1st day of trip. Macau.

Ya im back and took me pretty long to get back to my blog. That's cos i had like 1000+ photos in my camera that i was uploading to the online photo album and took like forever to organise them.

I have alot of things to say about my trip, and i know i have a really forgetful mind so i made sure i write my tots down each night. it wasn't easy bcos every night i felt like i could just collapse in bed and snore without bathing, bcos i was really THAT tired. But i know if i do that, the next day i'll forget about everything. Oh who cares abt cleanliness at that point of time? haha...

All i can remember now was that the few days b4 i was due to fly off, i was busy with many things, like dancing, interviews and packing that i was sleeping pretty late everyday. I wanted to sleep early on the last nite so that the next day i could be more awake and energised but it didn't happen bcos of last min packing. I did try to pack like a few days in advance but still.....hmm...Van was worse as she was busy finishing up her freelance project that she didn't sleep the whole night. I met her at 6am at clementi mrt station, took mrt down to Changi airport.

Both of us were really tired, slept like pig on the plane but truthfully it wasn't all that comfortable. Till then i still didn't believe that im going on a holiday and all those plannings that we did we were about to execute them. There were hundred and one things on my mind. Like i was still worrying about my interviews, about the double offers. I would call on the following monday to reject the 1st big company, that means spend money on autoroaming, just to buy more time for the 2nd company which im interested in to give mi a confirmation as in on paper, as in annouce to mi i can go and sign the contract watsoever. But anyway it didn't happen and i was still thinking about the job offering the whole week. Gez there were pretty many unsettled things b4 i left, if u ask me now i can't even remember wat i was so worried about. Oh mayb about going to CHina.

Since i've written many observations in my diary, im recollecting them from what i wrote then now....

1st day. Macau. 26th Jan 2006

I had written the diary on the paper supplied by the hotel. Grandview Hotel located in Taipa of Macau. ( see the map here.. http://maps-guide.org/china/macau-map.htm)
It has an inbuilt casino but sad to say we didn't go. We tot we would actually go at night, after we are done with exploring the place but in the end we were tired, exhausted like pigs that we just didn't have the energy to go anymore. We told ourselves we would visit the other casino when we are back to macau on the 4th Feb, when we need to come back to catch the plane.

When we 1st got off the plane to walk towards the airport terminal, the weather was chilly. And i tot it's not so bad after all. I borrowed the thick black jacket from my cousin that was so thick that i had no way of squeezing into my small luggage. So i had to put in my hand carrier to carry ard, i was still thinking this may b too warm. The temperature was 16 degrees. I began to realise that the coat comes in handy..really handy at night bcos i almost froze..and i learnt my lessons about keeping myself warm.We arrived at ard 12.25pm. Grabbed a cab to our hotel. Checked, settled down and began to actually read the map of macau city ( the city ..not Taipa or coloane) for the 1st time haha. We are really that last minute. The gd thing abt Macau is that it's tourist friendly. Most of the important must go buildings are located in the city and in one area..altho there are some a distance away but we didn't go that far. WE asked the hotel staffs about getting to the city and was told to take bus 33, it will bring us to xin ma road, cross the road and we would b at Senado square.
The buses are all very clean and new, no air con was needed as it was already very cold outside. It was squeezy tho as there were many pple coming onboard but squeezing was actually quite delightful when everyone has their winter clothes on, no matter how we squeezed, we have our winter clothes to cushion us from pple shoving and pushing sometimes. Pple are generally polite, they would say excuse me in cantonese, but im sorry i couldn't understand, it didn't take long to catch on and i was using the words myself for the whole trip.

From there, there were lots of directions signs to other places.

The Senado Square happened to having an Olypmics 2008 landscape sulpture contest and showcasing all the models that different companies had submitted. WE were busy taking lots of photos.
We walked on and eventually visited St Dominic Church and St paul's Ruins. Both has musems inside them but i only had time to go for St Dominic's and St Paul's was closed by the time i reached. But i eventually able to go on the last day of my trip when i returned.

St Dominic
St Paul's Ruins

Then we began to realise that all the other places also closes ard 5-530pm. Thats the thing about not doing enuff homework b4 we arrived. Hmm..so we decided to go up the fortress just right beside the ruins. By the time we got up there, it was dark, the city has litted up. When we took the bus, we passed by some of the big and well known casinos in Macau like Sands and Lisboa, they were all so huge and brightly decorated ( saw that when i took bus home) It was like Las Vegas in Asia, even tho i never been to Las Vegas before.

Macau is developing fast as i could see, many contructions of other hotels were on going and you could tell that they are really grandly built.

ON the other hand, the air was hazy or foggy but it was like this everywhere i went, in guangzhou, shenzhen and hongkong. So eventually i concluded it's pollution and probably some bad weather. It gave mi the impression that Macau is very polluted.

After the fortress, we went back to Senado square to shop around. Then bought some food on the way, and decided to head back, squeezed on the bus again. This time was worse as pple wants to go home from the city. It's like everyone wanting to go home from orchard Rd.

Another breathtaking view, are the 2 bridges that connects the city to Taipa.It's very long and very spectacular, but the weather was so bad, i really wondered how it would look on a normal clear day. They also decorated the bridge with lights at night so that it gives a really interesting view if looking from opposite sides.

We bought some sashimi, salmon and was really cheap and fresh. So we had a gd pig out back in the hotel. Van slept early as she was more tired than i did. I ended up writting my diary. The weather was really cold and i couldn't take it. I really don't wan to fall sick during this trip. I've always fallen sick when im travelling.

Every morning we drink a glass of vit C dissolved in it. Or sometimes some herbal tea that we come across on the streets. The next day we would b travelling to Guangzhou by coach. There's a coach service in our hotel, we bought the tickets at 70HKD. It will bring us to Macau-Zhuhai (china) border, we pass the customs and the china's side will bring us to the coach there and bring us to Guangzhou which would be another 2 hrs ride. The customs there might take about an hr. I was pondering over how situations at the borders would b like.......would it b dangerous?chaotic? How would guangzhou b like??? My parents had warned me of the place, is it really that scary?


All i have to say is that, IM so glad i can speak Mandarin. And i look chinese. LAst of all, really thank God for keeping us safe for the entire trip, keeping us away from dangerous characters or places,and His providence that provided just what we needed always.

I'll talk more about each day of the trip next time...

meanwhile, most of the photos have been uploaded. Many more at Van's cam. Will upload later on when i get hold of them. And some video clips that i haven't uploaded as well. http://sg.photos.yahoo.com/kholynn82
I've labelled them from (1) to (10) for ease of browsing.