5th September 2011 - Monday
Zhuhai / Macau Trip Day 1
::Singapore - Macau - Zhuhai::
well, after travelling and flying numerous times with my friends. this time round i have decided to bring my parent out for a trip. i saw this Zhuhai and Macau deal at deal.com.sg, at an affordable price of $357 per person, which includes 2 ways flight, airport taxes and accommodation at both Zhuhai and Macau. and since i haven't been to these 2 places yet, so why not?
purchased the deal online, and then went over to the agency to do the necessary booking. anyway, the travel agency is a pretty well-known one, Dynasty Travel. at least, we won't get con that easily. hahaha.
they only have 2 flying days. either a Friday or Monday. after much analysis, flying on a Monday would be better definitely. you see, first choice was Friday to Monday (returning on Sunday midnight; 4 days), second choice was Monday to Friday (returning on Thursday midnight; 5 days) obviously, fly on Monday would be better. we gain 1 day in fact. just that i have to take 5 days leave. it's okay, i have lots of leave anyway :)
ohh so on that day itself, we decided to take the last train to Changi Airport and ton one night down there till 4.50am as our flight was at 6.50am.
luggage packed!~
ready to go ya!
i love this tower best in Changi Airport
midnight counter. mostly are closed.
my flight: Air Macau, NX 859 @ 0650
my parent doing colouring like a kid. hahahah
our masterpiece xD
ahhhh. it was indeed a long and tiring night at the airport. i brought my parent over to Terminal 3 for dinner supper first, then rot down there over at the Food Courts, watching drama on my laptop, doing some colouring first before moving back to Terminal 2 and wait.
the airport during the night was seriously cold. we were practically freezing down there, and all 3 of us ended up sleeping over at the chairs. hahaha. woke up with backache, and still feeling very cold.
finally, we struggled till 4.50am when our counter was opened for checking in. quickly get my parent to get in line and queue to retrieve our air tickets.
boarding at 6.05am
our tickets.
yeahh.. finally, we get to enter the immigration checkpoint at 5.20am. shops were all closed, nothing to see, nothing to buy. we slowly made our way to our gate at E27, and then, it's another round of waiting. 45 more minutes of waiting to be exact. awwww, but time seems to fly faster. in a blink, time to board the plane.
not those very big type of plane, but slightly better than budget airlines. i was so freaking happy that i got the window seats. hahaha. my parent immediately went to their zzz mode due to their lost sleep the night before. while they were sleeping, i have to fill up the 3 immigration cards for all of us in order to enter Macau, arghhhh. shortly after when the plane was stable up in the air, breakfast was served at around 8am.
Minced Meat Bee Hoon and Omelette
Pig-rabbit is going too!
yay, it's a 4 hours journey. the plane touched down at around 10.50am. immediately, followed the crowd over to the checkpoint to get our passports chopped. our whole morning was wasted at the checkpoint clearance part. all these china officers were really taking their own sweet time clearing the queue.
after we got through, collected our luggage, we quickly made our way out and look for the person-in-charge who will be bringing us to cross border. yes, our first destination was not Macau but Zhu Hai. sigh, cleared finished 1 checkpoint, there's still another to go lol.
we arrived!!
Macau welcomes us xD
collecting our luggage
meeting the person-in-charge, and first time seeing my group of tour friends.
yeah, the one wearing green was the in-charge. a Cantonese speaking man who totally cannot speak English at all. and if you realised, there's 2 Indian friends in the group too. hahah. what they can do? just follow loh.
there's a bus provided to bring us over to the border place. it's like a checkpoint place to cross border from Macau to Zhu Hai. just like Singapore cross over to JB like that. and yea, needs to chop passport also which means i have to fill up another 3 immigration cards to enter Zhu Hai. AGAIN! wah lao, one day got to fill up 6 immigration cards, are you kidding me?!
woah big luxury bus
reached the checkpoint
the China Officer here worked even more slower!!!
after all of us were done, we were brought to meet up with another tour guide who will be in-charge of us when we're in Zhu Hai.
and the very first thing to do was to send all of us back to the hotel. while on the way back, he was recommending to us a package which they will arranged a vehicle to bring us tour around the place for these 2 days, which will include shopping, lunch, dinner, and some places of interest.
the whole bus agreed, and initially he wanted to arrange a big bus to chauffeur all of us which was around 16 people. but there's this family of 7 who doesn't want to be mixed together with outsiders. oh well, whatever. Peter will then have to arrange 2 mini buses. they can have the whole mini bus to themselves, bleh!~
Hotel Jumbo Zhuhai
triple room
after checking in, dumping all our bags inside our room, we gathered back at the lobby and the bus drove us over to Zhuhai Port Plaza, an underground shopping mall for some shopping.
the underground shopping mall
well, once we reached there. all of us decided to have our lunch together first. oh ya, minus off that family of 7 who prefer to be on their own, the remaining 9 of us don't really mind to dine in together. and this would be our first official introducing to each others xD. time to make friends.
the 9 of us are: my parent and me, the family of 4 and 1 indian couple. everyone was so friendly to each other haha. we had Dim Sum for lunch. yummy!!
ordered lots of Dim Sum to share xD
yes, we were given 3 hours to shop. after lunch, we wandered around the place until 5.30pm. well, from what i know, i all along thought that people in Zhuhai speaks Mandarin. but in fact i'm wrong, majorities actually speak Cantonese instead.
everything sold there was relatively cheap. it's really shop till you drop over there hahahha. and my mother would always target the fruits stall. you see.....
my mother was there buying fruits!!!
when you have no friend to take pictures with you, you can only camwhore yourself :O
haha trying out Takoyaki in Zhuhai!!~
our bus came to fetch us at 5.30pm, and brought us to a seafood restaurant to have live seafood. wow, we really get to see and choose our own seafoods. ALL ALIVE ONE!!! super fresh!!
Chuan Lin Restaurant
look at all the seafoods. *drools*
dinner time with our new friends
this was what we ate for that night.
sumptuous meal, definitely!!
these 2 are my favourite.
ABALONE and SCALLOP
we finished our wonderful dinner at around 7.40pm, and our next destination was shopping. the tour guide brought us to Lotus Road Night Market for us to do our night shopping there.
Lotus Road Night Market
the streets!
and i bought Passionfruit Tea @ Comebuy
heehee. my mother bargaining at the shop.
well, we have only until 10pm when the bus sent us all back to hotel and rest. wahh, what a tiring day. back to hotel, bathe, and watched drama lohhhhh.
Labels: family, overseas, travel