currently....

nerd mode

Macau Tower - Skyjump

4 November 2010

It was really really cold that day as it was raining the whole day. The sun was not around the whole day!

I bought my tickets at the bottom of the Macau Tower. HK$1318 for the Tower Tickets & Skyjump.

There's actually 3 activities that can be done in Macau Tower.
1. Skywalk X - where you can walk on the outer ring at the top of Macau Tower.
2. Skyjump - world highest jump. The one that I'll be doing.
3. Bungee Jump - world highest commercial Bungee Jump.

Some might ask, what is a skyjump?
Skyjump is referred to as a 'Decelerator-Descent' jump, using a steel cable and decelerator system, rather than an elastic rope used in Bungee Jump.

Then some might ask, why I chose to the Skyjump instead of the Bungee Jump?
1. I've done Bungee Jump in Phuket last year so I thought I should try something different.
2. Skyjump is cheaper. HAHA Cheaper by around HK$600.

Okay, back to the experience.

All the way up to the 61st floor, I was shivering! It must be the weather, plus fear! The Phuket Bungee Jump was 50 meters. This skyjump is 233 meters! Nearly 4 times the height of the previous! Just the thought of it turns my leg into jelly.

I decided to do the Skyjump anyway as I do not want to come back regretting. Furthermore, I doubt I'll be going back to HK anytime soon.

The moment I reached the 61st floor, my shivering got worse. The wind was blowing strongly and I checked the notice, it was 16 degrees celsius! What a cold day to jump right? Brrrrrr.....

I quickly registered myself as the heavy rain had turned to into drizzle.

After registering, the instructor straight away prep me for the jump. Dont have enough time to breath and look around also.

I received my T-Shirt and I quickly wore on top of my jacket AND t-shirt but I was still shivering! To the extend where I keep on jumping on the spot to keep myself warm or I think I might freeze!

In the end, I took their offer to rent a jacket. I only need to pay a deposit of HK$100 and when I return the jacket, they'll refund me the full deposit.

Again, the moment I wore the rented jacket, they ushered me to prep me up! Guess they are too efficient.. or maybe just giving me no time to think about chickening out! LOL

That's them tightening the harness around my body.

Then, they lead me to the cliff. I was asked to sit down after being secured with a wire tied to my harness while another instructor prepared everything. Guess he was scared I will be blew off by the wind! In the meantime, I was being interviewed, LIVE! (check out the video at the end of this post) They took photos of me too throughout the whole time.

I was then being explained on how to do the skyjump. After a simple explanation of 'walk into the air and you'll fall automatically', I was asked to be prepared!

I turned towards the photographer and videographer as coincidently, there's a family who did they Skywalk X was near them and was cheering for me with their two thumbs up. WHOOOOOOO!

I stepped to the edge and looked down. Well, wasnt as HIGH as I imagined. *lol showing off*

And then... the moment....

Three...two...ONE!

Again, was expecting an adrenaline rush and wind blowing my whole body. But it was nothing like that. Not much of adrenaline rush as it was a slow decline down. Maybe because I'm not really afraid of heights. (i'm not showing off but just telling how did i really felt at that moment)

It was another type of experience that is very different from Bungee Jump. Skyjump allows a slower drop from the top and thus enables me to enjoy to view of the surrounding. The cable turns 360 degrees halfway when I was declining so I get a panorama view of Macau but too bad Macau was quite misty at that time due to the cold weather. I still enjoyed myself though for the 17 seconds!!

And yes, 17 seconds later, HK$1318 was burned. LOL

This is the video of my skyjump.

After reaching the bottom of Macau Tower, of course I need to take the lift back up to the 61st floor. Peter and Yin greeted me and together we watched the video and photos taken.

I bought the package which consist of the video + photos + two 6R sized photos for HK$300.

That's me with my purchase of experience on the left and me testing out the video and photos in the computer to make sure the disc is not spoiled!

So there... I skyjump-ed 233 meters off Macau Tower that day...

at 15 degrees Celsius!! Brrrr.... "Do you have what it takes?"

Just like their tagline in advertisement, "Why live on the edge when you can JUMP OFF?" ;)

Hong Kong Day 6

4 November 2010

We liked the Dim Sum at Tao Heung so much that we went for a 2nd round. But this time less food as we do not want to be too full for the long ferry ride later.

Left: Siu Mai - spot the prawns
Right: Char Siew Pau

Char Siew Puff

Only three dishes and we popped the seasick medicine to prevent us from feeling seasick later on the ferry ride.. Need 30 minutes before it's works.

We walked towards the harbour. It was quite confusing at first as we did not know which ferry terminal should we use to go to Macau. Luckily HK is a tourist-friendly place. With the help of road signs, we managed to get to the right place to buy the tickets.

Btw, the ticket counter was located in a supermarket! We bought the 10.30am ticket as it was about 10.20am that time. Our ticket from Tsim Sha Tsui to Macau costs HK$133/person for one way.

We entered into the custom and to our horror, there's ALOT of people queuing up for the International Passport Lane. It's due to a big tourist group, and thus everyone is stuck there. We got panic as we were scared that we might not make it on time. Plus, the ticket was HK$133, not HK$13.30. DAMN!

As we were queuing, we keep on praying that we would make it to the ferry. We looked front and back and it seems like most of those queuing also bought the 10.30am ticket.

Once we got through the custom, WE RAN LIKE MAD!
It was difficult as we were unfamiliar with the place and we have to keep running while looking at signboards for the correct direction.

Thank GOD the ferry left at about 10.35am. We were I think the second last passengers that managed to hop on. FIUF!

The moment we settled on to our seats, the ferry moved. We then being given the immigrations form to fill in.

We quickly fill in the forms, and then close our eyes and went to sleepyland.

We touched down Macau an hour later, passed through the immigration and grabbed a map. There's not MTR in Macau, so we either depend on taxi or bus or our faithful legs to walk around Macau.

Our first destination was quite a far so we decided to take the bus (dont want to take taxi, save money ma).

Based on our research in the internet when we were in Penang, we should be taking Bus 3A, but when we were looking at the bus schedule, it was unclear (maybe because the schedule faded and was torn here and there). In the end we took Bus 3. We asked the driver if it stops in Senado Square and he says yes.

We hopped on and trying to look for any signals on where should we press the bell to stop, but again, we are LOST! We asked around and spotted a local aunty so we asked for her help. She's not very sure where is the stop but promised to let us know when it is our time to stop.

Then suddenly the aunty got up and gets ready to hop off the bus. When we asked her, she says the next two stop should be our destination. We have no choice but to wait and count the stops. Luckily another aunty informed us that it should be the third stop and not the second. So, with the help of the 2nd aunty, we managed to got off the bus at the right place. THANK YOU!

As I got off the bus, I realised that Macau is really a small town compared to HK. I'm so used to be surrounded by concrete skyscrapers next to each other and MTR that have trains stopping every 1 minute during picked hours. In Macau, there's still trishaw rides! Reminds me of my childhood where I used to ride on a trishaw with my Pho Pho.

Only a few steps on the road and we spotted Choi Heong Yuen Bakery, a place where we've planned to buy some cookies back to Penang.

We spotted some Portuguese eggtarts too and couldnt resist to buy one and try. Looking delicious right?

We've decided that we'll come back later on as we do not want to carry our buy while visiting Senado Square.

After finishing our Portuguese eggtart, we crossed the road and tada~ Senado Square!

Senado Square is a paved area in the centre of the former Portuguese colono of Macau, China, enclosed by the buildings of the Leal Senado, the General Post Office, and St. Dominic's Church. The square is paved in the traditional Portuguese pavement. The main road of Macau's historic centre, Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro passes through the square. The square is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Historic Centre of Macau". -wikipedia

St. Dominic's Church

So basically it's a place with Portuguese buildings and architecture.

Anyway, the moment we reach Senado Square, it started to rain. And we did not bring umbrellas our that day. T_T It was drizzling so we braved ourselves to continue our tour. It was really cold too as there's no sun (thus, no heat), and the wind was cool. And we did not bring any thick jackets out because the last few days, it was really very warm. So we grabbed wore our thin jackets and scarfs around our necks, hoping to cover as many part of our body from the rain and wind.

After Senado Square, we came into this narrow road.

Do not look down on this road!! This is because there's free samples to eat at every single shop left and right! They give free samples of their cookies/biscuits/bak kwa (Pork Jerky) Some stalls, the samples are the original size like those they sell, not those that were cut into 4 or 8 pieces.

The picture above is Pastelaria Koi Kei, another bakery that we planned to buy from later.

By the way, i forgot to mention that this road actually leads to the Ruins of St. Paul, a famous landmark of Macau.

Btw, I kinda like this building a lot, thus explains why so many pictures were posted up here! Hehe Reminder : It was still drizzling when we took the photos. We were hiding the umbrellas! Haha

After Ruins of St. Paul, we headed back to the beginning of Senado Square and went into a coffee shop called Yee Shun Milk Company.

Left: Egg Pudding (Dunn Dan = 'Double Boil Egg')
Right: Milk with Ginger Pudding

The Milk with Ginger Pudding is quite special. Doubt you can have something like this in Penang. It's also quite a nice dessert to warm up our body.

After desserts, we went back to Choi Heong Yuen Bakery and Pastelaria Koi Kei to buy some biscuits and cookies to bring back to Penang.

Then we wanted to go to Sofitel Hotel located in Ponte 16 as there's a MJ Gallery there, free entrance. We looked at the map and decided to walk there as it was not very far. Before we began our journey, we decided to buy two umbrellas as the rain was getting thicker and we do not want to get sick!

So we followed the road sign to Hong Kong Temple as according to the map, it was in the same direction.

It was about a 15 minutes walk and we saw Sofitel Hotel.

It was really grand. Up to it's 5-star standard!

lift criss-crossing above in the middle of the lobby

flower deco which i really like

We went to the MJ Gallery.

There's his sequined white glove, shoes, hats that he's worn during his past performances, statue of him, movie clips, his records playing the whole time etc..

After MJ, we headed back outdoor trying to catch a bus that would fetch us to Macau Tower. In the meantime, look at the random pictures.

Drying the salted fish

Super old abandoned shop

We spotted a bus stop but the bus there does not go to Macau Tower. There's a lady there and we asked for help, but she does not know where we should go to take a bus to Macau Tower. We walked a little down the street, hoping to find another bus stop that goes to Macau Tower but we failed to find one. In the end, we gave in to the rain (that time raining quite heavily already) and confusing streets of Macau and took a taxi.

Oh ya, I forgot to mention that the map we took from the ferry terminal was not useful. Many streets were unnamed, and some streets were even missing! Guess this explains why we felt so lost when we were in Macau! LOL

So we took a taxi to Macau Tower. It's about a 10 minute ride with the traffic.

Miniature Macau Tower taken inside Macau Tower

We bought tickets to go up to the top of Macau Tower.
Yin and Peter each bought the HK$110/person. The ticket consists of Tower Ticket + Tea Set. (only tower ticket costs HK$100).
I on the other hand bought the HK$1318/person which consist of Tower Ticket + SKYJUMP! =)

I was feeling very very cold all the way up to the 61st floor. It was only 16 degrees Celsius at that time! *shivering*

61st floor is the outdoor viewing area. Once we were there, we went straight to the Skyjump area as the weather was beginning to become better (slight drizzling).

Anyway, the Skyjump experience is in the another post by itself. Click here! :)

While waiting for me to Skyjump, Yin and Peter was shivering the whole time there. HAHA
After I skyjumped I meet them again on the 61st floor.

We couldnt stand the coldness, so we left and went to the indoor viewing area. There's a glass bottom area too!

Then we went to 360 Cafe to claim Peter and Yin's tea set. We were surprised when the food came.

coffee and tea

tea time!

There's raw salmon in the mini burger! WOW!! Totally worth the extra HK$10! Not to forget the cheesecake was yummy too! Two thumbs up!

After a very satisfied tea time, we took a taxi again to The Venetian.

(googled for picture as it was raining, couldnt stop outside for photo)

The Venetian Macau is a hotel and casino resort in Macau. The Venetian is a 40-storey, $2.4 billion anchor for the 7 hotels on the Cotai Strip in Macau. The 10,500,000 square foot (980,000 m²⁾ Venetian Macau is the largest single structure hotel building in Asia and the fifth largest building in the world by area. - wikipedia

Just when you think it's huge, they decided to build another Venetian opposite the current Venetian! I think it's going to be ready next year or 2012. Forgot what the taxi driver told me.

Was greeted by a nice chandelier the moment I stepped into The Venetian.

And there's lots of paintings throughout the whole building. NICE!

To go through the other are of the building, you have to walk through the casino. Imagine thousands of gambling machine slots to lure you try your luck every step of the way. Even when you are on the way back to your hotel room!

We did not spend a single cent on those gambling machines/tables though. Hehe *good girl and boy*

When they say there's a city inside Venetian, it was right. Because there is indeed a city inside Venetian. Look!

The fake sky and buildings makes me feel like I'm walking in the streets of Europe! And look at the gondola rides, the boatman/woman actually sings the song LIVE! not recorded!

Love the atmosphere there!

Oh, and the shops there are O.M.G.! Every branded shop you can think of it there. You know the kind of clothes and shoes that would costs thousands per pair! Jewellery shops that sells diamonds with at least a 10k tag! :S
I wondered if there's actually enough sales to sustain the rental as most of the shops have no customers. *accounting cap* LOL

We were practically lost in The Venetian. We couldnt find our way out! Hmm.. maybe it's their technique to keep us inside because when we were finding our way out, we passed through many casinos and branded shops! Testing the temptations! LOL

We walked for quite a long time before we managed to find our way out using The Four Seasons Hotel entrance.

(googled for this Four Seasons Hotel picture as it was still raining)

We took the free bus shuttle from The Four Seasons hotel the nearest Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal. This ferry ride took us back to Sheung Wan instead of Tsim Sha Tsui.

So when we reached Sheung Wan, we had to take the MTR back to Tsim Sha Tsui. Once we reach there, we headed to a restaurant located opposite our guest house. We've seen many people queuing to dine in this restaurant few days back.

It wasnt really tasty, but we managed to finished up everything very fast. We were starving like a hungry lion!

We also stopped by 7-eleven and Peter bought Shark's Fin Soup.

The end of my coldest day throughout my HK trip! We never missed to bring out thicker jackets the next time! LOL


***to be continued....