Macau: Las Vegas of Asia
Trip Start
Jun 06, 2008
1
20
23
Trip End
Aug 06, 2008
Macau,
China
Monday, August 4, 2008
We landed in Macau at 10PM and what was weird was that as soon as they took off the seatbelt sign, they started blasting music in the airplane cabin. Dammit CEBU, I really hate you, no need to blast loud music in that circumstance. Anyway, we got our bags and went outside first to the bus stop but after not being able to figure out if the bus was a good option or not, we went to the taxi stand. Here I showed the driver a map i drew with the exact address but the couldn't read or speak english. Next cab driver, same story. The hostel had sent me an email warning me that people don't speak a lick of english but this was an extreme! They speak more english in Laos where tourism is still at its early stages than here in Macau, where people from all over the world come to gamble. This place is the Las Vegas of Asia and actually makes mroe money than Las Vegas; you would think english is semi-spoken. Anyway, i figured I'd go back in the airport and somehow get a map of the city, find the street myself based on what I read was in the surroundings of the hostel and then show the cab driver on the map. I did this and even though I pointed AT THE STREET on a real map, he still did not know where we wanted to go. I kept saying Lisboa Casino (which is the first and msot famous casino in Macau and alsoa tourist attraction) and even with this he barely understood where we wanted to go.
A new look for us
Anyway, somehow we made it, got dropped off in front of Lisboa casino and then walked 3 blocks and found our place.Auguster's Lodge ended up being an apartment turned into a hostel. Each bedroom (about 4 meters by 3 meters) had 4 beds but ti was real tight. Three bedroom in total and a living area which was turned into the office/lounge. We dropped our stuff off and by 11:30 we walked aroudn the casinos with TJ, a guy from Boston we met at the hostel. We walked by the Wynn and saw the fountain show (which is exactly the same show as the one at the Wynn in Las Vegas) then we went in the MGM and after that we went to the Lisboa casino, the first of them all. There Dom adn I gambled 20 Hong Kong dollars (3 US dollars) in total and walked out with 30 Hong Kong dollars each. We left when we were on top. Ahah.
The following we woke up early at around 8:30, checked out, left the bags there and walked around Macau to see the few sights, all in walking distance of where we were. The ruins of St. Paul Church which consists of literally only the front facade of the church because everything else is gone, then we went to the Macau museum. I though it was funny because before you enter they brainwash you on how in the museum you see how the Portuguese (who controlled this place prior to it being "returned" to China) and the Chinese cultures have blended and coexisted so well but once you go in it's clear what was influenced by the Portuguese culture and what was influenced by the Chinese culture, needless to say to VERY different cultures.
After the sightseeing it was lunch time so we bought some apples and some pastries (one of which was advertised as hamg and cheese but dewfnitely tasted like tuna so who knows...) and then back to our place, picked up our bags, and got on the public bus to the ferry at this point trying to save as much money as possible since we knew Hong Kong wasn't going to be cheap. We got ont he enxt ferry, which was very comfortable and only 1 hour long and off to Hong Kong, last stop of this Asian madness!
pics will be posted soon
