On the second day we planned to go to San Ma Lo again to visit the tourist locations Senado Square, St Paul's ruins and if we lucky enough, to find a halal restaurant. Since we don't bring much of winter clothes, I wore layers of it. I wore chamisole, body shirt, a denim blouse and jacket, and tights under my pants. For breakfast, I ate instant oat porridge with chicken and mushroom flavour and granola bars. I thought it was a chicken and mushroom soup when I bought it. Even I don't fancy eating oats, but I forced myself to swallow and it's quite filling surprisingly. Perfect for travel. As usual, gotta wait for the bus in the cold again. We were told, the weather today is dropped again and expected raining. That sounded..perfect. Well, here, before we went for the bus station, I always dropped by at H&M stores. There's always something that caught my eye (such a shopaholic!) hehehe. Well, I liked most of the designs here, probably because it is winter season, so most of the clothes are decent. Unlike the one in Malaysia which I think too fashionable and umm sexier which mostly to cater for youngsters. Yeah, I am old. I bought a headband which cost HK$66 and straightaway wear it, too bad I lost it. I must've dropped it when I wore my hood and couldn't find it anywhere (T__T)
We stopped to buy a mask (the wind is so strong, you got to cover your mouth & nose) and to get hot coffee at Circle K. We arrived at Historic Centre of Macao which is basically consist of churches, pond and fountain, statues and more churches. It is easier if you have found this place because it has tourist's signages along the path. You won't get lost, don't worry. Except me, because I am such a forgetful person and I'm a bad navigator when it comes to foreign places.
We went to Senado Square, this is a central of San Ma Lo. So many people here and every shops is packed of people. Even McDonalds' toilets has the longest queue! From here, we walked to St Paul's Ruins and it's quite challenging because of climbing path and started to rain. Be careful of the slippery road. Here, you gotta contain yourself (and your nose apparently) because they were many food stalls left and right and the smell and sight of people eating are so tempting! You gotta hold your iman strong haha.
So many people here locals and tourists
Oh little tips here, we spotted two souvenir shops here, one is on the main shops row heading to St. Paul and another one is on the small alley on your right (which you have to climb a bit). The one at the main shops row is cheaper, while the one at the alley is pricey but you can negotiate and the sales assistant is nice too (we ended buying lots here) and she can even speak Bahasa Melayu! It is own by Philippines woman. But, please do not buy t-shirts here, the price is freaking expensive. They sold at HKD$45 (discount at HKD$40 each) whereby you can get it as low as HKD$23-25 somewhere else at their pasar (to which we only discover later). I am so pissed because I spent nearly HKD$500 here. However, for keychain and fridge magnets, I don't find them somewhere else except here. If you want to buy t-shirts, please go to the local wet markets behind the shoplots nearby Senado Square. They got mini stalls around there sold t-shirts at fair price. Some sellers are very stingy and can't bargain much but you may want to try your luck. I'm tired to bargain at every seller, so I just settled everything at one shot.
This is the souvenirs stall near Macau Museum. Quite pricey.
When we arrived at St Paul's Ruins, it was raining but it didn't stop us to climb the stairs. Be very careful because it is quite slippery. There were so many people here and please, extra careful of your belongings. St Paul's Ruins is basically a church which was destroyed due to typhoon long long time ago and the entrance is what the structure left today. My boss wanted to go to Mount Fortress and Macau Museum but had no idea where although on the map, it seems so near (which turn out is only next to St Paul only and we discovered it next day). Since the raining started to get heavier, we took pictures in a rush and left the place in hurry without the discovering the nearby gardens (read: shops).
This picture is dark because of the weather
Now it's the time to find Halal Restaurant. My colleague insisted to go to this one restaurant and the only clue that she has is the picture of it. No landmarks, no address (-____-). Luckily I installed Zabihah apps on my Ipad and using my phone as mobile hotspot for Internet connection. I activated roaming and subscribe to Maxis Macao social data plans at RM20 for 3 days access. Using the apps, it navigated us to the restaurant. I think without the apps, we will never find the restaurant as it was isolated at the end of the world behind all the shops, at the back alley. The name of the restaurant is Lou Lan Islam Restaurant. We were screamed of joy when we found it.. Yay! We get to eat nasi finally! We ordered noodles, rice and some dishes. The price quite pricey especially for protein, so we opted for 3 vegetables dishes instead without any drinks as we brought mineral water. Total cheapskate we were. The total bill was HKD$300+, so each of us spent about HKD$70+ for food. Oh yes, if you want to go the loo, this is the perfect place, the toilet is clean and most importantly, they got water (^__-)
The address is:
Rua Da Caldeira, Macao, China 69099-184
We ordered tofu, eggs with chives, noodles with broth and salted carrot with chicken.
This is the front view of the restaurant
This Zabihah apps is extremely useful, please download it if you're planning to go overseas especially those countries that has low Muslim populations and speaking zero English.
Stuffed and tired, we decided to go back to our hotel to rest before our night activity later.
2 comments:
Salam, is the halal foodplace a walkable distance from senado square?
Yes. We walked from there.
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