Macau Journal : Macau 18Aug-21Aug 2006

2006-08-18 to 2006-08-21

Took a long weekend shopping trip to Macau with my Asawa (wife). We departed from the old Clark Airbase near Angeles City North of Manila. We traveled to Manila from Bacolod City (in Negros Occidental) via Philippine Air. Philippine Air operates a low cost, one class service between Bacolod and Manila. I had arranged ahead for a private car service from "Margarita Station (out of Angeles City). The car service met us as promised and drove us to Clark (approx. 2 1/2 hours). At Clark we took low cost Tiger Airways (owned by Singapor Air) to Macau (approx. 2 hours). Tiger Airways is a low cost, single class service. Cost of the round trip for two was about $277 including taxes/fees. Macau is located on two islands interconnected by several long bridges. The City of Macau is on one island while the other island contains the cities of Taipa and Coulon. The international airport is located in Taipa as is the ferry terminal operating connections to Hong Kong. We stayed at the Hotel Taipa which is part of the Best Western chain. The official languages of Macau are Portuguese and Chinese. Very few speak English and these will mainly be found at major hotels and upscale restaurants. The first thing we discovered is that the local taxi drivers are among those that do not speak English. We overcame this by going to the airport's information desk and asking them to write our hotel's name in Chinese on a card. Armed with the card we got a taxi to our hotel. Taxis are plentiful and inexpensive in Macau. We simply decided where we wished to visit and asked the hotel desk staff to write the names of the arweas on a card in Chinese (the hotel has pre-printed cards for themselves that state in Chinese, "Please take me to Hotel Taipa"). Most of our visit consisted of visiting the various shopping districts in Taipa and the City of Macau. Merchants in Macau accept $MOP (Patacas) and $HKG (Hong Kong Dollars) on a 1 to 1 basis. Using Hong Kong Dollars will get you Patacas as change. Hong Kong merchants on the other hand do not accept Patacas. Most Macau ATMs will dispense in either currency as requested. The exchange rate is approx. $1.00 US to $8.00 MOP/HKG. The Hotel Taipa is an excellent hotel featuring a casino and restaurant. If you book directly through Best Western (a mistake I made was booking throiugh travel agency promising 75% off rates) will net you the best rates - approx. $70 a night for a good room. We were fortunate in that the "standard room" I had booked through the travel agency at too high a rate was not available upon check in so the hotel upgraded us to a small suite at no extra charge. Included in the hotel's room rates is a very nice full breakfast buffet compleate with hotel chef cooking eggs/omlets to order! In addition there are many shops and restaurants with in easy walking distance to the hotel. The hotel also maintains a free scheduled shuttle service between the hotel and ferry terminal. This service operates from approx. 8:00am in the morning until 10:00pm at night. The ferry service between Macau and Hong Kong seems to operate on a 24 hour basis. One very notable shopping district in the City of Macau is "Senada Square." Macau has many large Casinos and also many fine jewelry stores featuring exquisite gold jewelry at very good prices! We made one side trip on our second full day to Hong Kong via Turbo Jet Ferry. The one way cost - Economy - was approx. $20 each. The seating was very comfortable and the crossing took approx. 1 hour. We plan to return in October but will stay in Hong Kong and plan a one day side trip to Macau.

Travel Journal:

Macau 18Aug-21Aug 2006

Ratings for Macau 18Aug-21Aug 2006

Reviews for Macau 18Aug-21Aug 2006


About VCarious \| What People Are Saying \| Travel Planning \| Share \| Contribute \| Terms \| Site Map \| Links \| Contact Us Copyright © 2006-2008 by VCarious. All Rights Reserved.