Welcome, to the underground.
Just a short boat ride from Hong Kong, one enters to the second special administrative region in China - the confusing Macau. With your passport stamped and some patacas in your pocket, you start walking towards the city while wondering where on the hell you are.
It's a place in between the classic mediterranean village (with the colorful houses, the pebbled streets and the signs written in a latin language), Vegas and a theme park. Actually, the gambling industry in Macau surpassed Vegas in the early 2000s as the largest in the world.
This casino looks like the forbidden city in Beijing.
This one attempts to reproduce the Roman Coliseum, by the sea.
But just 10m away, the environments turns into a colonial Portugal, just like the buildings recreated in the island during the colonial era (actually, Macau was administered by Portugal from mid 16th century until 1999).
Babylon is more of a Cleopatra's nightmare, losing bright under the cloudy sky.
It becomes worrying to see that the entire place seems to be somehow empty. Blame the weather, it was quite rainy that day. But still, everyone seems to be working at the local casinos.
These streets, true reminder of my hometown.
Like any other main square on the average village, along with main church.
Stairs usually pay off with a nice view.
The Grand Lisboa is the palm-shaped casino, rising among the houses in a strange manner.
Look at the other side of the hill and there you go, classic wedding in traditional environment.
The Portuguese sweets mix with the local beef jerky (very Chinese thing) as bricks do with kanji.
Pastels & shopping, poor us and our devalued JPY.
Contrast, all over the place. From skyscrapers to tiny little streets (and that 20kmh sign that we grew up with, IMO didn't you have one at the entrance of the school?). There's a lot to learn about Macau, but just the black and white clashes, make it worth a day trip from Hong Kong.
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