Macau

Location: Macau SAR, China

On Sunday night, we took a boat from Hong Kong to Macau. The boat was very fast, covering about 40 miles in 1 hour. It actually took the amount of time it said it would, which is more than can be said for the ferry from Spain to Morocco.

Macau was a territory of Portugal following the Opium War, and was returned in full to China in 1999. It is one of the most densely populated places in the world, second only to Monaco in Europe. Today, it is fast becoming a place for gambling in Asia. Steve Wynn has built a virtual copy of his Las Vegas hotel here, and there are several others, and more slated to be opened soon, including a hotel similar to The Venetian in Vegas.

We were staying at the Casa Real Hotel, which is a casino hotel near the ferry port. The hotel was very nice, and the gambling was very old school-none of the glitz of Vegas. People played in quiet, smaller (relative to Vegas) rooms. It was cool to see-some of the games, I had never seen before, as they were local Asian games. Baccarat was very popular here, as was Sic Bo, which I have no idea how to play. A game called Fan Tan looked like fun-it involves a set of shirt buttons. After each betting round, the dealer shakes up and dispenses a random number of buttons. He counts them out by sets of four. When he gets to the end, however many are left in the last set determines who wins. Bets can be placed on any one number (1 to 4), groups of numbers, odds, evens, etc. It looked like fun, but without knowing much about it, I declined to play. I did however play some slots, and roulette. I ended up about 280 Hong Kong dollars (which are pretty much accepted everywhere in Macau) in the hole-about 40 US dollars.

Pictures were not allowed inside the casino areas-security is enforced very strictly here, with all the casinos having metal detectors at the entrances. If they see you have a camera, they will put a "no pictures" sticker on the strap. Crazy.

Anyway, the next day, we decided to head into the center of Macau to see the San Senado Square. The Portuguese architecture and styles really show, and it was quite interesting to see:

All around the San Senado Square, there are shops selling food in a similar manner to the fish shops in Hong Kong. These shops sold meat pressed into a square, which was very strange. I would describe them as looking like Fruit Roll-Ups, or "Meat Roll-Ups", if you will:

We walked through the square, and eventually ended up at the Ruins of Saint Paul's Cathedral. Only one side of the Cathedral is still standing. The Cathedral was built in the 16th century by the Jesuits, and is a very beautiful structure:

Next to the Cathedral is the Mount Fortress, which used to be used for defense of the Jesuit buildings. Some cannons line the openings of the fort, and the Museum of Macau is now located there:

After this, we took a cab over to the Macau Tower. It's a standard observation tower, which gives great views of practically all of Macau (the whole place is only 11 square miles). Some of the features of this tower are not for the faint of heart-you can actually stand on top of thick glass, and look directly down to the ground:

You can also pay extra for a bungee jump off the top, and a skywalk: they strap you into a harness, and you walk on an outside ramp that has no handrails, and no fences. Ben and I both declined to participate.

We then walked over to the Hotel Lisboa and the Wynn. The Hotel Lisboa is an older casino hotel, and has a beautiful ceiling and chandelier. I actually came out ahead at roulette in the Wynn, before losing it later that night.

Ben then went back to the Casa Real Hotel to go swimming. I went out to the Guia Park, which was near the hotel. There's an old light house in this park, a great running path, and good views as well:

I later also went swimming in the hotel, and then joined Ben for dinner in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. We then lost some money at roulette, and called it a night. All in all, Macau is interesting, but unless you enjoy gambling, it's not really good for an extended stay. The next day, we headed to the airport for our flight to Bangkok.