National Week Vacation Part 2 – Macau

When I was in 7-8^th Standard, I used to discuss with friends and cousins how many money you have seen together, some say one Lakh, two lakhs. Now today I can say confidently I have seen nearly 10 million in real. Thanks to Venetian Casino Macau to privilege me to witness such a huge amount.

Macau is second Special Administrative Region of China after Hong Kong. When it comes to Gambling we always remember of Las Vegas – The Gambling capital of the World. Many still don’t know about the Asian counterpart, Macau. Tourism and gambling are like driving force of Macau’s economy. Macau is also known as Asia’s Las Vegas.

After completing Hong Kong, we started for Macau. Macau is one and half an hour from Hong Kong by Ferry. Sometimes it takes more time depends on the sea conditions. Ferries run from the Central Point on Hong Kong Island. It was around 12 pm, we started for Macau from central.  After buying ferry tickets we popped over on the ferry.  It was nice, very comfortable journey. In ferry, also you will find different classes as economy, super class just like airlines. When we were approaching Macau, we gazed the Sai Van Bridge also called as Ponte de Sai Van. This features a double-deck design, with an enclosed lower deck to be used in the event of strong typhoons. Needless to say, it was magnificent panoramic view.

After completing immigration check, we were at terminal only when we were approached by local guides for 3 hours trip or 6 hours trip. Once we thought of hiring a guide and have a round across the Macau downtown, before entering into casinos. But their rates were too high even though we tried to bargain but all in vain. So we exchanges first currency, for the very first time I was carrying five currencies in my wallet; i.e. Hong Kong Dollar, US Dollar, Indian Rupee, Chinese Yuan  and Macanese Pataca MOP (Macau currency and name sounds funny). You can use HK Dollar in Macau and many places it is still accepted but Macau currency is little cheaper than HK Dollar. So if you use HK Dollar, you will only deplete. After foreign exchange we approached to Macau Tourism Board officer, whose cabin was just after immigration, he gave us Macau City Map and tell us all the places which are worth to roam. Even though, we did thorough research as well, what all we need to cover. As Macau is famous for casinos so every casino provides free shuttle service from ferry terminal directly to their resorts. We thought to cover downtown first. So we asked about one or two famous places. He guided as to catch a bus from outside,

We took a bus for Macau downtown. And we got down at Historic Centre of Macau. The area was fully jam packed with foreigners as it was holiday for Chinese as well as for Hong Kong Citizens. It was feeling like all the crowd has been aggregated at this point only. We started with St. Joseph’s Seminary and Church. It was my debut visit to a Church. As Macau before becoming SAR of china was a Portuguese Colony. So the city has become hodgepodge of Portuguese buildings, Chinese architecture and flashy casinos, which adds to uniqueness of Macau.

 

Me @ Historic Center Of Macau

After covering the historic Center of Macau and lunch, we start roaming around the market. The shops consist majorly of watches, phones and gold. IPhone 5 was also in black 9000 HK Dollar. And I come to know about 3-D gold; so far I have heard and watched 3-D movies.

Later, I discovered 3-D gold is a retail jewelry brand owned by Hong Kong Resources Holding Company limited, it has established a great network in Hong Kong, Macau and some part in China. 3-D gold is active in the design, development of gold ornaments and corporate gifts. After completing the shopping, we started for Galaxy Casino – Macau, via free shuttle provided by Galaxy itself. All the casinos are in Taipa Island so we also crossed the Macau Bridge which we saw while entering Macau. We also saw Macau tower on the way. Macau tower also offers bungee jumping but little expensive. And all of us are not adventurous either. After half an hour we reached Galaxy Casino. By the time we reached there it was around 7 PM it was little dark, but the lighting and all the paraphernalia of Galaxy Resort was making the evening so brighter and exciting.  We were astonished to know that the cupolas of the resort are covered in 24 carat gold. The resort was very huge. We could cover only shopping area and casino lounge. The casino lounge was so huge. First we started with poker black face minimum table was 300 MOP. We lost around 500 MOP each. Then we started with dice game. In this we need to guess it will be 1-7, 8-10, and even, odd etc. different set of combinations. Lucky favors to all of us in this guess but we couldn’t recover the whole amount. Then we rushed to shopping area there were had lip smacking Aloo Prantha with lots of other Indian dishes.

After completing the Galaxy Resort only shopping area and casino lounge. We came out and took another shuttle bus for Venetian. Venetian which is also located in Las Vegas and in Macau also it is owned by Las Vegas Sands Corporation. However from outside it was looking like just a normal resort and lounge. Not much lighting at that time. Galaxy was more astounding in terms of Outer View.  But when saw casino lounge i found it is almost doubles the size of gambling area offered by Galaxy. If we go by the facts the casino in Venetian offers 550,000 square feet of gambling area.

The ambiance itself was so fascinating and alluring. Also I saw 10 million preserved in glass case. Actually it was 14 lakh MOP which is equal to 98-99 Lakhs (nearly 10 million). Due to security photography is prohibited inside casino. Otherwise, I would have shown to everyone. We were not able to recover our previous loss. So we thought let’s explore the other areas, then we will decide on which game we need to invest. Then we moved to shopping area. I thought it will be just like a normal shopping mall like galaxy. I was bewildered after watching the shopping area, it was themed on Venice. Then I got the mystery behind the name Venetian.

Inside the shopping area, they have also created San Luca Canal which also offered boat ride And both the sides of canal constitutes different showrooms covered almost every world known brands. We covered almost the full Venetian or small Venice. The roof of the whole shopping area is actualized in such a way that you won’t feel it is night or evening and everything around is so affable. You won’t feel like coming back from that particular area.

When we returned back to Gambling area, we watched Salsa dance. Then, again we tried our luck on the same dice game. This time it was like one game winning one game losing. So No Profit No Loss.

 Around 4 AM, when we were like totally enervated. We took Taxi for the Ferry Terminal and started for Hong Kong. Again same immigration process and the same turbojet ride. And around 6 30 we reached Hong Kong Hotel. We didn’t book any accommodation in Macau. As it was so exorbitant, around 20k INR so we preferred to come back on the same day. So in all we cover Macau’s major attractions. Needless, to say Macau was disparate experience.

For bachelors, if you are not looking for so elegant places to stay you can visit http://hostels.com/ . They offer accommodation at very minimal rates and cover all major places across the globe.