Macau / Cash-Cow.... sounds like the ingredients for a dad joke

Here’s an exercise in space management; take the country of China, and tell it’s billion or so residents that the only place where it’s legal to gamble is on a small region not even half the size of Tasmania. I guess that explains why Macau has about 20 or so casinos, among which is The Venetian, which is the biggest casino in the world (yeah, including Vegas and all). It turns out that these mild mannered Chinese people love gambling almost as much as I love sampling new dishes based around suspicious entrails. That means a lot… Which reminds me, while we were in Macau I found time to try a handmade noodle soup where the key ingredient was pig’s ear. I’ve never eaten cartilage before, but it was pretty much like eating soft rubber which gently crunches in your mouth. The skin on either side of the cartilage was a bit chewy, but the noodles were amazing. Anyway, no more food talk.

First thing we did when we got to Macau, after sorting out a room of course, was to wander the older part of town and see what historical stuff the town had to offer. Since Macau used to be run by the Portugese, there were cobbled roads and old churches all over the place. We walked up to the fort on top of the hill and had a pretty decent view of the city. The whole place felt and looked a bit like a slum, thanks to the grey-brown, run-down buildings with old air conditioners hanging from every window. It was still fun getting lost in the maze of backstreets (and oh how we got lost. Thanks going to our compass for finally showing us the way), sampling the local delights and seeing how people spent their time.

Inevitably however, we were funneled into a big, fat casino. Third hand smoke was omnipresent, and so was the noise. Every casino had hundreds of people in it, and they were all there to win big, judging by the bets we saw being casually thrown down. That first night we tried our luck in the Grand Lisboa Casino, which is the wackiest building I’ve ever seen other than The Opera House and The Big Merino. It’s shaped like a giant lotus flower or something, and we just had to see if it was equally as weird inside. That night we won a little bit on roulette, and we agreed that we were being sensible by quitting while we were ahead.

The next day, in the early afternoon, as we visited our third casino for the day, Kate and I agreed that yes, we were being sensible by reinvesting our money on the tables while our luck was still good (and that the free cocktails mainly consisted of fruit, so that meant they were actually good for us). Turns out that our brilliant logic was spot on, and all up our round trip to Macau ended up paying for itself, accommodation, ferry tickets and all.

We are back in Honk Kong now, eagerly looking forward to our next stop – South Korea. Maybe they have casinos there too?

//Brendan