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This time I decided to visit Macau and Hong Kong. The option is obvious, I'm Portuguese and Macau has a strong Portuguese heritage as the last Portuguese colony, and Hong Kong as one of the most important cities in Asia and in the world.

Macau is a very nice place to visit by foot, because it is a World Heritage Site since July 15, 2005 and has many interesting places to visit near by. Everyone who goes to Macau should go to three places. Largo do Senado (Senate Square) with the traditional Portuguese pavement; Ruínas de São Paulo (Ruins of St. Paul's), the most well known place in Macau; and Monte da Guia - with the Fortaleza da Guia (Guia Fortress) on the top of the hill - which is the highest hill in Macau with nice views over all Macau region.

To go to Macau and return the best way to do it is by ferry which takes less than an hour (each way).

The Portuguese is one of the official languages in Macau and it can be seen in the road signs like the one shown in the picture below (Caminho dos Artilheiros).

The English heritage can be seen in the flag raising ceremony with the traditional outfit of men playing bagpipes (as can be seen in the picture above).

Hong Kong (HK) is also a very nice place to visit, but because is very big is better to travel by MTR, the efficient HK metro system. In Hong Kong I enjoyed most to visit the Victoria Peak with astonishing views over Hong Kong island and Kowloon; Tian Tan Buddha, also known as the Big Buddha - I advice everyone to take the Ngong Ping cable car near Tung Chung MTR station; and the flag-raising ceremony at The Golden Bauhinia Square situated outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Hong Kong skyline at night viewed from Kowloon at Avenue of Stars is 'a must see' also!!!

At the end these were probably the best holidays and to this happen I have to thanks to who made this possible...

There are two variants of paintball. Speedball and woodsball. Speedball is a very fast variant of paintball which has little strategy and the field is composed of bunkers. Woodsball is played as the name says in the woods. It´s more strategic and tactical and you can hide behind trees, bushes...

Woodsball is my favorite and depending on the scenario, it can be breathtaking and a "shot of adrenaline". Playing woodsball it will remind you first-person shooter pc video games as medal of honor or call of duty (if you ever have played these kind of video games).

Play paintball and have fun!!!

Volta a Portugal (Tour of Portugal) is the longest road bicycle competition held in Portugal. One of the most important and difficult stage is the historical climb to Monte Farinha (direct translation as Flour Hill). The stage finish on the top of the hill and the length of the climb is 8.3Km, the average road inclination is 8% and the maximum is 12%.

Above in the picture you can see the first two riders in overall classification at the end of Volta a Portugal. David Blanco (runner up in Volta a Portugal) is the first in the picture and Hector Guerra is the second in the picture and winner of this year competition.

This was my fifth climb to Monte Farinha (in the center of the picture) on a BTT bicycle. On the way up to Monte Farinha I went by a secondary road (10km) and a gravel and more spectacular road(10km). On the top of Monte Farinha there is a Sanctuary called Nossa Senhora da Graça. On the way down, I went by the main road and my speed on the bike was up to 60km/h!

If you go to Mondim de Basto (Portuguese town) and you like to ride a bicycle, I strongly recommend to go to Monte Farinha through Campo do Seixo.

On the way back to Porto from Surabaya I took advantage of making a stop in Singapore Changi Airport and so I stayed in the smallest country of Southeast Asia for three days. The all city is well planned, clean and safe.

After the visit, I tell to people that Singapore is a European (western) city in the middle of the Southeast Asia. The MRT (Singapore subway) works pretty fine but some of the lines are crowded all day long...To go to Changi airport with luggage by MRT in the rush hour is almost an impossible mission.

The above picture is from the Central Business District. There you can go to the Merlion (Singapore symbol) Park, Boat Quay (nice place to eat and relax) and see the tallest Skyscraper of Singapore.
Together with the Central Business District the best places in Singapore to me are the Esplanade Park (place from where I took the picture) and Arab Street.

Bottom of line, if you have a chance, Singapore is a "Must Go" place!!!

After many years going to the old stadium of F.C. Porto (Estádio das Antas) I never went to the new Estádio do Dragão (Dragon Stadium). But the time has come...

It was built by the time of UEFA Euro 2004 European Football Championship. Despite being a F.C.Porto fan it's unanimous to consider this stadium as one of the best European football stadiums.



The game was for Taça de Portugal (Portugal Cup) and obviously...F.C.Porto won and went to the next round.

I hope you enjoyed the stadium pictures and I invite you all to visit the Estádio do Dragão and the city of Porto in the north of Portugal.

In the last days of 2007 I went for a Off-Road adventure. The Video was shot in Santa Maria da Feira, a city near Porto, Portugal.

The soundtrack of the video is from Noddy. The first music in the video is performed by Moonspell (Portuguese Gothic metal band) and the second is the original theme. The reason for this music is because the owner of the car has the nickname of Noddy.

The car used for the Off-Road was a Daihatsu F50. An excellent 4WD vehicle.

To better enjoy the video turn on the sound.




This video was recorded with a Canon Powershot S5 IS and edited with Nero Vision.

I couldn't miss the opportunity to see the Red Bull Air Race event in my city (Porto) on September 1 of 2007!





The following videos were recorded with my digital camera and edited with Windows movie maker. Hope you enjoy it...