Macau – The Vegas of the East

After our stay in Hong Kong, we caught a ferry over to the little Island of Macau for 2 nights.

There isn’t all that much to do here apart from a handful of busy tourist spots.. unless your into the whole casino scene.. in which case, Macau is considered the ‘Vegas of the East’, and is packed with gambling outlets. And a few of the names on this little Island’s casinos are even the same as those that are actually found along the Las Vegas Strip, some of the gardens are just as well manicured and some of the buildings are comparably impressive… BUT, having actually been to Vegas myself, quite recently.. I don’t believe an overall comparison can really be made of the two.. for sure Macau has made a try at achieving the ‘Vegas feel’…. but the unattractive apartment buildings that crowd the island and the smelly, dried fish that hang from several store fronts severely detract from any opulent ambiance the casinos here might be trying to instill…
Macau is no Vegas… it’s just a small island where the rich businessmen of Hong Kong might go to spend their money..

But, for us, the few wee tourist spots on the island were enough to make it worth a brief visit none the less.
While in Macau we saw some pretty well kept church ruins (St Pauls)..

Which was cool to look at, but there was no explanation as to what actually caused the ruins anywhere around the site.. and after a short Google endeavour on my behalf I found out that there is no interesting back-story.. the ruins are just the remains of an old church that got forgotten.. no dramatic plunder or turf war or massive natural disaster… just an excuse for a tourist spot really..

And we couldn’t avoid seeing some of the bigger casinos, which dominate the skyline.

But we didn’t actually partake in any gambling at this stop.

And of course there’s always an old fort and a museum to visit, no matter where your travelling through.

AND there’s always new food to try too! (especially when your travelling in Asia).
This islands specialty was these small, extremely light, slightly sweet, egg tarts.. which were served hot. And were delicious.

Also, as the island was once under Portuguese rule… there was some interesting architecture and crazy, curvy footpaths to check out, which wouldn’t be found anywhere else in Asia. So we had to see those.
And there were LOTS of (still complete) churches aswell.

So although it may have been overcrowded and generic for the large part.. I suppose we were well occupied with our 2 days on the island of Macau..
But.. Thailand beckoned!