Macau - Food Street at Taipa Village

The famous food street at Taipa Village is along Rua do Cunha which is almost right in the middle of the heritage area. At one end of the street is the town square, and at the other end a small plaza surrounded by old shophouses.


Along this short and narrow street there is a dizzying array of restaurants and snack shops. There are Chinese, Cantonese, Portuguese, Italian, French and even Korean food for you to choose from. The snack shops are similar to the ones on Macau Peninsula, with many of the same familiar names represented here. If you have done your shopping already, you can avoid these. However don’t miss the dessert shops for their delicious jellies and ice cream. Many Bloggers vouch for their durian ice cream, but for me durian is best eaten fresh from the shell so I gave it a miss. Their coconut ice cream was really great !


The fish ball shops are also very popular. In Malaysia these are called “Lok Lok” shops which sells all kind of things on skewers which are blanched in hot water and served with a chili or sweet sauce. Here the selections are mainly different kinds of fishballs. These are blanched and then put into a cup, drizzled with some oily savoury sauce. They are quite nice for a quick snack.

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Macau - Taipa Village

Taipa Village at Taipa Island is another popular destination for tourists. Here, like Senado Square on the Macau Peninsula, is a heritage area that has been converted into a tourist attraction. From Macau Peninsula you can take a bus to Taipa Village from the main bus terminal in front of Casino Lisbao – it is a 20 min journey.

There are many temples, churches and historic sites within a small area at Taipa Village, and it is quite easy to explore on foot. Many of the buildings look like they are still unchanged after all these years, so you get a feel of their real historical character.

The sites to look out for here are Rua do Cunha, Church of Our Lady of Carmel, and the Taipa House Museum.

The charming old streetscape.

There are many old heritage buildings to explore.

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Macau - Guia Fortress and Lighthouse

The Guia Lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse on the coast of China. The lighthouse is still operating today. It occupies the highest point in the whole of Macau, and you get great views from here of the Macau Peninsula. Next to the lighthouse is the Chapel of Our Lady Guia. Storm warnings used to be sounded from the bell tower of the Chapel.

The Guia Lighthouse sits inside the Guia Fortress which was built in the 1600s by the citizens of Macau to protect the colony. Looking at the number of fortresses built within this small Colony, things must have been pretty rough in the old days !


Entrance to the Fortress.


The Chapel.


The Guia Lighthouse.


An old canon.


To get up to Guia Fortress, you can either trek up the hill or take a short ride on the small cable car from Flora Garden off Avenida de Sidonio Pais. This is probably one of the smallest and shortest cable car rides in the world. I chose to trek up the hill for a bit of exercise. If you take the longer route, you will some across some old sentry points at strategic locations around the hill. These are remnants of the traumatic history of the area.


Views from the top.

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Macau Casinos - The City of Dreams

Besides The Venetian, The City of Dreams (COD) is the other ambitious project at the new Cotai Strip of Macau – a purpose-built casino area between Coloane and Taipa Island (these 3 areas have more or less merged to form a big island). This is another mind-boggling development with 3 hotels anchored around the main casino. The design is very modern with acres of glass curtain walls – kind of like a city within a city. The collection of hotels is impressive – Crown Towers, Hard Rock Hotel and Grand Hyatt Macau. It is owned and managed by Melco Crown Entertainment Group, a joint venture between Lawrence Ho – Macau Casino Magnate Stanley Ho’s son and James Packer’s Crown Casino Group of Melbourne.



The light show at COD is one of the best in Macau.


Inside the gigantic complex there is also a very high-end shopping centre that is unlike any I have seen. Instead of a seamless shopping arcade connecting all the shops which is the typical model, here the shopping centre is divided into different zones each focusing on different products such as fashion, watches, etc. This concept is suppose to bestow exclusivity to the shops, but I find it a bit disjointed and confusing as there are no connections between the different zones. You need to go up and down different sets of escalators to go to a different area, rather inconvenient.


There are 2 interesting free attractions at the COD. First is Vquarium – a gigantic curved screen with water cascading down from the top. The back-projected video show features computer generated 3D mermaids which appear and disappear at regular intervals. It is entertaining mainly for small kids.


Another attraction is called “The Bubble”. It is a 20 min 360 degree 3D show featuring 5 legendary dragons, projected onto a hemispherical screen. The start of the show is the most interesting, with a light and water shower effect at the centre of the theatre. The sound effects are quite spectacular. This is a lot more impressive then the mermaids, and it is free ! Make sure you go and get tickets from the ticket counter as you will only be allowed in at the specified times.

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Macau Casinos - The Venetian Macau

The Venetian Macau is design to shock and awe anyone who visits. The sheer scale of it is unbelievable, and the amount of money that must have been thrown into the project is astounding. The main entrance building is designed like the Doge Palace, and there is even the Rialto Tower, Bridge, etc. It is like the whole of Venice has been shrink-wrapped and brought to Macau. That said, the quality of construction is very good – it doesn’t look and feel like a cheap replica. Most of the main facades are clad in what looked like real stone, and the quality of finish is impressive.


At night the lighting effects are quite spectacular.


As you enter the main lobby, you are suddenly confronted with the St. Peter’s Basilica, and the hallway that leads to the Casino is also modeled after the famous cathedral in Rome. Everything is painted on of course, but the effect can be quite mesmerizing for a while. However, the quality of the interior is no where near that of the exterior.


The Casino has a huge shopping centre attached to it, and this is also modeled after The Venetian in Las Vegas. The internal shopping arcades are designed like Venetian streets complete with water-filled canals. There are even gondolas with gondoliers for hire. There doesn’t seem to be any clear demarcation of the shopping zones, and it can get a bit disorienting as it starts to look the same everywhere.


They employ many entertainers who perform and entertain around the shopping centre dressed in period costume. For me they are the most endearing part of the whole Venetian experience. Nothing beats the warmth of real people.

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