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Macau
Day 2 - 27th February - The Cotai Strip (Part 5)
I then got off the bus to check out the Cotai Strip (between Coloane and Taipa), Macau's equivalent of the Las Vegas Strip.
Another Casino under Construction
The Four Seasons
"Shoppes at Four Seasons"
"City of Dreams: Let's Get Lucky" - the only ones going to get lucky are the Casino Owners. In Mandarin, their slogan reads "You're gonna get lucky" - there is a subtle difference (there is the suggestion of a win-win sceniaro in the former, and a zero-sum game in the latter).
The Venetian looked like the one in Las Vegas (sadly, there're no photos in this post since Mediafire deleted my account years ago), except bigger. And of course, nothing like the real Venezia. Then again, all 3 shared some things in common: there weren't many locals, they were expensive, and they were designed to fleece you of your money.
The Campanile at the Venetian
Sculptures
Deserted "lagoon"
More of faux Venice
Hallway
As with other casinos, photography was forbidden. Compared to the Grand Lisboa, the Venetian was cleaner, fewer people were smoking, there were no-smoking areas, it was more family friendly (though men are bigger gamblers anyway) and there were a lot more machines (at Lisboa I only saw dealers). The CCTV cameras were also less intrusive, being on the ceiling instead of perched above the tables. The shuttles were also free (supposedly at Lisboa you needed a ticket you could get at the Casino; I didn't test this personally but from the queue I saw at the Grand Lisboa I think no one cared). I didn't see the drinks/tim sum carts which the hostel guy mentioned though (I think I saw them at Lisboa), maybe I was in the wrong area (maybe it's the VIP areas which have them!)
Actually, the original Casino Lisboa was even more dingy, cramped, enclosed and cheena than the Grand Lisboa.
I tried looking for the street performers that had been advertised, but ended up on the Marco Polo Canal.
How cunning. This appeals to Chinese pride by having a vaguely Western-/mixed-looking gondolier ferry a Chinese couple down the canal.
In the promotional leaflet, most of the gondoliers were ang moh, and one of the few East Asians looked exotic. In reality, of course, most were East Asian.
As Chinese director Chen Shi-Zheng says: "We Chinese carry the burden of our history with us and the question of Western humiliation is always unconsciously inside us"
They practised reverse colonialism in practice too: I think this strawberry blonde was Australian. What she sang sounded more like Mariah Carey than a Barcarolle.
Living Statue. This was one of their "street performers". So sad.
I gave him the princely sum of 1 pataca (~S$0.20); I actually had S$0.10 in my bag but I didn't bother digging for it. Because his eyes were closed (and he couldn't see what I gave him), there was the hint of a smile on his face.
The Venetian's idea of a "Carnival". You don't get a Renaissance atmosphere with Mancini! Wah lao.
And so my quest to find someone in the stocks and bear fights ended in failure.
However, I did find a convenient if inelegant solution to the age-old problem: if you dress up as a fool (literally or figuratively), what's the best way to go off-duty with a modicum of dignity?
A convenient way of keeping your stuff - using your props to help you.
There were a lot of computer terminals to aid visitors in finding their way.
"The Manchester United Experience: Details - Telephone 81178008"
I guess "The Manchester United Experience" is all anyone needs to know.
"The taste and quality of Fatburger inspires a fierce loyalty among customers that crosses all demographic lines" - presumably these demographics do not include Muslims and Vegetarians.
I found out that there was a Fatburger there. I'd heard that Fatburger was good when I was in California, but didn't get to try it (California Girl told me In 'N Out was good also, but I still haven't)
"St Mark's Square"
Visiting the Venetian made me appreciate the difference between a Casino (Grand Lisboa) and an Integrated Resort (this) yet, apart from MICE, I am sure a majority of people would not have come if not for the casino.
This girl wearing knee-high boots with 2-inch heels, and a red cloth veil, and who had cloudy tendrils in her hair, sat on the bench near me and took off one boot. At first I thought she was going to change to more practical shoes, but her guy passed her 4-inch red heels with red sequins, which she laced up to her knee. Oh well.
I noticed that there were resort staff blocking entry to the lift lobbies giving access to the guest rooms. They were probably there to stop unsolicited masseurs.
Someone asked me to get her a Macanese cookbook, so I popped into a bookshop (Times!), and of 3 shelves of books (from floor to ceiling) on cooking, there were only 3 Portuguese cookbooks and 1 Macanese cookbook (which cost >S$40). Amazing. The markup seemed high, but I checked a few other books and the prices seemed alright, so.
In the same bookshop, the "women's interest" magazines and "men's interest" magazines both took up 8 shelves, but the former had spillover, and there were stealth women's interest categories like Decoration and Food. Interestingly, there was no porn, in keeping with the IR's squeaky clean image.
I decided to have Fatburger for dinner; it was my only non-Portuguese/Macanese meal when I was in Macau.
The Fatburger sign
Their assembly line
Menu. Notice the Diet Coke option. Notice also that all the burger pictures show cheese, but cheese is not included in the printed prices.
A veggie burger is HK$50, but a chicken one (grilled or fried) is HK$40 and a Fatburget HK$30.
Interestingly, the receipt entitled the holder to a free Fatburger in their Hong Kong outlet in the next 5 days. I gave it to this English guy back at the hostel who was going to Hong Kong.
In the food court, I saw Rasa Singapura: Flavours of Singapore and Rasa Malaysia: Flavours of Malaysia side by side. I was going to ask them who had better business, and if there was any rivalry between the two, before I noticed that they were part of the same chain.
Notice how they classify the dishes: Chicken Rice, Singapore Laksa, Bak Kut Teh and Fishball Noodles are "Singaporean", while Satay, Nasi Lemak, Roti Prata (note the spelling) and Bryani are "Malaysian".
It's a scam, I tell you.
Dinner (~S$12, S$1 for bacon); I'd ordered fat fries but the girl gave them to someone else, so I settled for thin fries (vastly more popular with other customers) instead of waiting even longer and having a soggy burger.
It was crispier than McDonald's, with 2 layers of crispiness (to the former's 1). It'd have been improved with cheese in concert with the bacon as it was slightly dry (maybe it was left out by default due to lactose intolerance problems, but given the popularity of milk tea and cheese-baked food, maybe not); the latter was crispier than at Carl's Jr in Singapore since the ang mohs left after teaching locals how to run the place.
It made me wonder how much the markup was (I thought that was how they could afford to give patrons a free Fatburger in Hong Kong, but the prices there were the same)
My meal was made less perfect by a lady near me clipping her fingernails while I was finishing my fries. Now, I've eaten merrily while watching 2girls1cup, but this was gross. At first I thought she was PRC, but then 2 others returned and they chattered in Cantonese (maybe they were from Southern China, it was next door after all). Who knows, it might be worth going to Vegas to escape people like this.
After dinner, I tried to get out of the place by heading to the Shuttle Bus Station, my mood much improved by the air conditioning. Disoriented by the topography (doubtless meant to make you wager as much as possible, as often as possible), I finally emerged from one of the casino areas, when 3 girls approached me at a relatively deserted corner and asked me where the Shuttle Bus Station was, as they were also lost and trying to get back to Mainland Macau.
No, actually they asked me, "要去吗？" ("Do you want to go?")
Now, I was not altogether unsurprised that there were prostitutes roaming the floor area of the Venetian, but I was curious how they compared to the ones at the Hotel Lisboa. They certainly looked less tarty (like normal girls, in fact - probably to avoid Security) and hard to distinguish from some of the more aggressively dressed patrons I'd seen walking around (then again, maybe some of them were also prostitutes).
So I asked how much it would cost me. And was quoted a fantastic price of 1,000 patacas. I was almost tempted to ask if that price would get me 3 of them at the same time. And bear in mind too that I would have to provide the accommodation myself too - there was no "sauna" to do the dirty deed in. Preposterous.
Fortunately, they were also not as persistent as the ones in the Lisboa, probably also to avoid security. One did give me a piece of paper with her name and number on it though:
Walking further on, I found an on-going attempt to shatter a world record:
"The Venetian Macao House of Cards Guinness World Record Attempt. Bryan Berg Cardstacker: Guinness World Record Holder"
Casinos of Cards
Cotai Arena; The advantages of not using a SLR: "No professional cameras allowed". Notice that this is the only interdiction spelled out, in both languages no less.
"Cirque du Soleil - Zaia"
Notice that this is "the most dazzling spectacle ever staged in Asia", not "the most dazzling spectacle ever staged worldwide". At least it wasn't "the most dazzling spectacle ever staged in Asia outside Japan"
In any case, I'd been quite bored when I'd watched Cirque du Soleil.
All in all, the Venetian was alright, but then there was a reason why the Venetian in Las Vegas had been one of the less interesting hotels-casinos there (and I'd only visited the more interesting-sounding ones). The sad bit was that it was probably the most interesting of the Macanese casinos - I'd asked the guy at the hostel what attractions each had, and he mentioned the Venetian's Gondola, Lisboa's Live Show and Wynn's Golden Tree and Dancing Fountain (but after the Bellagio...). Scraping the bottom of the barrel he mentioned one had a Live Band at its Bar (are you kidding?!) People in Macau are more hardcore - the Chinese love their gambling.
There was a "知心按摩中心" ("Heart-Knowing Massage Centre"). Uhh. Does clean massage even exist in Macau?!
A while after returning to my hostel, I felt hungry. Well, actually I just wanted to try McDonald's Double Ham Burger.
"The scope of this area is clean in progress"
They actually sold the Sausage McMuffin with Egg for lunch and dinner also. Despite it being made with a REAL PORK patty, I opted for the Double Ham Burger as I hadn't had it before.
The McDonalds Double Pork Burger. Because a Single Pork Patty just isn't enough.
Japan was still better though; McPork FTW!
It seemed a less brown version of the brrakfast sausage.
On my way back to the hostel I saw people selling Dim Sum in the street:
There was even an English menu. Notice that Lor Mai Kai is only available in the winter (?!)
For some reason this "Vila Nam Long" amused me.
When I got back I examined some pamphlets I'd been passed the previous evening:
The promotional leaflets featured Whites and Blacks as well as Asians (and the pamphelts boasted of offering women from many countries), even though they were in Mandarin only. Visitors to Macau are very open-minded and do not discriminate racially, and businesses provide them with what they want (need), though it is probably a special order item.
What I didn't understand was how and why all charged the same price - 138 dollars for 2 hours. Maybe the price was in US Dollars, because it was certainly not in Patacas!
I love how the first one promises "bona fide Macanese ladies" - at the same price as Foreign Talent, no less.
That evening at the hostel, there was a peculiar burst of activity. 3 girls (one Caucasian, one Japanese and one Filipino) and 4 guys (2 East Asians, 2 Caucasian) stormed into the common area, and it seemed the guys had to change in order to go clubbing (it seems that there as here, female dress codes are a lot more liberal than male). 2 of the guys (East Asians) and one of the girls (who seemed to be Filipino) started speaking in German, then the Caucasian girl told the Japanese girl something about flying from Southern Germany.
The Japanese girl, who was wearing a half-thigh length coat and boots which almost hit the knee, asked the Filipino Girl, "You don't feel hot?". This was because the Filipina was wearing, over a tank top, one of those half-cardigans which only go down to the bust (so you know they are not primarily for warmth but for emphasising the bust, covering the shoulders and making an outfit look more formal). Next, the Filipina asked the Japanese girl the same question. The Japanese girl admitted that she was hot, but said she'd put her getup in the cloakroom later.
The Japanese girl then spoke what sounded like very fluent Cantonese to one of the Asian guys.
What a multilingual group!
It doesn't make much sense to change your money into Patacas unless you're going to spend a lot. At one money changer I saw, the spread for HKD to Patacas was 1.01-1.05, which was ridiculous. Casinos were more competitive but the rate for buying Patacas was still 1.02x HKD so there was no point.
Is "去" ("Go") a pun on "来" ("Come")?
Comment:
"i think u're the only person i know who visits these places in macau...never seen al these temples man..
seriously man, its a v unusual itinerary from others"