Macau - More Than Just a Casino

Ever since I first learned of Macau (sorry to all my former history teachers I honestly can’t remember it from school) when I got to China, I had wanted to go. It was something about the architecture that looked so European and the ruins of the Church of St Paul. It looked so beautiful. I quickly decided that one of my days in Hong Kong would be spent taking a ferry back and forth to Macau for a day trip. My friends couldn’t understand why I felt so compelled to see this strange peninsula known mostly for its casinos.

In Macau it is easy to use the free shuttle buses casinos offer to get all around the peninsula. We used them to get from the ferry port to the center of Macau. Katie's Mom wanted us to check out a casino so we stopped at the first one we saw Wynn.

Our trip to the casino was an experience, as soon as we walked through the doors I was stopped by security asking for my ID. I was a bit surprised, living in China I have never once been carded, however what happened next is what really surprised me. The woman quickly opened my passport and looked very relieved, as she handed it back to me she said in English "ohhh good, you look sixteen." What? Maybe she thinks all foreigners look the same cause I'm positive I don't look sixteen.

The Wynn experience was ehhh, I've only been to one casino before, Mohegan Sun in CT. I must say Mohegan sun was a lot more fun, the slot machines reminded me of old online video games and we couldn't find a bar that we were allowed to go in (they were all for the high-rollers). Needless to say we left pretty quick. 

On our way to the ruins of the Church of St. Paul we decided to stop for some Macanese food, a style that mixes Portuguese and Cantonese styles. It was so delicious! They even had sangria!

After lunch we made it to the ruins of the Church of St. Paul, the most famous monument in Macau, unfortunately by the time we got there we had little time to explore. We snapped some shots and then had to make our way back to the ferry port.