i have always been fascinated by macau. i see a lot of it on tv advertised as europe in asia. it was once a colony of portugal and its buildings and cobblestoned streets, street names & old buses attest to that. stepping in the city is like being transported back in time. it's so much different from fast-paced hustle-and-bustle city life of hong kong and sleepy gray-colored mainland china.
joel, my colleague & friend, & i was wide-eyed as we alighted from the ferry that we rode in from hong kong. after about an hour of pretending to be chinese, singing and speaking in what we thought sounded like chinese language to amuse ourselves, we were happy to see gold signage of sands casino glittering as if welcoming us. our hong konger friend & tour guide vince, slept all the while.
we noticed even the people comprising the place is a mix of many different peoples not just chinese. interestingly, they use another currency but for tourist's convenience, HK dollars is widely accepted.
after seeing the church ruins, which the most famous landmark of macau, and centro or plaza, we went to macau tower which was on another island from where we were. macau is made up of 3 islands, connected by beautiful bridges. fromt he tower you could see the whole of macau - glimmering with all its lights in a sea of darkness.
a visit to macau would not be complete without a visit to any one of its casinos. it's known as a gambling haven. we went to sands, operated by a group that owns one of the biggest casinos in las vegas.it's joel and mine's very first ever visit to a casino.i played one of those slot machine games and lost. whatever happened to my beginner's luck?! at the lobby is this very huge crystal chandelier which costs like a million us dollars, we were told.
after dinner at a popular portuguese restaurant, we headed back to hong kong to catch the last mtr ride back to tsim shat tsui. boy, my feet hurt from all the walking but it was all worth it.
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