Vegas of the East? Meh

Trip Start May 06, 2007
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141
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Trip End Jul 24, 2008


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Flag of China  , Macau,
Monday, April 28, 2008

Macau is known for two things - it's Portuguese-Chinese fusion food and it's casinos.  Having once been a Portuguese colony, the food in Macau is a bit different than on the mainland.  Unfortunately Portuguese food includes a lot of meat so the only thing I could really try were the egg tarts - kind of like an egg custard with a pie crust.  They were alright, but I didn't love them.

The casinos also didn't excite me.  It's been touted as the Vegas of the East, but the only parallel I could draw was the gambling (though Macau brought in over a million dollars more than Vegas last year).  Macau was missing all the glitz and over-the-topness that makes Vegas, well, Vegas.  I walked through a couple of the casinos and was thoroughly unimpressed.  While they were nice buildings, they were purely gambling and hotel rooms.  I didn't see any of the glutinous Vegas buffets and very little designer shopping.  The theaters in the Macau casinos were just little theaters with no fanfare surrounding the shows.  There was a fountain in front of the Wynn casino, but it seemed pretty small so the light show at night couldn't be that special (granted I didn't watch it, but I can imagine it wasn't as good as the one in Vegas).  I didn't take the ride over to the Venetian, about a 20-30 min free shuttle ride from the main town area, though that one is supposed to be an exact replica of the Venetian in Vegas, so maybe it has more of a Vegas feel than all the others.  In my opinion, the best thing about the casinos was the free water bottles.

Otherwise Macau was alright, but nothing super special.  The streets did have more of a European feel with the Portuguese-style buildings.  One day would have been plenty.  My main reason for even visiting Macau was that Air Asia, a budget airline, flies there, making a ticket from Macau to Bangkok over $200 cheaper than flying out of Hong Kong.  Well worth the visit just for that purpose, but otherwise not a highlight.
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