Some stories from the last bit of 2009

Happy New Year everybody!! And how was your new year's celebration, if any? Mine was uneventful, got home from mom's close to 12am after a family meeting (niece getting engaged next weekend)... the thought of parking my car by MRR2 (just before the new Ampang Hilir park) to see the KLCC fireworks came to mind... in fact we slowed down the car and almost parked but decided that we were too tired (I was working on new year's eve - brought the girls with me to work too and they, of course, loved it!!). We gave it a pass, kids zonked out as soon as they got on the bed while I was on the computer. Minutes later heard the dentam-dentum of the fireworks exploding in the air... yeay, happy new year to me!! ;-) macam no feeling lah pulak this new year... no resolutions (ok.. that's a lie!!)... ;-)

Enough about the new year, this post is supposed to be about the last bit of 2009, kan?

Two days before Christmas we (10 of us family members) flew to Hong Kong with the airline that enabled everyone to fly :-) the trip was planned as early as Feb 2009... nak tunggu cheap tickets la katakan... we DIY-ed this vacation... anyways, hold on HK dulu and let me write about Macau first.

We took a ferry to Macau on the fourth day of the vacation, which took about 75 minutes. I had forgotten how seasick I could get. The first 15 minutes rilek lah, pastu when I was filling in the immigrations form, the insides of my tummy started to turn topsy-turvy... and then memories of puking by the buffet table on the Sydney Harbour cruise (yes! sungguh memalukan!!) and the dizziness I felt onboard the Star Cruise came vividly to mind... forms ke mana, pen ke mana... I put my head on the tray table and tried to 'shut down'. Seram sejuk pun ada jugak...dahlah the weather outside was averaging at 13C!! I just shut my eyes tight while praying I'd doze off... alhamdulillah, I tertido!! woke up 10 minutes before reaching Macau but I still had that form to fill, right?? (asked the girls to fill up their forms themselves earlier)... hmmm... so, isiklah form secepat-cepatnya while holding my breath!!

the girls happy je to take the ferry and were chatting throughout the journey, so I was told :-)

We chose to go to Macau as it was so near to HK - we had highly doubted that we'd make a trip just to visit Macau kalau tak pegi masa kat HK. The highlight of our Macau trip was no doubt watching Zaia - the show by Cirque du Soleil. We booked the seats online prior (the cheapest ones and alhamdulillah, cheap seats pun dapat enjoy the show sepenuhnya). No photos or videos allowed but there's the promo video here. Masya-Allah... it was fantastic -- all the time during the show I imagined the men and women practising, practising, and practising some more their skills... and thinking how wonderful it is the machine God gave us, that is our body. Masya-Allah!! the acrobatic performances, the special effects... really larger than life macam promo tu cakap.

a photo by Zaia's poster... the show was unforgettable...

First day in Macau was spent at the VenetianMacao ~ resort~hotel. We did not stay there but the resort provides shuttle buses from almost any other hotels in Macau (I think!). So, after checking in and having our lunch in the hotel room (food ration ada lagiii), we took the shuttle to VenetianMacao.

our hotel room... Macau and HK are very strict about the number of occupants per room so we did not have a party of 10 in 2 rooms!! I'm posting the pix here sbb nanti nak compare with our rooms in HK... at the same price, kat Macau terasa macam orang ada duit sikit after staying in a hostel-like accomodation in HK!!

that's the 10 of us!!

One word to describe the place -HUGE. The resort punya theme - Venetian, so konon-konon everything macam kat Venice lah... with the canals and gondolas (without the smell - my cousin lah kata, I tak pernah pegi Venice unfortunately). And these canals and gondolas are within the resort... siap dengan panorama sekali of Venetian buildings and fake sky. The sky was fake but the buildings were not... not entirely, though - the first floor which houses shops and boutiques is real but the second and third floor were only facades...though fakey, I must say it IS pretty charming (not as charming as the real thing, I am sure). But quite charming. Or maybe it was us yang jakun??!!

there were two canals in the resort, each lined with boutiques and shops from almost every brand imaginable...

the sky's fake -- not unlike the Marakesh@Sunway Pyramid

The kids wanted to ride on the gondola, of course. And how la to say no... come all the way, kan? So, on the gondola we hopped. The gondola attendants were all Filipinos and they were quite an entertaining lot!! Terubatlah juga waiting in line almost 1.5 hours waiting for our turn. As soon as we got on the gondola, our guy Stephano greeted us Ciao!, taught us a few words in Italian, told us the story of the Bridge of Sighs (Ponte de Sospir) and even sang for us!! It was a pretty superb 15-minute ride on the Marco Polo Canal (chewah, macam real jek!!). Thumbs up to the gondola management!!

The second (and last) day was spent sight-seeing. This we did not DIY but chartered a van to take us see places of interest. Among them were the Taipa-Houses Museum, the Fishermen's Wharf, the Senado Square and ruins of St Paul. Macau, being under Portuguese administration from the 16th century up till 1999 (this is quite interesting stuff, read here) had a lot of European influence. Tiny uphill cobblestone streets and some of the colonial architecture left quite an impression. Streets are named in Portuguese. But I do feel for the Macau people - most of them we met on the streets cannot speak and read Portuguese!! Apatah lagi English. That made it difficult for us to ask about places in their Portuguese names as the locals (at least the ones we met) simply do not know it!! Apa punya penjajah daaa... at least the British gave us education in English.

Some photos we took while sightseeing...

There were two distinctive sides to Macau -- there's the brand new, man-made attractions and the gaming industry which makes up it's main tourist revenue on one hand and the historical nostalgic past of bygone days on the other. I'm glad we saw both sides during our short 2-day stay.

Insya-Allah I'll be back with some more stories from the last bit of 2009!! Happy New Year to you again!!