Macau Trip Day 2 – Lisboa Hotel and Taipa Village

After freshening up in the hotel, we made our way to the Macau Tower for high tea. The driver of the cab who took us there, a man in his 40s, was on the phone almost the entire trip but when we got to the destination, he told us to enjoy our trip. It brightened our day somewhat. However, that feeling didn’t last long as the 360 Cafe was fully booked! We ended up booking a slot for the next day.

We took a cab to the Lisboa Hotel after leaving the Macau Tower. It was a place where hubby had been dying to visit since we decided to come to Macau. The Casino Lisboa is the scene of many Hong Kong movies of gambling and triads and having grown up watching these movies, he just had to visit the casino. So that was our first casino-hopping destination.

Lisboa Hotel:

As with all the other big casino hotels, the Lisboa and Grand Lisboa are richly decorated. Ever since checking into The Venetian and entering its casino, I have developed an interest in the elaborate chandeliers hanging on the ceilings.

The Lisboa and Grand Lisboa both have intricate jade or other stone carvings displayed in the lobbies and walkways.

The Grand Lisboa (newer hotel):

Intricate carving of the Great Wall of China

Hubby posing with Stanley Ho…um, well, his bust. Stanley Ho is a Hong Kong and Macanese billionaire tycoon who owns the Lisboa and Grand Lisboa hotels. Behind hubby’s head is a very huge diamond, called The Star of Stanley Ho, on display. Here’s the description of the diamond from the Grand Lisboa hotel website:

On permanent display at the Lobby of Grand Lisboa Hotel is “The Star of Stanley Ho”. According to the Gemological Institute of America, the 218.08 carat (43.62 g) diamond is the largest cushion-shaped diamond in the world with excellent polish, symmetry and internal flawless D-color. The diamond, named after Dr. Stanley Ho, is a reflection of SJM’s commitment to delivering ultimate luxury to its guests.

This picture shows the inside of the Lisboa casino. I had to crop out the faces of the people… The picture, as with all the other casino pictures, was taken stealthily so it’s a bit blurred.

I saw a magnificent bike being displayed outside the casino and it was a prize for the winner of some sort of lucky draw. I think it was a Harley Davidson but not being an enthusiast of motor bikes, I couldn’t tell and didn’t get a good look. Instead I tried to take a picture but there were 3 other tourists standing there admiring the bike so I couldn’t just shoot, I had to pick the right angle. Then I heard some shouting and it took me awhile to realise that the security guard was shouting at me “Bu yao pai jiao! Bu yao pai jiao!” I was stunned as I couldn’t understand what he was saying nor why he was so acting so fierce towards me. Hubby then told me I wasn’t allowed take pictures of the bike and I realised the guard meant “Bu yao pai zhao 不要拍照 (Do not take pictures)”. So no photo of the beautiful bike 😦

We left the hotel after that and since it was close to dinner time, we stood on the pavement wondering where and what to eat. Hubby suggested going back to Senado Square but we were lost! We stood and consulted the map and walked, finally managing to find Senado Square but hubby didn’t fancy eating in the restaurants there. We just wondered around and looked out for restaurants by the side of the road but none of the restaurants suited hubby. We almost went into a small eatery where I think I was there before on my previous trip with my sisters and we had zhu pa bao 猪扒包 (pork chop buns) but hubby was sick of seeing pork chop buns so we walked on. Everywhere we go, we saw Pork Chop Buns advertised on the windows of the eateries so it was like ‘Are there nothing else besides zhu pa bao?’.

In the end we decided to go to Taipa Village where there are many restaurants, according to some blogs. But getting a cab at 5pm was almost impossible as the queue at the taxi stand was very long. People were getting off from work and cabbies were changing shifts. Our best bet of catching a cab would be at a hotel so we walked and walked and ended up at Sofitel Macau at Ponte 16.

We thought perhaps we could get dinner there when we saw a sign on an escalator of Ponte 16 that said ‘MJ Cafe’, so we went up the escalator. It turned up to be a Michael Jackson themed cafe. The cafe was empty save for the staff, and it was decorated in black and red, MJ’s music played over the speakers, and the whole place was dimly lit. We walked past the bar counter and found another escalator that would take us up to the MJ Gallery where MJ’s memorabilia were displayed. We seemed like the only ones up there so we went up another level (no escalator going down) till we found the elevator that took us down to the hotel lobby.

At the lobby, a lady staff approached us so I asked her where I could catch a taxi. She pointed us to the bus bay where the taxi counter is. There, I told the young chap manning the taxi counter that we want to go to Taipa Village. He’s a good-looking young man with pinkish cheeks and high cheekbones, and his name is Bowie, which reminded me of David Bowie that’s why the name stuck 😛 So after calling for cabs on his walkie-talkie and even his mobile phone, there was still no cab 😦 We must have waited for like 30 minutes and he finally came to tell us that because it was shift-change time, it was hard to get any, but he persisted and finally we got one. And then he finally asked the question I dreaded, just before the cab arrived, ‘What is your room number?’. Well, with a straight face I told him we weren’t guests of the hotel and we only came to visit the casino. Good thing I had given him a HK$20 tip beforehand or it would’ve been more awkward!

So back to Taipa we went and the cab let us off by the road opposite Taipa Village. It was a small area with plenty of restaurants, Chinese, Portuguese, fusion…, bars and pubs, bubble tea shops, snacks shop, souvenir shops (found a small shop selling beautiful tea sets but sadly they were all too pricey 😦 ), fashion shops, etc. We were hungry so we skipped all the shops, even the famous Koi Kei Bakery where they said sell the best Portuguese egg tarts.

Taipa Village

I read a blog and it recommended this place for the best pork chop buns, Tai Lei Loi Kei, but of course, hubby wouldn’t agree to it.

We walked and walked and passed by several restaurants but none of them suited him because he felt that with just the 2 of us, it wouldn’t be good to eat in a Chinese restaurant because we wouldn’t be able to order much, and the staff wouldn’t be kind to us and it would affect his mood. Besides, we wouldn’t know what food to order as we seldom eat in a Chinese restaurant even back in Singapore. And to eat in a Portuguese restaurant, we wouldn’t know what to order either (not very adventurous, eh?). In the end, we went back to what we are familiar with: Japanese food! We found it by chance in a building opposite the village. There was no one there except the staff and chef, and we were directed to the first table in front of the entrance.

Japanese Restaurant

Because hubby was afraid that if we ordered too little, the waiter might not be happy, so we ended up ordering more than we could eat. Good thing I didn’t listen to him and ordered 2 fried rice, instead, after checking with the waiter, I ordered 1 for sharing he said it was equivalent to 3 of the normal rice bowls.

Hubby looked at the menu and the first thing he wanted was this:

Cheese-baked oysters

The oysters turned up to be 6 huge ones, instead of half the size as I’d thought since I thought they were mussels judging from the picture on the menu. They were fresh, too.

The tempura was ok, nothing special.

Tempura prawns

Hubby loved this cheese-baked king prawn:

Cheese-baked king prawn

The scallop fried rice was fantastic as well…

Scallop fried rice

The grilled squid was a big tough but it was ok.

Grilled squid

All the food took about 30 minutes or more to arrive and while we sat and waited, not even 1 person walked into the restaurant. We were like ‘Is this the right choice? Is the food fresh since there is so little patronage?’. But all turned out well, the food was fresh and tasty, and although it cost us about S$100 for this meal, it was still worth it. You can’t get oysters that big and fresh for the price we paid! And guess what? We managed to finish off all the food!

After dinner, we walked back to Taipa Village since we could see The Venetian behind it and figured we could walk back to the hotel instead of getting a cab. I managed to grab some souvenirs from Choi Heong Yuen Bakery.

There is a walkway with travellator which really saves travellers time and effort, especially on such a balmy night. Hubby and I were thankful for the thoughtfulness of whoever built this walkway. It leads to an overhead walkway that seems to be still work-in-progress throughout the island, but some parts were completed and we were able to stand up there to admire the night view of the Galaxy Hotel and The City of Dreams. The light display on the buildings was amazing. The walk back to the hotel took around 20 minutes.