Day 1 Ferry to Macao
So the day arrived for our family vacation to Macao – Hong Kong. We would meet my brother and his wife at HK since they were flying in from KL. It was baby Benjamin’s virgin flight so as with all others, I had to do a pseudo take off, landing act out with him at home.
I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t take Benjamin more than 30 minutes before he totally knocked off on his own aboard the plane. Thank God for Budget Terminal with a mini playground that can totally exhaust any child.
By the time we touched down in HK, it was evening. From the HK airport, one can purchase direct ferry tickets to Macao without needing to check out or collect luggage. All you have to do is to buy the ferry tickets from the counter at the arrival hall near gate E2. Pass them your luggage tag and they would do the necessary to ensure that your luggage follows you to Macao. Ticket costs HKD 233 (SGD 38) per adult and HKD 178 (SGD 28) per child.
The ferry leaves about every other hour so we had to grab a quick dinner before rushing to board the ferry. It would be a relatively comfortable but otherwise uneventful hour ride.
Once out of the ferry terminal, I was thrown into slight confusion as to where to go. There were buses from all the major hotels in Macao shuttling patrons to and fro the terminal to the hotel, and boy were there a lot! The whole atmosphere somehow reminded me of Genting Highland, perhaps because Macao is famous for its casinos and it seems there is some kind of prescribed formula to follow. Red and gold seemed to be the auspicious color scheme.
After lugging our stuff and children across a wide underground tunnel, we managed to catch a bus that seemed to be headed for Sands, but after a 20 minute ride, we arrived at the wrong Sands on the wrong part of the island. So we took another connecting shuttle bus across the bridge again back to Taipa and onto Cotai Sands, which is the newer Sands development in Macao.
We were greeted by glittering lights and interesting shaped buildings along the way. In fact the architecture of Macao is quite amazing and a feast for the eyes. It is dressed up to be a rich man’s paradise, I can imagine this is a fraction of what Las Vegas looks like.
When we finally arrived at our hotel lobby, I was awed at the size of the whole establishment. Under the Sands name, there are three established hotel chains (Conrad, Sheraton and Holiday Inn) located next to each other and connected by a super huge mall. Across the road was the eye catching Venetian Macao Hotel which came complete with its replica of the St Mark’s Square, Doge’s Palace, Rialto Bridge and Venetian bell tower. If you’re not fussy about not being in the actual location, you could do photo wonders here.
We took more than 10 minutes wandering around the mall to locate our check in counter. But the whole detour was kinda worth it because due to some overbooking or spare occupancy, the receptionist kindly offered to upgrade two of our rooms to a deluxe king room, and the third to a family room. The family room is essentially a deluxe king room with an adjoining kids room which comes complete with a Wii console, games, and totally garden like décor. It’s great to be kids! We were also offered twice the amount of shopping vouchers which totalled to about SGD 300!
I guess this great start to the holiday put all of us back in a pleasant mood after the bus detours and right after settling the kids to sleep and having our helper watch them, we headed down to the casino to try our luck at Blackjack and Roulette. I had to bring my passport everywhere I go as the guards refused to let me enter! Goodness. 32 years old and still regarded as a minor. Sheesh. They should see the number of kids I have.
But whatever lucky spiel we thought we had was quickly dissipated with quick successive losses of about MOP 800 (SGD 160) within an hour. Ouch. We had supper in a restaurant within the casino which was paid for with our vouchers. Thereafter we retired for the night well into the morning.
1 SGD = 6.35 HKD