535. Day 21 | The Parisian and Venetian

Currently blogging from the bath again, just like last night. I love our bathtub here..will definitely miss it! We stayed here in Macau for 2 nights and tomorrow we are heading back to Hong Kong. Then there are only a few more days left until I return back to Toronto :( I can't believe I've been gone for so long already..when I think back to our first days in China/Shanghai, it feels like months ago. & my life in Toronto seems so far away.

Our morning here today started off perfectly; a thoroughly satisfying room service breakfast with the perfect view. There was SO much food. I had the Country Breakfast which is more English style; pastries, omelette, fruit salad etc. My mom had the Chinese style one which consisted of dim sum, congee, etc. There was also Continental style available which we didn't get.

Then after breakfast we took a tour of the hotel, visiting all the common areas and toured the presidential suites! Will post more about this in a later post.

After that we went out to the city and visited the Ruins of St. Paul's and Senado Square. I've visited these places the previous time we came to Macau but it was raining so we didn't get to explore much last time. Today was the perfect weather.



I am sure most of you know that I love Paris. The Parisian Hotel recently opened in Macau so I was really looking forward to visiting it. It's amazing!! A lot more opulent and grand than The Venetian (located right beside..when we came to Macau in 2009 we went there and some parts were still under construction). The Parisian has a big Eiffel Tower in front of it, Arc de Triomphe, the Gardens of Versailles, Place de la Concorde, Place Vendome, and pretty much every other major attraction of Paris. So cool to see a mini version of Paris.

I also played a bit at the casino (roulette) and expectedly, lost.


Then we walked over to The Venetian for dinner at the same restaurant we went last time we visited Macau (in 2009). That time, The Venetian was brand new and some parts still under construction. Just like this time with The Parisian actually. We saw them still putting finishing touches to some areas and some restaurants were not even open yet. I wonder which new "city" hotel there will be next time I visit Macau..this city is growing extremely fast with new casinos and hotels. Next time I come I'd love to spend a few days just exploring all the different casino hotels and maybe watch some shows.


Then we came back to our hotel for an evening massage at Iridium Spa. We each had their signature gemstone massage. Before we started, we did a short questionnaire to figure out which type of gemstone suited us the most. Mine was Aquamarine (teal blue) which is my favourite colour. Well, second to navy blue. The massage was sooo relaxing I think I fell asleep for some time lol. The masseuse was really nice and friendly. The worst part was just when she told me it was completed. I wish it could have gone on for a couple more hours! Also, their spa is located on the top floor of the hotel so the view was amazing! The perfect setting for a night of relaxation. One of the first things I do when I go back to Toronto is find a nice spa to book regular massages.

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534. Day 20 | Checking into St. Regis Hotel, Macau

We are currently in Macau!! We are staying at the beautiful St. Regis Hotel and so far it has been the best hotel experience of this Asia trip so far (maybe top 5 hotels I've ever stayed at in my life). My favourite part about our room is this view. We look out onto The Parisian, with its sparkling Eiffel Tower. This is as close as I can get to my favourite city for now..lol.

I am going to do a full review on this hotel in a later post. For now I will give my first impressions. What I love most so far about this hotel is the service. Everything from checking in, to our dinner, cocktails, and more..all the staff have been extremely professional, friendly and go above and beyond to satisfy our needs. We have a 24hr butler service here which I have never gotten at previous hotels I've stayed at. When we arrived, the driver and butler met us at the ferry terminal (we took a ferry over from Hong Kong). When we arrived at the hotel, the butler supervisor greeted us at the door and along with the bellboy, they all escorted us up to our room right away. We were able to check in to the hotel in the comfort of our own room.

After we got settled, we went down for dinner. Shortly before our reservation time, the butler came up again to bring us down to the restaurant along with a map and small guidebook of Macau. Troy is the name of our butler. He is really good with anticipating our needs without us having to ask; for example, he realized my mom had a bit of a cough. So when we returned back to our room we saw he gave us an additional 8 bottles of water.

I will not get into details of the restaurant and bar experience yet as I don't want to miss anything out. I will save it for the actual review post!



Our dinner was delicious! For our main course, we both had the Miyazaki Wagyu A5 Japanese Black-Haired Cattle sirloin steaks. It's quite funny we just visited and returned from Japan a couple days ago (even to the city of Kobe) but didn't have the beef from there until tonight lol. I also got a green tea. The green tea they served was Longjiang green tea. A few weeks ago when we visited China, I talked about visiting a tea plantation there which I later found out is Longjiang green tea. Such a coincidence they served it to me now again. But unlike the beef..I actually had and bought a LOT of the tea leaves when we were there.


After dinner we went to the bar for a nightcap. I also brought my laptop down so I worked there tonight (the joys of being able to work remotely!) together with a strawberry daiquiri and live music. The servers there were wonderful as well. Tomorrow morning we are getting room service breakfast so we brought down the breakfast menu with us to fill out (as we have to do so and hang it on our door). My mom kept moving the paper around and angling it in front of the light, so the server came with a little reading light for us. I thought that was pretty nice.

Then we went to the casino for a quick walk around. We didn't do any gambling. I think I may try a bit tomorrow..


& finally, this is how I ended my night! Well, kind of. Now I finished my shower and am in bed typing this. Apart from the beautiful view, the bathroom is my other favourite part about the room. Looking forward to exploring Macau tomorrow! Good night!

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533. Day 19 | Yum Cha, Mongkok, Victoria Harbour

For lunch today, I went with my mom and sister to Yum Cha. I discovered this place a long time ago and had always wanted to visit when I came back to Hong Kong, and I'm so glad we did! I really loved it. The restaurant serves dim sum but not in the traditional sense. Their style is more eclectic, and all the dishes are really unique and almost looked too good to eat.

Here is one of their signature dishes; the{ custard bun desserts. They looked so funny and cute. You poke a hole in it and squeeze out the hot custard. Click here for a quick video of how I did it lol. My video is quite blurry but I had to do it with one hand while trying to film with the other..and since I already poked it I wasn't able to re-film it in better quality! But you get the idea.




I loved the restaurant interiors!



For the rest of the day we went around Mongkok then back to Tsim Sha Tsui in the evening to the harbour. I love going there to take photos and to walk around. Victoria Harbour is my favourite harbour in the world. The buildings and lights seem endless. My mom brought me to the rooftop of a building, where she used to go a lot when she was young (as she grew up in HK). It was the most amazing view of the harbour I had ever seen. This photo above was not taken from there..I will post those in a later post.

So tomorrow we are heading to our final destination for a very short trip - Macau!

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