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Published: March 3rd 2008
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On my last full day of the trip, I used my Octopus card to hop on the MTR and to explore the Wan Chai area and have lunch. Amongst other things, Wan Chai is home to Lockhart Road, part of which is considered to be Hong Kong's "red light" district. I figured if I didn't check it out later that night, at least I'd see it during the day, and if I did pay a visit later that night, an early afternoon reconnaisance mission wasn't a bad idea. Turns out there wasn't much to see on Lockhart Road during the day, so I wandered over to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre area and stopped in for lunch somewhere before hopping back on the MTR for the Macau ferry terminal.
I have to say, my expectations were set pretty high for Macau as I'd heard it was fast becoming the new Las Vegas. My original plan was to get off the ferry, find transportation to the Macau Tower to take in the views, pop into a couple of casinos, and check out Fisherman's Wharf before heading back to Hong Kong that night. Unfortunately, a few things went wrong... First,
View of Macau from the Ferry
Over on the left is the Macau Tower, which I passed on due to the overcast weather I underestimated the transit time - the ride over took around an hour and 15 minutes, plus another 45 minutes to get through immigration. Second, the weather was overcast and cloudy. Given that I only had a couple of hours and there was poor visibility, I decided to pass on the Macau Tower for this trip, and jumped in a free shuttle to the Sands casino.
The casino was packed, noisy, smokey, and exciting - so in that respect, Macau completely lived up to expectations. Since I'm going to Vegas again in May, I wasn't planning on doing any real gambling, but I couldn't help slip some cash into the slots. In Vegas you go up to a $1 machine, hit "max bet", and you bet $5. Unbeknownst to me, in Macau you go up to a $1 machine, hit "max bet", and you bet $75. Lucky for me the exchange rate is $1 US to $7.80 HKD/MOP. After feeding a few more $100 HKD bills into a couple of machines, I made my way back through the ubiquitous baccarrat tables towards the exit, only stopping to watch the dancing girls at the casino bar for 15 minutes or
View from th Macau Ferry
One of the many ships in the busy harbor so.
After exploring a few of the streets inland from the Sands (and having my Spider Sense start to warn me that I wasn't in Kansas anymore), I retraced my steps and crossed over to Fisherman's Wharf. I don't know if it was just the fact that it was early on a Friday evening, but I felt like Will Smith in I Am Legend - barely a soul around. The theme reminded me of Epcot, with the developers trying to squeeze as many areas of the world into as small a space as possible - There was the Roman Coliseum next to Aladdin's Fort, and not far away, Miami next to New Orleans. I took a few pictures, and decided to retreat.
Now with more time on my hands than I would have liked to kill, and not enough time to head further out than the Sands, I stopped in the New Yaohan market across from the ferry terminal to do some shopping. I then tried my luck at catching an earlier ferry, but the standby line was around 70 people deep, so I sat around the terminal with nothing to do but browse the duty-free shops, as
Fisherman's Wharf
Roman Coliseum, right next to... I was unable to go back outside since my ticket had already been stamped.
IMPORTANT ADVICE FOR ANYONE THINKING OF TAKING THE MACAU FERRY: It is
ABSOLUTELY worth it to pay the extra ~$100 HKD/MOP for "Super Class", if for no other reason than they let the two dozen Super Class passengers off first, letting them get a head start on the other 250 people pouring off the boat running for the understaffed immigration desks. (The tasty lightly grilled ham and cheese sandwitch plus juice pack they give you is just an added bonus)
After arriving back in Hong Kong, I took a short trip back to the hotel via the MTR to shower and change for a late dinner. I passed on one highly recommended dinner option of Spring Deer (known for its oustanding duck, but I'm not a big duck fan), and opted for another of Time Out New York's recommednations - the buffet dinner at Cafe Too at the Shangri-La hotel. There was probably some good food there, but since none of the dishes were labeled, I didn't find any of it. I'm not quite sure of everything I ate, but I'm pretty sure some of
it was pig's knuckles. I think I would have preferred the duck at Spring Deer.
Not feeling all that lucky, I passed on wandering around the red light district, and headed back to my hotel...
Jason
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non-member comment
good description
in short & too good to know macau