Look out Las Vegas.....here comes MACAU!! - May 14, 2007

Since Macau was only a hop, skip & a jump away from Hong Kong (1.5 hour ferry ride), and we still have room for more stamps in our passport (just barely) we decided to go.

It's a pretty cool place with some great history. Macau was the oldest European settlement in Asia, with a large Portuguese population. The portuguese influence can be seen in the building structures, food & the people (the Macanese - Portuguese & Chinese).

That's some of the history of Macau...but the current state of Macau is all focused around gambling. The Sands Macau is considered to be the largest casino in the world (based on number of table games). In 2006 gambling revenues from Macau's casinos were for the first time greater than those of Las Vegas Strip making Macau the highest-volume gambling centre in the world. There are quite a few old casinos, and they still have a long way to go to be as "top notch" as Vegas...but it's coming. They are almost ready to open the The Venetian Macao as well.

We did some gambling, which was not much on a backpackers budget, and didn't win big so we headed back to Hong Kong for one more day before we depart on the train. But before we left we had to check out the Grand Prix Museum which has cars & motorcycles from the Macau Grand Prix.