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Published: August 4th 2010
This last weekend I FINALLY got a chance to go to Macau. Macau is the 2nd special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, the other being Hong Kong. It was once a Portuguese colony and is now a 3 island territory connected by long stretches of bridges. It is located about 37 miles SW of Hong Kong and takes about an hour to get to by turbojet. The gambling and casino life in Macau is said to be much greater than Las Vegas. We left Saturday morning and arrived at the Ferry station around 10:30am. We left earlier than the group because we wanted to get as much time to explore as possible. After much confusion as to where to go and how to get tickets, we eventually got on the 12 o'clock ferry. The ferry company we took was called TurboJet and the boats are large speed vessels that have all inside seating. It was a beautiful relaxing ride. We arrived in Macau around 1:15pm and immediately went to our hotel to check in and drop off our luggage.
The program had arranged for us all to stay at The Landmark Hotel. The Landmark is a 5-star
hotel with awesome accommodations. It was centrally located and was beautifully decorated. My roommate Sarah and I got our own suite with 2 very comfortable queen beds, an amazing marble floored bathroom, and a great view overlooking the city. After dropping our stuff off we met up with the rest of the group and took a cab to a Portuguese restaurant recommended to us. It is called Fernando's. For lunch, we ordered family style meals and shared the different entrees. We started out with a pitcher of Sangria (to share of course) and a fresh salad of tomatoes, lettuce, and onions with a lite oil dressing. We also got Portuguese chorizo, prawns in garlic sauce, and Macau style fried rice that had sausage and shrimp in it. The meal was absolutely amazing. After lunch we went back to the hotel and Sarah and I decided to check out the spa and recreation facilities. We both worked out for about an hour and then treated ourself to some time in the steam room and sauna. Working out and relaxing felt so good; I haven't been able to do that in awhile. We then went back to our room and got ready
for a night out on the town.
Around 8pm we met up with our friends and cabbed over to the Venetian Hotel and Casino. The Venetian is so pretty and is almost identical to the one in Las Vegas. There were rivers running through the hotel and expensive shops everywhere. The guys wanted to gabble right away so us girls went to a tapas place and got cheese platter and drank sangria. We later met up with the boys and went to a hotel across the street called City of Dreams. At City of Dreams we all sat down at a Roulette table and basically took it over. The whole table was occupied with our program so it was a lot of fun to sit around and gamble with some familiar faces. We had a great time hooting and hollering every time a person won. It was different than Vegas though because the casino was unusually quite. The people around us were very serious and there wasnt much excitement among the people. We were all out to just have a good time and werent too concerned about winning big money. So...we got a few stares from people thinking we
were loud and obnoxious. Anyways, I put down a total of about 200 HKD and was up at one point but of course like most all gambling stories end...i lost it all! No big deal though. I had a great time and got free drinks while I was gambling. We later left City of Dreams and took a cab to the MGM Grand. We weren't there long until we decided to go across the street to get some McDonalds. After eating, we walked back to our hotel and went to sleep.
Sunday morning Sarah and I woke up at 9:00am and decided to go to the sauna and steam room one last time before we left. It was pretty cool waking up from a long night and spending some time sweating out all the toxins for the night before! We then went to the complimentary breakfast buffet. At 11am, we met up with the program and all walked to an area of Macau where there is Portuguese quarters. It was so strange; right in the center of all the casinos is a small Portuguese style area with small shops. We spent some time walking around there and seeing the
different sights. It was incredibly hot though so we none us of were anxious to spend a lot of time out in the sun. Around 1pm we walked backed to our hotel. Our ferry back to Hong Kong left at 3pm so we got on the bus, headed to the ferry terminal and was soon on our way back to HK.
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Dad
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The last hurrah
Gooly Am, it's come to an end so quickly! Thanks for the great blogs and stories and letting me share in the adventures. It appears you found some really wonderful traveling companions. I look forward to when you take me to Hong Kong! I look forward to seeing your smiling face in a couple of days! Happy Birthday Peaches!