Arrival @ Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal, Macau

The ride from Kowloon to Macau took an hour and we got excited when we saw the Macao Sands from the ferry window. Hmmm but I wonder what's the deal with that volcano right beside it?

The line to the immigration counter was long and it took us about 30 minutes to get our passport stamped. I'm thankful that Macau allows Filipino passport holders like me a 30 days visa-free stay. It must make the serious gamblers among us happy, huh?

 

We were met by our tour guide Sari at the arrival hall. She's Indonesian, but can easily be mistaken for a Filipina. She was charming, spoke good English (and a smattering of Tagalog too), so we quickly felt comfortable with her.

Sari led us through the bustling crowd, and out to the seemingly endless line of shuttle buses provided by the various casinos--Wynn, The Venetian, Sands, Grand Lisboa, MGM Grand--so many to choose from! You can ride for free to whichever casino you want to visit, which is cool.

Since they have shuttle buses to take you to the casinos, you can actually wing it and forego the tour guide but we were traveling with our mom. We didn't want to tire her out by taking a wrong turn, amid the hustle and bustle, and getting lost in a foreign country.

We headed to the Wynn casino bus (to catch the dragon show) and enjoyed the view of Macau with its gleaming new buildings, cobbled streets & temples. The old and the new fabulously mixing together. I love it.

NAIA Terminal 3 to Hong Kong

Finally, after rearranging our schedules, my dream of traveling together with my mother and sister to Hong Kong for my birthday is now a reality. Mama needed some persuading since at 72, she’s not up for all the walking and rushing from one place to another but after promising her she would have ample time to rest between all the sight-seeing, she relented. 

The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) has been bashed to high heavens as the worst airport in the world but if you’re flying out of NAIA Terminal 3, you won’t understand the brouhaha. This terminal is clean, spacious and thanks to the bad publicity, they now put undiluted liquid soap in their wash room soap dispensers, which for some reason, makes me ridiculously happy.

One thing that annoys me about leaving the country though is the ₱1620 travel tax one has to pay before you’d be allowed to check-in, add to that the ₱750 terminal fee and you’ve spent ₱2370 before you even pass through Immigration. Anyway, there’s nothing you can do but grumble that that money could have bought you more pasalubong etc.

The travel tax counter is on the right of the NAIA terminal 3 entrance, beside the Cebu Pacific ticketing office. So after paying for the three of us, we immediately proceeded to the Cebu Pacific web check-in counter to drop off our bags. It’s the first time I’ve tried checking in online and it’s really convenient because the line is shorter and you can show up at least 45 minutes before departure time without getting in trouble.

                                      

 Off we went to pay the terminal fee and fill up the departure cards before lining up for Immigration. It makes me sad to see some Pinoys get denied to board their planes just because the officers were not convinced they were leaving just to tour. 

A friend of mine (who is paid more than I do) got offloaded just because she was traveling alone and wasn’t in her best attire. I wish Immigration agents won’t be so arbitrary in denying people’s right to travel. I know there are a lot of human trafficking cases, but not everyone’s a prospective TNT either.

Rant over. We passed through immigration without incident and trooped to gate 109 to wait for our flight. It was raining heavily before we left so we were a bit apprehensive but it cleared up enough for our flight to leave on time. So goodbye for now, Manila.