One Day in Macau

Yesterday we decided to go to Macau for the day. For those of you whose Asian geography is a bit shaky, Macau is a small territory about 40km from Hong Kong. For over 400 years, it was a Portuguese colony (compared to Hong Kong's short 150 years under British rule). Today, Macau enjoys a similar status to Hong Kong under China's "One Country, Two Systems" rule. So, although Macau is technically a part of China (just like HK), you get a separate passport stamp when you go there. Thus, we are counting it is another country visited (making the country count 32 for Brad & 31 for Emily).

Our day began with a boat ride. From Hong Kong, there are a number of companies that operate high speed catamaran ferries to Macau. The ride is an hour-long, nausea-inducing, 40 knot skip across the waves of Hong Kong harbor. Emily would like everyone to know that she did not throw up.

While in Macau, we saw loads of lovely Portuguese colonial buildings. There was the fort, built in the 16th century to defend the colony:
A beautifully colored Dominican Church:
And the facade of a long-gone cathedral:
There were even culinary remnants of Portuguese colonialism. Emily's favorite was the Portuguese egg tart. Called "Pastéis de Nata," they basically consist of custard in puff pastry. As you may or may not know, custard is Emily's favorite dessert. I think this was the best part of her day:
But for most visitors to Macau, architecture and pastry are not even on the itinerary. The number one draw in Macau these days is gambling. Macau is the only place in China where gambling is legal, and with a growing middle class, the Chinese have made Macau into the world's number-one grossing gambling city. More nest eggs are lost in this city than anywhere else in the world.

We had a look around a couple of the casinos, starting with Macau's very own branch of Las Vegas's Venetian (Macau's Venetian is the world's largest casino, by the way), complete with fake canals and all:
Neither one of us is much interested in gambling, but on our way out of town, we decided to stop by one of the older casinos to try our luck at roulette. We only made one wager of 100 Patacas (the equivalent of $13 US), but we won! The dealer (and everyone else at the table) looked very surprised to see us walking away after only one wager. I was convinced that we walked out of that casino with more money in our pockets than anyone else that day: $13US.
If you'd like to comment on this post, here are a couple of possible topics:
1)What should we do with our winnings?
2)Is it a stretch to count Macau as a separate country in our list of places we've visited?
3)How many egg tarts could Emily have eaten before spending an hour on a rocking boat?