Flashing Lights of Casino Lisboa in Macau

A short 1 hour high speed catamaran ride South of Hong Kong and we found ourselves in Macau. An ex-Portuguese colony, now part of southern China. It was returned to China shortly after Hong Kong was in the late 90's. A nice, small city made up of a piece of mainland with 2 islands (Coloane and Taipa) all connected by huge fancy highway-type bridges. Pretty amazing especially as a high percentage of land is actually reclaimed. Big Chinese influence there and not much Portuguese apart from the odd church and restaurant. Prior to it's return to China, Macau was the 3rd smallest country in the world (at 16 sq. km) behind Vatican City and Monaco (there may be a couple of Pacific Islands in there too).
It is however, the Vegas of Asia and there are plenty of elaborate and gaudy casinos with the typical flashing lights. The Casino Lisboa is probably the oldest and well known, and we went in there for a couple of hours - but just to watch. We're just budget travelers, so no room for gambling in our budget. There was an absolutely massive new casino under construction called the Venetian. I'm sure it will rival the Venetian in Vegas for size and extravagance.

We passed the Venetian on a local bus ride down to a very quiet little place called Coloane Village. Strange to imagine that this sleepy little place was only a few miles from the massive casinos. It was a nice break from big Chinese cities, but back to the city for dinner.

Our favourite place to eat was a little sushi place called Good Choice Sushi - a recommendation from Stiffler. Great sushi, 5 pieces for just over a dollar, and the people there were more than friendly. We would get take-away, and eat on the steps to the ruins of Sao Paolo church, watching the locals. Makes for a nice evening meal! *Stub