In my brain, before I even stepped foot off the ferry that got me to Macau from Hong Kong this morning, this post was going to be about seeing Macau on the cheap. Like, the real cheap. Like, I spent three bucks on some street food and called it a day cheap.
And the day started out that way! I swear! I hopped on Macau's greatest invention--free shuttle buses from the ferry/airport/China-border-crossing to the casino of your choice--and headed over to the Grand Lisboa, the grand jewel of Old Macau. And for anyone who has been to Vegas or Atlantic City, you know a casino is a casino. The Grand Lisboa was one of the prettier ones I've seen, though, with lots of shiny things to catch your eye and fancy tables to steal your cash.
From there, it was an easy walk north to the historic center of Macau, complete with requisite European-esque square, church ruins, and twisty alleyways. As a former Portugese colony, Macau historic center retains more of that heritage than anything I've seen thus far in Hong Kong. I picked up some beef balls and an egg tart for lunch and all was going exactly as planned.
And then, it all went wrong. I took the (free!) shuttle bus back to the ferry, and took another (free!) shuttle out to The Venetian on Cotai, the landfill built to the south of Macau about 10 years ago. Before that (and the billions and billions of dollars that went into this small mass of land), Cotai was just part of the Pearl River estuary. But now, oh my, it might be the world's most opulent playground.
Just driving up to The Venetian--not to mention The Galaxy next door--was actually shocking. These casinos seemed to be 3 or 4 times the size of any Vegas casino. A concierge at the Venetian told me that on any given day, one hundred thousand people come through their doors. Let me repeat--one hundred thousand!
So that's all nice and good, but besides those one hundred thousand people they have milling around, they also have a Grand Canal, flowing through a St. Mark's Square. And on that canal--as I'm sure you've guessed--there were gondolas. Now, you might be able to resist a gondola ride through St. Mark's Square on the Grand Canal in Macau, but I sure can't.
End of story. End of budget.