Postcards from Hong Kong, and Beyond: A Date with Penny Kim

Two weeks ago (wow, time flies!), Penny and I went on a day trip to MACAU! It was not very well planned and the idea of going was rather spontaneous... It was a Thursday, the day after Mid-Autumn Festival, and we had the day off from classes. We had this idea to just pack our things and go off somewhere without letting anyone know. Just the two of us on a secret adventure of food exploration and sightseeing in a foreign place... sounds romantic, no? Haha!

So it was decided! We headed out at 6:30am for the 8:30am ferry from Hong Kong Island to Macau. We bought these "cheaper" (bootleg) round-trip tickets from this suspicious looking man who was selling in front of the ferry ticket booth... but don't worry, they were legit! whew! The ride was really nice. I took a nap and it felt strangely liberating to be leaving Hong Kong for the first time in a month. When we arrived, the first thing we did was to grab a hand-full of brochures titled "Things to do in Macau", since we had nothing planned except to hunt down those Portuguese Egg Tarts... So, we took a bus to a super crowed street crammed with clumsy tourists with cameras and maps and shopping bags. We had tons of samples (almond cookies!), walked a lot, ate even more, and took many pictures. I felt greeeat - no time constraints and no schedule to follow, just a trusty Korean guide book and a wonderful travel-companion! It was really an ideal sort of vacationing. Not that Macau was anywhere near the top of my list of places to visit, but it was a perfect get-away from the defined life I have made for myself here in CUHK.

Fisherman's Wharf early in the morning - we beat the crowd! Hooray for early-birds :)

<3 :)

She looks too cute for such a strenuous job

Not bad for our second try, huh?

You can't tell that we're both super tired and lacking sleep. Oh, the wonders of travelling!

hehe, continuous shots

oooh, let's make faces :D

we're drawing a lot of attention now...

but who's gonna blame us?

:) smiles all around :)

We luv ourselves some samples! Actually, we were really sick of these by the end of the day...

Of course...

I wasn't exactly sure what I ordered because I asked the waitress for recommendations, and got lost in her mumbling mandarin... but the food was great!

Penny!!

Ruins of Saint Paul's

I purposely caught the couple in the back! Do you like the detail? :)

Admiring the architecture ~Voila!

Cafe e Nata, Macau. GO THERE, EAT PO TAHT

Too bad we were so bloated, or else the egg tarts would've tasted a hundred times better! Learn from our mistake....

@ St. Dominic's Church

What to do in Macau if not visit casinos? What to do in casinos if not gamble?

Ok, so we earnestly tried to "gamble" for the first time, just to say we did! But we failed... we couldn't figure out the coin machine things. Well, I guess we could've tried harder. But in the end, we realized that those few hundred HKDs we would've lost in gambling, actually paid for our entire trip to Macau! 300 HKD on the ferry ticket, plus 75 HKD for food and transportation all day = a grand total of only 375 HKD for an awesome day! That's like $50!

@ Venetian ~ I liked the guy who sang on the gondola, I would've tipped him if I were on the boat.

I ran into Tina and Huining in Macau!!! Tina texted me earlier that they would be there the same day, but only fate brought us together ;D

Exhausted on the bus. But the day is not even close to being over!

Detour to finding a treat for our tummies... a romantic park!

Famous Milk Pudding shop! I really liked the texture. It's kind of like the Chinese tofu dessert (doufu fa) but it's less sweet, more cold, and thicker. The red bean was a nice touch :d

These sandwiches are supposed to be a Macau specialty, but maybe we were too full to appreciate it...

Finally, we're on the ferry back to Hong Kong! We had a nice one-and-a-half-hour girl talk... :)

Oh gosh, we arrived in Tsim Sha Tsui and almost right after exiting the ferry building, we saw "Sweet Dynasty", the dessert place in Penny's guide book! We had to go. haha!

Still awake! O.O

Feet so soreeee from walking all day

Ah, a classic Wonton Noodle Soup is good for the soul

"I'm soo tired, don't take a picture of me!" This was before she tried her mango pudding... soooo heavenly! My goodness... we're definitely going back!