Macau
Wednesday, 22 November 2006 21:59 pm
I had the pleasure to go to Macau a few weeks back - and when I was there I realized it was some time ago since I’d last been there.
In the 18 months I hadn’t been there the city has changed completely I would say. It’s always been a sin city / gambling city destination, but the recent arrival of some of the US and Australia’s biggest Casino chains has changed the city into a second Las Vegas.
Please note that I’m saying this without ever even having been in Las Vegas, but - as many US cities - we get a good idea of what Las Vegas would be like from media, films, and TV. Well Macau is starting to be very similar, with one big difference though; here really 99.5% of clientele is Chinese.
The upcoming middle class in China combined with the Chinese cultural affinity for betting money in large sums are the reasons for the amazing speed by which hotels and casino’s are being built. And a growing group of high income Chinese high rollers are driving the casinos to compete hard on attracting them with increasingly higher levels of luxury hotels. The whole inner city has a completely different feel after the Galaxy and the Wynn’s Casino’s are opened here. On my way to the southern part of Macau, I passed the “Venetian” which is being built currently, a huge and vast development that will probably open early next year.
This ‘new generation’ of casino’s is I believe a great improvement for the city. Macau’s identity was a kind of in-between picturesque Portuguese history and that of a sin-city / gambling / massage parlor city. The new casino’s are much cleaner and nicer and the hotels are not the shabby, shady and smokey type of places as before (but there’s still the old Lisboa of course for those hard core old style gamers, as well as several dubious other entertainment venues).
Although I don’t bet and don’t really fancy visiting some place that pretends to be Venice like the Venitian, the city has improved itself and I have some more reasons to visit Macau more frequently.
And still the excellent Macanese restaurants (Litoral & Fernando’s notably) remain!
I stayed in Wynn’s - great hotel; huge rooms, 42″ LCD TVs and TV in bathroom.
The gambling room in Wynn’s - mostly Baccarat tables - only a few Black Jack tables.
This is in “Fisherman’s Wharf” - a simulated miniature world. Here we pass the Colloseum.
Whooah - I’m in Amsterdam!