Macau

So this Friday and Saturday I was at the MGM Grand, Wynn, Venetian, and Hard Rock. Vegas? Nope. I was in Macau. Like Hong Kong, Macau is a special administrative region (SAR) of China. It was settled by the Portuguese, so most signs are in Chinese and Portuguese. I found Portuguese to be very similar to Spanish, so I was able to read many signs! The whole reason for the trip was to get my visa activated. I entered Hong Kong on Sept 1st as a tourist. Once I picked up my visa, I had to leave Hong Kong and re-enter on my visa. Hence the Macau trip.
Mandy, Ken, and I left work early on Friday and took a ferry from Macau. We got to our hotel (Rio hotel) and showered (HUGE shower for me!!!) and changed. We had lo mein noodles for dinner. Being a vegetarian is still proving to be a challenge. Then went to a kind of 'milk' shop for dessert, famous for their dairy products. Ken had a 'egg' dessert, which was like pudding constancy but made of egg, while Mandy had the same thing but made of milk and ginger. I just had chocolate milk. We then headed to the MGM Grand to do some gambling. I guess that Macau has a greater net profit than Vegas each year from casinos! But not from me!!! I came out $40HK ahead, which is like $5US, but still :) I introduced Mandy to roulette, my game of choice, and I think I got her hooked!
The night life in Macau is nothing like Vegas. There are very few bars and literally no clubs. We found one of the few bars and had a couple drinks and listened to some live music. After that we walked around the Wynn for a bit, then headed back to the room to call it a night.

 

 The next morning I woke up early and had the hotel breakfast buffet while Ken and Mandy slept in. We had a lazy morning and checked out of the hotel around noon. We then headed to the town center where Mandy and Ken had a portgugese dish called Congee, a rice porridge. Next we walked to the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral. The cathedral was built in the late 1500's as a dedication to St. Paul the Apostle. It was destroyed by a fire in 1835, and the facade is all that remains.

Next we went to get one of the most famous dishes in Macau, the Portuguese egg tart. It has a crispy crust like any tart, and is filled with egg and has a sweet, crispy, burned sugar top. We went to the shop most famous for selling them. However, since EVERYONE goes there to get the egg tarts we had to eat ours outside in the 90+ degree weather with about 100% humidity, so it was hard to enjoy, especially since the egg tarts are served hot. We passed many shops selling dried thin sheets of many kinds of meat as well as little nut treats like nut rolls, both very popular in Macau. After the egg tarts we went to a famous Macau temple called the A-Ma Temple, a temple built in 1448 dedicated to the goddess Matsu.

 We then headed over to the other part of the island to walk around The Venetian, The Hard Rock, and The City of Dreams shops and casinos. In the City of Dreams we watched a 3D Dragon light show in a theater called the bubble, so the show is taking place all around you. To end our day we went to a Portuguese restaurant for dinner, then headed back to Hong Kong on the ferry.
Over all it was a great trip! The weather was very hot and humid, but Hong Kong is like the right now too. I expected the city to be a bit more like Vegas with bars and clubs, but I guess people just come there to strictly gamble. It was a little less crowded in Macau than Hong Kong, so it was nice to get away from the crowds of people for awhile. Also, I could feel a European influence on the city, which I liked for a change. Although no matter where I go I still feel like a minority among a million Asians :)