Six of us (Dad, Grace, Euan, To, his wife Chun Hing and I) went to Macao for the night
and Euan and I were treated to a night in a very very nice hotel, far nicer than any others we’d been in on our travels!
We spent a while fooling round on the couches and this must have been about the sixth photo we’d taken (Euan was a bit over it I think).
Macao has some huge casinos for a small place and there were so many under construction, despite the gaming floors being pretty quiet from what we sore. This casino went up last year
and was most impressive at night
On the outskirts of the city were some of the more historical aspects of Macao, such as the A Ma temple that is said to have been already there when the Portuguese arrived in 1557
The housing was an eclectic mix with some European influence and these guard dogs really ruled the roost and stalked on the fence rather than inside it! I did feel safe on the ground talking to them, fairly sure that they wouldn’t make the leap down.
The Macao Tower is remarkably similar to the Sky Tower in Auckland, New Zealand but it’s hardly surprising given that they were both designed by the same architect.
This is St Dominics, a 17th century baroque church
and this is the remains of St Pauls cathedral, built in 1602 (it was designed by an Italian Jesuit and build by Japanese refugees!). As you can see, only the façade and stairway are left but the site is pretty impressive nonetheless.
Then you have the casinos…. this is one of Macao's many casinos
that, when lit up at night, looked quite cool and we designed our own light show walking tour that took in a (rather cool) huge musical fountain, complete with mechanical flame throwers, an array of lights, swaying jets that rotated to the music… yes, it sounds a bit corny but it really was quite mesmerising!
To visits Macao a fair bit and knew exactly which casinos to take us to but we think we toured nearly all of them, each getting grander than the other.
The Venetian was like nothing I’ve ever been before, kitsch beyond belief with its fake sky ceilings and you couldn’t help but walk around wondering what on earth is going on in this world. Apparently it’s a direct replica of its counterpart in Vegas. The food hall is surreal (and quite expensive)
but the Grand Canal, complete with singing gondolas is just ridiculous. It’s difficult to believe that we were on the second floor of a multi-story building and is a far far cry from Lao or even parts of China.
This is the outside of the Venetian
All the casinos were quiet, perhaps a sign of the times? This is the hallway leading to the main casino floor in the Venetian
There are a few islands off Macao and they’re connected to the peninsula by long snaking bridges that look quite cool
We were really only in Macau for 24 hours but it is the sort of place that you can actually see quite a lot in 24 hours – if you have stuff all sleep! Everyone was shattered on the return ferry trip home and even To (who has more energy than most) was asleep. He denied it once we’d disembarked but I definitely saw him asleep with his cell phone held to his ear, obviously half way into making a call.
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