Sleepless in Macau

It’s barely 6.30 a.m. in Hong Kong, when I get out of bed bleary-eyed, grab a quick black coffee and head for the harbour. I’ve spent a couple of days attending meetings in Hong Kong, and now I’m all set to chill out at the legendary Venetian Macao-Resort Hotel—the biggest hotel in the biggest concentration of casinos in Asia.

Over the next 24 hours, I will go through an incredible number of activities and memorable experiences at the 2 km-long hotel, eating at half a dozen of its 50-odd restaurants, doing a few laps at the Olympic-size swimming pool, making a futile attempt swinging a club at their nine-hole golf course and losing a fair bit at the world’s largest casino, with its baccarat, roulette, craps and blackjack tables. There are, indeed, other attractions in Macau, but the Venetian takes an entire weekend to discover.

Our ferry, a double-storied luxury motor boat owned by Hong Kong’s largest luxury yacht company, the Cotai First Group, sets off from the HK ferry terminal, which looks like a mini-airport with its check-in lounge and the immigration counters. On board there is breakfast and free beer as well. Once we reach the Taipa terminal—Macau and Taipa are twin islands connected by a bridge—a sedan takes us to the Venetian. I had heard this was a big hotel, but boy! Is this big or what! With 3,000 suites—it is an all-suites hotel— it is by far the largest hotel on the island. It has lobbies on all four corners. We enter through the West Lobby and are promptly presented with a map of the hotel! The map, we are told, is essential to keep ourselves from getting lost on our way to our rooms. The hotel is divided into districts much like in Venice with road signs helping me find my way to Marco Polo District or St. Mark’s Square. My suite is on the 15th floor of the North Block overlooking the golf course. Each of the four blocks has 20 floors and each floor has over 100 suites of varying sizes. The Royal Suite, where I am staying, is around 1,000 square feet in size, easily comparable to a 2bhk in Mumbai. And this is one of the smaller ones!

I head to the “third level”—which houses over 300 stores, among them some of the best-known brands from the world of fashion. From Zara and Fendi to LV, Ferrari, Prada and Chopard —they are all vying for attention. As I jump headfirst into a shopping spree, picking up an Armani watch for myself and a Zara jacket for my wife—I realise that it’s barely 1 p.m. but the sky looks a pale blue, as if the sun’s about to set. It takes me a while to figure out that the entire “sky” all around the hotel, is artificial. This is to ensure that all through the day (and night) it always feels like the time to go shopping, have a drink or just go gamble.

It’s lunch time soon and I come to a Portuguese restaurant called Madeira on St Mark’s Square. As I order the wine and starters, a gondola with a singing oarsman goes past me, on its way to the “Bridge of Sighs”. Amazing as it sounds, there is an artificial canal that goes all around and inside the hotel, where one can take a gondola ride, go under a replica of the “Bridge of Sighs” and alight at Marco Polo District. The food is superb and by the time I am done with the roast lamb and the chicken, I am sleepy. I head for my suite since this is perhaps the only sleep I am going to get all night.

The king size oak bed with its silk curtains, the two giant plasma televisions, the connecting drawing room with its French windows, Givenchy upholstered sofas and the bedroom-sized bathroom sets the mood for the evening ahead of me. I catch forty winks as I dream of pocketing millions at the casino. I wake up to see it’s still light outside. It’s time for some fresh air. I head out to the city to check out what the Macau sky really looks like. We cab it to the old part of town, less than 5 km away. Here, dotting the narrow, cobbled pathways are old Portuguese homes (Macau was once a Portuguese colony) and a host of family-run restaurants—some dating back to Macau’s colonial past, while others set up by immigrants from mainland China who have come here in search of business. I pick on a place, which serves Chinese-Portuguese fusion food and the meal of braised pork and Chinese greens goes down surprisingly well with a bottle of Portuguese shiraz of dubious vintage.

Back at the hotel, like fireflies jumping into the fire, I head straight for the casino. Spread across 5,000 square metres, the casino is teeming with people sitting or standing at each of the few thousand tables and slot machines even though it’s past midnight. I find myself at the roulette table to begin with, simply because the minimum bet here is just HK$25 (Rs 175). Soon, however, I realise that one really has a slim chance in guessing the correct number here (the dice is rolled on the roulette and one has to bet on any number from 1 to 36, hoping that the dice will stop at the chosen number. Poorer by Rs 700 but wiser, I make a dignified escape to the baccarat table at the other end of the hall. Here the minimum bets are higher (HK$100 for a single chip) but the game is simpler. The banker lays the cards on the table and then a machine shuffles them for all the contestants. I lay my chips on the table and pray that my three cards add up to a higher number than those of the banker. Simple, right? So I think, too, when I begin winning. Within an hour I amass a thousand dollars before it changes. Blame it all on that sweet little thing at the other end of the table, flashing me a “you are a winner” smile.

At 2 a.m., when I call it a day, I am up by just a HK$100 and the lady with the thousand watt smile has vanished, probably with someone who has won a few hundred thousand more than me!

Colonial cuisine: Try an authentic Portuguese meal How to get there: Cathay Pacific and Thai Airways flies daily from Mumbai and Delhi to Macau (via Hong Kong and Bangkok respectively). One can also take a ferry from Hong Kong to Macau. A Delhi—Macau economy return ticket costs between Rs 18,000 and Rs 21,000 depending on the route and the airline. Ferry prices: VIP cabins: HK$1,888 (Rs 13,216)/person. First Class: HK$236 (Rs 1,652)/person. The service on Cotai First ferries run every 30 minutes from 7 a.m. till 1 a.m. Where to stay: A Royal Suite at the Venetian costs around HK$2,200 (Rs 15,400). Other suits are priced higher. One can also stay at Four Seasons or the MGM resort hotels nearby, each one a destination on their own. Look Up: www.venetianmacau.com Food: A good meal with wine for two in any of the restaurants inside the Venetian costs between HK$300 to 360 (Rs 2,100 to 2,520). In the family-run restaurants in the old city, prices are slightly lower. Try the breakfast at the Café Deco on the lobby level. The all-you-can-eat buffet costs HK$175 (Rs 1,225). Casino: Slot machine games cost between 20 cents and $1 per try. A single bet at the Roulette table is HK$ 25 (Rs 175). Baccarat tables charge between HK$100-500 (Rs 700-3,500) per bet/chip depending on the table you choose. Blackjack and Craps games have a minimum bet of HK$200-300 (Rs 1,400-2,100). One can either change money at the tables itself or exchange them for chips at the money exchange counter near the northern end of the casino.