Semana Verde de Macau

From March 17 to 25 is the 31st Macau Green Week festival (in Portuguese: Festival de Semana Verde de Macau). The opening ceremony took place at Tap Seac square this afternoon with lots of people attended. This is the annual carnival in Macau organized by Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau to promote the environmental protection, nature preservation, and tree planting. The theme for this year is “Green City, Ideal Home”. There were public displays of flower bed and plants, some performances, and booths of various indoor gardening shops.

The performance

The displays of plants, flowers, and paintings

Many of various indoor plants were also distributed to the visitors for free. There was a very long queue of people waiting to get the plants. At first I had no idea why people queued and I just spent my time around photographing. But after a while I happened to know that there was free plant giving. So I joined the line, and fortunately I was among the almost last group who got the plant.

Indoor gardening plants and vegetation

People queuing to get the plant

I got a cute small pot with several unknown tiny plants.. This is another great little moment of my weekend. Tree planting and indoor gardening are among my favorite hobbies as I love nature.. I love trees.. and greeneries.

My plant

The final event of the Green Week Walk and Tree Planting will be held at Seac Pai Van Park on the morning of 25 March.

A two-hour visit to Zhuhai

Today Me, Myself, and I had a second chance to visit Zhuhai of mainland China again after the first visit in May last year. Actually I didn’t have any specific purpose in Zhuhai, but what brought me there was only because I had to have my Macau visa extended at the border. Casually the Macau visa for UNU-IIST staffs and fellows has no expiry date, except for my case that my visa has one-year validity. So now it is time that I have to renew the visa and the only best option is to go out and get in again with the letter from the institute as when I first entered Macau.

A square in Zhuhai in front of the border checkpoint

It was already late in the afternoon (2.30pm) and I had my passport, Chinese visa, and visa letter ready before crossing the Border Gate checkpoint. I exited Macau quite fast and smoothly with my diplomatic ID card and queued to enter China side as everybody else. And here I came.. Zhuhai!

The border check point, China side

Zhuhai

The only two places in Zhuhai around the border gate that I know are the large underground shopping plaza located just at the exit of the checkpoint and another shopping mall about five-minute walk. I decided to go to the latter first.

The shopping mall

I am interested in only two things at this shopping mall: books and.. of course the dessert at Honeymoon Dessert, I’ve never forgotten that since my first visit. Here there is a huge underground bookstore, but most books are in Chinese. There is only one block which I could find the original English books. If you like reading novel/fiction, biography of well-known people, business, self-development, literature, and so on… you might find some of your favorite books here. I got a couple of books finally.

Bookshelf in the bookstore

Inside the bookstore, and books I bought (last)

Then I went up for dessert at the ground floor. I had to wait a bit since there were lots of people there. You I could just see crowd of people everywhere around the place inside the building. Well, I had also browsed around the mall but I found nothing to buy. I finally got the place for the dessert. I really like the dessert here, and it might be good to just cross the border to come here for the dessert another time

Dessert at Honeymoon Dessert

Sellers outside the mall

Underground Zhuhai Shopping Plaza

I left the mall around 5:00pm after spending almost 2 hours there. I walked pass thru the underground shopping plaza and cross the border back to Macau. Eventually, I got what I came here for – the new unlimited entry visa to Macau.

Good night!

Sunday outing..

Nihao everyone!

Today is just another casual chilly day in Macau during this month but a bit colder (12C). However the weather here is quite fluctuated. It was slightly raining yesterday and I just spent my whole day staying in doing nothing but playing music. It is always quite boring to just stay at home during the weekend, so I decided to go out today as the weather is a bit better.

It was already noon when I woke up.. :p. Well, admittedly getting up quite late during the weekend is my bad habit ever.. so my lunch time is also always late. I am also quite lazy cooking lately, so eating out is always my choice, though most of the times it is hard for me to think of where and what to eat.

My first plan this Sunday is to have my hair cut after skipping from yesterday because of the rain. So after having lunch I went straight to the barber shop where I used to go. I had my lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant (Naruto) which is located just one block away from my apartment building. It is quite a while since my last eating there with a friend of mines, Surendra. The Vietnamese food here is good with reasonable price (30 to 50 MOP).

Lunch

It was about 3.45pm already when I finished my lunch. Sooo.. late, isn’t it? Anyway, gonna go for a hair cut now.. Fortunately, there was no guest at the time I arrived so I didn’t have to wait for the cut, and I could also finish earlier. The cost of the haircut at this place is normally 25 MOP (the cheapest in Macau I guess), while you need to spend 120 MOP at most of the saloons for normal haircut. However the quality is not bad.. at least.. I mean.. for a non-stylish person like me.

Barber shop (left)

After that I was just immediately thinking of going to Hac Sa beach in Coloane. The easiest way to get there is to take bus #25 from the bus stop just near the barber shop. It was about four months since my last visit to the beach, so it is good to visit there again. I finally arrived the beach at 5pm. The beach here is not very nice since the sand is quite muddy, that’s why it is called “Hac Sa” means Black Sand. But still this is one of best place in Macau to visit especially for local people of all ages to escape the noisy city to get fresh air, relax, and enjoy BBQing and other activities with families and friends. My visit to the beach this time made me feel missing the previous time that I used to come and have fun with colleagues here.

Hac Sa Beach

People visiting the beach

Walking along the beach, having a deep breath of the pure air from the sea, listening to the sound of the wave, and looking at the far horizon where the sky meets the sea with cold wind touching my face and hands.. Those made a really wonderful touching moment indeed.. feeling cold.. and even colder with the loneliness. And I thought.. what if at that moment I could have someone to share this feeling with.. would be kinda romantic atmosphere, wouldn’t it?

A street along the beach

Well, that’s all for today’s story.. and I will share you more about my life in Macau in the next story.

早抖(jóutáu) Good night..

My first favorite Android phone ever

After spending times reading a lot of reviews and comparisons of quality and price of Android smart phones made by Samsung, I finally decided to go for the Galaxy Nexus. I checked the price from many phone shops in Macau, and eventually I could get the good deal at a small shop near my place – MOP 4780 (almost US$600) including the screen protector. I am normally not so much into such expensive devices (neither Android nor iOS). I used my old phone for years without any concerns about new tech. However, it is because I was inspired by one ads about Face Unlock of Galaxy Nexus on YouTube which leads me to see the attractive design and other cool features of the phone, as well as I have seen a colleague using it, I started to feel interested in this latest Google-Samsung smart phone. The device runs on the latest Android 4.0.1 Ice Cream Sandwhich. Another reason I bought this phone is I am quite keen to get good knowledge about current development of mobile apps of which IT guy like me should know and be able to take advantage.

Update (02 Mar 2012): It is already about one month now that I own this Galaxy Nexus. And so far I really like it.

First time Salsa dance and bar

It was a great experience to have tried Salsa dance (a Cuba originated dancing) for the first time in my life.. and well, it was also my first time to come to the bar in Macau. Portal Wine Bar is such a nice place for enjoying various types of great wine and drinks with nice Latin American music and dancing. Located in Taipa village, this bar is a rendezvous place of many foreigners from all walks of life in Macau. Salsa dance is only available on Friday night.

A great Friday evening dinner at an Italian restaurant

Nihao everyone!

This Friday evening, Elsa had invited some of UNU-IIST fellows for dinner. We had five people eventually who were interested – Elsa, Pratikshya, Surendra, Saleem (a new fellow from Pakistan), and I. We met after work and decided the place for our dinner. Elsa provided some choices and finally she recommended an Italian restaurant. Thanks for a clear weather today.

The name of the restaurant is Antica Trattoria (address: 40-46 Avenida Sir Anders Ljungstedt, Macau Peninsula, 1st fl, Vista Magnífica Bldg). Actually, it is better to reserve the table ahead of time for this restaurant as it is usually full. However we hadn’t done that and we just went directly. It took only about less than 10mn by taxi from UNU-IIST. What we could tell the taxi driver about the direction is Kun Iam Statue or Cultural center or just simply show the map.

We arrived there at almost 8:00pm and the place was full already. So we needed to make a reservation for another one hour. We went out to have some drinks at Casablancar Café located nearby while waiting for our dinner time. We were talking and asking Elsa alot about her life in Macau as well as her PhD research experience.

After about 20mn we got a call from the restaurant that we now could have our table. So we went back to the restaurant. Well, the place was quite nice. And along the staircase to the first floor there are many colorful and b/w photographs hanging on the wall. I feel like it is some kinds of a tiny photo gallery. Also with a collection of colorful Italian decorating trinkets.. Erm.. I could also smell the food aromas from the kitchen and that made me feel so hungry.. with the friendly service we were in a very good mood and got ready for our dinner.

Could you guess what are the special menus of this Italian restaurant? … Well, Pizza and Pasta are in the top list. We ordered one big cheese pizza, one small seafood pizza, salmon pasta, and another dish which I forgot the name. The food price here are moderate, not such a high for this type of menus.. I could say. We really enjoy the taste of Pizza and Pasta here. Everyone was very full and while there was a piece of pizza left, we just pushed to one another to finish . Usually Surendra always be the one who finish the last piece of food as he is convinced by most of us that he will get a beautiful wife/girlfriend :p .. sounds interesting huh.. maybe you can try too.. Well, we also tried two types of delicious dessert. This was the recommendation that Elsa asked us to trust her ..

When we finished our dinner, Elsa insisted to pay for us even though we did not want her to do so. She always say “next time ok..”. What I can say about her is she is a caring person. She is a kind and nice person I’ve ever met. Thank you so much Elsa for this very lovely dinner..