U've gotta be kidding me... That's a cake??

so, it was friday morning on the 12th of december, we took a ferry from Shenzhen to Macau for our last stop in our vacation. Macau, as u know it, is where ALL the casino(s) are. it's is gambler's paradise, as depicted in all HK movies, where the God of Gamblers always end up in Macau. Macau is relatively a small place. it is actually made up of THREE separate, small islands which are interconnected by a series of bridges. Upon arriving at the port, there were shuttle buses to each and every hotels in Macau. As we were staying in a hotel called New Century hotel, we boarded its respective shuttle bus and went straight to the hotel to check in. now this is one thing u ought to know about Macau, it is literally FILLED with casino(s). almost EVERY hotel hv its own casino. although, i heard that only four casino license were issued, meaning ALL the casino(s) actually are monopolised by those four ppl that holds the license. k maybe u dont understand but nevermind. now here's the thing. in HK, ppl speak cantonese more and less english, but at least they make the effort of trying to understand u and answer ur questions. in macau, they just ignore u. and im talking about the hotel staff. like wth. u speak english to them and they freaking just turn away. well that was what happen to my mum. so i had to go talk to the receptionist-.-

so anyways, after checking in, we went out and headed for probably macau's only tourist attraction area called the St. Paul Fort or something like that. what is it? think of A'famosa(or what's left of it) and u get the idea. it's just a GATEWAY. or should i call it an arc?
Hist facts: Macau was colonised by portugese for a very very long time and was only recently given back to china in 1999.
thus, the portugese language is still very much in use here in macau. for example, the signboards. the signboards hv THREE different languages, namely mandarin, english and portugese! so that it is so much easier for tourists to find their way around! AND here in my country they make a big fuss outta it! I DUNNO WHY!

as i was saying... we walked pass shops like this to reach this St. Paul's fortress... see the sign on the top left. "medicine no fakes"?

erm. they were "robbing" me. the brochure he's holding is his erm "weapon".
not so sure whether i met them beefore... they look oddly familiar.
St. Paul Fortress(or what's left of it.)

many many ppl..

yeah...

sums it all up... MACAU.

so, anyway, we then went to the museum and took a look around.

yeah. they're still robbing me...

outside the museum. snapped some photos..

and then.. we saw this! the Grand Lisboa Hotel. pretty cool eh? so then we decided to take a walk over to see the interior of the place.

while me and my younger brother and my mum walked around the lobby, my dad and my bigger brother went into the casino. the legal age to enter a casino in macau is 18, whereas it's 21 here in genting.

after that, we had dinner, and went back to our hotel.
so we were all watching tv and resting. then my parents went out and but some stuff...

and they came back with this!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MYSELF!!:D:D
i was SEVENTEEN.

"u want me to cut cake with that?"

he finished my cake. all by himself.

the mighty spoon i used for my cake!
so then after that, my mum suggested that i go to The Venitian, seeing that it's my last night in Macau as i was flying back the next day ALONE to attend prom with mydearsukhengs(:
so we took a bus to The Venitian, and i soon found out that it is actually modelled after Caesars Palace in Vegas!

read about it at http://pingchienng.blogspot.com/2008/11/jackpot.html

ans since there's already explanation there, i shall just let the pics do the talking.

The Venetian!

The Venetian!

aww. so sweet

The indoor canal.

outside.

it's forever daylight in there.

It is so huge i got lost inside! couldn't find my way out. well that's coz im under 18 and i cant go through the casino so i hv to make huge detours AROUND the casino to get to the other side. yeah.

overall, Macau's a pretty expensive place, i dunno why. it's almost as expensive as HK. besides, they hv serious environmental problems-.- the air stinks like nobody's business. the smell of exhaust fumes fills the air. moreover, the people are always rude and moody.

so, unless u're looking for a trip to go gambling, i wouldn't recommend macau.
i give it a 1.2 out of 5:)

after that night, i flew back alone the next day while my family continued vacation in zhuhai where i heard things were CHEAP like crazeee. i don't know, but i would say that i nvr regretted coming back a day earlier to attend my prom, and after-prom(:

well. that's all for now. that's the end of my vacation. yeap. i spent my birthday in macau. with a snoopy cake:) i wanna thank and apologies to all those who sent me birthday wishes. sorry i couldn't reply as u can see i was in macau. so yeah.

zhenfeng says goodbyes.