After our Pre-Christmas in Hong Kong, we came back home to the mainland for Santa’s imminent arrival. We started with Christmas Eve at the kids’ favorite spot to eat – Mr. Pizza. We ate outside, no one else was there, took some pics and had their perfectly average food. After dinner, we treated the kiddos to a movie at the local cinema. We hadn’t been to this one, so we didn’t know what to expect. Somehow they talked us into buying some kind of VIP discount program when we got our tickets. I have no idea what it actually does, but we did get free drinks and popcorn I think. The popcorn – was caramel corn. They had no option for regular buttered popcorn. Weird. I would have preferred the regular version, but the caramel corn was fine and there was no other choice. We saw Frozen 2, in a theater that was about oh… 100 degrees. I’m not lying. All of us were roasting. We made it through the sweaty adventure, then headed home, tucked the kids in bed, and then wrapped up all the presents that Santa would soon bring them. Christmas morning was magical as usual for the kids. They got plenty of what they wanted and seemed to enjoy themselves.
For Christmas Dinner, we tried out a new BBQ restaurant. It “looked” like a really neat place, so we wanted to give it a go. We got there right as they opened for dinner and were one of the first to be sat. Then, it took them 15 minutes to take our order. Then it took them about 45 minutes to bring Alanna her drink order, which was 10 minutes after we’d finished eating our meal. Speaking of the meal, it was nothing to shake a stick at. I mean, yes, the food was actually on a stick, and you could shake it if you wanted. But I didn’t. I just ate it, sans shaking. The food was fine, but nothing special, and definitely not worth the wait. We spent the next day at home preparing for our next excursion – none other than the Chinese version of Las Vegas – the city of Macau.
Here is your quick history lesson about Macau, courtesy of the greatest source of factual information known to mankind…err…. Wikipedia: Macau was formerly a colony of the Portuguese Empire, after Ming China leased the territory as a trading post in 1557. Between 1557 and 1887, Macau was governed by the Portuguese under Chinese sovereignty and authority. In 1887, Portugal was given perpetual colonial rights for Macau. The colony remained under Portuguese rule until 1999, when it was transferred to China. As a special administrative region, Macau maintains separate governing and economic systems from that of mainland China.
Macau quickly became a resort city, with Casinos popping up all over the area. Now, I called it the Chinese Las Vegas, but if anything, Las Vegas should be called the American Macau. Its gambling industry is seven times larger than Las Vegas. Its like Vegas, but on performance enhancing drugs. All the big casinos you know are there – The Venetian, The Parisian, MGM, etc, and then there’s all the international and Chinese ones as well. Also, there are no prostitutes soliciting you for nookie as there are in Vegas. That was a plus, as I did not want to have to explain why girls was dressed like that to my children. But yes, gambling… everywhere. The thing is, my wife and I could care less. Sure, we’ll drop some cash in a slot machine, or sit at a roulette table for a bit, just for fun. But it’s totally not our thing. Thankfully Macau also has a very rich history of tourism with their Portuguese ancestory, and this was what I was most interested in seeing. Now don’t get me wrong. We visited the casinos. We gambled a little. The number 23 hit for me a few times on the wheel. I think we left the casino floor up, more times than we were down. And by up, I mean like… 30 bucks or so. We’re obviously not high rollers.
This was also our 12th wedding anniversary so we thought we’d celebrate it with a lovely date night. Nothing goes as planned though, right? First our babysitter was late. Then we couldn’t get a taxi. Then we naively thought we could just walk into some nice restaurant with no reservation. We finally ended it up at some buffet spot. While there was nothing romantic about it, the food was good so I can’t complain too much. We gambled a little here and there, then took some lovely pics outside of the Parisian. They also had those boat ride things inside the Venetian. You know, down the river, while someone paddles you along with a stick? Once we took a good look at it though, we decided it was more of a tourist trap rather than a romantic adventure.
That date night was really our only foray into the gambling world, as we spent the next few days exploring the Portuguese history side of town. The highlight of the area is the Ruins of St. Paul, a 17th-century church that has seen its unfair share of fires. The only thing that really remains is the southern facade, which draws every single tourist in the area to take pictures. It was worth wading through the crowds though, both for day and night pictures. On New Year’s Eve, they even projected a light show on the facade. I’ve spent NYE in many different countries, and this one was pretty high up on the list.
We spent the first few days of 2020 wandering the streets of historical Macau and eating every delectable thing we could get our hands on. I have to include McDonalds and Pizza Hut in that list, because well, kids. I did get to try some of Macau’s dishes that were a foodie favorite. One was a pork chop bun, which I had twice since it was so tasty. I went back to the same little spot to get it again, and the owner used me as advertisement to attract other customers. I did my part. We also had an egg waffle. It’s an ice cream cone made of egg, and then they dump the ice cream inside. Even the kids liked that one. Alanna and I also slipped away from the kids one more night to eat at a VERY nice restaurant that was in our hotel. This was totally more of a date night place, and the food was amazing, both in terms of presentation and actual taste.
Overall, we loved Macau. It had such a warm, inviting feeling and you felt like you weren’t in an Asian country anymore, if just for a little while. It’s pretty easy to get to as well, so I think we’ll probably head back there quite often.
