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| The façade of a church in Macau. At one point, this was an important church in east Asia and even took in some Japanese Christians during the beginning of the Shogunate when Christianity was banned. |
Macau is a small little place just a short ferry ride from Hong Kong, but it has become very popular lately because it is trying to become the Las Vegas of Asia - not just gambling, but tonnes of entertainment.
Macau's Old Town
Macau does have some history. It was a Portuguese colony for a long time, and so it has architecture and culture with significant Portuguese influence.
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| Macau's historical area |
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| More sections from the old area of the city |
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| Tourists taking pictures of the façade, the old town, and the new Macau. |
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| Canon directed at the hotel. |
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| Just on the other side of that river is Mainland China. Macau is a Special Administrative Region of China, so you can decide if that is China or not. |
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| Fountain. |
Macau has a unique cuisine because of its European (specifically Portuguese) and Chinese influences. Although today the city caters mostly to tourists, so Chinese food is increasingly popular. Here are two famous foods from Macau:
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| Macanese Egg Tart. These are custard tarts that are specifically from Macau. They are really, really good. I ate 4 in 2 days. |
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| Pork chop bun. |
Today's Macau
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| Macau Tower. |
In the 20th century, Macau became popular for gambling. With inspiration from Las Vegas, Macau has expanded their gambling into general entertainment: shows, food, fancy hotels, luxury shopping, etc.
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| Fancy hotels light up the city at night. |
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| Fancy hotels light up the city at night. |
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Inside the hotels, the lobbies and various areas are thematic and heavily decorated.
Is it art? Exciting? Tacky? Over the top? Creative? Luxurious? You decide. |
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| With thematic hotels comes thematic interiors, fountains and all. |
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| Am I outside on a perfect European day? Yes, I am. Inside of the hotel. |
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| No need to go to Europe. Venice is right here inside the hotel (which is the Venetian). |
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| The Venetian. One of the largest buildings in the world with hotels (plural), casinos, shopping areas (again, all plural), and entertainment areas. It also features the canals and gondolas as pictured above. |
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| The Eiffel Tower of Macau. |
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| The House of Dancing Water. It's a show they promote heavily and it was really interesting. There is a floor, which turns into a pool. The show features acrobatics, dance, motorbike tricks, diving, costumes, music, projection imaging. Basically everything. Very entertaining. |
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| Macau also features lots of live shows, including Thriller, which we saw. There are many shows in Macau. Good fun had by all. |
Macau is everything big and shiny. I went to Macau with my friend from Hong Kong and although I'm not a big gambler, he wanted to hit up some casinos and I thought it might be fun. People put down big money. Baccarat is one of the favourites in Macau, and I saw people putting down as much as $3000 to $5000 Canadian on a single hand (not even in the VIP or high-stakes sections). Anyhow, I tried slot-machines (which I have decided are super boring) and video baccarat, at which I won - although, I'm still convinced I don't know the rules.
I really enjoyed Macau. It seems like a place where you can do any form of entertainment. In fact, the guy in the room next to ours had some late night entertainment of his own. But, my personal conclusion is that I really don't have any need to visit Vegas. Not really my thing.
