Macau (澳门) - Gamblers' Haven

Macau Tower from afar

There is no doubt that Macau is filled with old world charms, no thanks to the years of Portugal's reign of the island. However, Macau is more famous for its brightly lit neon signs, drawing tourists into the many big casinos that residing in the island. In my opinion, all these casinos, while no doubt being the main tourism drive for the island, are hindering it from being fully an historical city.

The many grand buildings gracing the streets of Macau

There is a reason as to why I'm more in love with Hong Kong than Macau (you can read about my Hong Kong trip adventures here). Both are islands with urban developments but here's the difference. For me, Hong Kong's developments are more to shopping and cityscape while Macau's delving into gambling world. There are simply too many casinos in the island, clouding all its colonial charms.

Water show at the front of Wynn Casino

More developments still to come

That's being said, I'm just a regular tourist and being in Macau, it is near impossible not to step my foot into the gambling world. While I'm no big time gambler, I do love a good game of chances, of course, preferring being the winner's end. Yet, luck's not at my side for throughout the three days stay, I did not win anything. I just lost a total of HKD 500 which was not much but for a student, that's quite a lot. Yet, this HKD 500 was well spent for I got to enjoy almost endless fun of 大小 (big small), roulette and baccarat.

Besides, you cannot say you had visited Macau without going to the casinos. And I had.

*TO BE CONTINUED*

Sharing is caring. A word of advice and a piece of information.

If you are a frequent to the casinos, then you should have noticed that there are no clocks being on displayed. It is part of the tricks of getting you to stay as long as possible in the premise. Therefore, unless you want to end up losing all your savings (or winning till the casinos cry, however unlikely that is), you better arm yourself with a watch to keep track of the time.