"Bloggers, are you ready for the interesting Mini Macau Amazing Race?"
Yeah! is Race Day today! Early in the morning we set off to Senado Square area within the Historic Centre of Macau for a mini amazing race around MACAU's heritage area. I told the bloggers that the race will be very relaxed. However, at the end of the day or rather along the way, they had been cursing and swearing. Haha.. in the Whatsapp group chat, one of them said that I bluffed them by saying that the race is easy. Oh well, the race questions were indeed manageable. I guessed it was because of the hot weather that made all of them perspired a lot. Most of them were soaking wet at the end of the race. Deeply appreciate their great efforts in completing the race within the designated time frame. In fact, I didn't want them to go beyond 12pm as the weather will only be hotter and it was really not wise for them to be racing under the hot afternoon sun. Glad that everyone made it back in a piece! Haha... Great Job, guys! :)
Questionnaire for the Race
Side Track: after washing my hair in the morning, I decided to look for the hair dryer to dry my hair. As I was looking for the hair dryer, I found this flowery bag. Mmm... what's in it?
Haha... is the hair dryer! what a lovely bag for the hair dryer...
Off we went when everyone gathered on time at 10am! After I flagged off the race at Sofitel @ Ponte 16, I decided to slowly walked to the ending point to wait for all of them as they were supposed to complete a task at the ending point. As I walked along, I decided to detour to fill my stomach ( I didn't eat breaky!!). Actually, this is part of my plan - to enjoy some street food for breaky. I planned to have a cup of bubble tea + Lok Lok for breaky. However, to my disappointment, Come Buy Bubble Tea was not opened yet. Haiz.. not fated to drink bubble tea, so I just settled for Lok Lok from my favourite stall, 恒友. I sat down to enjoy my Lok Lok and checking out Instagram for updates for their race. As I have asked them to answer some questions via Instagram so reviewing Instagram was part and parcel of my task. As I was enjoying my Lok Lok, I realised that their speed were faster than I expected. Before I could finished my last piece of Lok Lok, the first few teams were already more than half way through the race. So I quickly went to the last stop @ Margaret's Cafe to prepare for the arrival of the teams. :)
恒友 Lok Lok Stall
Yummilicious... You can even buy the sauce from the stall owner and try to make "Lok Lok" at home. I shall get 1 bottle during my next trip!
Egg Tarts for the task to be completed by all teams @ the ending point
Finally when the first team - Willy & Valyn arrived, I knew that the rest will slowly strolled in too. As they sat down, I could see their tiredness and shagness. I didn't mean to torture them by asking them to race under such hot weather. This Amazing Race was specially designed by me and I really hope that they have enjoyed MACAU in an amazing way and be able to know more about what MACAU has to offer in terms of culture, heritage, food and sightseeing. :)
Group photo after the race... All look kinda tired and shag.. haha...
As I didn't followed them during the race, I had to look into the Instagram photos to know what they have done and where they have been. I decided to include some of the photos to show the real action. All these photos are courtesy of all the bloggers via Instagram.
After flagged off at the starting point at Sofitel @ Ponte 16
First photo to be taken with any 1 local cookies shop located along Rua da Felicidade (Happiness Street)
Wow... Joey is like superstar with so many cameras taking a picture of her (or actually they are aiming the shop name behind her. :p) *Photo courtesy of Jerome
Chun See was asking for directions to the next question?? *Photo courtesy of Jerome
Yes! Of all people, why did Kaika asked a half-naked guy for directions? Hmmm.. according to her, there were no one else then. However, we weren't very convinced. Haha...
Rui Long's remedy to fight the HOT weather... Smart girl!
NICE jump by Joey! :)
According to Leo, he was faking a smile as he was soaking wet after going around under the sorching sun!
One of my favourite photos of St Dominic's Church as it captured the whole facade itself.
Photo of part of the Old Section of the City Wall which is one of the heritage site of MACAU!
Lovely photo taken by Kaika, capturing not only her 大头贴 self-potrait but also the landmark of MACAU - Ruins of St Paul's in the background.
Time for Egg Tarts!!! :)
Leo was not really enjoying the tart as he was too tired and sweaty to think. haha..
Of course, together with the video captured by omy.sg, I had a clearer picture of how's the amazing race like when the teams were going around. For the very first time, I felt that MACAU is so beautiful, even more beautiful than I thought of. The local street scenes were nicely captured in the video. :)
After the race, the bloggers had free & easy session to roam around. Most of them decided to further explore Senado Square area for good food and more photos. GOOD for them! :) I didn't joined their lunch @ Cheong Kei & Yi Shun as I had to join Grace and the guests for GTEF for a quick lunch. After lunch, I re-joined some of the bloggers to explore MJ Gallery @ Sofitel @ Ponte 16. I wanted to take some decent photos of the gallery for future promotional purposes. When we were done @ MJ Gallery, the bloggers went back to Senado Square while I went for some retail therapy @ my favourite outlet in MACAU. heehee...
Sau Jun, Joey, Rui Long and Ai enjoying the milk pudding @ Yi Shun. Yummy!!
MJ Gallery dedicated to the King of Pop - Michael Jackson
New items on display...
A time passage that showcased the timeline of MJ
The iconic white gloves of MJ..
If you are a MJ fan, do not miss the MJ Gallery. Quite a compact gallery which is good for a walk down memory lane with the idol's favourite outfit, accessories, music CDs and more. It is FREE admission!
My loot from Espirit Outlet in MACAU! Retail therapy didn't really work though I spent about S$90 in about 2 hours. haha..
After a long day going around, I went back to my hotel room to have a good night rest before a hectic schedule on the next day. & as I entered the room, I was wondering what kind of surprise will I be getting from the hotel? Mmmm...
Here you are! Yummy Macaroons of different flavours! Thanks, Grand Lapa Hotel for the hospitality! :)
Last but not least, for more information and photos of the trip and what did the bloggers do, please log on to My MACAU Travel Experience 2012 official website.
As shared in my pre-trip entry, this trip to MACAU is supposed to give me a total different experience as it will be the first time for me to travel to MACAU with a group of bloggers. :) Being inspired by them, I decided to blog about my trip (usually I will be very lazy to do it as I have to write post-trip report for official submission and I have enough of writing. haha...) Anyway, I shall keep it simple by giving day by day update on what we did.
On departure day, our Tiger Airways flight was due to depart at about 10.25am and I have asked the bloggers to check-in at about 8.25am and to meet me at the boarding gate at about 9.30am. After my flight check-in, my body was aching and I was feeling very tired. My eye lids were heavy and I felt that my eyes were a bit swollen. I guessed these were the after effects of not sleeping well or rather not sleeping at all the night before. But as I shared in my post trip entry, once I wore my MGTO t-shirt, I know I have to be professional and be able to brace through any situation with a smile.
After the flight check-in, I decided to go into the main area earlier as it was the last opportunity for me to explore the terminal and depart from this terminal. Budget Terminal had ceased operations as of 23 Sep and will be making way for the new Terminal 4. I had been travelling to MACAU from Budget Terminal for the past 3 years and I am certainly going to miss it (though the infrastructure is simple as compared to other terminals). Here's a photo I captured before heading to the board gate:
Strolling slowly to the boarding gate to meet up with the rest and to start the adventures in MACAU! The PR rep from Tiger Airways met up with us and we decided to take a group photo before departure. When the request was asked, we heard many unwilling responses "oh no, I didn't put on make-up! So unglam looking! So shag looking" haha... oh well, though without make-up and with the panda eyes, all of them still look good la... :)
After which, we were off to MACAU for surprising moments! :)
Flight to MACAU was good as I slept throughout the journey (what's new! thats usually what I do and especially when I didn't sleep well the night before). Upon arrival, we were transferred to Grand Lapa Hotel for check-in. It was my 2nd time staying in this hotel. Personally I quite like the hotel. While the hotel building itself is relatively old, the decoration at the lobby, lift lobby and cafe are elegant and classic. The in-room decoration is simplier as compared but it gives people a cosy feeling.
nice & cosy room... :)
lovely view from my hotel room at 17th floor
After a short rest in the hotel, I met up with the group and brought them to Macau Tower for dinner and to enjoy the 24th Macau International Fireworks Display Contest. Along our way to Macau Tower, I was giving some simple introduction about MACAU and pointed out a Kun Iam Statue which clearly display the East meets West elements of MACAU. Yeah, it is a statue of Kun Iam with westernised features. Being a Westerner, the scupltor of this statue did not know how the real Kun Iam looks like. Hence, he designed the statue of Kun Iam who has features that are similar to Mother Mary. Interesting indeed. :)
Finally we arrived at Macau Tower. The sales rep from Macau Tower brought us around for a quick view. Having been to Macau Tower for numerous times, honestly I am no longer fascinated by the tower itself. I am more interested about my delegates' reaction when they are taking the lift up to 59th & 61th storey and their reactions towards the see-through glass panels on the floor and their reactions towards dare-devils playing the bungee jump. All these reactions are unique, precious and definitely varies from person to person. Without much doubts, there were someone within the group who did not feel comfortable walking on the see-through glass panels and someone who sat down and refused to move. The bloggers were also fascinated by the panaromic view of MACAU and parts of Zhuhai. When we inspected the outdoor observation deck, they even had a chance to witness the bungee jump in action. Guess it iwas a fruitful trip for them in terms of photo taking. When we proceed to Cafe 360, instead of going for the food immediately, most of them started to take photos of the wide variety of food. Until when they finally cannot resist the temptation, they decided to put down their cameras and held on to their fork & knife and FEAST!
Group photo of the 10 famed bloggers @ Macau Tower
The see-through glass panels which can hold weights up to 200 tonnes.. so it is 100% safe standing on it. Try it when you are at Macau Tower.
before I feast (my 1st meal for the day!!!), I decided to take an illusion shot of the M&M Bridge!
After dinner, the bloggers left the restaurant unwillingly as they were enjoying the dinner so much. They said that the variety was great and there were so many selections of international food. Even the dessert selections were marvelous and they felt so pampered. Unfortunately in order to be on time for the 9pm fireworks display, we had to leave! Sorry guys! We joined the judges and MGTO guests at the VIP section specially set aside for MGTO guests. Seated down, we decided to chit chat among ourselves while waiting for the fireworks. & of course how can we missed out in taking photos of the tower, the surroundings and the seafront areas.
this photo of M&M Bridge was captured by my iPhone 4. how amazing...
where i was seated, i took a photo of the tower from bottom up
Fireworks Display Contest started at 9pm sharp when all the GOHs went on stage to announce the opening. First team to start: Korea. 2nd team: Thailand (first time participation). Personally I like the fireworks display by Team Korea. However, Team Thailand was able to incorporate many interesting elements into their display although the interval from section to section was a bit too long. Winner of the 24th Macau International Fireworks Display Contest will be announced on 1 Oct.
My video of Team Korea's Fireworks Display
My video of Team Thailand's Fireworks Display
After a tiring yet fruitful day, we went back to hotel for a good night sleep and be prepared for an exciting Race Day on Day 2! Upon going into my room, I was greeted by this little surprise.. Thanks, Grand Lapa Hotel!
Last but not least, wanna look at the real action at Macau Tower, here you are:
出发前的几天，我很兴奋，迫不及待想和bloggers在澳门的惊喜之旅。就在出发的前一天，我得知了一个噩耗，心情顿时沉入了谷底。好友们怕我想不开，不惜牺牲睡眠，在我出发前漏液开解我。感激上天让我认识这群不管在何时何地都不会遗弃我的好朋友们。After our HTHT, I went home with a pair of panda eyes and tried to sleep so that I can b on time for the morning flight.
In the morning, when I put on my MGTO polo tee before setting of to airport, I know I have to be professional. Life goes on, work to be done, I must not let my mood affect my work. I'm very proud of myself as I maintained my professionalism throughout the trip. I didn't allow my mood to spoil the atmosphere during the trip. I kept to my usual happy and cheery self. Energetic and active as usual, I'm glad that I made it till the end of the trip. :)
While I sort out the photos, shall have some sneak preview of the bloggers and some activities that we did:
All about Macau Walkabout Race..
They broke my record with the most number of egg tarts bought within 1 trip! :D
Enjoy the 24th Macau International Fireworks Display Contest
PS: to support my effort to revive my blog, i decided to change the blog layout which has been with my blog for ages. :) I still prefer my blog layout to be simple and straightforward, just like my character. simple, straightforward and precise, pls do not beat around the bush when talking to me as i will get irritated and run out of patience. i prefer things to be simple and easy to be understood by all. :)
YES! I am going to revive my blog that has been sleeping all these while. :) Ever since I returned to Singapore after uni studies, I have not been diligent with my blog posts. As I was reading Sis SW's blog entries, I suddenly felt that I should keep up with my blog entries and keep track of the interesting happenings in my life. Ever since I was more involved in Facebook, I have neglected my blog. Now, I decided to revive my blog! haha...
The main reason is also because I will be embarking on a special trip to MACAU with a group of special people soon. Whenever my friends hear that I am going to MACAU, they do not look forward to my trip updates as I had been making so many trips to MACAU in a year ever since I started to work in my current company. HOWEVER, I would think that this upcoming trip will be DIFFERENT and SPECIAL! While, I am going back to my 2nd HOME - MACAU, I will be experiencing a different journey with a group of BLOGGERS! They will be sharing their travel experiences in MACAU via a specially set-up blogsite - http://blog.omy.sg/experience-macau/. Hence, I had the urge to revive my blog so that I can update the happenings on my blog as well. Of course my entries may not be as interesting and colourful as theirs, I will try my best to beautify my entries. :) I will be diligent with my updates while in MACAU. I am certainly looking forward to this special journey exploring a destination that is familiar yet mysterious.
This trip to MACAU is held in conjunction with the 24th Macau International Fireworks Display Contest, one of the major events in MACAU that attracted many overseas visitors to visit MACAU during this period. We are very fortunate to be in time for the opening ceremony of this year's fireworks contest and I am really excited as this is my 1st time attending the opening ceremony of the fireworks contest. What will I be expecting? I wonder.... ^.^
Alrighty, here are some photos which I took from previous trips to MACAU. Will try to take more and nicer pictures with my Aunt's newest toy - Samsung DSLR camera! Haha... Opening Ceremony for the camera in MACAU~! woohoo~!
View from Holiday Inn, Sands Cotai Central
Ruins of St Paul's - landmark of MACAU
Okiedokie! Stay tuned to more updates about my Bloggers Trip to MACAU from 08 to 11 Sep 2012
I went to Macau, Zhuhai and Hong Kong with Yunci, Fiona and Philip earlier in Jan. It was a trip planned since last year when Jetstar launched the "one-for-one" airfare. heehee... & for the 1st time i am visiting Macau as a tourist! though straight after the trip, i had to stay back in Macau for meeting, i still had absolute fun during this trip! pictures tell thousand words... so enjoy the following pictures ba...
@ Macau
yeah!!! i went for the world's tallest and highest bungy jump @ Macau Tower! The tower is 338m tall and the bungy jump is abt 223m high. & i conquered it! the feeling was great. standing at the tip of the platform, i had a sudden urge to back out but there is nO way i can back out. so i had to juz go ahead and jump! heehee... it was an unforgettable experience and i am proud of myself tat eventually i still go ahead and i didn't chicken out! heehee...
chocolate cake... my reward after making the jump!
Fiona, Me & Yunci @ Restaurant Platao
for the 1st time i took public buses in Macau. well... very straight forward and convenient actually. though it is quite squeezy during peak hours which is same in spore.
Food that we ate in Macau
Portuguese Food... how can we miss that when we r in Macau!
Serradura... my all time fav!!! & i tink Fiona is hooked on it too. haha... i'll eat more for u when i go back to Macau next time... :p
Sardines...
Garlic Prawns...
Cod Fish... different method of cooking...
duck rice...
@ Hong Kong
on board First Ferry going to HK...
Dragon Hostel @ Mongkok... our accommodation in HK.. simple and very clean... cheap leh... only S$60 per night per person...
TV in the room... very good ah...
the toilet is very small... the toilet bowl will be wet when we bath as tat is where we stand at to bath...
on board the tram up to the peak...
at the peak... misty misty... no view at all lor...
& is cold... brrrrrr.....
on board the cable car to Lantau Island...
we took the crystal clear cabin so it is actually glass bottom which we can see thru...
self taken shot...
nice view from the top... though it is quite cloudy...
met up with Grace - my ex-housemate in Aussie. so happy to see her as we had not seen each other ever since we all left Aussie after grad..
Food we ate in HK..
Osyter Cake! yummy yummy...
claypot rice... delicious...
tried before beef claypot rice? haha... they have a wide variety of meat... chicken, beef, frog leg... yummy ah...
"XU LIU SHAN" dessert... sweet sweet...
coconut fungus something... very good for health...
wat's tis ah? i oso forget ah.. some kind of dessert la...
typical breakfast set in HK... macaroni with sliced ham, eggs and toast & hot tea/coffee
we went for steamboat! as i wanna to enjoy the feel of a table full of food and slowly dipping them in the hot pot...
