I would think Macau do have nice porridge stall now.
As for the dinner, we did not order much anyway because we wanted to try something else as well. Jesse and Lee JL wanted to try out McD in Macau while I got myself an Sweet Taro (Yam) pie which is not available in Malaysia, something new as take away for late night supper. Obviously the McD here serve pork as well.
We walk back to our hotel after McD and stop by the bus stop to check out on some buses route information so that we know which bus we would need to take for each destination. It’s fairly simple to travel around in Macau public transport as it covers most of the area and the price is fixed regardless how many station you are going to take up to the final stop.
The last makan stop for us on day 1 was the 保健牛奶公司. Macau is also famous for their milk made 甜品. We had 双皮奶 and 杏仁奶 to share amoung ourselves. It taste very milky and for the 嘴感 just like having 豆花. It’s the taste that make it special and wondering how they did it. Nice 😉
We also bought water from the Watson and it don’t come cheap though. For a 1.8 litres of mineral water for Watson brand cost us about MOP14. We also got the new Aloe Vera taste Minute Maid drink which is not available in Malaysia too. The sweet taro McD pie, taste just nice, not too sweet and yet still tasty 🙂
Overall, it’s quite a tiring day with lotsa travelling on plane and walk around but I think it’s worth it though. Now I started to worry if 3 days for Macau walk would be too much or not 😛
Packing Up February 26, 2011
Posted by ~ bjlcm ~ in All About Myself, Free & Easy, General.add a comment
Last minutes packing is always my way of doing thing. Jane’s has been starting to do her packing since Wednesday but it never really give me any urgency to start mine at all. For me, just a few shirts and pants would do, nothing much like facial cleaner and etc is needed. Only the most important is my hair gel and comb I suppose, the rest doesn’t really matter 😉
Anyway, I managed to get it all pack in about an hour and that’s it, 7.9kg for all including the weight of the luggage itself. Light isn’t it? It’s suppose to be anyway as the luggage package we bought only allows us 15kg 😛
Ideal vs Reality February 25, 2011
Posted by ~ bjlcm ~ in General, Interesting.4 comments
This is ideal: –
This is reality: –
Which one are you in? 😉 We alway want for the best but part of life, the reality is a bit cruel isn’t it hehehe
Cellphones February 24, 2011
Posted by ~ bjlcm ~ in General, Interesting, Techno Related.3 comments
Olympus SP-560UZ February 23, 2011
Posted by ~ bjlcm ~ in All About Myself, Family, Free & Easy, General, Interesting, Techno Related.2 comments
Free camera is nice isn’t it? Lil has gave me a Olympus SP-560UZ camera which she haven’t been using for quite a while. Though it’s not the type which I’ve always wanted, the DSLR but still it’s a nice camera.
However this camera do not come with a specific battery for itself instead it’s using the AA battery. Since I would probably using this camera on and off, I thought a rechargeable battery would be handy and cost saving in long-term so I got one yesterday. Would be using it for my coming trip lol 😉 Thanks Lil for the camera 😀
Ant Attack!!! February 22, 2011
Posted by ~ bjlcm ~ in All About Myself, Foods, Friends, General.2 comments
Ant in the office, ridiculous isn’t it? Hmmm, it was all over my table when I went into office today. I was slight surprise as ant shouldn’t be making their presence in the office anyhow. I tried to follow the trail and it was my neighbour who forgot to wash his coffee cup that attract those ants to have some nice drink.
However I hold the belief that I shouldn’t kill ant so what I did was just blow it away 😉
Faulty Smart Card February 21, 2011
Posted by ~ bjlcm ~ in All About Myself, General, Rides.2 comments
Never before it cross my mind that my ride smart card would become faulty and for the first time ever, I got so frustrated that it’s not working at all. I was outside at the Sg. Dua to buy dinner for myself and my sister in-law. Just as I was about to go back, I realised that normally when I get into the car, there would be a ‘beep beep’ sound indicating that the sensor detected the smart card, however nothing happened this time. The car just refuse to react and instead, the alarm go off.
Luckily I remember there’s a spare card at home. I called to my sister in-law to get the spare card for me. Very much to my relief that it works for the spare card. I thought I would need to leave my car out this time … not at least for now 😉 As for the smart card, I would need to get another one just in case. Wondering if it’s really smart … probably not smart after all 😛
Grandaunt’s Birthday February 20, 2011
Posted by ~ bjlcm ~ in All About Myself, Family, Foods, Free & Easy, Friends, General, Interesting.2 comments
Would you ever want to travel all the way for about 80km just to have dinner? Oh well, that’s what I did today. Initially I wasn’t keen to travel as I need to fetch my friend’s sister back to Penang but after much persuasion from my uncle TK, I change my mind instead. However I was so sorry for my friend’s sister because she was not really comfortable to follow me for the dinner and opted to go back to Penang tomorrow instead.
It’s actually a dinner my aunt wanted to treat my grandaunt Christine and to celebrate early birthday for my another grandaunt. I left from Sitiawan at about 3:30pm to Ipoh to meet up with the rest (they went earlier than me lol). Meeting point is my grandaunt Christine’s house.
The dinner was at 6:00pm at the Pusing Public Restaurant. It was a grand dinner and the most awaited dishes was the 乳豬 (Roasted Suckling Pig). Apart from that, we too had 海味 (Seafoods Claypot), 鱼翅 (Shark Fin’s Soup) which Lil already banned in her menu and some others too.
It was a real nice dinner 🙂 Thanks to all my grandaunt’s and aunt 😉
After great dinner, it’s the end and now it’s time to drive back home to Penang. It’s gonna be a long journey back for me now 😦
Sat Eat Only February 19, 2011
Posted by ~ bjlcm ~ in All About Myself, Family, Foods, Free & Easy, Interesting.2 comments
Being home to hometown is all about resting … and also foods. I love Sitiawan foods a lot, I not sure if the others would find Sitiawan foods is nice or not but personally for myself, I do love Sitaiwan foods. We have lotsa so-call-famous food such as ‘kam puan’, ‘kong piang’, ‘pau’, seafoods and etc.
Today dinner would be on my aunt as she wanted to treat my youngest aunt dinner before she’s going back to Republic of Ireland. We went to Amu for dinner. Just nothing much to elaborate, just a few photo to show and probably might make Lil a bit of Sitiawan foods sick … but certainly not the salted eggs fried crabs 😉
Collective Soul 