♥ Monday, April 04, 2011 ♥
Macau Part I (and a half)
15 March 2011
Continued from the previous post!
This post is titled like that because I'm still determined to separate the trip into four parts, each for a day. Not that it matters, but there will be a lot of (and a half), (and three quarters), etc for the upcoming posts, haha. I know it's stupid and completely pointless but I just like it that way. I'm stubborn like that!
So, after we visited and took around 24725 photos at the Ruins of St. Paul's, we walked to the ... Monte Fort, I think it is called? Or Mount Fortress? It's just beside the ruins, only a very short walk away and quite a pleasant one too, through a small, lush green park.
View of the ruins through the trees and their wisps of ... dangling roots?
Photo taken with my aunt's iPhone.
The stone steps are quite dangerous, to be honest. Rough, uneven and slippery (because of the rain), so take it slow!
There, I look like Edward Cullen's twenty-third cousin, so eerily pale! I have never seen myself that pale before. I don't think I HAVE been that pale before. I guess I was half-frozen. Look at me! Almost turning blue, metamorphosing into a ... Na'vi! YES! Hahaha I'd much rather be a Na'vi than a blood-thirsty vampire. Okay, I should shut up now.
Oh! On an irrelevant note, am I the only person who doesn't get all the hype about Twilight? Eeew.
Pretty trees.
Kind of reminds me of autumn. Not that I've seen an actual autumn scene with my own eyes before. Hmm.
I have no idea what this exquisite flower is called in English.
I do know it's called the 山茶花 in Chinese though!
WAIT!! WAIT!!!! I've found out the name of the flower, it's known as the Camellia flower. Thank you Google!!!
Aren't these trees just beautiful?
The huge, blood-red blossoms the trees bore were strewn all over the ground, and of course, I had to pick one up and ... camwhore with it. Ha-ha. =.=
*shrugs* That's what girls do. When the going gets ... err, boring, the bored goes camwhoring. Oh, and shopping. Yes. Okay I should shut up now.
Pretty right? (I meant the flower)
Our hotel Sofitel through the trees. Hehe.
The Sofitel at Ponte 16 is really quite a conspicuous building (apart from the Grand Lisboa pineapple of course) because most of the buildings at the area are all old, no more than 7 or 8 stories high (I'm guessing), with peeling paint, crumbling walls and broken windows.
Just kidding.
I didn't take any photos with (or of) the old cannons at the top of the fort because I dropped my camera pouch somewhere and had to go look for it. Sheesh, these things always happen to me. Hahaha. But at least I found it!
Poor thing, my camera pouch has gone through a lot. The last time, it fell into the turquoise sea at the Payar Island. This time, it fell onto the middle of a path surrounded by flowers (and almost got stepped on by the other people who were brave enough to climb the fort in that weather).
We traipsed back to our hotel after that.
I'm not sure whether Macau IS like that the whole year or just in March or just THE PAST March or whatever, but it had a tendency to feel like it was 7 pm when it was only just 2 pm. The atmosphere, the gloomy grey sky, and all. Very unlike Malaysia.
We kept having the feeling that we should return to the hotel since we thought it was getting late and dark, but turned out it wasn't even past 3 pm. Odd feeling.
There, (part of) the front of our hotel. Look at that gigantic sparkling ... uhm, disco-ball-like ball! So over the top. Haha.
Senado Square lighted up!
Went out for a walk at night. We walked to the Grand Lisboa, to look around. Since, you know, we're all underage (my aunt is an exception, obviously) we couldn't enter the casinos (actually, we could, but I'll get to that later) and gamble (not that we know how to or even want to know how to, at least not me.
So actually this trip was more of the ... um, relaxing kind, meaning that we didn't have any specific places to go to, not much sightseeing to do, no tour groups or anything, no rushes. Odd place to have gone to, I know. What with all the smell of the smoke and stuff, hardly the best place to relax.
But still, I enjoyed the trip. :)
Another (lousy) camwhore shot. Was trying to include the Casino Lisboa at the back in the photo too, but failed (obviously).
With the dazzling lights of the Grand Lisboa. Also over the top! I mean! All the electricity, wasted! Wonder whether there's any difference in Macau during Earth Hour. Probably not. I understand casinos are all like that, but, phew, all those lights THE WHOLE NIGHT? Wow.
But I have to admit, the lights were really pretty to look at!
Went inside the Grand Lisboa hotel too.
Wasn't impressed with the deco and ambience of the hotel. The first thing I noticed (and disliked) was the lighting.
I HATE lighting like that. It felt all dull and boring, and made me want to leave the place, fast. I don't really know how to describe the feeling. It was ... kind of bright, yet kind of dim. Almost like those tube fluorescent lights in the ... ah, olden days. Like the ones we used to have at my old home, or any old houses. Eerrgh.
Also, they're the worst possible lighting (besides very dark places) for camwhoring. Cast awful shadows all over your face and make you look uglier. Yuck.
The deco was mostly ... some Chinese stone-carving? I don't know what those were. Lots of intricate carvings on white marble or something, which are total work of arts. They'd look great anywhere, but in a hotel. There wasn't just one, but LOTS of them. I don't know, I didn't like it. Didn't suit the place, I guess.
Very sparkly lights, like lots of diamonds!
Imagine this light in some elegant ballroom bathed in soft gold light. Would be so much nicer right???
Okay, end of this post! Nothing much interesting, I know. Next post will be better! I hope. Hahaha. :)
Ta, good night!
♥ craving chocolate kisses ..
9:07 PM
9:07 PM