Hong Kong #2: Macau

We went to Macau the next day. Like Hong Kong, Macau is a handover (from Portugal) and thus is treated as an SAR (Special Administrative Region) of China. Like Hong Kong, it has its own currency (Macanese pataca)! The Chinese yuan is accepted, but the Hong Kong dollar is preferred. Like Hong Kong (but unlike China proper), Macau too drives on the left. And you need to clear immigration to pass from Hong Kong to Macau and back. China with SAR’s is complicated.

 

Macau is famous for its casinos. If you thought Macao is the Las Vegas of Asia… well, actually, Macao is a much larger gambling market than Las Vegas – it crossed Las Vegas’ gaming revenue numbers as long back as 2010. That said, a lot of things are indeed copied from Las Vegas, including the name (Cotai Strip where the luxury themed casino resorts are located). The Cotai Strip has Londoner, Parisian and Venetian themed resorts – the collated pics from the Net will help get an idea of what that means:


We walked around the casino, though we didn’t gamble (we didn’t know any of the card games; and the slot machines don’t give the feel of gambling).

 

So if one doesn’t gamble, can one skip Macau? Absolutely not, provided one goes when the House of Dancing Water is performing. It is a show in a custom-built theatre with a massive pool and features breathtaking acrobatics, high dives, elaborate water effects and even motorcycle stunts. There didn’t seem to be any unifying theme/tale to this wonderful combo, but that didn’t matter one bit – the performance and experience is mind-blowing. Here is a video from YouTube:

 

After the outstanding show, it was a quick dash to catch the ferry back to Hong Kong.

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