Country 3 & Stop 19 - Macau, China

On to Macau...

By myself. This was gonna be a weird one. Immediately I noticed I wasn't in a backpacker place anymore, as no cheap transport options from the airport - to be fair, I was going to a 5* hotel that myself & Dani had booked before the YTT course came up. Taxi to Grand Coloane Resort it was, and I soon checked in to my upgraded beach view room. It was absolutely lashing outside, so the private beach view was pretty pointless, and the balcony door couldn't be opened. Great. The hotel & room were pretty class though. With no backpacker around either, I felt very out of place:

But onwards and upwards, and a shuttle bus from the hotel brought me to the Cotai strip, where all the casinos are. With the weather being fairly shocking, and only having one evening in Macau, the old town would have to wait this time, and a night out at the casinos was on the cards:

Only problem was, I was by myself. And nobody spoke English. And the cheapest hand of blackjack was €55 per hand. I did get to see the biggest casino in the world, in The Venetian Macao, but walking around by yourself unable to speak to anyone, nor do anything fun, isn't much to write home about. So, earphones in, a wander around was on the cards, and I was able to then appreciate what Macao had to offer - mainly garish sights and extreme light pollution:

Another Eiffel tower! They're everywhere. These photos were all taken en route to me trying to find something to do with my time that didn't cost €55, and I managed to stumble across a Ferrari design exhibition. €10 entry, or free if you signed up to become a member of the casino. Guess who's the newest member of The City of Dreams casino in Macau:

So with that, and some more wandering through various casinos designed for the super wealthy, I grabbed a burger+chips in an Irish pub in The Venetian (three times the price of the most expensive meal I ate in India), and thought about heading home. I'd a little more time, so ventured over to The Wynn, and took in the free fountain show and skychair lift:

And decided I couldn't come all the way to Macau and not gamble, so headed in quickly to a casino to play some slots (only thing affordable), and duly lost €10 in the space of three minutes. Enough of that for me:

After a good nights sleep, and filling up on breakfast, I decided to just head to Hong Kong ASAP rather than spend any more money in Macau. Maybe the old town is nice. I'll never know. Transport method of choice is the ferry:

Macau does have the potential to be a nice place to visit. It's a nicer/more luxurious Las Vegas. However, nobody speaks English, and it didn't seem to have the energy/craic Las Vegas has, and it's prohibitively expensive, so I'll go back to Nevada over it any day please.

Now for a week in Hong Kong, where I'm staying in a hostel, which should make things a bit easier. Looking forward to it.

Big love,

Stu

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