Simple Happiness

One of the churches at the Historic Centre of Macau in Macau Peninsula that we visited during our Macau Day Tour was the Convent of St. Dominic’s commonly known as St. Dominic’s Church or Sto. Domingo Church. St. Dominic’s Church is located at St. Dominic’s Square or Largo de São Domingos.

St. Dominic’s Church is a place of worship of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary which belonged to the Convent of St. Dominic’s founded in the late 16th century by the Spanish friars who arrived in Macau from the Philippines in 1587. The Spanish friars were soon replaced by the Portuguese clergy.

St. Dominic’s Church and St. Dominic’s Square are parts of the “Historic Centre of Macau”. The Historic Centre of Macau was officially inscribed on July 15, 2005 on the prestigious UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We were supposed to go to Macau, also spelled as Macao, but we postponed it because it rained so heavily. As I was quite craving for some dim sum dishes, we decided to have Yum Cha at Federal Palace in Citygate and later on went to see the Big Buddha in Ngong Ping Village in the afternoon.

The next day we went to Macau for a day tour.

We started our Macau / Macao tour from Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro (Almeida Ribeiro Avenue) going to the Ruins of St. Paul’s.

We passed the streets and places like Rua dos Mercadores, Travessa do Soriano, Largo de S. Domingos (St. Dominic’s Square), Rua de S. Domingos, Rua da Palha, and Rua de S. Paulo to reach the Ruins of St. Paul’s.

We went inside St. Dominic’s Church located at St. Dominic’s Square.

From St. Dominic’s Church, we went to the Ruins of St. Paul’s.

From the Ruins of St. Paul’s, we went to the Cathedral of Macau (Catedral de Macau) also known as Sé Cathedral. The Cathedral of Macau is situated at Largo da Sé.

From Largo da Sé, we then went to Grand Lisboa located along Avenida do Infante D. Henrique and Avenida de Lisboa.

From Grand Lisboa, we went to Wynn Macau crossing Avenida de Lisboa and the Roundabout or Circle on Praça de Ferreira do Amaral.

It was past 4:00 p.m. when we decided that it was time go back to Hong Kong.

We again took a TurboJet fast ferry boat going back to Hong Kong.

We definitely enjoyed seeing the Big Buddha in Ngong Ping Village, Lantau Island, Hong Kong. It was past 6:40 p.m. when we arrived at my sister’s place coming from Ngong Ping Village. We rested a little bit and before we knew it was already time for dinner.

It was past 8:30 p.m. then, so we decided to go to Golden Siam Thai Cuisine at Citygate in Tung Chung.

Golden Siam Thai Cuisine was a Thai restaurant located at Shop B13, Level B1, Citygate, 20 Tat Tung Road, Tung Chung, Lantau Island, Hong Kong.

Golden Siam Thai Cuisine served good Thai food. We ordered the spicy Tom Yum Goong Soup, Pak Boong (Morning Glory), Sweet and Sour Chicken, and Crispy Deep Fried Catfish Mango Salad called Yum Pla Dook Foo. The mango salad was mixed with cashew.

Yum Pla Dook Foo was really good but it became heavy too because of all the other Thai food that we ordered.

The next time I order Thai food together with Yum Pla Dook Foo, I will make sure that we only have enough and not too much.

After we had our Yum Cha at Federal Palace in Citygate, we went up to Ngong Ping Village to see the Tian Tan Buddha Statue popularly known as the Big Buddha.

Instead of going up to Ngong Ping Village with the bus we went up there with the Ngong Ping Cable Car from the Tung Chung Terminal. The Ngong Ping 360 ride from Tung Chung Terminal was about 25 minutes up to Ngong Ping Terminal in Ngong Ping Village.

The Ngong Ping 360 is a tourism project which was previously known as Tung Chung Cable Car Project. Ngong Ping 360 is consists of the Ngong Ping Cable Car formerly known as Ngong Ping 360 Skyrail, and the Ngong Ping Village.

Ngong Ping Village is a highland on the western part of Lantau Island. It is a hill which hosts the Po Lin Monastery and the Tian Tan Buddha Statue.

The Tian Tan Buddha Statue or the Big Buddha is amidst the hills of the Ngong Ping Village. Big Buddha is about 34 meters high and said to be one of the biggest Buddha statues in the world.