"The casino played a song of its own—slot machines dinging, chips clacking as the dealer passed them to players at the tables, and the chatter of people throwing down money with the hope of hitting it big. It was like a carnival for adults. A person could get lost for days in a place like this.” This casino scene described in The Secret Diamond Sisters, authored by young fiction writer Michelle Madow, is the kind of energetic experience most people expect to have in Macau. But on our first night in this Chinese peninsula, although Casino Lisboa is busy, it isn’t buzzing enough to sweep me off my feet, make me lose myself.
Truth be told, Casino Lisboa’s slightly sombre avatar reflects the reality of the declining casino revenues in Macau today. For the past couple of years, reports from the west of the Pearl River Delta have been rife with news about their state. Gross revenues of this June compared to last June saw a -11.4% variance as per Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. Reasons for the slide reportedly range from crack down on ‘junkets’ (crudely meaning money lenders catering to high rollers) to limits imposed on the number of gambling tables.
This is why, our itinerary, devised by the tourism board, doesn’t focus on the glitzy casino experience. Instead, it leads us to mass-market tourism sites that they are promoting to boost alternate sources of tourism revenue.
Portuguese power
Fado singer strums the guitar while owner of Portuguese restaurant, Antonio’s makes a flaming suzette (Pic: Venky Vembu)
It is such that Macau’s colonial language, alongside Chinese, enjoys the official status. Portuguese food legacy too is still very much alive here; China’s Zomato equivalent, openrice.com lists about 100 restaurants fully or partially dedicated to Portuguese cuisine in Macau.
We are given a taste of it at Antonio’s, named so after its boisterous owner, who dishes out as many tales of his many wives as he does delicacies like Portuguese duck rice. The experience though, starts right from the quaint cobblestoned path leading to his little restaurant in Taipa village. Even its signage is a blue-and-white-tiled frame and to complete the theme there’s a fado-singing guitarist by the tables. But the Portuguese colours come out best in Senado Square, Macau’s urban centre, lined by neo-classical, pastel-shaded buildings. Vibrant are not only the shades, but also the budget and luxury shops they house, retailing everything from clothes and jewellery to food and watches. Coupled with Senado Square’s narrow lanes offering great bargains, they conspire and tempt out the shopaholic in me.
Senado Square’s vibrant structures and shopping streets (Pic: James Cridland (CC BY 2.0)
Just a walking distance away is the Ruins of St Paul’s, a facade of the college that was Far East’s first Western-style university, standing out with its tall, intricately designed structure.
Family time
While it would not be uncommon for tourists to explore Macau’s colonial heritage, an odd addition to our plans is the Macau Science Centre. With galleries ranging from space science and food science to robotics and genetics, it is pure edutainment for the adolescents it is targeting. A joyous moment I can’t shake off is watching a little boy move (jump is more apt) merrily to the Xylophone he’s playing at the sound gallery. This back-to-school experience though, is not really what a group like ours, comprising 20- to 50- somethings, looks forward to. But what easily turns many of us adults into excited selfie-clicking children are the stuffed pandas at the souvenir shop in Coloane Island’s Giant Panda Pavilion. As for the real pandas, we watch them from behind glass walls and they tug at my heart even though I disapprove the caging of animals. As the cuddly fellows waddle around, laze and lie down, we’re thinking—what a life!
Watching pandas lazing at noon at the Giant Panda Pavilion (Pic: Venky Vembu)
And the high life
Those disinterested in these trappings, meant to woo family holidayers, mustn't worry. Macau still has its glamour intact. You can watch the dramatic ballet of water and light at the fountain outside Wynn Macau—for free. And if you’re willing to loosen your purse strings, for HK$580 – HK$1480, City of Dreams offers a seat to their iconic production: The House of Dancing Water—that makes a not-so-new love story larger than life with the art of acrobatics, crazy bike stunts, play of lights, massive settings, sound effects and complementing music.
Hotels too are out to dazzle you—with Daliesque installations at MGM Macau (which has begun showcasing works of local artists and hosting Indian weddings) and with gondola rides at The Venetian Macao. In fact, The Venetian was an early bird in tapping the Indian market with packages for our big fat weddings and hosting IIFA awards.
But if adventure is what truly gives you a high, take a 233-metre free fall by bunjee jumping from Macau Tower. Although its in the middle of a city, the view is surprisingly good thanks to surrounding water bodies—Nam Van Lake, Sai Van Lake and others. It’s another story that given my biophilic leanings I must take my first jump in the lap of nature from Bloukrans Bridge in South Africa. But why should that stop you?
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 "Evening view of the 233-metre Macau Tower")
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