@ Hong Kong's China Ferry Terminal to Macau

When planning a trip to Hong Kong, I highly recommend an excursion to Macau. It's just a ferry ride away, so why not? It also helped that in our case, my mother has Portuguese ancestry and she was excited to somewhat get in touch with her "roots" by visiting this former Portuguese colony.

I had my travel agent fix our itinerary for our Macau day tour. I wanted to make sure we'd have the chance to visit both the historic places in Macau and also the towering casinos. We were picked up by 8:00am to go to the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront where the China Ferry Terminal is located. The New World First Ferry tickets we got was for 9:00am so we had plenty of time to chat with the nice Chinese-Canadian lady who was waiting to board a ferry to Guangzhou.

We passed through Hong Kong Immigration and found out that my sister misplaced the extra copies of the arrival cards we filled out previously so we had to fill in new ones, but aside from that, we breezed through immigration as usual.

                                     

 At about 8:30am, we were instructed to proceed to berth 13 to wait for boarding. The number 13 is not unlucky for the Chinese unlike for most of the world which I think is refreshing, but apparently 4 is a "no-no" for them because it rhymes with "death" in their language, hmm they are not as evolved as I first thought. So at exactly 9:00am we boarded the New Ferry LXXXVI and we're off.

Taking a ferry from Hong Kong to Macau is said to be the most popular way to travel between the two Special Administrative Regions and now I know why. It's very convenient, it just took us an hour to arrive at Macau's Outer Harbor Ferry Terminal. The ride was smooth and the view from the boat was amazing and at HKD 139 it was cheap too.

China Ferry Terminal
33 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon, Hong Kong
.

Strolling Along The Avenue of Stars, Tsim Sha Tsui

Our tour guide picked us up at 8am for our half-day city tour and we made a stop at The Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui. It's where you can find Hong Kong's answer to Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

The Avenue of Stars features the hand prints of famous actors like Michelle Yeoh and Jacky Chan, a statue of martial arts great Bruce Lee and an awesome view of Victoria Harbor and Hong Kong Island. We had a great time posing for pictures and just soaking in the stunning view.

Though this is a predictable stop for tourists and can be quite crowded most days, this is a definite must-visit place in Hong Kong. It also provides a great view of the A Symphony of Lights show every night at 8:00pm (weather permitting) from the buildings across the water. Walking around here made me wish for a place like this in Manila--clean, safe, tourist-friendly--One can dream, right?