Macau

Macau

My brother and sister-in-law organised a wedding in China to celebrate with her family and friends, so the family headed over to take part. On the way over, Mum and I had a few days of R&R in Macau before hitting Wuhan for the wedding.

First impression of Macau

We both took the ferry over from Hong Kong Airport and then stayed in the Conrad Macau, which is completely deluxe!

Strawberries and cream waiting in the room…

We had an upgrade to a suite, and brekky and afternoon tea included each day. They made a huge effort to create gluten free afternoon tea, and were very keen to help out. I’d let the hotel know about our GF needs, but the message didn’t reach the afternoon tea chef, who was very panicked the first day, but must have gone home and researched GF cooking all that night, because our second afternoon tea consisted of the following amazing spread:

Gluten free afternoon tea

Yup. We didn’t starve at the Conrad!

Macao is an interesting mix of Chinese and Portuguese influences. There are some parts that are totally Chinese, and then some areas that look completely European.

Dried meat shop

A quiet square in the city

Mum and I did some exploring of the town proper, as well as wandering around the hotel district, which is trying to be a Chinese version of Las Vegas.

Mum and I wandering the city

Ruins of St Paul’s (that’s me in blue tshirt on the left, up the top of the stairs!)

Apparently gambling is prohibited everywhere else in China, except for the Special Administrative Regions of Macau and Hong Kong, so the Cotai Strip of hotels and casinos is totally Vegas-like in both atmosphere and punters. Except you can’t drink alcohol in the casinos, so you are given bottles of water when playing, not cocktails!

The Venetian

The Venetian ceiling, two or three storeys up

They even have the Venetian like in Vegas, with an indoors mini-Venice, surrounded by high-end shops.

Macau