Macau Trip 2015: Hard Rock Hotel Macau

It's summer season now and it's a great time for travelling with your family or friends to enjoy some sightseeing. I was at Macau 2 weeks back for 4 days 3 nights and did a lot of sightseeing and indulge lots of popular Macau must-eat food too. 

It was a last minute trip with family members and we were kinda worried about expensive flight, accommodation and expenses incurred as all bookings were done like 4 weeks before? (We normally plan our holidays way earlier). After comparing all the suitable hotels on rooms, facilities, prices and etc, we came to a conclusion that this is the most suitable hotel to stay in; 

   Hard Rock Hotel, Macau. 

Reason being is that it offers the best room rate (most affordable) yet it's a five star hotel with all the top-notch facilities for your indulgence. We paid only MOP3313.15 (including 15% prevailing taxes) for 3 nights in Double Queen Room which can accommodate up to 3 Adults or 2 Adults & 2 Children (or 4 Adults too). This room rate comes with high-speed wifi and a really comfortable room of 2 queen sized beds (without breakfast as we wanted to explore Macau local food). 

 I did a quick check while writing this and this affordable room rate is available during this December's school holidays too. Time to plan your trip for the upcoming school holidays :)

Tips: If you would like to book the Double queen room meant for 3 Adults or 2 Adults and 2 Children, key-ing in (3 Adults or 2 Adults and 2 Children) in the number of pax column may not be advisable. Sometimes, the double queen room may be unavailable (or the results shows no rooms are available) 

if you key in this. If this happens, do key in 2 Adults in the 'number of pax' column and try again.

I experienced this when I was trying to book the room where no room is available for 3 Adults but the double queen room is available when I key in 2 Adults. I have checked with the hotel that the Double Queen Room can accommodate up to 3 Adults or 2 Adults & 2 Children. Thus, you can search for this room rate with 2 Adults and then at the 'Remarks' column, put in the details of how many pax will be staying in the room. 

Presenting to you the Double Queen Room in Hard Rock Hotel, Macau. 

Super comfy pillow with a touch

Spacious room with large mirror for your ootd shot. Behind the mirror is a large area to hang all your clothes. 

Bar table top makes it convenient to take away food and munch throughout the night :)

Wonderful minibar filled with affordable goodies. 

Don't worry if you bought some wine from the nearby supermarket, convenience store or shopping mall. You have wine glass in the room waiting for you. 

If you didn't buy any alcoholic drinks and in need of some, these are available in the room at an affordable price. 

 Making a margarita or a mojito? Hard Rock Hotel Macau prepare these Mixer set for you to release your inner bartender soul. 

 Yes, they have Chinese wine too :)

Don't worry about feeling hungry or thirsty in the middle of the night. You have a stocked up minibar at an affordable price. 

You can opt for cup noodle and chips at an affordable price too. 

The bathroom actually looks clean and neat. Comes with a bathtub :)

Plenty of towels and bathroom amenities for your convenience. 

Even the bar of soap is nicely presented with a bottle of lotion next to it. 

You can find more bathroom amenities inside this box. 

If you're saying that the room rate is quite expensive compare to those hotel in the Macau city, well do think again. This five-star hotel is located right in the heart of Cotai Strip under City of Dreams entertainment resort. Cotai Strip is a place where all the magic happens - the one stop center which houses all the new hotels, casinos, entertainment hub and luxury shopping experience fit for tourist. Right opposite of City of Dreams is the Venetian City (famous for its blue sky ceiling within the building) and on the left side is the Sands Cotai Central (which also houses Conrad, Holiday Inn and Sheraton). Due to its strategic location, you can just walk across the road (small road - not highway) and within 2 minutes, you can land yourself at Venetian City or Sands Cotai. And if you wish to get to Galaxy Macau (the biggest and most grand place to be at Cotai) for gaming, food, shopping or a gateaway to Taipa Village, there's a shuttle bus from City of Dreams to Galaxy Macau every 10 minutes. If you compare with other room rate in this Cotai area, Hard Rock Macau offers the best room rate. 

It was convenient for us as we get to see both Venetian City and Sands Cotai too. We did some food and casino hopping between City of Dreams, Venetian City and Sands Cotai. 

One thing to take note when you're considering an accommodation in Macau is the Complimentary Shuttle Bus Service provided by the hotel. From Hard Rock Hotel Macau, you can take their complimentary Lucky Express shuttle bus to bring you around. The Lucky Express shuttle bus from City of Dreams could bring you to these locations: Macau ferry Terminal, Border Gate, Hotel Sintra Macau, Cotai Macau Connection, Taipa Ferry Terminal & Airport, Hengqin Check Point and Galaxy Hotel. For more info on these shuttle bus service, do click here. Do get the latest bus schedule from the hotel when you check in in case there's a change in bus schedule. 

Tips: To get to Taipa Village, go to Galaxy Macau and it's 5 minutes walking distance from there. 

         To get to Senado Square, board the bus heading to Hotel Sintra  and walk for about 10 minutes 

         to reach Senado Square. 

Another thing to note when you arrived at Macau International Airport and wish to board the hotel shuttle bus to the hotel. We were kinda lost and walked around at the airport for 40 minutes looking for the shuttle bus (we did asked around and no one has any info  - even the tourism department has no idea at all) when we arrived. Finally, we board the shuttle bus to Venetian City and walk across to City of Dreams to check in. 

Tips: When you arrived at the Macau International Airport, do look for City of Dreams staff at the Arrival hall because their shuttle bus is NOT located at the area where all other hotel shuttle bus waits. Do not follow the 'Hotel shuttle bus' sign (or you'll ended up waiting like us). You will need to approach the City of Dreams staff to board the bus. The City of Dreams staffs are wearing purple colour uniform (according to the hotel staff). So, do hunt for staff in purple uniform once you arrive - their shuttle bus is located at the departure hall/first floor according them. 

- If you can't find the bus/staff at all, board the Venetian shuttle bus (at Hotel Shuttle Bus waiting area) and walk across to City of Dreams when you arrive at Venetian City.  

And the infamous House of Dancing Water is located inside City of Dreams. You can recharge yourself in your room before watching the show - if you're tired from all the exploring in the morning. 

The hotel provides other great facilities too such the outdoor guitar-shaped swimming pool, fitness centre, Rock Spa for a relaxing therapy and even a Kids City (entertainment center for your child) - there's arcade, basketball machine, and etc for them. 

Now, if you're travelling to Macau and in need of a good accommodation for you to rest, refresh and rejuvenate yourself; this is the place you should be staying at. 

For more info on Hard Rock Hotel, Macau; log on to:

Facebook: Hard Rock Hotel, Macau

Website: Hard Rock Macau 

Instagram : @hardrockhotelmacau

To know more about City of Dreams, click here. 

Note: This is not a paid post or sponsored post! Just a piece of my experience here. 

Taiwan 2014: Day 4 - Dazzling Cafe + Ah Chung Flour Rice Noodle and Prince Cheese Potato, Ximending

 After our day trip to Yehliu, Jiu Fen and Shi Fen, our driver dropped us at Hotel Puri Ximending, our accommodation for the night. This hotel is located along one of the smaller lane at Ximending and it's not accessible by car. We got off at the main road and walk to the hotel lobby. The room is quite clean and nice. We stayed here for one night because the hotel we wanted to stay is not available then.

Without further delay, we headed to Dazzling Cafe Pink which is famous for their honey toast. There's actually a lot of branches in the city but the Pink one is accessible by MRT. You can drop off at Zhongxiao Dunhua station and head towards exit No.1. It's less than 5 minutes walk to the cafe. Do make a booking if you are planning to dine here as it's always full house. We were lucky to find a place as it was off-peak hours. I've heard that all customers need to order a drink to dine in here; but we only ordered one drink to share-probably that happens when the cafe is full? Not so sure about it. The prices of food and drinks are pricy here but you gonna try their legendary toast at least once :p

 We shared a glass of fresh juice. It was refreshing but it's double what you paid for one in a high-class restaurant in KL.

 And this is their legendary honey toast. We chose the one with Strawberry theme and if you don't fancy Strawberry, there's actually a list of choices to choose from. Besides honey toast, there's a variety of dessert as well as hot mains too. 

Once your toast is served, the staff will give you a few minutes to take your lovely photographs to feed your your social media account as well as selfie with it.

It's actually a bit awkward to selfie with this lovely thing when there's someone waiting beside the table. 

After you're done satisfying your photography moment, the staff will bring the toast back to the kitchen and slice it so that you can eat it. And here's the yummylicious mess handed back to you.

The toast is absolutely delicious with lots of cream, Strawberry sauce, ice-cream and the toast is different too. Their toast is special that I feel like I'[m eating a bread-cake rather than a toast.

Strawberry Lover Honey Toast, NT220

One honey toast and a glass of juice costs NT451 (approx RM51) which is very pricy! But the toast is delicious. :) Do visit their site to know more about their other outlets as well as the menu. Or follow their FB to receive updates on their monthly special.

Then, it was time to go back to Ximending for some street-snack. First one on the list is the famous Ah-Chung Rice Noodle (Mee Sua). Delicious mee sua with pig intestine and some Chinese parsley. You'll see a long queue at the shop but the line moves very fast. Basically, there's no table and chairs for you to sit. Everyone just stand outside the shop and munch their way through.

Do also try the White Bitter Guard Juice in Ximending. It's not bitter at all and it's refreshing unlike the bitter gourd sold here in Malaysia. 

I've noticed that they also sell the seed to plant these white bitter gourd but not sure whether they can grow under Malaysia's weather. Perhaps I should buy some on my next trip. 

And also do try the Price Cheese Potatoes! A huge potato coated with bread crumbs and fried to perfection, topped with goovy cheese sauce and topping of your choice. We had hams ad sweet corns!

There's a lot of street-food in Ximending. You just need to walk around the area to explore them! Don't worry about getting lost as people there are very friendly to guide you if you're lost.

Taiwan 2014: Day 4 - Nanya Rock Formation, Golden Waterfalls, Jiu Fen, Shi Fen

It's almost two months since my last update on our Taiwan trip. I'm setting my KPI to finish all our 8 days journey by end of next month. Finger cross :P

After our stop at Yehliu Geopark, our driver brought us to Keelung MiaoKou Night Market for an early lunch. Our driver said that he will try to fetch his customers to this place if the timing permits because such a good night market would be gone if there's no customers. He's such a good-hearted person.

This MiaoKou Night Maket is also opens during lunch time - but not all the stores are open. It's located along a street outside the temple. Do be careful when you're walking at this place as motorbikes can zoom along the food street since it's located along a road for vehicles to pass by. As for the food, it's more focus towards seafood since this area is located near the sea. We agree with our driver that the food here is different from those in Taipei city.

We quickly hunt for a few shops and bought their food to try - we only made a quick 30 minutes stop here since we are rushing to go to other places too.

This is the oyster omelette. Quite different from those in the city as the oyster here is fresh and big.

There's a lot of people queuing up for it too. 

Then, we tried this Glutinous Crab Meat Rice and Fin Soup after noticing that a few shops are selling this. Probably this is their local specialty here. When you walk towards the shop, you'll smell a strong crabby smell. Haha.

You'll see a mountain full of crab goodness rice on the tray along the this food street.

If you are looking for a washroom, do walk into the nearest 7-11 or Mcd for it. 

Next, we continue our journey to Jiu Fen and along the way, we made a few pit stops! First is to see the Nanya Peculiar  Stone! The weather was not good that day as it was drizzling whole day. It was a unique stone with different shades of colour due to the oxidation on the stone itself.

Our driver taught pig to stand on the smaller stab stone on this giant rock for a snapshot!! It was very dangerous and a wrong step might cause your life. Here's pig in action under the drizzling rain.

The infamous + giant + colourful stone looks like this.. The picture is blur a bit because it was captured using my phone under the rain.

And the sea tide is strong too! If you're wearing a cap, your cap might be gone due to the strong wind. 

Enjoy the beauty of mother nature below. This place is a must-visit when you're in Taiwan!

We did stop by to see the Yin Yang sea too but can't really see it as the tide was too strong :(  Till next time..

Then, we made a few minutes stop at the Golden Waterfalls (it's very near Jiu Fen).

The view was magnificent that it looks just like on those scenery paintings. 

 

And we arrived at Jiu Fen! There's a long history about this village on top of the mountain and the 'Spirit Away' movie was inspired from this place too. Too bad that it was raining badly when we were here :(

Our driver dropped us at the top entrance and we just need to walk downstairs (instead of upstairs) to see the whole shopping street.

Jiu Fen Old Street Entrance.

When you're here, do try the ice-cream wrapped with popiah skin! There's some parsley and ground peanuts in it too. It's delicious and parsley compliments well with the ice-cream too. What a surprise.

There's lots of shops sells mochi, souviners, biscuits, etc... And we did bought a lot of stuff from here too. And must buy the nougat wrapped with 2 cookies. Forgot the shop name but there's only one store selling this - thus it's easy to spot them. 

More food hunting under the rain with us badly soaked.

This one is a so-called dumpling with skin made of starch and there's meat inside...

Taro ball lovers, enjoy your quota to the max here at Jiu Fen. 

Since it was raining heavily, we quickly walk and eat and end our journey at Jiu Fen. It would be good if we come here on a day with good weather. Till next time..

Then, we went to Shi Fen, another beautiful village and famous for sky lantern. We came here just to release a sky lantern :P Sky lanterns are very commercial here and all shops here only sell sky lantern. It comes in different colours symbolizes different meaning. For us, we just picked the white one - for 'all'. 

Pig in action.

The staff here are quite diligent in their work. Once you're done with writing your wishes, you'll ask you to stand on the track, position you with your sky lantern and asked for your phone or camera to help you capture the lovely moments. And they took quite a number of shots too.

 

Bye lantern! Enjoy these pictures took by the staff with our phone :P Some are a bit blur though.

Then, we went to see the bridge at Shi Fen. Didn't explore further as it was raining. 

Bye Shi Fen.

That's how we spend our rainy day at Jiu Fen and Shi Fen. Definitely gonna be back next time on a non-rainy day! Our driver drove us back to Taipei and drop us at Hotel Puri Ximending .