Macau, Briefly

On Sunday, I took a quick trip to Macau. I started late and so only spent a couple of hours there, but the ferry tickets are just $15 or so. I wanted to see the big casinos.

Macau has mushroomed into a mini-Las Vegas since we were last there. Above is the entrance to Stanley Ho's new Grand Lisboa. Stanley Ho is a legendary figure in Hong Kong who reputedly drinks turtle blood as a sort of elixir. Anna interviewed him once years ago.

I took a taxi around town to see the places I have been before. The Bella Vista is closed.

It is now the Portuguese consulate.

Of course, Macau was a Portuguese colony until 1999, so it's only fitting that the Portuguese would take the nicest old building in town for their own, now that they are just visitors like everybody else.

This is a view from the street of the terrace where Todd, Mark and I had our famous dinner, drinking vino verde and watching fireworks while Mark queried the maitre'd on the diameters of the cigars available in the hotel fumidor.

This is a view of the old Casino Lisboa. As I recall, Todd and Mark weren't allowed in the casino because they were wearing shorts and I got rather huffy about it until security arrived.

Another view of the Lisboa with the new Grand Lisboa towering behind it. Todd, Mark and I stayed at the old Lisboa when we were here.

And still another view, taken from the entrance to the new Wynn casino, a monstrosity.

Inside the lobby of the Wynn, I was stunned to see this chandelier.

We saw one very much like it in a workshop in Murano last year. The guy who showed us around in Murano told us the chandelier was going to a casino in Macau, and so I took the picture above.

On closer inspection, I'm not sure they are the same chandelier, though it's possible this one was reconfigured as there are many elements of the two that are the same. In any case, the one we saw in Murano must be somewhere in Macau. Maybe I'll find it next time I'm there.