My trip to Hong Kong - Day Five

Today, Macau was on the agenda.
So, we headed off to meet the Turbo Jet.
It takes about an hr by boat before you arrive on Macau.
Again, you have to have your Passport to leave Hong Kong once again
and enter Macau. The stamps are certainly filling my Passport!

If you know nothing about Macau, it's basically the gambling capital of Hong Kong.
The only place that you can gamble legally in HK, besides horse racing.

It's only a small island with approx. 30sq km's of land, but there are 40 casinos
on this piece of land. That's more than one Casino per sq km! Insane, isn't it?

We arrived on Macau late morning. We hadn't boked a tour so we chatted with a
local man who arranged a tour bus for us.

Firstly it was off to see the newest Casino being built.

Then we headed over to see the Hindu Goddess.
She's quite amazing...

We drove past the Casino Lisboa...the first Casino in Macau, built in 1970.

Then onto the Portugese side of town. It's so pretty with all the old buildings and
cobblestone roads. Known as Senado Square or Largo de Senado in Portugese...impressed?
They were pulling down all the Christmas decorations the day we were there.
It would have been lovely to see it all lit up at night!

 Here I am with Emma and Dino in the Square.

To the right of the Square, across the St stands this building. One of the first
portugese buildings in Macau. Built in 1569, the Santa Casa de Miscericordia or
Holy House of Mercy. It was set up a charity and has been a refuge for prostitutes,
an orphange and a hospital.

It was time for lunch. Our driver took us to a lovely little Portugese restaurant.
Delicious food to say the least! Dino and I decided to share a Paella.
I LOVE Paella and this was pretty special! 
Here we are posing with our lunch...and yes, we ate the lot!

After lunch we went to the Macau Tower.

Emma had booked to do the Bungy jump, which is what the Tower is famous for.
Insane if you ask me? I had the jitters just watching her up on the Tower.
The world's highest Bungee Jump...233m of scariness!

 Here she is...ready to go!

She got rigged up and off she went. Loved every second of it too, I'm told!
No thanks...not for me!

After the Tower we headed over to see the Ruins of St Pauls. It was built in the
early 1600's but was destroyed by fire in 1835 after a typoon hit the island.
Now all that stands is the front of the Cathedral. It was once the biggest Church is Asia.

Looking back down toward the cobblestone streets, into the square...it was
really beautiful!

It was Casino time...Woohoo! Our driver took us to the Venetian Casino.
It is an exact replica of the Casino in Las Vegas! It is the LARGEST Casino
in the world and the 6th largest building in the world. It's breathtaking!

Here's the view from the mini bus...

Here's a pic I found on the net.

Seeing you're not allowed to take pics inside, I found a few on the net that
shows you what it looks like inside. It has it's very own canal that runs through
the Hotel, mainly through the shopping centre area...complete with gondolas!

The big entrance to the Gaming Floors...

On the Gaming Floors... Not easy playing the pokies in China, it's all written
in CHINESE!! We just kept pressing buttons. I think I donaated about $15 to
the Macau economy! While my sister won that!

Jase is pretty keen to go over and see Macau! Think we may have to spend a
little more time here.

After the Casino, it was the scramble back to the Turbo Jet Ferry terminal.
We made it, just in time for our 6pm departure! Settled in for the hr trip back
to Hong Kong. Once we got off back in Hong Kong, we decided to watch the
Laser Light Show that's on every night at 7pm. Seeing we were on the Harbour,
it was a great spot to watch it.

We even saw a famous Junk out on the Harbour. We had planned to do a Dinner
Junk Cruise but just couldn't fit it in. Next time...

We headed back towards the Hotel, found some dinner and did a
little shopping. Then, it was off to bed and ready for another busy day!

 Chat soon,