In 15 years of coming to Macau, I’m guilty of going to the same places over and over again at the expense of trying other well known spots.  I’ve generally come here for one day and perhaps one night, always dinner at Fernando’s, then some specific agenda.  So there’s a long list of famous places I haven’t been to, famous restaurants I haven’t tried.  The main purpose of this trip is to rectify that.  And day one was about as perfect as I could have hoped for.

I chose the Star World Hotel because it seemed to be the cheapest 5 star, with a week-day rate just under HK$1200++ per room.  Then I noted that for 300 more, you get an “executive” room – higher floor, buffet breakfast and internet included, so I went for that.   And the place is great.  Not too big, like the Venetian, 500 rooms instead of 3,000.  Our room is 38 square meters with a 12 foot high ceiling on the 35th floor.  We can see the old fort and lighthouse, the harbor, the Sands, Fisherman’s Wharf, a lot more from here.  A great king sized bed, 42 inch TV, DVD player, one of those glassed-in bathrooms with oversized bath tub and rainforest shower.  Most of the hostesses in the lobby are almost 6-foot tall Filipino women wearing patent leather boots with spiked heels – my gf has made friends with most of them by now.  A small stage in the lobby with energetic dancers performing every hour – they’re mostly Filipino too. Lots of Filipino staff working here but I guess they don’t get too many Filipino guests.

Anyway, we dumped our stuff in the room and then went off to Leal Senado square and further down San Ma Lo, the old main street.  We filled a shopping bag with pork and beef jerky from some of the shops along the way – each has someone standing in front holding a hunk of meat and a pair of scissors offering free samples.

We turned off the main road and found the famous Koi Kei bakery, where you can watch them making almond cookies and egg rolls and again, you can get free samples of everything.  We stuffed ourselves with samples of the various cookies and meats and filled up another shopping bag with goodies.

At that point, I put the map away and we just started wandering the streets.  I found one amazing old building after another.  This was when I was glad that I remembered to bring along my 10-24mm lens.  We found an area filled with Filipino shops, kebab shops, a Thai barbecue place with the cute name Sawadi Cup.  A Filipino lady-boy in a very short dress took a liking to me but fortunately went up to my gf first and asked, “Is that your husband?” and then moved on.

Back to the main road, back to Leal Senado square, where they are finishing up the amazing decorations for Chinese New Year.  The square was packed, even on a Monday.

We found Margaret’s Cafe e Nata and sampled some of their famous egg tarts.  There are some who say these are now the best egg tarts in Macau.  I lined up just as a new batch came out of the oven.  I don’t eat eggs but these were creamy and rich without being sweet and the pastry was amazing – flaky and crisp and buttery just like a croissant.

Back to the room to chill out.  Then out for dinner to A Lorcha, a famous Portuguese restaurant that I’ve never been to.  A pitcher of sangria, a huge bowls of clams cooked in olive oil, garlic and herbs, with some nice bread to dip into the broth, which we also lapped up just like a soup.  Char-grilled pork short ribs, served with french fries and salad, very tasty but not enough meat on them!  And then bacalhau, cod fish chargrilled and covered in garlic and olive oil, served with boiled potato and salad.  The price for all this was M$430, the flavors were completely different from Fernando’s and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

We finished the meal, paid the bill, and suddenly found ourselves talking with the couple at the next table – Chinese Malaysian, the husband a lawyer from KL.  They asked me to take a picture of them and we just got to talking after that.  We sat there talking with them for another hour or more, wonderful friendly people who came here with the same idea as us – walking around, touring, eating, picture-taking, no casinos.

Back to the hotel and asleep by 10:30, believe it or not.  Up this morning at 7:30 and we can’t see out the window because the fog is so thick but hopefully that will burn off soon.  And then more walking, more eating.

Okay, time for breakfast and to get back out there to walk around a different district and discover all the things I’ve been missing all these years.

Yes of course there are photos!  No time to properly process them but here’s a gallery I quickly put together for you.  Click on any image to see larger size.