DEL.ICIO.USAJC TRAVEL NEWS
Macao outshines Vegas as next gambling mecca
Tiny Island near Hong Kong works to preserve its culture as gamers pour in
Cox News Service
Friday, October 17, 2008
All I could see from my window at the Venetian resort was change: Giant cranes rose over half-finished hotels; armies of men in construction hard hats marched along new roads; in the distance, a slew of casinos peeked through the afternoon haze in this tiny former Portuguese colony on China’s southern border.
Inside the Venetian, a $2.4 billion casino opened last year by the Las Vegas Sands Corp., opulence was on order. The hotel is the centerpiece of a strip of casinos rising in Macao. The Venetian boasts the world’s biggest casino floor, 3,000 hotel rooms, a rooftop miniature golf course and dozens of luxury stores. By 2011, it will anchor a $12 billion strip of casino resorts modeled on Vegas’ main drag.
CRAIG SIMONS
The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel sparkles at night. Casinos like the Wynn and Sands have helped this southern coastal Chinese city surpass the Las Vegas Strip as the world’s most lucrative gambling center. American billionaire Sheldon Adelson aims to take a step further with the $2.4 billion Venetian.
CRAIG SIMONS
An atrium in the Wynn Casino in Macao typifies the lavish architecture of new investments in the city.
CRAIG SIMONS
The small Sam Seng Temple in Macao’s Coloane Village offers a calm respite to the former colony’s fast-paced casinos. Macao has become the world’s most vital gambling hub while maintaining the former Portuguese colony’s slower charms.
CRAIG SIMONS
A model of an Italian astronomical tool sits in the lobby of the Venetian casino in Macao.
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Gambling revenues in Macao surpassed Las Vegas last year and several new casinos have opened in recent years. MGM Mirage, the owner of 11 Las Vegas casinos, opened a $1.25 billion casino last December. Wynn Resorts opened a $1.2 billion casino and resort in 2006.
I came to see this building boom, and I also wanted to find out what was left of Macao’s traditional charms.
On a jut of land near Hong Kong, Macao is one-fifteenth as large as Atlanta but last year had 27 million visitors - including 202,000 Americans - almost four times more than a decade ago.
When my wife, Jen, and I first visited two years ago, we spent a wonderful weekend exploring Macao’s historic buildings, some of which were built soon after Portuguese traders established the colony in the 16th century. We also feasted on Macanese cuisine, a fusion of Portuguese recipes with Chinese ingredients that results in dishes like Minchi, a delicious combination of minced pork, potatoes, soy sauce, onions and egg.
On my recent trip I plunged into the new Macao: I checked into the Venetian resort and promptly got lost in its gargantuan interior. (Buddy Lam, a hotel spokesman, claims that the Venetian is the world’s “second-largest habitable building … after a flower exhibition hall in Holland,” and getting lost is a standing joke among hotel guests, who wander the building with large fold-out maps.)
I left the desk, meandered down a hall painted with replicas of 18th-century Italian frescos and found myself on the world’s largest casino floor.
The Venetian gets an average of 50,000 daily visitors, most of them Chinese. On this afternoon, thousands of people crowded around tables playing roulette and baccarat, the most popular game among Chinese gamblers because it is simple to learn and the casino’s advantage is relatively small. (For skilled players, blackjack offers better odds, but few Chinese play the game because they haven’t mastered betting.)
When staff finally shepherded me to my room, I was astounded by its size, including a bedroom, a sunken living room and a giant bathroom finished in marble and decorated with seven mirrors. The room was more impressive because it was the smallest offered by the hotel.
The hotel’s common areas are also over-the-top: Like the Venetian resort in Las Vegas, a shopping level contains stores built around models of canals in Venice, complete with gondolas. An outdoor area offers several swimming pools. A large wave pool is under construction.
But life in new Macao revolves around gambling, and after Jen met me that night, we changed $100 into chips and found a spot at a blackjack table with two Indonesian men.
The rest was straightforward: Bet, deal; win or lose.
Because Macao attracts gamblers from across Asia, however, we also received a free crash-course in Asian cultures.
Many of the Chinese players at the Venetian wore red clothing, a color traditionally symbolizing luck, and we overheard conversations in several Chinese dialects (Beijing claims there are seven distinct Chinese dialects, but in reality there are hundreds of variations). When players won, dozens of gamblers crowded around, hoping that some of their good luck would rub off.
Our Indonesian table mates smoked clove cigarettes and dropped bets of nearly $100. I talked with Rajesh Sachdeva, an Indian businessman who explained that Indians generally treat gambling as a leisure activity while Chinese “are born to play.”
Because Macao attracts gamblers from all over Asia, its casinos also boast excellent restaurants. At the Venetian, I joined a friend for dinner at Canton, a Chinese restaurant serving Cantonese-style food including succulent prawns with a tangy wasabi sauce for under $20.
Jen and I later ate salads and thick burgers at the Blue Frog Bar and Grill, a good choice for Americans looking for a taste of home.
For traditional Chinese fare, there is Imperial House Dim Sum, a restaurant in the middle of one of the Venetian’s gaming floors. It offers dim sum, including char siew bao, steamed buns filled with barbecue pork, and har gow, delicate shrimp dumplings.
After flying halfway around the world to get to Macao, most American travelers want to see more than Macao’s gleaming game rooms. On our final day we set off for Coloane Village, a hamlet of several thousand people on Macao’s outermost island.
Only a 20-minute taxi ride from the Venetian, Coloane is a throwback to a more peaceful era: Incense burns in front of tiny Buddhist shrines, villagers stop for long chats and the government has preserved dozens of historic buildings.
At the Lane De Pexe Ieng Lei, a tiny store selling dried seafood, I talked with David Poon, a 60-year-old retiree who now spends much of his time reading people’s fortunes.
Many Macao residents have welcomed the economic surge brought by gambling, but others worry that the rapid development is changing traditional beliefs too quickly. Poon fretted that in modern Macao, too many people are focused on getting rich quick.
“People are getting so nervous,” he said, smiling. “It’s good there are still a few quiet places left.”
We stopped at a local cafe for egg tarts - custard-filled pastries famous in Macao but rarely sold in casinos - and at the Tam Kong Temple, a Taoist shrine dedicated to a local saint.
From there, we followed the coast north to nearby Hac Sa Beach, where we had dinner reservations at Fernando’s, one of Macao’s best Portuguese restaurants.
As we dined on oven-roasted suckling pig, charcoal-grilled codfish and prawns stir-fried with garlic, we chatted with Lorenzo Lopez, a long-time resident who argued that while the casinos have created a new future for Macao, they haven’t erased its past.
“Now we have two Macaos that are very different,” he said with theatrical flourish. “People can come and enjoy them both.”
New Macao
There are no direct flights between the United States and Macao, but tourists can fly to Hong Kong, where hydrofoil ferries leave every 15 to 30 minutes from the Zhong Gang Cheng dock in Kowloon. Tickets can be booked ahead (though this is not generally needed) at www.turbojet.com.hk. The ride takes about an hour and costs about $20 one-way.
All of the major casinos have Web sites with information for booking rooms. The Venetian (www.venetianmacao.com) has large and comfortable rooms starting at about $300. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel www.mandarinoriental.com/macau) offers excellent rooms and service starting at about $250 for a double.
Old Macao
Macao is a UNESCO World Heritage site and walking maps of historical sites are available at most hotels and at www.macauheritage.net/mherit/indexE.asp.
To feast on traditional Portuguese cuisine, visit Fernandos (+853 2888-2531), at the south end of Hac Sa Beach; meals for two cost about $50 and reservations are suggested. In Coloane Village, a 30-minute walk from Fernandos, visit Lord Stow’s Cafe (Largo do Matadouro, +853 2888-2174) for good coffee and traditional Macanese egg tarts.
The Pousada de Coloane hotel (www.hotelpcoloane.com.mo, +853 2888-2143) offers quiet and clean doubles starting about $100 and located above a pretty beach near Coloane Village.
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