Monthly Archives: March 2016

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macanese cuisine! the national museum had a whole table displaying mockup local dishes. awesome way to learn more about macao’s food and origins.

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one of macao’s famous tourist attractions, the ruins of st. paul. around the area are more stalls of street food and specialty shops.

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near the streets where the ruins of st paul is located, various shops sell this macanese/portuguese egg tart. egg custard on a pastry shell, these sell at MOP 9 to 10 a piece.

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tourists with their selfie stick.

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lots of bakeries in macau. another wonderful thing is that most locals follow traffic rules like pedestrian stop signs, and the fact that drivers will give right of way for pedestrians. and because the sidewalks are well made and maintained, macau is a great walkable city. frustrating for those coming from the philippines where cars are given priority on and off the road. pedestrians and cyclists have no rights in manila. inez.

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i found my reflection in a well at an exhibit building. it says hello. on the other side.

musings, travel

macau in 6 pictures, part 4

click on the link below 😉

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the selfie album. part 1.

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tourist mode on the streets of macau. we walked a lot in macau because there were less cars hence less pollution. the streets were clean and safe. the weather was cold and we didnt sweat. at all. everything was fascinating to look at, we just had to walk all over macau. the only time we took the cab was when we left the airport going to our hotel.

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selfie at a korean cafe with a filipino waiter. it’s awesome to bump into filipinos working abroad. we then hear stories of woe and i do wish the conditions in the philippines were much better so these pinoys dont have to leave the country just to get a good paying job.

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one way to ward off homesickness in a foreign land is to be in the company of pinoys. and to eat food from home. getting tired of steamed fishballs or beef brisket noodles on just the 2nd day in macau, i wanted to eat tapsilog already. good thing filipino restos  and sari sari stores were aplenty along the r. da alfandega. they ran out of tapsilog though. so i ordered the next best thing. lechon kawali.

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the fake sky at the four seasons cotai shops was amazing but dizzying. dont stare while walking. the venetian canals with their gondolas line the area and a lot of them singing gondoliers were, you guessed it, filipinos. it’s hard work too. imagine rowing a boat WHILE singing opera.

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when we checked in at the holiday inn macau in central cotai, we did not know they’d give us a room on the 33rd floor! awesome view… of the next hotel building. and a view of the venetian hotel where we’d walk the red carpet the day after. woot woot!

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while researching for things to do in macau, i read a lot about koi kei bakery. when i saw the shop near the ruins of st. paul, i thought it was a one-shop bakery. then i saw another branch just a few stalls away. and another. and another. na-over franchise ata itong koi kei, OA lang sa dami lol

food trip, musings, travel

macau in 6 pictures, part 3

selfie mode. because.

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art reflects a culture’s past or current state of being. it is the artist’s way of expressing opinion or emotion. we have only skimmed the surface of macau’s art scene and based on what we saw, it may be “safe” but at least it is alive. here are some of the pieces we saw in galleries and on the street.

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chanced upon a gallery exhibit on print artworks. gorgeous pieces by local artists and beyond, though im not really sure. the pieces evoked history and culture, very inspiring. this one here is a detail of a beatiful reductive woodcut print, “buddhist travellers,” by wu shuai wei.

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a traditional piece of clothing at the macao national museum. jaw dropping detail on the embroidery.

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i love street art and i love mosaic in hongkong and macau, and this one here is street art and mosaic together. so awesome

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a marble sculpture on one of the tombs at cemiterio de s. miguel arcanjo along beco do almirante costa cabral in macau. the cemetery gates were open and based on google earth photos, this was one location i would love to see. clean, peaceful, gorgeous. and did i mention clean?

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a small gallery shop out of nowhere. around the time we came about this area, all the shops were still closed. they were expected to open at 11am. lots of quirky art pieces.

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somebody threw or left a pair of shoes in one of the alleys in macau. what to do? strike a pose. art in macau was generally better than in malaysia. it felt more at ease and not stifled (by the government or religion, maybe).

musings, travel

macau in 6 photos, part 2

photo blogging about macau. part 2 na ni.

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was able to travel to macau recently because we got nominated at the 10th Asian Film Awards for our design work in Heneral Luna. they covered airfare and hotel accommodations so of course we had to go! but more on that later. we decided to stay 2 extra days in macau just to go around. we were there between march 13 and 18. here are some photos.

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peeked through the glass window of this barber shop. the folks in macau generally dont mind getting their photos taken without permission. they just stare at you then go back to whatever they were doing. i obviously would not want to intrude so there are very few people photos in my collection

 

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fascinated by the layout of their corridors and streets. it was between 14 to 19 degrees celcius when we visited and everybody wore their parkas and heavy jackets. im not sure if it were warmer weather there would be more locals out in the street, like how it is in the Philippines.

 

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macau is clean. coming from manila, i would say macau is spotless. so it was a hoot finding this spot where the pavement hasnt been swept. while in the Philippines this dirty look would be normal, in macau this would be the exception.

 

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i took a lot more photos of macau’s mid rise buildings when i was there. so awesome. loving the simple commercial stores on the ground floor and that the remaining 2 to 7 storeys were residential (i think, i havent really asked but i assumed haha). a blogger commented the streets of macau looked the same in lisbon or wherever in europe.

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evening lit shop with carlo as an unwitting model. as we were near the tourist district a lot of the shops were marketed for tourists. it’s awesome that there were more food stores for tourists than there were tshirt and ref magnets stores. egg tarts, beef jerky, and pastries are the go-to pasalubong stores here.

 

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gorgeously laid out street and decked with lanterns. why is it so clean??? im jealous. we noticed the locals, when eating out in public spaces, they automatically cleaned up after themselves and threw their trash in properly spaced out waste bins all over the city. drivers respectfully letting sidewalk pedestrians cross first. no overspeeding except on major highways. taxi drivers giving exact change.

musings, travel

macau in 6 photos, part 1

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