Tom's birthday is coming up on October 28th and we decided to celebrate early with a visit to Macau. We are looking forward to a visit from two of Tom's aunts next week on his actual birthday, so it seemed to make the most sense to do our celebration before they arrive.
Between the 16th century and 1999, Macau was a colony of Portugal. Since its return to China, Macau has experienced a similar level of autonomy to that of Hong Kong. Until 2049, Macau is also considered a Special Administrative Region. In the past decade entrepreneurs from the United States and Asia have poured billions of dollars into turning Macau into the Las Vegas of the Orient. Macau boasts an international airport, two major ferry terminals, and over 22 million visitors a year to world-class casino-resorts such as the Mandarin Oriental, the MGM Grand, the Wynn Macau, the Grand Lisboa, and the resort we stayed in, the Venetian. Amazingly, last year the Macau casinos took the lead as the highest-volume gambling center in the world, generating more revenue than even the casinos in Las Vegas.
The Venetian-Macau, opened in 2007, is definitely the coolest hotel we have ever stayed in. Just walking around it is easy to tell it is enormous, but we were stunned to find out it is actually the third-largest building in the world (behind a flower auction in the Netherlands and Beijing International airport.)
We took the one-hour ferry from Hong Kong to Macau on Wednesday morning, arriving at the Venetian around 12:30. After handing over our bags, we wandered around the mall inside the resort and did some shopping. Like its counterpart in Vegas, the Venetian-Macau has gondola rides operating on a canal within the mall!
After shopping, we were able to check into our room. Somewhat depressingly, our hotel room was more than twice the size of our apartment in Hong Kong!!!
We headed down to the casino floor, and after rapidly losing money to a few Black Jack dealers and slot machines, walked over to the Morton's for Tom's birthday dinner. I recognize that this blog often focuses on food, so I won't get carried away with descriptions; suffice to say, dinner was DELICIOUS. It made me realize how much I miss good old USDA quality steaks and beef! Also, the staff of Morton's was wonderful, even printing up a specialized menu and presenting Tom with a molten chocolate lava cake as they sang Happy Birthday. It was certainly a memorable meal.
After dinner, we headed over to the theater to see the Cirque du Soleil show playing at the Venetian, called Zaia. Neither of us have ever seen a Cirque du Soleil show and we were highly impressed!! Unfortunately, my food coma made it harder to pay attention than I would have liked, but still a great show.
All in all, a wonderful way to celebrate Tom's 26th birthday. Now back to daily life in Hong Kong for our remaining two months!!
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