Macao

On our last full day at sea, Mrs Bear and I chose to leave Hong Kong aboard a high speed ferry bound for Macao. The ride was about 75 minutes. We are expected to find an island with a history of 450 years of Portuguese colonization. Instead we discovered an island with over 40 casinos. In fact, Macao is the number one location in the entire world for casino funds generated from casinos  (Las Vegas is third).  Almost all these gamblers are Chinese… Chinese people reportedly love to gamble, and our guides said they have never seen one who drank too much while  gambling…It would detract from their experience. We walked through a local Temple which used to be visited for good luck when going out to sea…Now, they need good luck for their casino visits. Our guide mentioned that the Chinese gamble primarily on “luck.”  I found this to be interesting since the Chinese kids who rented from us in PA were all engineering or computer science majors.

So I was thinking this visit was going to be a dud heading into a lunch visit. Now normally these meals are set up at rustic venues to get a sampling of local foods. BUT we ended up at a larger version of the Seattle Space Needle with this view:

And we finished and got out just in time!!!

King Kong Panda eats Macao Tower !!!

We finally got to walk through the Old Town. There we saw beautiful old Portuguese churches, cobblestone streets, local markets, and families out for a stroll on a pleasant day. Lela and I could have walked these streets for the rest of our time, but the plan called for us to visit one of the casinos on the way back to the ferry. The old and the new collide…We always side with the old.  Oh well, Let’s see what Hong Kong has to offer