Macau

"We anoint their fuses with a tiny amount of fire, and they come alive, playing out their life span in a matter or seconds. In those few seconds a crack in the universe is opened, giving us a glimpse of the energy locked within all matter." -Bob Weaver

Saturday night me and four other guys headed to Macau for some fireworks and debauchery, both were had in full. For those curious Macau is the Portuguese equivalent of Hong Kong. Formerly a territory controlled by Portugal, Macau was returned to China in 1999 and is now a Special Administrative Region in China, one of two, the other being Hong Kong. Macau is located 37 miles south of Hong Kong on the opposite edge of the Pearl River Delta. Macau is famous for many reasons some of them being that, it is the most densely populated area/country in the world, it has great seafood and it is the Las Vegas of Asia. So now after that background, lets return to my story. Saturday night me, Andrew, Rodrigo, Casey and Josh got on a turbojet (basically a large hydrofoil) and took the hour long ride to the "bling" capital of China. Our main reason for traveling to Macau this weekend was because the Macau International Fireworks Display Contest was going. On Saturday the two countries that competed were Japan and Portugal, they did not disappoint, but more on that shortly. We got off the turbo jet and after asking two Brits for the best spot to watch the show from we found ourselves sitting by the bay next to the Wynn Macau, a large Vegas export. We could not have asked for a better night, it was warm but sitting by the bay made the heat a second thought and all we could was sit in awe to the amazing performance we were privy to. Japan started of the festivities promptly at 9 o'clock and put up a hell of a show, lasting around 20 minutes, we did not expect to see a better show. We were wrong. We continued to hang out by the bay and enjoy the night until Portugal stepped up to the plate at ten o'clock and knocked one out of the park. I've seen many fireworks shows in my day and while I admit I don't commit a large part of my brain to firework memories this one will stick with me for some time to come. I took a video of the finale and will do my best to get it to all reading to this. If ever you have the chance, get to this firework contest, you will not be let down. After the show we were curious to see how the Asian community approached gaming. We took a walk to the Grand Lisboa, Stanley Ho's marquee casino and Hotel, this building was quite the sight. It was covered in neon, like most hotel/casinos here and was best described in a travel book as a cross between a UFO and a wedding cake. We walked in and headed upstairs to the gaming floor, what we found were more baccarat tables (the game James Bond is so adept at) than I have ever seen. With all of the baccarat tables there was little room for anything else, there were only around six or seven blackjack tables, much different from the states. The five of us played and explored for an about two hours and then decided it was time for some music. We talked to the concierge at the hotel and were told to head down the street and just keep an eye for the sign for a place called D2, we never found D2. We did however find a place called Cubic that seemed to a good time. It was real quiet when we got there around one but were told the crowd would pick up by three as that was when the guest DJ was getting on. So of course as the night continued progress the club got more crowded and eventually you could barely move. The music was some of the best I've heard since I've gotten to China, while it was not my standard choice of music, it was great house music. We had had enough of Cubic about the time the new DJ was coming on and some of the group decided they were hungry. We headed for food and after about a half hour we found some and sat down to take a rest and refuel, we still had two and a half hours until our ride back to Hong Kong. After some food we saw that we were next to the MGM Grand Macau and decided to kill some time before heading home. I played some blackjack and came out the winner overall for the night. The casino was standard but much like the rest of Macau the building it was housed in was massive. You would swear it were in Vegas. At around five a.m. we grabbed a cab to the ferry terminal to begin our trek back. This was the first ride back and it seems that many others did as we did and just pulled an all nighter because the ride back was sold out. we got back to HK at 7 and got on the train to get home. I hit my pillow at 8 a.m. and could not have been happier about the way the night went.

There will be more pictures coming from this night shortly, I didn't bring my good camera so I need to grab some pics from my friends. Thanks

Check out the video on my youtube link!