We have just finished up a luxurious few days in Hong Kong hanging out with our friends Stella and Eugene and celebrating Chrissy's birthday. We reluctantly check out of our sweet Hong Kong Hotel and make our way to the ferry which will take us to Macau.
Macau is similar to Hong Kong in that it is a Special Administrative Region of China. This means that the usual laws of China don't apply here. A few examples:
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Macau has separate political system and a capitalist economy
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Macau has its own judiciaries and courts
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Immigration/customs is very different for Macua than China
Macau is different than the rest of China in other ways as well. The area had been settled by Portuguese explorers and their influence is very apparent. The food is a Chinese/Portuguese mix. You can also hear people speaking Portuguese in the streets. Its kind of weird.
We get off the ferry into a very modern looking ferry terminal. Almost like an airport, but for ferries. The place had several helicopter pads on the roof. Apparently, if the hour long ferry ride from Hong Kong is too long for you, you can take a chopper. We stumble around for a bit looking for the shuttle bus that will take us to our hotel, eventually find it, and take a short ride to our joint. We had booked a room with a travel agent in HK. This place is a mid-priced hotel that has a casino and restaurant inside of it. Our room was not bad. Chrissy, Katherine, and I take advantage of the happy hour going on in the lobby and sit down to plan out where we want to go, what we want to see in Macau. Katherine only has this one day before she needs to head back to HK for her flight home. The main historical site of Macau is an old section of town that (because of the Portuguese influence) looks straight out of Europe. We make our way over there. This place is pretty crazy. We are in China, it looks like Europe.
We walk around for a bit and then head over to the ruins of St. Paul's church. All that is left of this church, which was built in 1582, is the front wall. It sits atop a hill in the middle of the old quarter, with a long set of steps leading up. It is really beautiful.
Shots of St. Pauls. All that is left is the front wall. Still gorgeous.
It is early evening now and people are hanging out on the steps. The street leading up to the church is lined with shops and these bakeries for which the city is famous.
We take our time walking up the steps to the church and take a bunch of pictures. After wards, we continue climbing up another hill close to the church to check out the fort on top. The fort is closed, so we head back down and walk back to our hotel. We need to freshen up for our big night out in Macau's casinos.
Katherine had brought Chrissy and I both dress clothes so that we could eat out for Chrissy's birthday. We all get back into our best duds before heading out to the casinos. A few words about the casino business in Macau:
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The Sands Macau is the largest casino in the world as measured by total number of table games
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In 2006, gambling revenues from Macau's casinos were for the first time greater than those of Las Vegas Strip (each about $6 billion)
We catch a cab and head over to the most famous of Macau's casinos. This one is called The Grand Lisboa.
The Lisboa was opened in the late 1960s and is the oldest of Macau's casinos. It still looks like it was decorated in the 1960s. We wander around a bit to check things out. The place is basically full of old Chinese guys playing baccarat, and only baccarat. You would think that there aren't any other games with which to gamble your money away. We get bored fairly quickly (none of us is gambling) and so take another taxi to the Wynn. Yes, the Wynn. Good old Steve Wynn has a casino in China. The Wynn in Macau is pretty new. I think it had just opened a few years back.
Macau lit up at Night
Like the Wynn in Las Vegas, the one here in Macau is fairly impressive. They definitely spend some cash building these places. This Wynn is decorated in the same plush style as the one in Las Vegas. The only difference here is that it is filled with only Chinese dudes and again the only game is baccarat. I am actually kind of disappointed with the atmosphere in these places. It doesn't look like anyone is having any fun. Its quiet. There aren't any people yelling or clapping. No slot machines means none of that defining jingle which lets you know you are in a casino. No one is even drinking. There is a nice bar in the Wynn. Chrissy, Katherine, and I sit down and have a drink. This is where all the Westerners are, in the bar drinking, watching the Chinese people quietly gambling.
With not much to do we head back to our hotel to get some sleep. Katherine leaves us early the next morning to make her way back to the states. For the second time on our journey, she lugs all of our purchases and any other unwanted items home. Thanks Katherine.
Chrissy and I have a pretty lazy day after Katherine leaves. We get up late and take some time to book a bus ticket to our next destination. Chrissy left a bunch of her clothes behind in Hong Kong, so we do a little shopping so that she can replace some things. That night we eat in a Macanese restaurant which is the mix of Portuguese and Chinese. The food at this particular place wasn't that great, but you could see how the cuisine could be really good. We hit the sack early.
The next morning we take the bus into mainland China.
- Bill