Macau was the first of two destinations for this trip. It used to be a Portuguese colony for centuries before being handed back to China in 1999. The Portuguese colonization introduced to Macau Christianity, thus the churches all over the place. It also left behind buildings with beautiful European architecture and design. Recently there are multitudes of casinos sprouting up all over the place. The rich history reflected all over the place made it an ideal location to have another photo shoot.
Despite planning to stay in the place for just a night and half a day, we made sure to prioritize the pictorial. As it was also not our first time, we also didn't have too many plans of touring the place.
First part of the pictorial was at midnight right after we landed at Macau. Still groggy from the flight, we had to quickly dress up and brave the chilly evening air. The shots were to be taken outside the Venetian hotel. The intricate building designs all over the place were magnificent. There's also the all-day blue-sky-ed ceiling painting. It feels just like looking up a real sky, and it never gets dark.
The next morning, we headed off to St Paul's Ruins. Being a famous tourist attraction, we had to be early to escape the crowds of tourists that flock the place. It used to the largest Catholic church in Asia during the 16th century. Built by the Jesuits, it was dedicated to the apostle, St Paul. A fire during the 19th century burned down the place, and what is left now is one side of the building facade. A museum containing religious artifacts and relics is housed at the rear.
We had some shots taken around the ruins and the cobble-stoned road leading up to it, Senado Square. It's a commercial district with boutiques and food shops. Macau is also famous for their yummy egg tarts. And you can find them along the way leading up to the ruins.
We got a room at the Venetian hotel that night, and stayed there with four other people. All their rooms are suites. Each has a living room area aside from the bedroom. Booking the suites a month in advance gives you a 20% discount. We got the room at around P8,400 a night.
I had so high expectations of our suite. It was the Venetian after all! Aside from the bathroom which was so pretty, it was not as all as I expected. But it was still good, except from the fact that no one realized that the room had a heater. We ended up freezing ourselves to sleep, and waking up to an even chillier morning.
Macau is not bad for first timers. But after the initial visit to the famous attractions, there's not much left to do except gamble. Getting around Macau would mean taking the taxi, bus or free hotel shuttles that run all over the place. There are no trains or subways in Macau, though plans to build one are underway.
For now, I think that's enough Macau for me. Will see a couple of years after.
P.S. We took no pictures as we were busy having ours taken.
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