Well it’s fair to say we had an uber lazy today, enjoying the comforts of a decent room and some space to relax.
We headed for the Venetian casino last night which is the largest in the world. It’s very similar to the one in Vegas, complete with indoor gondola rides to make you think (ahem) you’re in Venice. We must have walked about 3km before returning to the first restaurant for an Asian buffet.
The gaming tables were a disappointment though. I’ve been on the tables (albeit baby ones!) in Vegas and we hunted around last night for ‘beginners’ tables but there were none : the minimum bet was 200 Hong Kong Dollars for Blackjack!! That’s £20! It was even a pain in the neck playing the 10c slot machines as we found out it was all based on Hong Kong Dollars, and despite being 10c machines, you had to put in $20 notes for 20 games at a time. How you can’t use Macau money I don’t know. We did a couple of bar owners in Yangshou a favour by exchanging Chinese Yuan for Macau MOP for the value of £50 – they had been carrying it for almost a year, and now we understand how….I just hope we remember to change it in the morning!
So we left the casinos after spending the grand sum of £2 betting and we got back the equivalent of 80p. Due to me not knowing how to work the machines I cashed it in, and we got a printed receipt to cash it in. After all the hassles of trying to find something to play we decided we’d keep it as a souvenir instead.
We left in the torrential rain and lightning storm and got a taxi home.
We’ve hardly ventured out today. We think our bodies realise that Phase 1 is coming to an end and they are winding down big style so we are feeling pretty exhausted. We saw what we wanted to see of Macau yesterday. We had a room upgrade on check-in yesterday meaning we could get free nibbles, soft drinks, beer and wine between 2.30pm and 8pm and we only had one drink each yesterday and weren’t in the mood for it today really…(well I may squeeze in some wine….).
Tomorrow it’s off on the TurboJet ferry from Macau to Hong Kong Airport then a flight to Auckland via Singapore. The ferry to Macau was so easy – we turned up 15 mins before departure, bought our ticket, cleared immigration and were on the boat in 12 minutes.
Of course as soon as flights are added in to the picture it all gets complicated : Shuttle Bus at 9.05, check-in for Ferry by 9.30 for 10.30 departure, 1hr to airport, and we don’t fly until 1330. We’ve a few hours in Singapore so we hope to head for a swim at the airport and before we know it, we’ll be wrapping up in a baltic Auckland.
And no, we’re still not ready for it. Every time I leave Asia it all seems strangely boring to go to an English speaking country but hey ho…..wish us all the best! There are two things we’re looking forward to though :
Ciara being able to read the ingredients and being able to munch into delicious NZ gluten free bread, and me being able to buy some feijoa fruit and juice (after all that I bet you I don’t like it anymore).