Macau

Las Vegas on the edge of China

Casinos everywhere

The old....

....and the new???

Balconies to sing from

Forts to defend

Ruins

Chinese street

Plazas

Turbojet

Where Portugal meets Las Vegas on the edge of China! A day trip from Hong Kong the turbojet ferry whisks you across the sea in just over an hour to reach Macau. Like Hong Kong, Macau is part of China but is deemed a separate territory and hence no visa is required to enter, though you do have to travel with your passport and I did get another exit, entry and re-entry stamp to show for my journey. They also use their own currency, however, thankfully everywhere takes the Hong Kong dollar as well. The Portuguese developed the area and have left their mark with European buildings and plazas and the official language here is still Portuguese, along with Chinese. The buildings and ruins aside you still know that you are not in Europe, the side streets are busy selling weird and wonderful things, and little eateries dot every other shop, all very Chinese. To attract the modern day tourist, or just the modern day gambler, there are masses of casinos here and they seemed to be doing a roaring trade. The games I saw being played were very different from anything I had seen before, no black jack or roulette, and the gambling areas were very smokey so I did not hang around for long. Macau is also home to the biggest casino in the world, the Venetian, and although I had watched a National Geographic programme on how it was built and really wanted to see it, it is located on a different island and I was too tired by the time I had seen the rest of Macau so I will have to leave that for another visit!!!