Portuguese street flair and Chinese style gambling, Macau (20.-21.10.08)

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We arrived in Macau with great expectations and were eager to explore the grand casino world that was fostered here. The city is relatively small compared to Hongkong and has a total different touch. The main peninsula has still a lot Portuguese architecture like churches with the typical tiles and street signs are labeled in Portuguese and Chinese. There are even pedestrian zones and great views from a fortress on a top of a hill which make a pleasant walk. The shore line has in contrast the casinos filled with Hongkong and Mainland China tourists. We stayed in a hotel at the more quiet Taipa island just next to the peninsula. Taipa is famous for the development of giant casinos along the so called Cotai strip. Currently the Venetian Casino is the biggest casino in the world and operated by the Sands from Las Vegas. The visit of this casino was our plan for the evening. We arrived early evening, changed our clothes and ventured off. We found a cheap and quick Korean restaurant and had dinner on our way to the already visible giant Casino building. The theme of the casino is Venice and the building has therefore canals with gondolas, city towers and of course the Sankt Marcus square. All is covered by an artificial sky that changes the color towards the evening. The ground floor is one big space filled with plenty of roulette, baccarat and poker tables as well as the popular slot machines. Later ones proved very useful since the rules are simple and the minimum charge is very low with just 5 cent. All casinos operate only in Hongkong dollars (HKD). Other currencies including the local Macau pacata has to be changed in Hongkong dollar. We strolled around the channels lined with all kind of shops and had a scoop of Yuki’s most favorite ice cream: Haagen Dazz. The casino is huge and a round walk takes easily and half hour. Then we entered the gambling area and exchanged after some discussion money equivalent to 200 HKD. We got excited and Yuki started gambling on a slot machine after some confused looks on all kind of rotating weels. After a while it was really fun to play a few rounds, stop playing and request the left over. A bar code ticket was printed out that could be inserted in any other machine. We even gained money and had at a certain point a 20% profit. At one point Yuki got the courage to try the roulette table. The rules are not so simple and we did not understand the limits, but finally a jeton was placed - and lost. Time went quick and at 1 am we walked back to the hotel. The air was fresh and not to cold with a beautiful moon. The streets were empty with a lot of space. A relieve after busy Saigon.

The next day was spent with strolls in the old city, hunting for a China Lonely Planet edition and some more gambling in the Great Lisboa casino. We picked our luggage up late afternoon and headed towards the mainland China border. We had to be early evening in Guangzhou - the former Canton. A friend of mine works there since 1.5 years in the industrial certification office and we would stay with him for 2 nights.


Practicalities:

Casino hotel (3 star) around 600 patacas
Bus trip 3 patacas
Taxi short 10-15 patacas

Exchange: 1 Euro = 10 pacatas
9.7 HKD = 10 patacas

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