Macau Mula

AC and I spent most of yesterday just exploring the local downtown neighborhood where some of the newer casinos are located. It definitely has more of a European feel - you can really tell the Portuguese influence. The big difference is that there are still a lot of British people in Hong Kong, but we have rarely seen Portuguese people here in Macau. Except as security guards in the casinos.

So it's like Vegas, but not. Most of the casinos, with the exception of the brand new Wynn and Lisboa are very small. You get through security at The Rio, for example, to find a small room with maybe 20 or 30 table games. And that's it. So we've learned some games they love here in Asia (one involves sorting porcealin buttons from a jar into groups of four and betting on the remainder), but have spent the majority of our time at the Wynne in the slots. I amazingly won enough money to pay for our hotel room (the secret was a game called "Stinking Rich" featuring old white people decked out in jewels and a variety of smelly figures - my favorite a rotten egg with green tinted yolk), so we are definitely very much ahead. I suggest we stop now, but we'll see what actually happens.

The environment is also not terribly rowdy. They are lacking the glitz and glamor of Vegas (as tired as that can be sometimes). For the most part, it's pretty calm and the cocktail waitresses are serving hot tea and free bottled water. We got home last night stone-cold sober and only slightly tired - kind of a nice change!

Today will probably be the greyhound races and maybe a nice dinner, then back to HK tomorrow!