Macau

Yesterday, Jack and I went to Macau for a little day trip. If you don't know what Macau is, then I would recommend checking it out on Wiki. Basically. as Hong Kong is a Special Administrative region of China, so is Macau. Hong Kong, however, used to be a British province, while Macau was ruled by the Portugese. Today, Macau is the Las Vegas of Asia. It brings in more revenue than Vegas, has the world's largest casino, and the casinos are a lot nicer / newer than that of Vegas. (oh, did I mention it is on a penninsula / island, as is Hong Kong.

Ok, so we took a ferry over to Macau, which took about 45 minutes. We then took a free shuttle to the Venetian Casino, which is the world's largest. It was pretty gigantic. We ate there, which had tons of different types of restaurants (perhaps 35 in the food court alone) There was a huge shopping mall there as well. In the middle of the mall was water with Gondolas for which you could ride around under bridges and be serenaded by Gondoliers. I have never been to Vegas before, but perhaps this is the same there. The walls around the mall resembled Venetian architecture and the ceilings were painted like clowdy blue skys.

They had a Manchester United Experience (for Chris Peters), which was a store with everything you could ever want that is Manchester United. (sandles, key chains, mousepads, jerseys) We did see a jersey that was number 7, Ronalod. Yes, it was spelled incorrectly. On a side note, let me add that Hong Kong is huge into the EPL (English Premier League ) soccer. There is no place in Hong Kong which shows NFL games live, and perhaps only a couple that will shows some recorded games. (minus the Super Bowl) (no college football shown here at all)

So, I did some gambling, but did not take much money. You gamble in Hong Kong dollars or Macau curreny and therefore I lost about $520 HKD (only $68 USD). We then left and went to the oldest casino on Macau. I would say that it simply looked like a regular casino, but there was something interesting about it. Around the Macau casinos are "professional" women, trying to get you to spend some of your winnings on their "services". I didn't notice any at the Venetian, even though Jack said he saw multiple ones. Well, at the oldest casino, they're extremely obvious. They walked back and forth down a single hall way, so that you passed them on the way in and out. I will say this, they were dressed appropriately for their line of business. (you know, like most girls in the States)

We walked the old city and had some signature beef jerky next to some sweet antique stores. We walked up some stairs to the ruins of St. Paul and then to the Mountain Fortress, or such. (cannons and all) The Portugese influence could be seen in some of the architecture of the old city. We ate at the Wynn casino before departing, in which there was definitely an older European Hair band, rock star present. I just couldn't tell who it was. (he sounded swedish but wasn't Yngwie, I don't think)

We capped off the day by having a Stella Artois at a pub near our apartment. This could become a new hang out for me. Would compare to the Union in Athens, but with a slightly older crowd than college students. (mostly english friendly locals with a splash of ex-pats)