Attractions in Macao (previously known as Macau)

As mentioned earlier (you can read it here), most travellers tend to visit Macao and cover mainly the hotels and casino, but what I want to share with you guys are places of interest/attractions in Macao. Yes, Macao has more to offer but you need to do abit of googling. And to help and ease my readers, I thought I should just share a few that I’ve covered. Aside from these historical places, you can also experience some culture shows.

If you are visiting Macao during May time frame, I would like to recommend you to attend the Macao Arts Festival which is happening from 30April - 29 May, 2016.

These are a few places to see/do in Macau.

Ruins of St Paul’s (UNESCO World Heritage Site)

Macao most famous landmark is a 16th-century Portuguese complex that was once a college and a church. The Church of St. Paul is also known as "Mater Dei" and was restored by the Macanese government; turning it into a museum while maintaining the concrete and steel façade. If you are adventurous enough, you can attempt to climb up to the top. 

Guia Fortress/Guia Lighthouse (UNESCO World Heritage Site)

Dated as far back as 1865, Guia Fortress and Guia Lighthouse is a military fort, chapel, and lighthouse complex, and also part of Macao UNESCO World Heritage Site. The fortress was built on Guia Hill, the highest point in Macao and it was constructed after an unsuccessful attempt by the Netherlands to capture colonial Portuguese Macau from Portugal.

Senado Square (UNESCO World Heritage Site)

Named after Leal Senado or Loyal Senate building, is the original municipal chamber built in 1784 that is still standing strong till today. It is said that the name Leal Senado derives from the title “City of Our Name of God Macao”. Most of the buildings around the square are of European architecture and is protected under UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

Guia Fortress/Guia Lighthouse (UNESCO World Heritage Site)

Dated as far back as 1865, Guia Fortress and Guia Lighthouse is a military fort, chapel, and lighthouse complex, and also part of Macao UNESCO World Heritage Site. The fortress was built on Guia Hill, the highest point in Macao; it was constructed after an unsuccessful attempt by the Netherlands to capture colonial Portuguese Macau from Portugal.

Taipa Houses Museum

Built in 1921, these five Portuguese colonial residences used to belong to a well-off Portuguese families living in Macau during the 20th century. The houses have been restored and currently showcasing artefacts and exhibits of Macau’s culture and heritage. The Taipa Houses–Museum opened in 1999 and is administered by the Macau Civil and Municipal Affairs Bureau.

Monte Forte (UNESCO World Heritage Site)

Monte Forte or Mount Fortress used to be a military centre for Macao. It is located near Ruins of St. Paul's and its main purposed was to protect Macao from pirates and invasion from Dutch. It is famous for the 32 cannons that was placed around the fort and was a restricted military area until 1965. You can enjoy a panoramic view of the mainland Macau from the park that is situated at the top of the fort.

St. Augustine Square (UNESCO World Heritage Site)

St. Augustine’s Church, Dom Pedro V Theatre, St. Joseph’s Seminary and Sir Robert Ho Tung Library are among a cluster of majestic Portuguese colonial buildings, settled within European- style cobblestone piazza and surrounded by monuments that left visitors awed by its interweaving culture.



I hope you guys are able to maximise your Macao trip base on the above tips I’ve shared, do include the prestige Macao Arts Festival that is happening in May into your itinerary.

Macao Arts Festival

Date : 30 April - 29 May, 2016

Website : www.icm.gov.mo/fam/27/en/

Macao (previously known as Macau) - More Than Just Hotels And Casinos

Many have the perception that Macao is all about gambling with its fancy thematic hotels and casinos, to a point it is dubbed as Las Vegas of the east to some. I also come to realized that many travelers tend to visit Macao for a day or two, some even do a day trip from Hong Kong. As usual, I always advise otherwise, there’s nothing to see or venture if the country you are visiting is covered within a day (trip) or even in 2 days (including flight/ferry time).

Recently I got to know about Macao Arts Festival organized by Macao Culture Affairs Bureau (ICM), ushering summer. This is certainly new to me, there will be theatre, dance, music, circus, multimedia and visual arts in an artistic panorama of events being showcased.

I’ve learnt that 2016 is the 400th anniversary since the death of the literary giant William Shakespeare and Ming Dynasty’s famed Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu. Hence, the festival will showcase a number of their works such as the romantic comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by the Shakespeare Theatre Company, and The Legend of the Purple Hairpin by maestro Chu Chan Wa, among other local and international shows. This will be great for art lovers.

Those planning to visit Hong Kong and dropping by Macao, do keep in view of this festival. You can leverage or plan your trip around this date. This was, you will appreciate Macao, more than just their hotels *smile*.

Macao Arts Festival

Date : 30 April - 29 May, 2016

Website : www.icm.gov.mo/fam/27/en/

I will be sharing tips of where to go and what to do in my upcoming post on Macao, stay tune. Also, the halal food around Macao.

Taipa Tulip in Macau

Day 5 (27 December 2009). In canto sounds like - a lot (taipa 很多) of Tulips.

Haven’t really been in my best/top form, very busy and very tired, very duh; maybe the weather not agreeing with me or perhaps PMS. Thus, effected my mood to blog despite that I have 1001 things in my mind to pen down, YET just couldn’t find the “reason” to start…sigh… (more of excuses not too!) bad sign ie LAZY MOOD COMING!

HOWEVER, I shall try to blog; since normally my so called “MOOD” tend to pick up and strangely it can influence me mood to be perkier and funnier…ahhaha…. (fake laugh).

Ah! I think I know why! The last day of this trip has nothing much to “brag” about, first of all, am totally CLUELESS on the public transport. Secondly, the locals can’t speak English much…. Even road sign is in Portugese and it doesn’t help as the locals (mostly) only know the road name in Chinese - massive chicken & duck talk. And thirdly, RAIN! And I am not talking about the Korean HUNK cum singer cum actor cum my boyfriend (dream on Lily)…. OK! OK! Really check! But he is yummy right! RIGHT! RIGHT!

Let’s start…. Hemmm…. It started with me splitting with the rest (8 of my relatives) as the van unable to fit all of us in and also the fact that I’ve booked a different flight time (they're going straight to the airport after their sightseeing). Oh! By the way, the driver can’t speak a word of English, am very worried for my cousins… But I guess I need to trust them to be able to manage the situation, after all they all traveled before. This should be fun maah... After everything settled, I “bye-bye”ed them and waited for the public transport to Taipa Island, we thought we cover the furthest one first and move slowly to those within the city area.

The hotel reception gave us the direction on how about to take the public bus and off we go… WHY CAN’T THEY HAVE A HOHO (Hop-on Hop-off) sigh…. Life could have been much easier (Enough complaining Lily!). We head to Taipa House Museum, I honestly didn’t expect much… but I was surprise; for one, they have nice looking GREEN HOUSES and TULIPSSSSS! We spent a loooooooong time there, took pics like nobody's business ie like a monkey receiving a torchlight (it’s a Malay simile ie the monkey will keep using the torchlight even though in broad daylight).

The bus journey was 30 mins long, Taipa is basically totally another island from Macau which I thought kinda interesting as I always thought that Macau consist of ONE ISLAND ONLY. Ignorant!

We alight upon reaching our stop, aimlessly looking for the direction and finally saw it up on a shop. We walked up the steps and saw this small lane which reminded me of Granada (missed Spain so much).

Then we stumbled into Carmo Church and Library, it’s looks and feels old and ancient and somewhat European…. Hemm….. And we thought this can’t be it, they said GREEN maa…. Took few pics and search for my green houses, then that’s when I realized my sis was no where to be found, PANIC! Walked everywhere in the compound, tried calling, did not pick up… shucks! WHERE?!??!?! Then I heard noises below far far far away, I followed it, that’s when I saw my GREEN HOUSES and she is already there. ARGH…. Upset!

A little bit about this Taipa Houses Museum, basically it was built in 1921, and apparently it had been the residences for high superiors and Macanese families. And in the 80's, the Tourist Department of Macau bought and recovered them. An then, in late 90's, the government decided to fully remodel them, upon recognizing its important architectural value thus transforming them into museums and renaming the houses as "Macanese House", "House of the Islands", "House of the Portugal Regions", "Exhibition Gallery" and "House for Reception".

One thing for sure, the area was CROWDED, might be due to the holiday season. Tried my best to take pics of the houses…. Cause later I definitely focusing on the TULIP!

I need not say much here lar… it’s Tulip all the way……..

And more Tulip…

And even more…

Then it RAIN! YUP! We took the bus back to Macau Island and stopped at Grand Lisboa & Wynn but was disappointed obviously; I mean, after you have seen Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, the rest is almost nothing compared….

We walked to Senado Square as my sis wanted to buy a pair of jeans, and I was dead bored in Giordano, Bossini & Baleno…. And I decided to go off to the airport earlier so that we can rest(more like sleep) there (our flight was pushed 2 hours behind). Way tooo tired to walk.

Lily signing off - last trip 2009. (mood mood where are you?)

Hyperlink Credit : Wikipedia, Lonelyplanet, Kpop, Venetian Macau, Grand Lisboa, Wynn Macau, Macau Government Tourisme Board

Macau Magic - Cirque du Soleil

Day 4 (26 December 2009). It's a kind of magic.

I‘ve been sooooooo absolutely busy lately, I have to helped with the dept trip of 100pax, I have my personal end month trip to Chiang Mai to Bangkok to plan & book, 2 workshops to manage, 1 event to organise, quarter 2 funding to submit, budget to plan…. Ads to finalized…. Etc etc etc…. ARGH!!!! SUPER DUPER BUSY MONTH! And I sooo wanna blog to forget my work! I believe it’s called WORK LIVE BALANCE - of which is lacking! I even went to office on a Sunday and rushed back to attend my darling niece’s birthday. BUT BUT BUT the thing is…. I work better under pressure; unfortunately you die faster too….(so they say) sigh….. I need to take it slooooooowly. Breath in……… breath out…… Inhale….. Outhale (!!??!?!)…..heeehehe ops! Exhale I mean….
;p

Let’s trip blooooooog……

I went a bit dress-overboard for this… as usual I must look good for any photo session in every country, so much so that I can’t or should I won’t (DON’T) be repeating the same clothes I wore per country, not to mentioned those longer holidays; I make sure all colours planned, coordinate with the excursion, the site, the sky, the scenery etc etc etc…. HEY! I will even change my hair style - KID YOU NOT. Been preaching this to all my friends and my colleagues AND my friends fully agree and doing it too…. YUP! DRAMA QUEEN! (or some said CAMW***E, my nieces/nephews my be reading blog…. Aunt Lily need to watch out what she says in the blog) But seriously! I fork out a lot of money per trip (aaaaand before). I mean, I BETTER look GOOD right… I even have tips on this for people….. Haahahaha…. (really! After all, I AM not gonna go back yo THAT country JUST BECAUSE am not satisfied with the pics I’ve taken, I have no one to blame but myself for this mah… right!? Thus, solution = I better be prepared and be a drama queen - it’s for the better of the world… and MOI ofcos :p)

The main question is why is today abit different? Hemm….

1. We are going to Macau - totally different country
2. Taking ferry - different experience
3. Going to Venetian - definitely different ambience
4. Cirque du Soleil - different… HEY! need I say more!?!?

You heard it alwight! Am going to watch THE Cirque du Soleil (note the word “T.H.E” in CAPITAL!) the last time I watched this was in Las Vegas about 12-14 years back… Finally. Again. Now (targeting the one in Japan too this or next year). Excited! Excited! EXXXCITED! Watched the preview on my notebook many a times….looks great, am sure the live show will even be better. Very the kan cheong…
OK! Back to the storyline… ( I can reaaaally be long winded!) Wake up early, reached ferry terminal on time, but somehow the queue was EXCEPTIONALLY long, and we were called for boarding by the time we reach our turn at the immigration (sort of), apa lagi… run like make woman/girl/boy (imagine ALL 10 of us… screaming and shouting = PANDAMONIUM) luckily we’ve checked in our bigger luggage, else KANTOI punya. NO way am “seret-ing” my huge luggage for 300 mtr (seret = drag). Board the ferry, 5 min after that it depart Hong Kong… new journey awaits us…ceh wah…

Guess what? Some of my relative mabuk laut (seasick)…. Hence, they choose to take a nap, somehow lil’ Misha rugged (age 8) - no seasick… infact she was playing my sis’s Nintendo Lite. Way to go Mish! Uni can take you on trips again… anyway, the queue at the immigration was also looooooooong - peak period with the Christmas holiday, school holiday & new year holiday (what a time to pick a trip huh!). After queuing for 1 hour, we manage to get a van that can FIT ALL 10 of us, and off we go to the hotel… a real hotel this time (Macau Master Hotel = cheap, English speaking, friend, helpful, decent and near Senado Square) NOT hostel as like in Hong Kong. Heehehhee…. My cousin said, finally rasa macam orang kaya sikit….ahahhahah…. I kinda agree…. Oh well, we checked in and agreed to come down at 3pm sharp to hitch the free shuttle to Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel. Yup! The KEY activity in Macau - Cirque du Soleil. We took a quick snack in our room which should reads it as Maggie Mee, roti with serunding and nasi him pit with sambal ikan bilis = YUMMY!

All came down on time, boarded the bus and off to our show. It was a 30 mins journey…. And you can see the mega structure of Venetian Macau Resort Hotel from afar…. Really breathtaking…. Inside was even more breathtaking…. It also took our heart, eyes, leg, hand, CAMERA away…. Word can’t describe….
How best can I show everyone…. I guess post as much pics as possible - so pleaseeeeee don’t be bored yah, just that it’s tooooooooo beautiful!

OK! Some pics of us human too against the nice building, canal and the indoor sky effect! Love it!

The funny thing is that everyone was excited about the canal and they want and must have a pic together gather with THE CANAL…..sigh… me included
:p

Anyone watches Korean movie or listens to Korean song? If you do, the reddish pics if “inspired” by 2pm - HEARTBEAT performance. SEEEEEE!!!! Everyone was surprise, shocked and amazed even flabbergasted with them. You know me… love the drama, it’s like a must have kinda thingy…. Else it felt incomplete! The kids as usual will corporate with my nonsense. YEAY TO KIDS!

This is my sis favourite - HELLO KITTY! She bought one shirt - I “Hello Kitty” Macau; she is a collector of I “heart” xxxx country. Was ecstatic to purchase her shirt and I bought one for her as well… Yup! That night she slept exceptionally well dreaming of Hello Kitty. Fatin! Say thank you to you sis!

Argh…. We need to rush to our Cirque du Soleil…. So busy taking pics we almost overlook at the time… shucks! By the way, did some googling Cirque du soleil means "Circus of the Sun". is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy Laliberté and Daniel Gauthier. Now that we all know, we feel smart huh.

Sorry no pics on this as we are not allowed to take any pics during the show, but we manage to take after and outside the show…. Kinda consoling lor… at least mah. About my nephew pic here…hemm…. We’ll let him explain himself…. I just thought it… cool & creative. I went to Macau Hard Rock Hotel to buy my collection of Hard Rock shirt and shot glass for Andrea and also a shirt for my cousin before go back to Macau island. Oh! A little info of which I too was not aware, Those big casino are located in Taipa island except for Grand Lisboa and Wynn and MGM.

After settling my sourvenirs, we took the bus back to hotel and decided to take night pics of the famous Ruins of St. Paul. the façade of what was originally the Cathedral of St. Paul, a 17th century Portuguese cathedral in Macau dedicated to Saint Paul the Apostle. The Ruins of St. Paul were officially enlisted as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yeay! One more UNESCO site in my list.

OK! OK! OK! Before showing how it actually look like, we need to walk ie cut thru the Senado Square, it was Christmassy I must say with the Chinese lantern Santa Claus, all the lights with touches of Portugese old architecture…. Really different I must say.

One thing I like about Senado Square is the perspective path… somehow it look good in the pic or at least to me lar…

The excitement as we approach St. Paul ruins at night time…

Ta dah……. The ruins itself! I took EVERY ANGLE I can think of (which is only 1 so far)….. with my normal boring digital old auto camera… I guess this is the time you wish you have a DSLR; thus only showcasing 3. Oh! The ruins are only of this one flat piece meaning there nothing at the back of the wall…. What a sight neh…

It was approaching midnight… we're calling it a day… or a night? Hemm....

Tomorrow? It’s tulip season in Macau!

Credit Hyperlink : Wikipedia, Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel, Cirque du Soleil, Wynn Macau, Grand Lisboa Macau, Hard Rock Hotel Macau, UNESCO, Macau Master Hotel