This time round, we took SIA to Hong Kong, as we managed to offset the tickets by about 300bucks due to our accumulated krisflyer miles from signing off our wedding dinner in 2013 =P. A kind surprise from SIA when we mentioned that this is our anniversary trip, a cake for us! That was really nice of SIA!
Upon arriving at HKIA, our plan was to directly take the ferry to Macau primarily due to the fact that you can now board ferry to Macau directly from HKIA. Waited in HKIA for about three hours, and here we go off to Macau! There was really nothing much to do at the arrival hall. We had a simple lunch and then sat and waited for the ferry timing. The good thing about transferring directly is that we do not even have to fetch our luggage and check in to the ferry. This was done seamlessly without out knowledge, when we just pass our SIA luggage tag to the receptionist when we booked our ferry ticket. *Note, the luggage collection at Macau is messy. There's not much checking when you took your luggage, meaning that someone could probably walk away with your luggage and you wouldn't even realised it!
We took the ferry to Taipa Ferry Terminal which was apparently the wrong decision. We are going to stay at Sofitel Porte 16 and they only have shuttle bus to the Outer Ferry Terminal. So from here, we took a cab to the hotel which costs about 80HKD and it passes through the Outer Ferry Terminal. We mentioned in our booking that this trip was meant to celebrate my birthday, and the hotel was nice enough to upgrade our hotel room to a junior suite, which was really really nice. The suite was great with two rooms (like a bridal suite), so it was good as there was a sofa for me to sleep on (we booked a two person room as it was under promotion). The hotel even provided us with an mobile phone whereas free mobile broadband and free local calls and international calls to Hong Kong and Australia. The view from the room was awesome, overlooking the Macau on the left, and Zhu Hai on the right.
After a short wash-up, we made our way out for dinner and nice scenery at Senado Square and St. Paul's Ruin. We had dinner at one of the famous noodle stall between our hotel and Senado Square (Xiang Ji Mian Jia). The noodle was good but i kinda of like the dumpling better. Not to forget, the salmon skin that you should try!
After the dinner, took a short walk to Senado Square. There was an event that night, some singing event that brought much more life to the night. The ruin was crowded as usual, and we ended of the night with the Yee Shun Milk Company! According to google, this milk company actually originated from Macau and that is the first store! Ok, we didn't end the night from here. MIL and I went to casino to play till around 2am. The secondary reason why I picked this hotel besides its good pricing and location, and is due to the fact that there is casino in the hotel.
First night in Casino was good. Won about 1k HKD from playing Bai Jia Le. Keep on striking until the auntie besides me got fascinated by me and kept looking at what i'm betting on. I also discovered more ways of gambling in this game in the second night. If i discovered how to play it the way i did in second night, i could have won more in first day! Yes in first day, cuz i lose back all the money + 200hkd more in the second night =P