SengkangBabies, Author at Sengkang Babies

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Think Macao (澳门) and food comes to mind.
Portuguese egg tarts, pork chop bun yummy!

Thrill lovers love Macao Tower, walking around the perimeter edge or even bungy jumping (233m tall only crazy!)

At a recent #MACAOonWheelsSG event (organised by Macao Government Tourism Office), we were introduced to more Macao delights. Besides the photo opportunities with the nostalgic Kombi van, we got to try some Portuguese egg tarts too 🙂

Good food, lucky draw and instant photos.

3D2N, 4D3N itinerary, the travel brochures caught my wanderlust attention. I always thought Macao visitors are mostly day trippers from Hong Kong!

Google help me realised that there are many activities (food and shopping not inclusive yet) to keep families engaged for at least two nights. If you are a cultural lover, Macao is packed with much UNESCO Heritage sites! (Singapore only got Botanical Gardens)

Macao is a small city, 25 times smaller than Singapore, separated into two main pieces of estate.
You have Macao Peninsula in the North, and in the South, Taipa, Cotai strip and Coloane Island.

Macao is really a mix of old and new, traditional and modern. Just look at the heritage buildings and the bright skylines. I would go to Macao just for the food and cultural explorations, but let me share some more family friendly attractions which I just discover.

Entertainment and Activities

1) Anim’Arte Nam Van – This is the latest attraction in Macao. Imagine pedaling in the famous Nam Van lake (南湾湖), or enjoying art, leisure, recreation and dining around the waterfront. Enjoy special performances and fun festive-liked activities over the weekends too. Checkout the video here to find out more!

2) The House of Dancing Water
World’s largest and most spectacular water-based show, theater and acrobats takes the audience through 7 emotions – Joy, Anger, Sorrow, Fear, Love, Hate and Desire.

Spectators seated around the “pool” can expect to see action from all corners of the “stage”, I mean pool.

3) Pier 16 Macao 3D World – Kids and families should enjoy posing with 3D landscapes, think TrickEye and Alive museums.

4) Macao Tower – I would never imagine myself spending good money to tempt fate haha, but there are a lot of daredevils out there. My leg wobbles just by looking at the Bungy videos (Youtube)!

You can attempt the slightly less-harmless skywalk!

Arts,Cultural Heritage
So many UNESCO Heritage awards in Macao.

5) Senado Square
Traditional Portuguese buildings and pavements made of pretty mosaic. The “Fountain” in the center of Senado Square is a popular photo spot, and the whole town looks like somewhere from the Mediterranean.

6) Ruins of St. Paul’s
We always see this famous backdrop in movies or in friends’ selfie photos.

7) Mandarin’s House (top) and A-Ma Temple (bottom) are very near to each other.

Built before 1869, Mandarin’s House was the home of a famous Chinese ideologist in modern times and late-Qing celebrity (Zheng Guanying)

A-Ma temple is dedicated Mazu, fishermen pray to this Goddess for safe passage.

Coloane Village – Travel further South and you will reach some laid back “village” lifestyle.
Popular attractions will be Coloane Pier, Chapel of St. Francis Xavier, and the famous Kun Iam temple.

8) Rebuilt in 1873, Coloane Pier was an important pier before the bridges were built. Ferries ply between Coloane, Taipa and Macao Peninsula.

9) Chapel of St. Francis Xavier is shaped by Chinese architectural influence. This is similar for most of the “places of prayers in Macao. Even food are a fusion of Chinese and Portuguese cultures.

Watch the world pass by as you enjoy the famous Portuguese Egg Tarts from “Lord Stow Bakery” 🙂

What about shopping requests from my Mrs 🙂
Tourists will be happy with street shopping at S.Domingos District or Three Lamp District.

10) S. Domingos District is a shopping magnet for locals and visitors alike. Fashion, bookstores, sports, outlets and electrical appliance chain stores for everyday needs.

Three Lamp District is one of Macao’s most popular shopping areas and the best place to see how locals live and experience the city’s day-to-day life. Small shops and street vendors sell everything from jewellery, clothes, shoes, cameras and electronic gadgets.

With so much activities and food, one day is never enough to cover Macao 🙂

Additional materials :
– Macao Walking routes
– Macao World Heritage

Do pop by Macao Tourism Website, Fanpage and Instagram account for the latest updates and promotions.
* All Tourism images above credit “Macao Government Tourism Office”.

~~ ~~ Macao Instagram Contest ~~ ~~

Good news! Macao Tourism is sending some lucky folks to “Experience Macao your own style”!
Pop by their FacebookPage Experience Macao – SG to leave a comment.

– indicate which attractions or food would tempt you to take the next flight to Macao!
– Remember to hashtag #MacaoOnSocialSG

Love the morning Sun rays when we were Hiking Gunung Belumut! It was also how my heart was fluttering at the thought of another hike. Gunung Belumut is our first 1000m mountain 🙂

Before this, our highest peak is Gunung Panti.

The numbers for Belumut.
4hours up, 3hours down.
15km to and fro, with the peak at 1100m.
To make it more challenging, rain fell 3 times!

We left home at 0445 and reach our breakfast venue at Kluang Rail coffee (GPS 2.033543, 103.317584). It is a real train station famous for coffee and toast (Opens at 0700).

Nasi lemak (and Mee siam) only cost RM0.90 sen each! And there is only chili and white rice but the chili is solid! We suspect train passengers will buy these fantastic food for their meals.

A half an hour drive away, we reach the base of Gunung Belumut (GPS 02.06715 103.52507).

From a distance, we can see Kluang is surrounded by mountains. Mist constantly floats down to cover the road, heightening our anticipation.

Make shift carpark among the palm oil plantation.

Hiking can be a good analogy for Parenting, or rather what I wish my kids to learn through Life.

Hiking can be dangerous, a single trip, slip or twist could mean fractures, sprains or even death. Like any sports, we need to exercise caution, take care of each other, anticipate dangers and be alert.

We need courage to step out of our comfort zone, and that’s when we learn more about ourselves.

I always tell them. Death comes to everyone and there is nothing to fear (or feel morbid). If our time is up, even crossing the road can be dangerous.

Life is really short (how many 20 years do we have), and our human body is so fragile. I only hope we will have minimum regrets at the very end 🙂

The “Before” photo, all eager to hike Gunung Belumut.
Starting bridge and pond, make us wish to dip inside the cooling water.

From the beginning, a lot of fallen trucks lay in our path and we need to go under or over. Taller guys will need to constantly bend down under the trunks, I lost count of how many times my backpack stuck the ‘tree trunk belly’.

The map call Gunung Belumut a “recreational” forest, but we were sweating buckets and we had to climb on all fours at times.
It is always refreshing to reach the next “flat” ground.

Catch up with our breathe and water parade in preparation for the next slope.

Besides the hike, we need to enjoy the surroundings too. Termites trail, and a huge leaf (to wrap Nasi Lemak haha)

Pear-shape tree, ferns and mushrooms. The root on the right looks like a hammock.

Checkpoint 1 (around 3.3km mark). It was uphill up 60 degree gradient for the next 600m!

Kids helping each other over the obstacles, or finding an easier path to climb. Sometimes, I purposely keep quiet and let them figure out the next step or ‘rope’.

Kids are always tougher than we give them credit for 🙂

Sense of achievement? Perhaps, but they do treasure the companionship and jokes along the way.

Checkpoint 2 (around 4.6km), some weird rock formation here. Looks like a walled fortress or a stage 🙂
(Checkpoint 1 to 2 is only 1.3km, but steep terrain means we need 50 minutes to reach CP2)

Face towel was useful to stop the perspiration and block some rain too.

Our guide say this was the 80 degrees wall, we had to climb up by navigating in a zigzag manner, left to right to left again. Make use of the roots.

It lead us to a rock face, and we need to skirt behind and up.

The rain started falling after checkpoint 2, and we were caught in 3 downpours! Besides the slippery and muddy slope, our pants and underwear were all soaked.

Checkpoint 3 is around 5.6km mark, I did not see the sign or landmark.

Hike higher, and you will see moss-covered branches and rocks. I was looking forward to some moss carpet, common in higher altitude.

A fake summit (around 8km mark), the real summit is 20 minutes more to the left 🙂

Finally the summit. But Gunung Belumut summit view is actually not spectacular and it was crowded.

We completed the hike in 4 hours plus. I was so excited that I forgot to sing Boon Kang a Birthday song haha. I had plan this hike as an advance Birthday gift for him 🙂 (We did sing a short rendition on the way down, see video below)

We u-turn to have our mini lunch at the barren “fake” summit.
Our hiking brunch and lunch include :
– x4 1.5l water
– x3 100plus
– x6 banana
– x4 bread, baked beans and tuna (do not bring pork up hills and mountain in case we offend some spirits)
– x6 butter biscuits
– x4 sandwich

It was a heavy load to bear for up to 5 hours! We start our descend at around 2pm.

There are a lot of “drains” to wade across. They become mini waterfalls when the rain fell. As we climb lower, it became darker and we were glad to exit at around 1730.

Although we were slightly behind time, it was crucial that we be extra vigilant and watch our steps. Kept reminding the kids that we might get careless when we are tired, and a slip would only make the situation worse.

Hiking is a good way to bond and see the kids’ characters. We must help each other, motivate and encourage the weaker ones.
I would rotate the “leaders” so that everyone has a chance to lead and identify the markers ahead.

Kids would volunteer to share the load around so that no one is overly stretched. Hiking is a team effort and we need to reach the summit together.

Most importantly, always remember to have Fun!
We hope Mommy and princess can join us soon 🙂

Video (link) : Photos cannot capture the kids’ persistence to conquer Hiking Gunung Belumut

Proceeded to checkin at our hotel for the night at Rail Hotel (GPS 2.023473, 103.311938 ). I was worried that legs will be too numbed to drive back to Singapore :p

King sized bed for RM150, including breakfast voucher of RM24. Recharge before driving home the next day. I knock off at 10pm while the kids were still playing games.

From the map below, Gunung Belumut is between UK Farm and Koref.

Do your staircase training before attempting Gunung Belumut, my calves are still straining after two days.
If you are first time hiking, go for the 500m (or below) Johor mountains first (Panti, Arong, Pulai, Lambak). All are within 2 to 2.5 hours rive from Singapore, and a good start for children. In Singapore, Bukit Timah Hill (163m) and MacRitchie Tree Top walk would be a nice warm up. (Panti is 3 times harder than Bukit Timah, and I felt Belumut is easily 2 to 3 times harder than Panti)

Our hike was made possible with Facebook group “Freewill Hikers“. Guides and permit are needed for hiking Gunung Belumut (For our group of 45, we need to pay RM 40 per head).
We first hike up Gunung Panti (500m) with Free Hikers too, do join their group for future events.

More hiking photos uploaded on our Fanpage album.
Read all our hiking stories here.

ps.. Follow our Instagram tag #SengkangBabiesJohor for more JB adventures

Author: SengkangBabies

Macao holiday, one night not enough