On Sunday (yes, the day before the first day of school), we traveled with a group of exchange students to Macau for a day trip. Macau is another special administrative region of China and is home to some of the most expensive casino chains in the world. The day began early with McDonald's breakfast at 6:45AM before we boarded the subway to head to the ferry station. After going through immigration, we loaded on the ferry which traveled surprisingly fast. We were in Macau in about an hour and spent the next 45 mins going through customs and immigration AGAIN. Alot of waiting for sure.
Our student guides led us to a tourist arena outside the ferry station to what seemed like a European village. There were pastel villas, street side bistros and an Italian themed amphitheater. Surrounding the village, there was a massive coi pond and across the street, the casino strip began.
We first entered into The Sands casino just to explore and observe the atmosphere. They were serving cool drinks on a cart and I picked up iced tomato juice with lemon shavings (delicious by the way) while we walked the floors. It wasn't too crowded for a Sunday afternoon but after the Sands, we took a shuttle to the Grand Lisboa hotel, one of the most oddly constructed buildings I have seen. This casino was absolutely packed with locals. I forgot how nice it is to have smoking bans in the states because it was barely tolerable here. The smoke hovered around the floor never truly dissipating.
From the casino, we walked to the town center. It was so crowded with locals celebrating the last day of the holiday before work on Monday. I realize I have become so used to the lack of personal space and the bumping and nudging of street traffic is expected. We made our way to the ruins at St. Paul to take pictures and eat local food. I kept thinking how Macau seemed oddly European until I realized Macau was formerly a Portuguese colony. All the Euro stuff made perfect sense then.
In all, Macau was beautiful but from what others said, not nearly as big or lively as Vegas. We didn't stay to experience the night life but instead took an early ferry home to get ready for class the next morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment