MACAU, CHINA

Macau
Viva Las Vegas - Asian style! We caught the ferry from Hong Kong to Macau. It was quite flash because most of the people who use it are rich gamblers from Hong Kong and China (gambling is illegal in China except for Macau). 45 minutes later we were at the Macau ferry terminal enquiring at a travel agent about a place to stay. We were really surprised to find 3,4 and 5 Star hotels for very affordable rates (as it was mid-week and a lot of the gamblers only come on weekends). So we stayed the first night in the Taipa Hotel across the harbour from Macau. It was pretty nice although we had to wait for about 2 hours for the complimentary bus to pick us up - so when we kicked up a fuss they updgraded us to a suite.
The Lonely Planet came to the rescue again when we wanted to go somewhere for dinner and we ended up at a local restaurant called Galo where they specialised in Portugese food (and wine). The meal was superb and we vowed to return before we left. The next day we decided to change hotels and got an incredible deal on a 5 star hotel called 'The Greek Mythology Hotel - New Century'. We checked in and cheekily asked if it was possible to get a room with a sea view as it was right on the harbour and the desk clerk said that she would see what she could do. She gave us our key and told us the concierge would bring our luggage up and we got in the lift and pressed the 10 floor button. We got to our room number 1001 and when we opened the door we couldn't believe our eyes. We had the corner room that had not one but two ceiling to floor windows that gave us a view overlooking the harbour and Macau. It was so beautiful and so was the room. The room itself was easily comparable to the one we had at the Langham except that this was a HUGE Kingsize bed and also the shower, bath and toilet were cordoned off from the rest of the bathroom by a fancy glass door. The rest of the hotel was very 'casino like' as in a bit tacky and over the top but it was such a fun place to stay. The photos below are of the view out our windows. We could see all the main casinos including the huge dome of the Lisboa. All the flashing lights made for a pretty nice view at night.
That night we went for a look around the casinos, we bet all of about 20 macau dollars (about $3 NZD!) on the pokies and won nothing of course but it was fun just looking at these places. The Grand Lisboa was the biggest and had a huge dome of lights out the front which was pretty impressive. The toilets were pretty flash too, check out the basins in the ladies!One of our favourites was the Wynn casino. It was very trendy and stylish and also had a lake performance out the front which consisted of fountains and lights 'doing a dance' to music. It was gorgeous. It had plush red carpets and big red chandaliers. The casino at our hotel had a show on every night which was a laugh. It was of various dance performances, mostly featuring scantally clad western women to keep the Chinese male punters entertained! There were also some very talented Portugese men who had these woodern balls on strings (kind of like hard poi) that they were smacking on the ground in a very rythmical, energetic way. It sounds strange but it was fantastic! The Crown casino was the flashest (along with the Wynn). We ended up playing on the pokies there for awhile (playing 5cent games with our 20bucks!) The waiters must have thought we were betting more than we were because they brought us free beers and Portugese egg tarts! We weren't complaning though.
Speaking of Portugese egg tarts... as some of you will know Macau has Portugese heritage. As a result there is still a lot of Portugese food available and it is wonderful. The egg tarts are one of the traditional foods and are kind of like a very eggy custard tart. We had a few Portugese meals while we were there which was a nice change from Asian food (as much as we love that too). There is also a lot of Portugese architecture in Macau so the next day we got up early and did a self-guided walking tour of all the famous Portugese buildings. It was such a brilliant day and the buildings we saw were really beautiful. It was very easy to follow the well sign posted route on the tour and everything about it and Macau was very tourist friendly. The historic landmarks that we saw were amazing buildings and probably the most impressive of all was actually a ruin of an old church called Old St Paul’s near the centre of the city. Many years ago it had been gutted by fire and now only the front façade still stood at the top of a little hill and the pathway up was lined with beautiful flowerbeds and cobbled streets. There were also some other beautiful churches, a garden, some barracks and a temple. Once done, we walked back through the town and checked out some shops. There was a gorgeous central square with black and white tiled patterns on the ground with a big fountain in the middle of it. There were shops all around the edge and lots of little side streets of shops coming off it. It was a really enjoyable place to spend the afternoon looking around.
That night we had another little look around the casinos, again only spending 20 Macau dollars.
The next day we caught a bus out to Hac Sa beach on Taipa Island and were very surprised at what we found there. The sand was a kind of black colour and the sea was BROWN! Not just slightly off colour but BROWN. However it was still very refreshing when we went for swim and then we got some squid kebabs and a couple of cold Tsing Tao beers and read our books. That night we went back to Galo restaurant in Taipa Village as we both really wanted to taste the gorgeous Portugese food they served once more before we left.
We did some sight seeing around a place called Fishermans Wharf – which was basically a scale model village that represented different parts of the world. It was amazing! There was a volcano part, a coliseum, a part that looked like the Art Deco area of Miami Beach and the dock area was made up to look the piers in Venice and the place was full of designer shops as well as a Casino called the Babylon. That evening the All Blacks beat Aussie in the final game to claim the Bledisloe and Tri-Nations Cup and we had an early one so we would be ready for more travelling the next day to the mainland.

Lots of love
Liv and Tama x