Macau Trip: Greyhound Racing

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...

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!

Macau Trip: Water Park

The last time I was at a water park was when we went down to Bali's Waterbom.  So, when we discovered that there was a water park in The Galaxy, we left aside one day to just chill out and enjoy the amenities.

Firstly, the awesome thing about The Galaxy's Resort Deck is the Wave Pool.  It's basically the man-made beach of my dreams.  

Real SAND!

"Real" waves!

During the mornings, when the pool area opened up (8am), there were no waves.  So the little beach was a dream to swim laps in (when you walk out to the deep end).  The laps will be short, but there aren't a lot of people who are up at 8 am.

NOTE:  We went down to the Grand Resort Deck each of the three days that we were staying in The Galaxy…all three days, there were hardly any people who were up at 8 am!!!!

When the waves did start being generated, though, the life guards will let you know with their whistles and also have all kids (who can't swim) put on their life jackets.

The waves didn't seem that dangerous or big, but, more so, a good "wave" height to bounce over and to splash around in.

The beach got pretty busy towards the afternoon hours.  All the beach chairs and spaces in-between were covered with people's beach gear.  I'd totally recommend to visit the beach when there are less people, so then you can really enjoy the ambiance…but, if the early morning isn't for you, the Grand Resort Deck stays open until 10 pm (and that's a great time to have a romantic beach swim with your significant other!).

The second awesome thing about The Galaxy's Grand Resort Deck was the Adventure River Ride, which floated you by some waterfalls, under some water cannons, and through heaps of falling "rain."  It's a leisurely ride, where we just got onto some inflatable donuts and floated along with the crowd.  

The awesome thing about the Adventure River Ride was that there, like the entire Grand Resort Deck, wasn't a lot of people around before lunch time.  So, we got to go through the River Ride as many times as we liked without much hassle.  

This was definitely a great little ride for young people and old people….for everyone.  

***A clip of the Adventure River Ride***

Lastly, (THOUGH I HAVE NO PHOTOS), the really awesome thing about The Galaxy's Grand Resort Deck was the Waterslide.  There were three slides, which were all equally awesome.

One slide I would classify as the fastest one.  This slide was smooth and mostly a straight shot to the end.

Another slide I would classify as a pretty windy one.  It slid me left and right like no tomorrow.

The last slide I would classify as quite similar to the windy one mentioned above, but you had a view.  The other two slides were dark, but this one you could see through the slide…if that makes any sense.

I'd return to stay at The Galaxy just for the purpose of hanging out in the water park again!!!!!  I think this was what really made our stay an amazing one.

Macau Trip: The Galaxy

Today was the day we moved across the street to The Galaxy.  

It was actually a pretty chill morning, as our checkout time was 2 pm, so we got to relax by the pool, have a lazy brunch, and take one last walk around the Grand Canal Shops.

Check out was simple, just dropping our key card into the Check Out slot of the Wing's Lobby.  We then caught a shuttle from The Venetian over to The Galaxy.  

I love when things are simple!

This was the first time we stayed at The Galaxy.  The exterior is beautiful.  It reminds me of a golden peacock palace.  But, inside the hotel area, it really reminds me of a resort in Mexico or Florida!  It's very Tommy Bahama-esque!

The Galaxy is a huge complex that houses The Ritz-Carlton, Banyan Tree, JW Marriott, and Hotel Okura.  

The coolest thing about staying at The Galaxy, which we didn't know prior to our Check In, was that there was a man-made beach in the designated pool area.  There were also a bunch of pools, some exclusive to the other hotels in the complex and a wonderful little water park on top of the hill (with water slides and a lazy river to float along).

There was also a long promenade that went around The Galaxy complex, that went along a cinema, food court, and shopping areas (which features such stores as Burberry, Aesop, Calvin Klein, Uniqlo, Versace, Tiffany, Pandora, Tori Burch, etc).  The indoor promenade also circled around the casino, which seemed to sit at the heart of the complex.

Every entrance of The Galaxy seemed to be named after some semi-precious stone, I think (Pearl Lobby, etc).  But, there were beautiful (though some may deem them tacky) displays in some of the lobbies.

NOTE:  The main lobby, by the way, had a huge diamond/gem fountain that has a light/water show, which we caught after dinner one night.  That was a lovely surprise.

The great thing about The Galaxy, as well, has got to be the food court area called Tastes of Asia.  It was probably the busiest place where people got food.  It was a nice change to have something so convenient and close to the hotel suites.

NOTE:  To purchase foods from the food court, you have to FIRST GET A special card (like a debit card) from the cashier counter.  They'll put as much credit on the card as you like.  Then you can go around to the different counters and order whatever dish you like.  YOU CANNOT just go to a counter and pay for your food, as they only accept those debit cards.  (Though, some places seemed to also accept Octopus Cards…which we weren't sure were Hong Kong Octopus Cards or not).

I got a donburi from the Japanese counter

My husband got a Laksa dish from the Singapore counter

For dessert we headed over to the Honeymoon Dessert place near the cinema and had our fill of some sweets.

A durian and purple rice dessert

A sesame and tang yuan dessert

And, just because we had some cash left on our food court debit card, we went over to the Choux Creme for a tiramisu cream puff.

Looking back, it seems like we were starving that night…Actually, this was also the first time that I got a Chourx Creme puff…it was also what spurred my obsession with getting them a few more times afterwards (as this puff shop is everywhere in Hong Kong now).

Thoughts on The Galaxy:

1.  It reminds me of Hong Kong (There was even a Hok Kee shop from Yuen Long in the food court!)

2.  I loved how there were performers dotted everywhere along the promenade (very much like The Venetian)

3.  I really liked being able to walk along the promenade in the evenings after dinner (a great way to get indoor exercise)

4.  I really loved the pool area

5.  It was also connected to the public bus system, so we could catch the bus around Macau easily from here too...

Would I stay at The Galaxy again?

DEFINITELY!  Especially for the water park.

Macau Trip: Exploring Macau

Though there are shuttles that go between hotel/casinos, we decided on taking the bus around Macau.  It is a nice way to sightsee.  It's also a great way to get dropped off in the city and be forced to wander around the beautiful streets!

Because we're staying at The Venetian, we just caught Bus 25 (the second day that we opted for the local bus!), which was right outside the main entrance, and caught it into downtown Macau.

We had no real aim for the day, so we hopped off somewhere that looked like it had a lot of really awesome things to see (which is almost everywhere in Macau) and just started our day there.  Turns out we were dropped off by the Tea Cultural Museum of Macao.  It was still early, so we popped in to check it out.

This place is open from 9 am and it also has free admission.

It's a little museum on the tea culture of Macau.  The most beautiful thing in the museum was the wall of tea pots, which were so beautifully artistic and found on the second floor.

We then just started walking around checking out the old style Portuguese colonial buildings.  There are parts of Macau that have the most beautiful historical buildings.  There are other parts that look so similar to Hong Kong, like the residential blocks, which look like Hong Kong's government housing estates.

We then found ourselves walking pass the Macau Historical Archives Buildings, the Macau Central Library and then on towards the St. Lazarus Church.  There was a nice little park along this route, which really reminded me of Seattle in the landscaping with tires department.

After wandering for a bit, we then started seeing a bunch more tourist signs that directed us to different landmarks and attractions.  These, by the way, were so convenient, but you could probably only spot them in the major tourist areas of the area.

None the less, we decided to head towards the famous Ruins of St. Paul, which is I always think of as the busiest attraction in Macau (as there is also a shopping area surrounding the Ruins).

The downtown area is quite walkable.  I think it was probably less than 15 minutes before we hit the backside of the Ruins.  The Ruins, in itself, is a beautiful sight to see.  There is also a religious museum with artifacts in the complex, which is worth a gander at.

From the top of the Ruins, there is a stellar view of the Grand Lisboa.

Along the steps of the Ruins, there are a bunch of snack shops, where you can pick up a cold drink…

…a Portuguese Egg Tart…

…or a famous Macau Pork Bun…

The shopping area isn't as spectacular as some may think.  It actually reminds me quite of Hong Kong.  It has the same shops, like Forever 21, Mannings, Watsons, Bossini, Nike, Naraya, Bonjour, Color Mix, etc.

Probably, the most popular things people were shopping for were the beef jerky bits and also the almond cakes.

I love beef jerky!

The Almond Cakes are all right...

The area around the Ruins is also the place to get Macau souvenirs.  They have all the usual magnets, key chains, casino chips, thimbles, and t-shirts.

After checking out the Ruins and snacking on some things, we headed out to Av. de Almeida Ribeiro.  We continued checking out the little shops, lanes, neighborhood temples, buildings, and wandering around the streets.

And before heading back to our hotel, we stopped by this diary shop and picked up a ginger pudding type of snack, which reminds me of tofu fa.  It was a pretty good half day of wandering and snacking on some local treats.

Along Av. de Almeida Ribeiro, also, was the main bus stops to get back to the Taipa, Cotai, Cologne side of Macau.

Things learned from this day:

1.  The bus is an awesome way to get around

2.  Walking the streets are a great way to explore the city

3.  There are always snack shops and drink places to refresh yourself

4.  People seem to not mind giving directions

5.  There are always things to see around every corner!