Macau Experience

Wow, it's been a quarter since I last blogged. Been busy with work and travel. Now I'm back again to write some non-sense and pollute the cyber world. And let's start the second half of the year with a few things about my trip in Macau.

We were actually planning to stay in the Venetian hotel care of a friend that offered a discount as part of their privilege but it was too late when we confirmed. We could have saved half the price. I really wanted to stay but it was also a good thing since it was still like 15 grand that we saved for a 2 day stay.

We arrived late at night and was greeted by my cousins neighbor who is now working in Macau for about 11 years. We took the shuttle from the airport to Venetian and wandered through the hotel/casino. Most hotels and casinos have shuttle services from the airport and ferry terminal. You can be able to tour most of the tourists spots without even spending a dime on transportation.

Macau is known as the Las Vegas of Asia and you can see various casinos everywhere you look with attractive lights at night that makes the area more lively. The area is more active at night and even way past midnight, the sky is still bright due to the reflection of lights.

Not only will you find plenty of casinos, Macau also composes of many churches which I find a bit ironic. One of the famous site in the area is the Ruins of St. Paul or as the Filipinos in the area call it "putol (unfinished)". The site is walking distance also from the Senado Square and other major areas in Macau.

Being a Portuguese colony until 1999, you can see several European inspired buildings and cuisines. One of the best pasalubong (goodies) you can bring home to your friends is their Pasteis de Nata or egg tarts (similar to the egg pies in the Philippines only in smaller servings).

Macau has limited shopping options compared to Hong Kong, but you can always visit its neighboring SAR via ferry with a 1 hour transit time. You can get specials when you play at the casinos and get the return trip back for free. For people not comfortable with traveling via ferry, a bridge connecting Hong Kong and Macau is in the works, but considering the distance of the two regions, they are considering placing artificial islands between the two. Once completed, this should be one attraction people would like to experience.

Based on my experience, if you are planning to visit Macau, best option is to also include a trip to Hong Kong because if you are not that into gambling, you will run out of activities in one or two days.