Shops - currency exchange, pawn shops, travel agencies and seedy saunas
We first came to Wynn Casino, an elegant casino which has an extensive gambling ground, hotel rooms and also houses boutiques of several big brand names. When Slug and I were going through the security checks, the security officer demanded to check my passport and I handed it to her. Just as I was thinking that they were discriminating against Singaporeans or that I did not even look Chinese, and was getting very offended, she quickly returned me my passport and apologized for thinking that I was under 18. It was an implicit compliment, why apologize?
There was a small commotion at the main hall and we were wondering why so many people were staring at the ceiling. There, right in the middle of the dome-shaped ceiling was the biggest and most beautiful crystal chandelier we had ever seen. While we were gazing at it spellbound, the chandelier was obscured by a sudden elaborate display of laser beams and pseudo-fireworks, accompanied by a loud fanfare. It lasted for a good 3 minutes, and then suddenly, 12 golden plates, each bearing an engraving of a zodiac animal, spiralled out slowly and 'closed' the ceiling. The music then died, the lights came on and the crowd dispersed. Slug and I were still awestruck.
A dramatic performance by the ceiling
We tried hunting down the masquerade jackpot machine (that was the only one we knew how and wanted to play), but Wynn did not have it apparently. Wynn did have baccarat in the virtual form, and as we watched the games that went on, we realised that the cards were mainly in the (virtual) dealer's favour and we started to suspect the machine had been rigged. Couldn't stand the gamblers puffing away, so quickly left.
At the shopping arcade inside Wynn Casino
At the hotel lobby in Wynn Casino
Upon exiting, we came across a large dancing musical fountain at the driveway. Wynn Casino was really spending on primping its ostentatious appearance. Opposite of Wynn Casino was Lisboa Casino, possibly the most lavish and well-known casino around.
Lisboa Casino
We decided to go to Macau Tower, a 338-metre tall tower which houses a conference centre, exhibition halls, retail shops and fine dining venues, and is a venue to do some extraordinary sports activities like bungee jumping, skywalk, mast climbing etc. But first, we went for lunch at a noodle shop (Let me reiterate: eateries are rare in Macau), where we had dumpling soup and rice with prawns and some slimy but tasty egg goo.
After lunch, we walked all the way to Macau Tower. It was a fricking long walk which took 20 minutes.
Heading towards Macau Tower
The Nam Van Lake and the Macau-Taipa Bridge
Passing by some apartment blocks
Traditional parking ticket machine
Macau Tower
The convention centre beside it
Sai Van Lake and nearby Barra Hill
Colina da Penha with the Church of Our Lady of Penha on its peak
We had to purchase an admission ticket to get into Macau Tower, which we did so at the convention centre counter. There was a booth where you could purchase tickets to try out the crazy activities designed by AJ Hackett, a bungee jumping enthusiast, for the tower. These activities include Sport Climbing (scaling an artificial climbing wall 32 metres up the tower shaft), Bungee Jumping (at 233m high, this is the highest bungee jumping in the world, and jumpers experience a freefall at a speed of up to 200km/h!), Sky Jump (taking off from 233m above ground, guests 'fall' for 20 seconds at 75km/h and enjoy the scenery of Macau at the same time), Sky Walk (at 233m above ground, guests walk outside and around the observation deck of the Macau Tower on a path only 1.8m wide and with NO handrails) and Mast Climb (from the main observation deck (223m), guests climb 100m up the mast to reach the summit at 338m above ground). Seriously not for the faint-hearted like me.
Fooling around with Spongebob at Toys R Us
The booth selling AJ Hackett activities packages
Are bungee jumpers stupid pigs?
We exited the convention centre at the back entrance, walked around the waterfront promenade for a while, before entering the Macau Tower through the basement of the convention centre.
At the foot of Macau Tower
Do these people really have to lie on the ground?
Sai Van Bridge
Taipa at a distance away (Macau is made up of three islands - Macau, Taipa and Coloane)
We chanced upon a small casino at the basement and we tried our luck with a safari-themed jackpot machine, and promptly lost HKD100 within 5 minutes. What the hell. We really should stick to what we were familiar with.
At the Warner Brothers shop at the basement of Macau Tower
We took the lift to the 58th floor, where the Observation Lounge was. It was a circular deck which offered 360-degree views of Macau. I was quite freaked out by the height we were at, and I kept hallucinating that the deck was going to topple any minute. My hallucinations worsened when I saw a group of Korean photographers leaning against one side of the deck and some kids running around. It got so serious that my knees went wobbly, my palms were clammy and I had to hang on to the handrails with every step.
Views of the scenery (and of the roads below, gulp)
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Some sections of the deck had glass floors!
We moved on to the main observation deck on the 61st floor, which was surprisingly less scary than the observation lounge. There we witnessed three brave souls who tried out the bungee jumping. I just could not fathom where they got the guts to do that. Just looking downwards was already terrifying enough.
The entrance to get on the Skywalk and to do the bungee jump
One daring folk preparing to jump
Down he went!
After we had enough of viewing the scenery, we returned to the basement and had cheesecakes for tea at the cafe there.
Me and the Macau Tower
The cafe at the basement
Its delightful spread of confectionaries
A huge and adorable Spongebob cake!
Our teatime snack
Under Slug's very annoying insistence, we headed towards Rio and straight to the masquerade jackpot machine. However, luck was not good and we nearly lost our yesterday's winnings. Feeling depressed, we returned to our hotel for a refresher.
Had dinner of the same instant noodles again, before visiting the grand casinos at the Cotai Strip again. The colourful and elaborate moving neon lights of the casinos' exterior were impressive.
In the hotel lift
Hotel Fortuna
Wynn and MGM Grand at the back
Emperor Hotel
Lisboa Casino
Lisboa Hotel
We entered Lisboa Casino, and we were deeply impressed by its posh interior and exquisite furnishings. Moving on to the second floor, we discovered that it really had the most extensive gambling ground we had ever seen, and a stage where performers were putting up a mime act. The third floor had a theatre which regularly held performances of artistic nude geisha acts, restaurants, and private rooms for one-to-one gambling with the dealers.
At the entrance of Lisboa
We just hung out at the second level, watching the games. Again, we started going around suspecting that the electronic games had been rigged, particularly the virtual roulette we had been watching for 30 minutes. It seemed like for most of the rounds, the roulette ball would be landing on the number which had no or very few bets placed on it. It simply spelt of gross unfairness. We moved on to watch the baccarat games, whose minimum bet was a whopping HKD500. We could not believe this auntie who, for every game, would place stacks of chips (which probably amounted to a few thousands) on her bet, lose them and fish out more dollar notes to exchange for more chips. We seriously underestimated the wealth beneath her sloppy appearance. And then there was one uncle who would flit from one table to another everytime he lost a game, which we did not think would help anyway (and would probably irritate the dealers). Back to Rio now!
I was beginning to feel the embarrassment whenever we were going to Rio because the security guards, the dealers and the attendants would give us the didn't-you-just-come-a-few-hours-ago kind of stares. Just when I thought the attendants at the jackpot machines were probably thinking 'Ahh, those two are here to empty the masquerade jackpot machine of its coins, and empty our containers of Coke and coffee', one of them asked Slug if he wanted to be a member. Of course, Slug happily agreed, and he was more than excited to receive his membership card which could accumulate points and exchange for things everytime we played. We did hit a few bonuses, but overall, we lost and even ate into our capital. We even theorized that the more we smoked, the more bonuses we would attain (which was somehow true), but all the smoke and coffee (and losing) were proving too much for me, and we left.
Slug suggested we 'progress' and try Sic Bo at the first floor. The minimum bet was HKD40 which was still affordable, but Slug was placing the HKD100 chips despite my protests. The table was empty so we were the only two players. You should see the look of disdain on the dealer's face when she had to entertain us two just for our measly HKD140 bets. We were winning initially, but there were soon some onlookers crowding around us and seeing that the die were in our favour, they started placing bets too. We then realised our luck began to slide from there and we quickly left.
It was a traumatic night as we were trying to come to terms with our losses. I felt like pushing Slug into the drain when he said we could try again tomorrow, and even came up with some dodgy strategies to win at Sic Bo. Spent the rest of the night watching some interesting documentaries on National Geographic Channel.
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