City of Dreams and Four Seasons Hotel

6 Jun 2010

I wasn't comfortable to walk from Taipa Village back to hotel as it was dark at night. We took a cab (HK$22) and decided to check out City of Dreams which is located across the street from Venetian Macao.

Macau is famous for casinos and almost all of the hotels have casinos.

There are 3 hotels in City of Dreams ie Crown Towers, Hard Rock Hotel and Grand Hyatt Macau. These hotels were beautiful at night with all the lightings up.

Back ground view of City of Dreams - in day time.

As Macau is tourist attraction place, there are lots of nice hotel in Macau. One of it is Four Seasons Hotel which is located just next to Venetian Macao.

Antonio's, Taipa Village

6 Jun 2010

It was 6pm when we were back to hotel from Taipa Village and it was too early for dinner. What's better thing to do in Macau than going to casino, especially the casinos were located right in hotel lobby area. We had a round of casino, for about an hour, and I had my luck again with the slot machine. This time round I won HK$2,000! My biggest win ever in casino.

We walked to Taipa Village again as Hubby wanted to dine at Antonio's, a gem that we found while traipsed around Taipa Village.

Antonio's is an intimate Michelin-starred taverna serving delectable Portuguese cuisine.

Antonio's - 2 star-rated Michelin starred restaurant.

It is quite a small cosy restaurant and we were surrounded with foreigners who came to dine in this famous restaurant. A Philipine family was sitting on our right and a HK couple on our left.

Olive with garlic.

We ordered Sauteed Clam (MOP110) with garlic, white wine, olive oil and corriander as appetiser. The taste was excellent. I will try cooking this at home and I'll be happy if it taste half as nice.

Hubby ordered Tenderloin Steak Portugese style (MOP180) cooked with garlic and white wine and served with smoked ham, fried egg, potatoes and pickel.

I had Bacalhau com natas (MOP175) which is shredded diced cod fish baked in oven with creamy sauce and cheese. I could only finish half of the portion.

The funny thing is our 1.5 litre mineral water (MOP40) cost more than a glass of House White wine (MOP35). The total bill came to MOP594 (RM256) and its reasonable for this class of restaurant.

A photo for the album - taken with the owner of the restaurant. It was our first time to dine in a Michelin starred restaurant. We enjoyed the dinner with good food, no kids making noise at dining table and we also had a good chat with the friendly HK couple who sat next to us and also stayed in Venetian Macau.

Taipa Village and Macau's Almond Cookies

6 Jun 10

In the evening of our first day in Macau, we decided to take a short visit of the City. We asked the hotel concierge of a suitable place for the short walk and they recommended Taipa Village.

We took a taxi to Taipa Village and the taxi fare cost HK$24. Taipa Village is located just opposite of the hotel that we stayed.

We traipsed around Taipa Village which is like a picturesque maze of neat squares of pastel-coloured old houses.

Then, we saw shops selling Macau's number 1 food souvenir ... almond cookies and also handmade egg rolls, walnut biscuits, etc.

The shop assistants at Choi Heong Yuen Bakery let us tasted the almond cookies and that was so clever of them. We were caught and attracted. Those biscuits were so yummy ... super yummy, in fact. There were trays and trays of almond cookies, fresh from the oven and they were so fresh, crunchy and tasty with good aroma.

A man making handmade egg rolls. He looked very serious or probably he was tired, didnt even smile or talk to us.

A few relatives and friends reminded us to get them these Macau's famous almond cookies and I was so worry that I may not find them elsewhere that I bought them during this first trip out in Macau.

I bought these almond biscuits, egg rolls and walnut biscuits from both the famous, old-timer Choi Heong Yuen Bakery and Pastelaria Koi Kei. Spent HK$390.40. The good thing was during our trip to Macau, RM1 = HK$2.34 and it only cost us RM167 for these 14 boxes of cookies that I bought.

As we were walking and carrying all these boxes of cookies, Hubby suggested to drop these cookies in the hotel. We decided to take a walk back to the hotel, which is within walking distance. It was an interesting walk as we walked pass park, crossing roads, buildings, etc.

The good thing is Hubby didnt make a single complaint of buying 14 boxes of cookies and the troublesome of carrying them and had to purposely drop these boxes of cookies back to the hotel. The good thing of travelling without kids is we had free hands to carry things and can get things done easier and faster.

We were back to hotel at 6pm.

The interesting thing about these Macau's famous souvenirs is you can get them everywhere, or almost everywhere in Macau. Do not need to rush to buy them ... like we did.

These boxes of cookies were hand carried during our return flight as they were too fragile and precious to be checked in and they flew all the way from Macau. When I gave them to my parents, Dad told me that his employer does import these famous almond cookies during CNY season.

Imperial House Dim Sum, Venetian Macao

6 Jun 2010

While waiting for our hotel room to be ready for us to check in, we walked around Venetian Macao.

We visited the casino and I won HK$350 from the slot machine.

At 1.25pm, we decided to have lunch at Imperial House Dim Sum located in Venetian Macao, inside the casino itself.

We queued and waited for almost an hour before we could get a table. We wanted to walk away but we were worry that we may have to wait again if the same situation happened in other restaurant. This restaurant was recommended by my colleague too.

Fried vermicelli at MOP48

XO beef noodle at MOP58.

Turnip cake at MOP28 and Shrimp dumplings at MOP35.

Honestly, the food was very average. In fact, this first dining experience in Macao was the worst food that we've tasted in Macao. The good news is all the subsequent food that we had in Macao was much better.

The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel

6-8 Jun 10

For the Macao trip, we decided to stay at The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel. We've heard so much about the resort and also watched an impressive documentary about it in Astro.

Hubby booked the hotel reservation on line in Apr 2010. We paid HKD4,310.20 nett for 2 nights accommodation at Royale Suite, with daily breakfast for 2 of us and 2 "A Reserve ZAIA" tickets for show on our 2nd night of arrival.

At 10.05 am, we arrived in the Macau Airport. As we were walking out from the arrival hall of Macao airport, we saw this "Free shuttle bus service" signboard.

The bus was already waiting for us as we walked out from the airport.

We left the airport to hotel at 10.45am and it was only 5 minutes drive from airport to the hotel. We got down from the shuttle bus at this hotel lobby.

The exterior of the hotel at night. These 2 photos were taken from the City of Dreams, just across the street, opposite the hotel.

The total site of The Venetian Macao is equivalent to 56 American football fields and can hold almost one hundred 747 jumbo jets.

The volume of sand used in the land reclamation for The Venetian Macao would make a pile of sand as big as an Egyptian pyramid.

The lagoon of The Venetian Macao covers an area of 23,500 square metres which is equivalent to approximately 10 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The ceiling of the hotel. The architecture of the hotel is amazing.

The interior decor of The Venetian Macao features 3,000,000 sheets of gold leaf.

There was no chance to take photo at this spot during day time. We managed to take it at night, after our Zaia show.

A very special, curvy escalator with curvy glass too. One side go up and the other side to come down. This is the first time that Hubby and I saw this type of curvy escalator.

Dance performance at the Bar Florian, located in the centre of the casino floor.

Casino, visible from the lobby.

The walkway from the door to the washroom and bed.

This is the room that we stayed ie Royale Suite, a spacious 70 sq metre suite with canopy-draped king-sized bed and fluffy duvets.

The sunken living room with sofa sleeper, high speed internet and all-in-one fax, printer and copier.

There were also 2 large TV, one in this sunken living room and the other located right in front of our bed.


Deluxe marble bathroom with separate shower and bath.


The bathroom had 2 wash basins and a dressing table.

View from our room ... the City of Dreams.

The total floor area of The Venetian Macao building is 10,400,000 square feet and equivalent to 2 Tiananmen Squares and there are more than 12,000 people work at The Venetian Macao.

Flying to Macau - Air Asia and LCCT

6 Jun 10

Auntie YC came back from her business trip to Macau in Jan 10. She stayed in The Venetian Macao. She was telling us her trip to Macau, her stay in The Venetian Macao and recommended us to have a holiday in Macao without kids.

Hubby browsed thru Air Asia flights to Macau and the air fare to Macau is so much cheaper if we book 6 months ahead of travelling date. The flight and airport tax only cost us RM446. We added in luggage, meals and advance seat booking and paid additional RM114 for all of them. The total return air tickets for both of us is RM560 for travel in Jul 10.

In Apr 10, Air Asia notified Hubby that both the flights that we have booked to/from Macau had been cancelled and ask us to change to other dates. There would be only 2 flights to Macau in a day. We were allowed to choose any dates, even to earlier dates. We decided to change our travel dates to Jun 10 as its school holiday and its easier for us to make arrangement for our parents to take care of the kids. It is also our wedding anniversary. We chose the 6.30 am flight and returning at 9 pm flight. Air Asia also upgraded our luggage from 20 kg to 30 kg and added in meals for our return flight complimentary.

As its 6.30am flight, we need to be at the airport at 4.30am, leave house for LCCT at 3.30am and wake up by 3.00am (if we sleep). We knew we would be tired by the time we reach Macau. I decided to use the Air Asia web self check-in so that we only need to arrive at the airport by 5.45am and can sleep for additional 1 hour.

Both the taxi trips to and from airports will attract midnight charges and would cost us almost RM300 for both trips. We need to explore other options for trip to LCCT.

While we were in KL Sentral for the kids train trip to Segamat, we found out that KLIA transit will only cost RM12.50 per person per trip. The monorail will depart from KL Sentral and stop at Selak Tinggi for change to bus shuttle to LCCT. The fare is inclusive of the bus shuttle. However, the last train is at 12 midnight and first train is at 5am. As such, this option is out for us.

There's Skybus / Aerobus from KL Sentral to LCCT that only cost RM14 per person for 2 ways. However, we still need to take a cab or drive and park our car for 3 days in KL Sentral. Car park is expensive in KL Sentral and we cant save much travelling time to LCCT due to bus waiting time.

We decided to drive to LCCT. There are open car park in front of the LCCT terminal at RM36.50 per day or RM2.50 per hour. There's also car park in Tune Hotel at RM20 per day or RM2 per hour. The distance from Tune Hotel to LCCT airport is 7 minutes walk.

The night before our flight to Macau, Hubby and I agreed that we should sleep by 10pm in order to wake up early ... but I could not sleep. At the end, I took a flu pill and only manage to sleep at 1am. We woke up at 4am, had a cup of coffee, left home at 4.37am and reached LCCT at 5.30am. Hubby dropped me at the airport while he went to park the car.

Despite it was an early morning, the airport was pack with people. Must be the school holiday. As we've earlier self check-in via Air Asia website and printed out the boarding pass, I went straight to Baggage Drop Counter at Gate R3 to drop our checked luggage. I checked in one luggage which weigh 7.7kg and decided to hand carry the other luggage (5.2kg). Within 10 minutes, we were ready for boarding.

The Airbus 320 to Macau. As we had to carry luggage and walk up the stair case to the plane, I would recommend to check in all luggage.

Breakfast was served at 7.30am. We had nasi briyani (RM8 with small mineral water) and sandwich (RM6). We didn't expect to have the appetite for breakfast at such early morning but we were wrong. We were hungry! The meals did not come with any hot drink. We added Krispy Kreme Combo Set (2 doughnuts + 1 hot drink) at RM9 and a bottle of mineral water (RM3). I would recommend to pre-book meals and drink during flight reservation as crew members will serve those that have pre-book meals before selling them in-flight. It is also slightly cheaper.

Lastly, I would also recommend to bring shawl, travel blanket or jacket along as it was cold in the flight and Air Asia charge for blanket.

The cost of our travelling (petrol, toll and parking) to and from LCCT is less than RM100.