Sunday, February 27, 2011

Macao & Margaret's

Hello Lovelies!

It's been a long, long while since I've posted here.
I've wanted to use this blog as the a journal to document
our travels - though I haven't been good at keeping up with it.

This trip to Hong Kong will probably be the last for a long while,
as I'm sure we'll be starting a family soon enough and long travels
to such crowded cities will have to wait some years.  With that in mind,
we tried to appreciate every moment of this trip!

We landed in Hong Kong in the afternoon, got ready to go out,
and promptly fell asleep when J wanted to "rest his eyes".
Fast forward to 1:30 a.m. when we both wake up, me hungry like a caterpillar, 
and restless.  Took some meds and went back to sleep so we could make the trip
to Macao in the morning! 

* Note:  It was raining everyday of our trip. *

After our hovercraft-boat ride to Macao, we went to The Venetian.
It was almost identical to the one in Las Vegas!  I LOVED that there
was a "shopping tour" point!  Gotta start there!

BTW - My Lululemon "Fast in Flight" bag was used immensely this trip and withstood so much abuse!  LOVE.IT!

Dining at Madeira, a Portuguese restaurant in The Venetian.

 Macanese Spaghetti for J and Braised Duck Stew for me. nom nom!

We'd heard all about the best Portuguese-style Chinese Egg Custards (dan-tat) in Macao and couldn't
wait to try some for ourselves!  We were directed to THE BEST egg custards by locals @ Margaret's Cafe e Nata. 

At Margaret's, you pay for however many egg custards you want, get a ticket with your quantity,
wait for the apron-lady lady to step out and yell "they're ready", and rush into a line to pick them up!
J snapped this shot on his iTouch:


Locals do not lie!  These were incredibly silky in texture with the perfect puff pastry crust!
* Tip:  Last batch of the day usually comes out around 6:15 pm!

 Fresh watermelon juice for me too! Mee sooo happy!

. . .

Among the many FANCY and EXTRAVAGANT CASINOS we visited in Macao, 
The Grand Lisboa was at THE TOP of my list for all things over-the-top!
It was lit up at night, changing to all the colors of the spectrum and glowed!

The entire lobby of The Grand Lisboa housed international 
museum-quality artifacts and pieces of beauty and wealth!

The show-stopper was most-definitely THIS diamond!
YES, I DID take pics, even of the GIA certification.
I'm not kidding myself, this is probably the closest I'll ever
get to a diamond of this size and quality in my life.
LOOK @ it!
 Maybe the size of that egg custard we ate?

The stunner was not a lone showpiece in this lobby... oh no...
There was a BRILLIANT EMERALD!
 *sigh* I love emeralds (though I have yet to own one)
 Beautiful and huge!  My pics seriously do no justice!


For chandelier-lovers, this lobby would have made your hear pitter-patter so!
This was the main chandelier, but only one of many.

Everywhere you turned in this lobby were incredible carvings and statues made of bone, ivory, jade, and gold! 

Intricate little monkey warriors...
 This happy jade Buddha was one of several!

A gold, carved scenery - even more gilt IRL!
 This golden dragon boat was incredibly detailed and large...
See - it's longer than I am tall!
 I won't bore you with more Grand Lisboa pics, but be sure there were a ton!
. . .

The next day, we checked out The MGM Grand in Macao.
In true MGM-style - everything was gilded in gold!

 There was a MASSIVE ceiling sculpture & sphere-feature, which tons of people were
crowding around.  We learned there was a show - and boy was it a PRODUCTION!
I might upload it to YouTube if I get some time.  The whole ceiling opened up to reveal
lights and lasers, choreographed to music.

The animals all represent the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac.
The bottom sphere was based on the Astrological Zodiac and I stood in front of my Scorpio!
  Check out how small the people are surrounding this sphere that also opened up!

. . .

Since our trip was at the end of the Chinese New Year's/Spring Festival,
there were flowers, symbols of fortune, and bunnies everywhere!
*It's Year of the Rabbit!*


 This round tower is actually an LCD screen with moving pictures!  How cute is the lion!
 The grand atrium at MGM is reminiscent of the one at The Bellagio in Las Vegas.




Even pastries are decorated and festive for the New Year's!
Those are actually cakes with edible "gold" chocolates!



It was a brief trip to Macao, and made even shorter by the rainy weather, but we were so happy to get a chance to visit!  
It's definitely a window-shopping, people-watching, fascinating locale!

xoxo,
Vivian

1 comment:

  1. omggggg so many things i want to say about this post.

    1. omg so lucky you got to go to macau!

    2. you and your hubs are SOOO cute!

    3. those egg tarts look SO nommy!

    4. UHMMMM HELLO BLINGGGGGGG!

    and

    5. those are some seriously amazing carved pieces of art work!

    you look like you had a blast :) can't wait to see more vacay pictures!

    ReplyDelete