Thursday, February 2, 2017

Trip Young & Dangerous (HK, Macau & Shenzhen) : Day 2 - Macau Day Trip (City Of Dreams & HardRock Hotel)



iii) City of Dreams & Hard Rock Hotel


Our next destination after The Venetian was to the City Of Dreams and Hard Rock Hotel. Guess what, we don't have to take any shuttle bus as these places located just across the road from the Venetian.


Cross the road and you can see a "tunnel" that link to the City of Dreams building.


We went out from The Venetian building, and amazed with the design and architecture of buildings here. They are very interesting with lots of spot for photography. Mind you the weather was a little bit hot during our visit there... but then who care, for the sake of photography kononnya, we took lots of photo like nobody business.


The bridge infront The venetian.



The Venetian trade mark - European Design.



Luxury hotel.




A little bit about the City of Dreams, it is a resort and casino in Cotai Strip. Cotai Strip itself is a place where all the magic happens - the one stop center which houses all the new hotels, casinos, entertainment hub and luxury shopping experience fit for tourist.

City of Dreams, widely known as CoD Macau in the industry, is in the style of a podium. With four towers namely The Hard Rock Hotel, Crown Towers Hotel and The Grand Hyatt Macau (2 towers).


Hard Rock Hotel and Grand Hyatt at the back.



City of dream just across the road.




On the left side of City of Dreams is the Sands Cotai Central (which also houses Conrad, Holiday Inn and Sheraton). Due to its strategic location, you can just walk across the road (small road - not highway) and within 2 minutes, you can land yourself either at Venetian City or Sands Cotai.


Sands Cotai Central with the 3 hotels.



From The Venetian, you'll need to cross this road to Sands Cotai Central.



Since we wanted to go to City of Dreams, lets cross this road.



Arrived on the other side, the view of The Venetian from opposite side.



We didn't enter the "tunnel" to City of Dreams yet, while what we did was crossed the road to the left where Sand Cotai Central located and took few photos there.




Now the view of City of Dreams from the left side.



Mission accomplished to just took photo infront of Sand Cotai Building.



Then we back to City of Dreams and enter the tunnel.... Whoa, we were really impressed with the entrance. The design is very unique, like in a spaceship. So futuristic.





Entering the complex of City of Dreams, we were greeted by the Vquarium (Virtual Aquarium) - a huge LED projector screen displaying a virtual underwater world with fish and mermaid. Measuring nearly 61 feet (19m) wide and 22 (6.7m) feet tall, the Vquarium is one of the main attraction of City of Dreams.

Besides the Vquarium (and Casino of course), other attraction including The Bubble Fountain which features a large water sphere where the water bubble out from the top of the sphere and gently cascading evenly down the sides of the globe into the catch pool below. But the most popular attraction in CoD is the Dancing Water Theatre. The theatre contains one of the largest commercial pools in the world. The show, which incorporates various design elements such as fire, water effects, and atmospheric effects, opened on 17 September 2010. The House of Dancing Water was the recipient of a 2012 Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement for a Live Show Spectacular.





One of the show when we were here.



If you are not into Casino, shopping or watching any of the shows, just wandering around this area to see the architecture and design of this building also is quite enjoyable like we did.



Chinese dragons traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, typhoons, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck for people who are worthy of it.



It was nearly 1pm and no wonder we started to starve. We had pack our lunch (Brahim's instant Nasi Tomato with Ayam Masak Merah) earlier from the hotel but it was hard to find a proper place to eat (what do you expect when you are inside luxury hotel kan.... mana bole main picnic sesuka hati.) Luckily we found McDonalds inside this building and decided to buy drinks and unpacked our lunch here.. (Took seat a little bit hidden from the counter so that it won't be obvious that we brought outside food).







Menu perantau.



Once finished our lunch, we continued our tour and went down the elevator to the ground level where The Casino and Hard Rock Franchises (hotel, cafe and shop) located.




Check in?? Well not at the moment.



Dining here..? Maybe later. Afterall it's not Halal.



Shopping here... to be frank I'm not a Hard Rock merchandise collector so.... ya just wandering here and there, then went our from the shop buying nothing :p



Another side of Hard Rock Hotel. Based on what I read, Hard Rock gave you a better room rates compared to other's hotel in Macau.



Dragon statue infront of the casino.. to bring luck perhaps??




Golden dragon.



There was an astrology and science exhibition held at the hall infront of the Casino during our visit at the City of Dreams.





It was very hard to take photo infront of the casino (of course for the security reason). We had been chased by the security guard numerous time when we tried to peek and took a look inside the casino. Been mischievous like us, finally we managed yo take photo infront of this casino (mind that u have to be very fast, once the security facing other direction or distracted a bit, quickly stand infront of the casino and "click" you're done. Plan your pose earlier as don't expect to get 2 or more takes of photo. Remember, you have to be fast but not furious ok)




OMG, I forgot who was our victim that took our photo this time.



Since we had more places to visit in Macau, we couldn't spent much time here. Around 2pm, we started to make our move to the next destination, also one of the famous Hotel in Macau named The Galaxy.


A giant lion statue stands proudly near the entrance of City of Dreams, welcoming guests on their arrival.



As ussual, there's a shuttle bus from City of Dreams to Galaxy Macau every 10 minutes. We waited for the shuttle bus in front of The Galaxy lobby.



And finally the bus arrived.



We boarded the shuttle bus to The Galaxy. So far our visit to Macau was all about hotel tour, but each hotels are interesting and unique with their own themes and designs. So what about The Galaxy? What is the attraction there? To be continued of course in my next post.


Trip to HK, Macau and Shenzhen Fast Link Here
Preparation
Day 0 – Departure to Hong Kong and First Night at Chungking Mansion
Day 1 – Star Ferry Ride from Kowloon to HK Island
Day 1 – HKCEC and Golden Bauhinia Square
Day 1 – Repulse Bay and Stanley Village
Day 1 – Lunch at Islamic Muslim Centre, Ammar Mosque and Tram Ride
Day 1 – The Mid Level Escalator
Day 1 – The Peak Tram and Night at Victoria Peak (Sky Terrace 428)
Day 1 – End of Day 1

MACAU Day Trip
Day 2 – Journey to Macau by TurboJET Ferry
Day 2 – The Venetian, Macao
Day 2 – The Galaxy Macau
Day 2 – Grand Lisboa and Senado Square
Day 2 – The Ruins of St. Paul’s
Day 2 – Macau back to Hong Kong

Shenzhen Day Trip
Day 3 – Starting Journey to Shenzhen, China from Hong Kong
Day 3 – Window of The World
Day 3 – Shopping at Shenzhen and back to Hong Kong

Hong Kong Trip Continues
Day 4 – Ngong Ping 360, Lantau Island
Day 4 – Aberdeen Floating Village and Jumbo Kingdom
Day 5 – Disneyland Part 1
Day 5 – Disneyland Part 2
Day 5 – Disneyland Part 3
Day 5 – Shopping at Ladies Market, Mongkok
Last Day – Avenue of Star
Last Day – HK Museums, 1881 Heritage and Back to Malaysia
Total Expenses


No comments: