Macau is an island of pleasure in the true sense. It is a place where one can satiate the senses in every possible manner. While the nights are reserved for hedonistic and gambling pleasures, the daytime is strictly meant for catching up on sleep, sight seeing, or indulging in orgies of the gastronomic kind. A little peninsula and a couple of islands is what make Macau - the Las Vegas of the East. Poised at the tip of the Pearl River Delta, it remained a Portuguese Colony till 1999 when the power system shifted and it donned the mantle of a Special Administrative Region of China.

Ample gamble

It is a gambler’s paradise, spinning out dreams and visions of richness to those with a reckless streak in their blood. In fact, Macau is the only Chinese territory where gambling is legal. Interestingly, the pleasures of gambling are denied to the local population. In terms of earnings, it has already beaten Las Vegas and the dice is still rolling. Macau is all glitter and gloss. It is a city of dreams; a chimera for the gambling public who live from one game to the other in the hope of making a fortune.

The bright, blinking neons announcing the casinos, the musical fountains, and the string of Chow Tai Fook (one of the leading jewellery dealers) outlets are a confirmation of Macau’s love affair with glitter. The cute, fat, pig in gold sitting in the jewellery shop windows is another confirmation that the Year of the Pig has been very lucrative for Macau.

Not surprisingly, the residents are obsessed with gold. No less than eighty eight gold bricks of one kilo each are embedded in the floor of Hotel Grand Emperor foyer. If that isn’t luxury, what is? Imagine stepping on gold! The fact is that the Chinese consider it good luck to walk over gold and the hotel obliges its guests by placing gold bricks under their feet. That the gold is well guarded is another matter. The presence of umpteen pawn shops is no surprise either. In a city ruled by blackjack, roulette and baccarat, pawn shops are spawned like wild mushrooms in the monsoon.

Frenetic construction activity can be seen all over the island. It is a 24x7 activity that goes on unmindful of the visitors. The tiny island which was just 27 square km a decade back has an area of 47 sq km today, thanks to the extensive land reclamation. The Cotai strip is one of the biggest gambling areas in the world.

Several renowned hotel chains like the Four Seasons, Venetian, Wynn, Sheraton and Hilton, are all there with their casinos and the Island is set to draw record gambling crowds from all over the world.

Almost all big hotels have a floor dedicated to their casino. Sands Casino, which claims to be the largest casino in the world, is one of the popular ones. With its 740 table games and 1254 slot machines, spread over a vast area, it rules the roost. Smooth and silent escalators transport visitors up to its three levels and yet all the floors are jam-packed with people at the gaming tables. Adrenaline runs high as bets are placed. The stakes are high; some tables don’t accept less than a thousand dollar stake. Sands Casino boasts of luring over two million gamblers every year, to its gaming tables.

Daytime is meant for lazing around the city and soaking in the local ambience. For sight seers, there are a host of interesting places like the Guia Fortress, Lou Lim Leoc Garden, Macau Tower, and Leal Senado Building.

The impressive Ruins of St Paul stand guard over the Senado Square that is a speckled with tourists and locals, on any given day. A host of churches built by the Portuguese rub shoulders with the Chinese temples, all around the city. Along with a string of historical churches like St Augustine’s church, Penha Chapel, St Dominic’s Church, and the Cathedral, stand the Chinese temples like A Ma temple, Na Tcha temple and Kuan Tai temple.
Those who like thrills and adventure will find their adrenaline pumping at the 338 metres high Macau Tower, which is world tenth highest building.

It is also the world’s highest commercial Bungy jumping station, but if you are too timid to try your hand at Bungy Jumping, you could do the Skywalk, which takes you on an exhilarating stroll along the outer rim of the tower.
The gourmands have a field-day at Macau as they grapple to decide between Cantonese, Portuguese and ‘Macanese’ (a combination of Portuguese, Chinese, Indian and Malay) cuisine.

Foodie’s paradise

The business of eating is taken very seriously by the people of Macau. Food is not categorised merely as sustenance, but a factor that promotes the sublime quality of the soul. It transcends the boundaries of the axiom ‘eating to live’.

Portuguese specialties like the caldo verde (a potato vegetable soup), chourico (Portuguese sausage) and bacalhau (a type of fish), are quite popular with tourists.

Macau comes alive after the sun goes down. The nightlife is a vibrant one. Dozens of bars, discos, nightclubs and casinos provide a pulsating experience for the night owls.

There is a magic about Macau. This tiny island is a charming microcosm of the Orient. Macau keeps its hedonistic promise for the visitors. It is the night of the exotic and the forbidden, for the pleasure seekers who invade the island on the weekends. Long after you’ve taken the boat leaving the peninsula, the Macanese experience is likely to remain etched in your mind.

FACT FILE

How to get there:

To reach Macau, you will have to land at the Hong Kong airport and then take a fast boat from Hong Kong. The hour long travel by the Turbojet is a fantastic experience. For the well heeled, there are helicopter services from Hong Kong to Macau.

Accommodation:

There is no dearth of hotels, to suit all budgets, in Macau. As per a joke there are more hotels than houses in the Island.

Other attractions:

Take a day trip to Coloane, an island in Macau that boasts of magnificent beaches and a lavish, green countryside that has a rich flora and fauna.

The island has sports facilities, tennis courts, swimming pools, and Karting Tracks.

Visit Taipa for a laid-back feel. Take a stroll down its historical centre with ubiquitous cookie and cake shops, quaint traditional shops and a relaxed pace.

The old Praia waterfront is idyllic, with a row of five beautifully restored old neo-classical houses, grassy areas and benches to mellow out on.