Trip Lang #19 - Two days and One Night in Macau - Day 2

Click here for our day of arrival in Macau dated April 21, 2015.

April 22, 2015. Our second and final day in Macau. Even though we slept late last night, we woke up early the following morning to go to Guia Fortress where Guia Lighthouse is located. The place is very close to Royal Hotel. If not for the uphill road it would be about five minutes walk only.

By 8AM we were hitting the road along with Macau locals doing their early morning exercises. Others were going to work and some were just strolling with their pets. There's a huge number of locals exercising around Guia Fortress area.

We followed the map to find the light house. Another attraction visitors can visit is the Guia Hill Military Tunnel which opens from 10AM-5PM, Tuesday-Sunday (closed on Monday except on public holidays).

The place is really a fortress. Despite the towering buildings in the city, government and locals are able to preserve the natural beauty of the place.

Benches overlooking the city and one more assault to reach the light house.

There's a big door that leads to the light house. Inside you'll see big structures made of iron. Based on the information written, they are storm signals that were used back in the days. Each signifies how strong the storm that'll hit the island.

We went up the light house and took some videos and photos of the whole place. There's a protected form of art inside the light house. They made efforts to preserve some of the old wall paintings. It's a bit of a bugger because they do not allow picture taking inside. I can't show you how pretty they were. No touching of the walls too.

So we contented ourselves by taking pictures of the beautiful view outside the light house. The place bears an old ambiance of Portuguese culture. We soaked everything in and decided to have breakfast after our walk in a restaurant beside Royal Hotel.

The tower, light house bell, cannon and an old door handle.

The Old and New Macau

Stairs to nowhere.

They have specific set of food served for breakfast and lunch so I was not able to order a meal of roasted chicken that I like. This seems like the case for all the restaurants in the area.

The Royal Hotel's shuttle is scheduled to pick up guests from the hotel and drop them off different locations around Macau including the famous Macau Tower. That's our next destination.

We got the ticket from the hotel's concierge for a discounted price. So when we arrived at Macau Tower, we went straight to the elevator that'll bring us to the observation lounge at the 58th floor.

This statue is for sale for HKD100,000

 It is our first time to experience this "type of high" so we spent more than an hour on the 58th floor alone! There were too much encouraging words, pulling and pushing here and there, dragging bodies and the likes. You'd ask why? All because of a glass platform that makes you feel like walking in the air. In short, my partner Alvin is afraid of heights. Hahaha!

The 360° view from the tower is a beauty like no other. A panoramic view of the Pearl River Delta, Macau Peninsula and Taipa, Coloane islands. Great for a short "moment" with your special someone.

It was almost two in the afternoon when we have decided to leave Macau tower. We were supposed to go to A-Ma Temple but we didn't have enough Hong Kong Dollars with us. So, we decided to go back to the airport to get $100 USD changed to HKD. We were starting to get weary and didn't want to go walking around looking for a money changer so we thought it'd be okay even if the exchange rate is lower than outside the airport.

From the airport, we drop by MGM Hotel and then tried the local means of transportation in Macau. We took the public bus going back to Royal Hotel. The hotel's shuttle service was waiting to take us to the terminal where we will get on a ferry to Hong Kong.

Macau Ferry Terminal

Upon arrival, we bought our ticket and decided to eat at McDonalds. I was disappointed because I wanted to eat rice but they don't sell any. :( We wash away our hunger with burgers and fries instead.

Our ferry left the port at six in the evening. The travel time was about one hour but because it was raining a little bit, our ferry arrived fifteen minutes late from the original time of arrival.

After submitting the arrival card at the immigration, we went straight to the exit that leads to a mall. Our arrival in Hong Kong was a bit of an epic fail. We went round and round inside the Tsim Sha Tsui Ferry Terminal building for almost an hour before we were able to got out on the street.

From the building, it was a long walk to Austin train station were we bought our Octopus card. It took us another thirty minutes to find the right window to buy it. Turns out, they sell it at the customer service counter. Good thing the lady behind the glass window speaks English. She pointed us to the right direction.

The train system was confusing at first. We took a map and it helped huge in our adventure! A short train ride and we finally arrived at Mong Kok station which is 5 minutes away from Dragon Hostel where we will be staying for the next three nights.

The hostel is across the famous Lady Night Market. We planned to visit after we checked in but we felt tired of walking all day so we decided to do it on another night instead. We were so tired that we fall flat on the bed and dozed off.