Having deliberated over the guide book about what to do today, we totally disregarded it’s advice and headed to Macau (mainly because the guide book was wrong and we didn’t need to book a day before). Our transportation (see right) was just like a wide plane that rocks a bit. Our first reason for going to Macau was that it meant leaving the country so we got extra stamps for our passport for leaving Hong Kong, entering Macau, leaving Macau and entering Hong Kong :), but that wasn’t our only reason…honest. Macau was once a Portuguese run island, but was handed back to Chinese rule in 1999. It therefore enjoys the same status as Hong Kong in that it is a Special Administrative Region of the PRC and as such has a high degree of autonomy. It is also packed with casino’s so is very much a “Las Vegas of the East”.
On arrival in Macau we picked up a free shuttle to the casino that was closest to where we wanted to be. After a quick wander around, we moved on to the old town to see some of the site’s that Rosie remembered from her last trip. Our next stop was the Macau Tower on the south of the main island. This afforded us a better view of the island and it’s surroundings. The tower itself is nothing special, but the view is quite good, and it is also amusing to watch people jumping from the top attached to either a bungee cord, or a large fan descender. Both rather crazy ideas if you ask me.
Now we couldn’t leave Macau without visiting one casino properly so we headed for the one with a full immersion dragon show (according to a leaflet we picked up in the ferry terminal). This was the Hard Rock/City of Dreams casino. The show was ten minutes long and told a story of the Chinese Dragon Kings with us being transported to far away realms (pictures in the gallery). It was absolutely brilliant, and even better for being free :). As we were in there, we also did a bit of gambling (with a fixed limit) and all three of us walked away with more money than we started with :D.
We finished the evening off at the 21st Annual Fireworks display in the bay next to the Macau Tower. However, this particular show was also part of the celebrations for the 10th Anniversary of the return to Chinese sovereignty. As usual, I really enjoyed the fireworks, but we got out of there as quickly as possible after they were finished to ensure we were able to get a taxi back to the ferry terminal before the last ferry left for Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. We managed to catch the last but one ferry and were comfortably back in our hotel (with more stamps) by 0030. A bit of a long day really, but it was brilliant fun.