Located across the Pearl River from British influenced Hong Kong, until 1999 Macau was an overseas territory of Portugal. The world’s most densely populated place to live, Macau is best known as Asia’s largest destination for gambling taking in even more revenue than Las Vegas.
As the first and last European colony in China, Macau has more visible colonial history than Hong Kong. Walking through the old city you could convince yourself you were in Europe as the old part of town is covered in beautiful cobblestone streets and road signs are written in both Portuguese and Chinese. Macau also serves up a few Portuguese inspired specialties such as egg tarts, almond cookies and pork chop buns.
I spent one day quickly visiting all of the cities hot spots. Organizing a day trip to Macau from Hong Kong is really easy and well worth the jaunt.
I walked for hours passing Macau Tower, visiting a busy Chinese Temple full of tourists, the cities oldest fort, Sao Paulo Cathedral and the Casino filled Fisherman’s Wharf. I spent the evening at The Venetian as I got heavily discounted tickets to Zaia by Cirque. I was in Macau during the height of the recession and it was noticeably dead around town. They had an amazing promotion just to get people in to see the Cirque show. I bought a ticket for 20 USD which is truly amazing as these tickets run over 100 USD in Vegas.
Before bed I walked through the flashing lights at the Hotel Lisboa which was just down the street from my little guesthouse. Up at the crack of dawn to grab a cab to the airport where I would be soon flying to the hustle and bustle of the chaotic city of Jakarta Indonesia.
