Tonight, we ventured outside of the casino zones, shopping zones, and usual tourist zones and to the way northern part of Macau. My first impression of this area of Macau was that it looked pretty similar to Hong Kong, with the huge residential estates and all.
We were up here to check out the greyhound racing at the Macau (Yat Yuen) Canidrone Co. Ltd race track).
It's nice to just wander the streets. We were actually on the hunt for a place to eat, but came across a beautiful (though closed) temple…
We also came across a hotel that looked like a blast from Macau's past…
How'd we get out to the northern part of the city?
From The Galaxy, we hopped onto a shuttle which took us to the northern border crossing bus terminal.
Conveniently, if you want to return to the Taipa/Cotai or main tourist areas of Macau, you can just hop on one of the hotel shuttles and they'll drive you right back.
For dinner, we headed to Sun Yick a.k.a. 新益美食 (which you can find more photos of the food here).
The location
Shop 1B, G/F, Block 1 Povocao de New Village Mong-Ha
Pampa dos Cavaleiros, Mong-Ha
Hours
6pm - 4 am
I couldn't find an English review, but my husband read in our guide book that this place was famous for:
1. The interestingly named dishes
2. Unique fusion of Chinese/Portuguese dishes
We heard that this place was flooded with locals daily, so we got there exactly at 6pm and were totally able to get a seat.
We ordered a curried beef and noodle dish...
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| Sorry for the blur... |
…a seafood and veggie dish...
…and a pumpkin, cabbage, and egg plant dish…
The proportions were a bit big for just the two of us, but it was absolutely delicious. My favorite dish was probably the platter of eggplant, cabbage, and pumpkin. The curry was pretty good and would probably come in second for me. I'm not too big a fan of stir fried seafood, but the broccoli and the sauce with that dish was pretty good.
After dinner, we walked over to the Canidrome (a.k.a. 逸園賽狗場), which was the main goal of our evening!
The races took place from Sunday through Thursday. The races begin at 7pm.
[A view of the track and the betting board across the way]
It's really similar to the Hong Kong Jockey Club horse racing…without the horses. But, it was fun to bet on greyhounds that we thought were sprite and active. Turns out, all of our bets fell through. But, it was a pretty fun night, none the less.
Watching the races (there are 18 a night, I believe) is a pretty nice way to still get the gambling itch scratched and to also get away from the casino scene.
The plus about our night at the Canidrone:
1. There weren't a terrible amount of people in the stands.
2. You could get snacks in the kiosk near the betting booths
3. There was a nice little mix of tourists, who were there to just see the races, and locals, who were casually betting on the dogs.
4. It was the perfect end to our stay in Macau and also a nice little date night
NOTE: You cannot take photos in the stadium. The security guard will let you take a few, but then he'll tell you to put your camera away. Which is pretty nice, in retrospect…because I (and the other tourists) could still get some photos…but only a few.
[View of the exterior of the sports stadium next door]
This experience made me really want to set a time to watch the horse races in Hong Kong!
