Knowing it had been a Portugese colony and now a casino haven, I was expecting it be a good mix of a quaint town with opulent luxury. Which was true and it was a great city to visit. Catching a ferry from Hong-Kong to Macau, I boarded on what seemed like a luxury jet and entered Macau at the ferry terminal. It was the first time I did immigration on a sea port ! The nice thing about Macau were free buses by the casinos. I decided to first check out the old Central square also known as Senado square.
It was very festive and there were Christmas decorations everywhere. The square itself is charming with its undulating cobblestone paths and old architecture. An Indian family talked to me on the bus (probably concerned that I was traveling alone) and offered me to tag along.They were nice, but I lost track of them soon after when I was at St. Dominic's Church taking pictures.
The square was crowded and you had to fight crowds to get to the ruins of St. Paul's and that was quite a sight. Only having the facade and the entire building destroyed, gave it an interesting look, almost 2 dimensional when looked at with one eye and at a particular angle. I couldn't capture that shot, so instead here is a standard picture !
There were a lot of tourists, but the best part was watching wedding pictures being taken in front of the ruins - the photographer lying on the ground and his assistants hovering around asking people to move and shouting out poses for the couple.
Having had my fill of people watching, I headed to nearby Mount Fortress from where you could view almost all of Macau.
After chilling on the fort, I went on one of the parallel streets and away from the crowds. Suddenly, the place was deserted. Antique shops and art galleries lined the small cobblestone streets with compact cars parked on the side. I ended up reaching a garden where locals were exercising, watching construction and not selling things to tourists.
In the evening, decided to take a bus to one of the casinos to check it out. I ended up getting off at the Fisherman's wharf to take some pictures.
Sands casino happened to be close by and I walked in there. It was grand. Granted, I have never been to Vegas but this place could probably compare to Vegas (minus the throngs of Asian crowds and serving chocolate milk at casinos). Regardless, very entertaining and opulent. I then went to the Venetian (yay for free bus rides across islands) and that resort was extravagant. Similar to The Venetian at Vegas, there was a canal, gondola rides, upscale shopping etc right inside the resort. I was tight on time, but to tour all the casinos would probably be a day trip in itself.
On the way back, I stood in a stand by line for an hour before boarding a not so nice ferry back. I am prone to motion sickness and the ferry ride was not fun. Add to that 4 people barfing around me, and the crew walking around collecting barf bags and handing out new ones. With my headphones on full blast and keeping my eyes closed, I warded of sea sickness successfully and was back in Hong Kong at night.
It was an adventurous day but I wish I had more time to spend in Macau. And maybe money like some of those Chinese women on the slot machines, whose credit showed 50,000 HKD...on a slot machine.
Wow! That's quite a day. I didn't know the casinos were so much like Vegas. And the people watching too.
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