60 Hours at Macau & Hong Kong

On 10 April 2009 I begin my journey to Macau & Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific Airways. This is my first time flying with Cathay Pacific and surprisingly that we seated on Business Class. This is because of my mom's good relationship with all international airlines. She is working for BAR (Board of Airline Representatives) in Indonesia as Secretary General so that all foreign airlines operates in Indonesia knows my mom very well. Then we went to Soekarno-Hatta airport and got boarding passes for me and my mom in the Cathay Pacific counter. After 4 hours flying time which was quiet tiring to the destination, finally we landed at HKIA (Hong Kong International Airport). The airport condition and situation in Hong Kong compare to Soekarno-Hatta airport is very different in terms of size and services also the public transportation in HKIA is very neat and easy to understand especially for the foreigner like us. The first town I visited is Macau. We used ferry boat and the pier located near HKIA. From HKIA we transported by big bus to the pier. Macau is divided into 3 section, and that is Taipa, Coloane, and Macau Peninsula. Taipa and Coloane is in the same island. This two island is connected with 3 bridges. The name of the longest bridge called Friendship that ends at the Macau International Airport. The other two bridges are Sai Van Bridge (The first cable bridge in Macau) and Nobre De Carvalho. Coloane and Taipa is connected with a causeway. Causeway is a tunnel that located at the top of the sea.

According to the history of Macau or Ou Mun (Ou Mun = trading gate) at long time ago the boatman from Fujian and farmer from Guangdong is known to be the first people that have been landed in Ou Mun because the location is in the downstream Pearl river from Guangzhou (Canton). The harbour is a also a part of the Silk Road with many boat that bringing silk into Rome (experience-Macau.com).

In this place there is many artifact that I have visited from the Portuguese people in the Museum of Macau like the artifact in the picture beside. According to the history at the year of 1550, the Portuguese people reach Ou Mun, local called it A Ma Gao (A Ma place) for honoring the God of sea, with the God of sea statue at the front of the harbour. Time passed by and this place name becomes Macau, and with the Chinese people permissibility paper of Guangdong, building a city in such a short time becomes a front gate trading between China, Japan, India, and Europe. Macau is a special place.

At Macau I found a lot kinds of casino places, The total of all the casino places in Macau is 29. The most biggest and the favourite casino place at Macau is Grand Lisboa. The icon of a gambling place at Asia is in Macau, and the gambling place at Nevada, America is in Las Vegas. When I wanted to have a dinner at the Macau dining place, I founded that there is some people gambling at the restaurant and I distracted at the time because they were noisy. After that I asked the waiter in that dining place why this people is allowed to play at your dining place, and he said that part of their payment is defined for the society of Macau people where all the children school is subsidized by the government. And I understand now why this people is allowed to gamble at all restaurant. Seems that all of Macau people are used to gamble and it becomes their way of life. Every night the lights in Macau is turned on very bright and looks very beautiful and awesome. The people in Macau and foreigner people have already reserved for all of the casino tables. In all casino places is prohibited to take a picture and also a video cam because they stricly keep and guard the places from unauthorized people who will take a picture.

After I visited all of the casino places in Macau then I headed into the Venetian. This place is a 5 star hotel with 3000 rooms (The biggest hotel in Asia) and there is a mall with lots of famous and branded expensive shop such as Gucci, Giorgio Armani etc. There is also a casino on the second floor and it is crowded with people who is gambling at this casino. It is named Venetian because they designed the place same as Venetia in Europe (In Venetia the town is build above the sea and the building is separated with the sea). The skies is colored blue and also the clouds so it looks real like we were in the outdoor. The restaurant and luxurious shop also seperated by the man made sea so that we have to cross it with the bridge or boat. Tomorrow I visited the Macau museum that were lots of portuguese artifact like I said before in the third paragraph. The name of this museum is inscribed with Portuguese language. There is some unique item in this museum that we can buy for a present to my family in Jakarta.

I was also visiting the temple in Macau that were inscribed with Portuguese language and at that time there was so many people coming to the temple so I can not get inside the temple to take a quick tour. In front of the temple there was a traditional stage for watching traditional dances or other traditional music. I have travelled 1 day and 1 night at Macau after that I continue travelling to Hong Kong. On the journey to the Hong Kong at the bus I saw Dr. Sun Yat-Sen statue. Long ago Dr. Sun Yat-Sen were called the father of Chinese people (I am sorry if the photo is not so clear because I take the picture in the moving bus). Dr. Sun Yat-Sen ever make a chaos in Canton and he is been chased by the police. Because of that he flew to Macau and hide (If I am not wrong).

Outer Harbour, close to the New Yaohan Department Store is the name of Macau harbour (This is a Macau harbour that can connects Macau and Hong Kong). I continue my journey to Hong Kong with a TurboJET ferry that only takes 1 hour from Outer Harbour (the time also include the ferry preparation and baggage loading inside the ferry until taking the baggage at destination). At the Hong Kong harbour or Harbour City, at the side of Kowloon. From here we can take a taxi, bus, train/MTR (Mass Transit Railway). It was different name with Singapore that were MRT (Mass Rapid Transit).

According to the history on 1513, the sailor from Portuguese Jorge Alvares, being the first European man to visited Hong Kong. Hong Kong it was also a special place that was a part of China Republic. At 1 July 1997, Britain government given this land to undertake in a formal way to the Republic of China (Google - Hong Kong)

The sum of all the Hong Kong resident is about 7,5 million people and that was so many compare to Macau resident that were only reach 500 thousand people. The streets is full of people and there was just a few private car in here. Different with Indonesia that always use private car compare to the public transportation (but it is natural or fair because there is no recognizable transport, comfy, and easy to understand for the foreigner to get in like MTR or MRT), also with the pavement have to be big and cozy to walk around instead of using a car.

The first place that I visited in Hong Kong was the Disney Land. This place is very crowded with the people of Hong Kong and also the foreigner (maybe it was because of the Holiday i.e. Easter and long weekend). Every week at the weekend days Hong Kong Disney Land always showing a parade here to kindle all of the people, and it is interacting lots of kids here. But to be honest I am more enjoying the Dufan in Indonesia compare to the Hong Kong disneyland (But there is a new game here that was so awesome and that is the indoor jetcoster combine with the 3D simulation like in Dufan).

At the night I was thinking for shoping an item in Hong Kong that were cheap and many choices. I was confused at the time cause I do not know where is the place. Moments later, suddenly I saw a TKI (Indonesian Abroad Worker) in streets between the crowded people and I begin to approch her and ask where I can find a cheap item and many choices. She told me the place and that place name is Mong Kok, I directly heading to go to the destination but still I do not know where do I have to or with what transportation I have to get in. I asked again the TKI and said that she was willing to accompany me to Mong Kok, and I was thinking at the time because this lady is kind to me and wanted to help me so much. She told me not to take a cab because it will be very expensive compare to the MTR, and also the track that I have to follow. Until I finally reach the destination at Mong Kok, I gave her a lot of thanks (What a nice Indonesian people ^^). Mong Kok is not so different with the Glodok or Kelapa Gading (Indonesian place that are the same like Mong Kok - selling cheap items and strewn around) all of different kinds of item was strewn here and the price was also reachable.

Tommorow I must be already arrive at the HKIA at 12:00am. I have 1 more place to go at Hong Kong and that was the statue of Bruce Lee that was located at the edge of the sea with the very beautiful view. In this place there was also a hand seal of all Hong Kong artist and it was located at the floor including Jackie Chan and many more like Chow Yun Fat also. This place can be for fishing and it can be a jogging arena also because the air was so fresh. After that I directly going to the HKIA and I thank God cause there is no problem from the first journey until I finally arrived at Jakarta again with 4 hour flight time. I hope this story of me in Macau & Hong Kong can be our learning object for all of you about the history and all of the facility in there. That was all Thank You ^^…