Macau trip Day 3, Macao Giant Panda Pavilion, Coloane & Taipa

Today we'll be visiting the less touristy areas in Macau, first stop is to see the Giant Pandas at Seak Pai Van Park 石排灣郊野公園. We took a taxi to the park entrance, its a short 5mins ride from the Venetian.

The ticket booth is a 5-10mins walk from the main entrance, just follow the signs.

Admission fee for adults is a mere MOP10 for 1hr of viewing inside the panda enclosure. Everything else in this mini zoo is free of charge! Its raining rather heavily so we headed straight to see Kai Kai & Xin Xin (開開 & 心心) first.

The pandas were initially sleeping and didn't move for more than 30mins. We were patiently waiting for them to wake up for photo taking. I was wondering what happens if the pandas at our Singapore River Safari sleeps for more than 15mins? Are the visitors allowed to re-enter with the hefty SGD35 ticket? Anyways, the pandas did wake up and went straight to munch on the bamboo leaves scattered around the enclosure. They are sooo adorable! We also caught the other one in action at the outdoor enclosure...

If you can't get enough of them, you can always spend another SGD1.66 to view them for another hour! 

We got out of the enclosure when the next batch of visitors started streaming in. We walked around for a bit to see some other animals at the free exhibit area. Not many variety here but well, they are FOC so can't complain right?

Next, we went shopping at the souvenir shop. Stuffs are reasonably priced here and for every MOP100 (SGD16.66) purchase, you can pick up a complimentary MOP20 pin or panda umbrella. We managed to chalked up enough to takeaway 2 panda umbrellas and 2 pins :D

After the short shopping spree, we went to the small cafe beside to have a quick breakie before heading to our next destination.

We had a bowl of assorted curry fishball & hotdog snack MOP20. This is not as good as the one we had yesterday but its cheap and the aunties here are very friendly, no complains.

Our next destination is the tiny township of Coloane 路環, a short 5mins bus ride away. If weather is good, it is only two bus stops away (20mins on foot). It is a very quiet and peaceful place on a Sunday afternoon.

We had a leisurely stroll around the town center and along the seaside, about 5mins later, we reached the St. Francis Xavier church. The below sights has been featured multiple times on TVB drama 巨輪. This is also where we will have lunch.

Our lunch place, Cafe Nga Tim 雅憩花園餐廳, is located just infront of the tiny church. It is a 大排檔 style eatery (a.k.a. zichar stall). We ordered the signature Sauna drunken prawns 桑拿醉蝦 MOP118, Roasted pigeon 紅燒乳鴿 MOP78 and some other dishes to share. The drunken prawns are a must try! Read more about our lunch here.

There are hits and misses with the taste of their food, its better to stick to the signature dishes as most other ordinary dishes are a tad overpriced.

Post lunch, we headed back to the town center and got ourselves half a dozen of the top selling Portuguese egg tarts from Lord Stow's bakery. The tarts are out of this world!

We originally planned to take a bus to Taipa and spend the afternoon there exploring the colorful buildings but cos of the rain, its inconvenient to lug around the souvenirs and the egg tarts while trying to take pictures, so we hopped on a taxi back to hotel for a short break.

Back at Venetian, there's an Asia-Pac Film Fest going on at the main lobby with red carpet and the paparazzi all setting up for the event. We didn't stay to watch cos too many security guards around and we can't get close enough to see anything.

In the evening, we walked to Taipa Village 氹仔 on foot via the hotel's West lobby. Its a short 10mins walk under a fully covered sheltered walkway with escalators and travelators leading up to the small street outside the Rua do Cunha 官也街, the main touristy street in Taipa.

We had a dinner reservation here, so we eat first before we walk around. Our dinner venue is an award winning, Michelin starred restaurant, Antonio 安東尼奧葡國餐廳. Read more about the dining experience here.

After dinner, we walked over to Rua do Cunha to check out the traditional shops there. Some of the shops are already closed, its better to come here during the day to see more.

We bought some snacks from Koi Kei after trying the samples. We plan to come back again to shop for loots to bring home on the last night in Macau.

On our way back, we chanced upon numerous photographers capturing the laser light show at Galaxy Macau on the overhead bridge. We joined in the fun!

Back at Venetian West lobby, we checked out the Bus terminal to see which bus we're suppose to be taking to the Taipa ferry terminal on the following day. We are going to Hong Kong for a day!

End of day 3, we shall try to wake up early for the HK trip...