Photo of the Day--February 19, 2012--Macau

So I've been to Macau three times in my life now, the last time being yesterday/this morning. I must say, this time around I really got a lot more feel for the culture and mindset of the place than I'd gotten on my previous visits. Among other things, some fairly interesting things I noticed:

1) The last two times I was in Macau, they had a pretty awkward situation with their currency, the Macau Pataca. Essentially, 2 years ago when I was there last, the Pataca was rarely, rarely used. Rather, the de facto currency is the Hong Kong Dollar, which is constantly pegged at a 1:1 ratio with Macau Pataca. The last time I was there, I withdrew money from an ATM in HKD due to that being the only option (though mind you, it would be idiotic to withdraw in Patacas--it's just a completely useless currency). Anyway, this time around, I noticed a lot more wide usage of the Pataca. I only had like 1 transaction where the change was given in HKD, everything else was given in Patacas. Fairly interesting, I'm not entirely sure why they're using this currency system, it would probably make more sense to just say "OK, we're going to make the Hong Kong Dollar our currency, the Pataca is no longer valid", or say "OK, we're going to have the Petaca be our currency, we no longer accept HKD". This would eliminate the really awkward getting/giving money in 2 different currencies at routine transactions, and just make things much easier. Could this acknowledgement and embracing of their own currency be an indication of enhanced nationalism by Macau? It would be an interesting thing to look into--I would imagine it would be that or alternatively just really strong encouragement by the Macau Central Bank, I doubt it's just incidental. Anyway, something to think about.

2) Macau is not Vegas. Obviously I already knew this to a certain extent, but I really noticed this time around that Macau lacks fun. Between my last trip to Macau and this one, I spent a week in Vegas with my friend Dan, and I just noticed that everything there was fun. Even when you're in the poker room, the banter is fantastic, the dealers generally pretty talkative/casual, and just a generally merry atmosphere. In Macau, people are not there to have fun. They are there to gamble. The Chinese take gambling more seriously than anyone I'd ever seen--and really I didn't care for it. Whether you're winning or losing money in a casino, it will almost always be more enjoyable if there's just a cheery, friendly atmosphere. In Macau it's sort of like "well thanks for your money, if you don't have any more then you're welcome to leave right now". This assertion is reflected in a statistic that I recall which said that in Vegas, about 40-50% of casino revenues come from gambling. In Macau, that number is >90%. And Macau being 5x the size of Vegas in terms of overall revenue anyway (~$40B to ~$8B....incredible!), this just means the amount of gambling going on in Macau is insane relative to Vegas.

3) Poker is not an option in Macau. Jeff and I got on 4 different lists for 4 different poker rooms, and the shortest of them all was about 2 hours--this meaning that we had to wait 2 hours before we got into a poker game, because there were like 40 people on the list. Now I'm not 100% sure on this, but I have to assume that in Vegas, when the list gets to like 6-7 people, they just start a new game with those stakes and have those people sit at a new table. Apparently this does not happen in Macau. Pretty disappointing, given that I just really prefer poker to literally any casino game--and I'm better at it (that is to say, it's not a losing game, in general). So kind of a bummer on that front.

Ended up losing a fairly substantial amount of money--a few hundred US$--but eh, what can you do, and I suppose a good lesson that I should probably never play craps while on about 4 hours of sleep and you've just learned the rules of the game. So goes without saying, I will not be gambling again for awhile, with the exception of sports bets/prop betting with friends.

Anyway, the trip back from Macau ended up being really bizarre--we finished up playing about 6:00am, and found out the first boat back to Shenzhen wasn't until 9:45am. So we went to Hong Kong. Ended up catching a 7:15am boat to HK, then from there taking the metro into Shenzhen--lots of completely unnecessary passport stamps! (So it's a good thing I'm not quickly running out of passport pages for the 2nd time in the last 18 months...or that would be inconvenient!) I ended up getting home shortly past 10:00am, and am currently about to go to bed for a couple of hours. But first...the Photo of the Day from Macau....

This photo is of the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral, a cathedral built by the Portuguese (Macau being a former Portuguese colony) in the late 1500's. The cathedral was destroyed in 1821, but the facade is still there (and in remarkably good shape!) At the time it was one of the largest cathedrals in Asia, and is still a pretty impressive sight.

And just because I have a few more, here are some extra, non-photo-of-the-day photos from Macau :-D

As I said, Macau was a former Portuguese colony, and as you can see, signs are bilingual Portuguese/Cantonese. Interesting note about Portuguese...I feel like I could learn the language fluently in like 6 months of living in Brazil, given how decently I know Italian and Spanish now. I was able to read most of the street signs, as well as a fair bit of menus, pretty freaking similar to Italian/Spanish. But anyway, yes, some tricycles outside the Casino Lisboa

This photo is of the downtown-ish area of Macau, taken from the facade of the Ruins of St Paul's. Notice the Grand Lisboa at the far left, as well as the pretty vibrant, Southern-European style colors of the buildings. Really really interesting mix of Chinese and Southern European, Macau. It was, after all, the first European colony in Asia, and the last one in Asia, with the Portuguese establishing presence there in 1557 and not leaving until 1999. But anyway, whether it's the abundance of Vespas or the very Southern European style food or the cobblestone shopping streets, it really reminded me quite a bit of Italy, which isn't too surprising given that I assume Italy and Portugal are pretty similar in terms of lifestyle/attitude.

This was on the inside of the Venetian Hotel on Cotai Strip, just an absolutely ridiculous building. Casino can be seen below.

Anyway, so that's about it from Macau. Lot of passport stamps, petacas, and Portuguese.

Interesting song shown to me by my friend Sabutai the other week--it's called Mole by an Indian band called Baageshri, not bad at all, I would highly recommend giving it a listen. Other than that, will see all 6 of you tomorrow, with another photo of the day.

Saying Goodbye to Sin City, on to LA: 30 Days of Blogging, Day 14

So as it turns out, today is my last full day in Vegas. It was a pretty solid day.

Started off the morning by booking a bus ticket for a Greyhound for $42.00 to get me to LA tomorrow afternoon. Will be leaving about noonish from Vegas and arriving in LA about 5:30, so shouldn't be too bad, particularly compared to some of the bus rides I've done in Southeast Asia (a one Kellen Hill may remember a particular ride from Phnom Penh to Bangkok during which the bus broke down at 4:00am on the side of the Cambodian highway. Alternatively, he may also not remember that bus ride). Anyway, so booked a pretty cheap bus ticket, so pretty pleasing. It also leaves me with a few days in LA to visit with some friends, which is always good.

After booking the bus tickets, Dan, his dad, and I went out to the desert like 20 miles east of Vegas and shot off some rounds of his shotgun. I was pretty surprised at the amount of recoil that the gun had, although it was a pretty awesome experience overall, just going out into the desert and shooting at various things. For lunch we went to a fantastic Asian buffet, I had a lot of kimchi.

This afternoon while at the Aria, I got a phone call from my friend Mike, a jazz pianist living in LA. Mike had previously contacted me about my coming out there, and had offered to let me stay on his couch while I was there. We chatted for a bit, and it seems that he'll be picking me up tomorrow night in LA and showing me around for a few days. It managed to work out remarkably well, as Mike's schedule is very open on Mondays-Wednesdays, and quite busy Thursdays-Sundays, and I'll be in LA from Monday until my flight to HK on Thursday. Consequently, Mike has volunteered to be my tour guide around LA for a few days, which should be great. Will also hopefully see the lovely Miss Catherine Bumble and her legend of a boyfriend Maximus, who both live in LA. Given that I haven't been to California since I was like 2 years old, I have no idea what to expect really, but I'm sure it'll be a great couple of days.

The sports bets today went pretty iffily (apparently a word I just invented). I had a ridiculous parlay bet for $5.00 at 150:1 odds to predict 8 NFL games correctly on the lines, which, unsurprisingly, failed miserably, so I really didn't care much about that. However, the $50 bet I have on the Cards to win the World Series at -115 got significantly less promising when the Cardinals lost 4-0. That said, they're still tied 2-2 in the series, with 2/3 games at home left to be played, so I've still got to be a favorite on that one. Also got pretty destroyed when I took Indianapolis at +800 against the Saints (i.e. 8:1 odds on my bet). The Colts lost 62-7, though I still feel like they had to be better than an 11.11% to win that game (which would make it a decent bet). And even if they weren't, any NFL game that offers 8:1 is probably not THAT bad--particularly when the team that's an 8:1 dog was like 11-5 last season, and only lost their best player (in theory, their defense should still be respectable. Apparently not, however, as they surrendered a staggering 62 points this week).

Anyway, so not a great day of sports betting, but still a very successful trip on that front financially, so I'll definitely take it. Other than that, again, heading to LA tomorrow, should be pretty good. Hopefully I can come up with something more insightful to write about tomorrow, as it'd be pretty boring if I just wrote about my day, given that I'll be spending 6 hours of it on a bus, so we'll see. See you all tomorrow, have a good one folks.

The Process of Buying a Gun in Las Vegas, and Other Assorted Musings: 30 Days of Blogging... Day 12-ish

So I've skipped a few days of blogging due to travel/being quite occupied in Vegas, so I'd like to offer my sincerest apologies for those who have been enjoying my 1-post-per-day shpeal.

Anyway--some interesting highlights from the first few days in Vegas. Most notably, my friend Dan, who recently moved out here, has decided to buy a gun, due to the fact that Vegas is a ridiculously dangerous city with a LOT of home break-ins. Given that Dan lives alone in a huge house not far from the Strip, he felt like a shotgun would be a wise investment. Now my opinion on guns is pretty indifferent, I don't really care about gun ownership one way or another, I think the chances of me ever owning a gun are pretty damned close to 0%, and I think that there should probably be a pretty high level of accountability when it comes to who can/can't buy guns. The process here in Vegas was just absurd, and I feel like many of my friends in Oz/UK are just going to be completely shell-shocked by this.

Basically, all he needed was an ID. We went to a place called "The Gun Store" (pretty hilarious/convenient name, must lead to an unbelievable amount of hits on Google), and Dan asked the guy behind a counter what type of shotgun he'd recommend. Within literally 45 minutes, we were walking out of this store with a shotgun and 30 shells.

The guy asked a few questions, i.e. where does Dan live, has he ever had a criminal conviction, and is his driver's license current. The answers "Vegas, no, and yes" were apparently sufficient, as he informed us that we could buy a gun and walk out of the store with it today. After going over the ins and outs of various shotguns, he had Dan fill out a pretty brief form, did a background check, and ohbytheway, at NO POINT DID HE ID ME AT ALL. Now granted, if Dan were buying the gun for me, or if I were a criminal or terrorist, I probably wouldn't walk into the store with Dan when he bought the gun. That said, you'd still think he'd at least make sure that I'm 18, or that I'm not a criminal/terrorist. But apparently not. A pretty absurd process if you ask me, but welcome to Las Vegas!

So apart from the gun-buying, it's been a fantastic 3 days of free alcohol and gambling. Currently have some good sports bets out, and was up considerably in poker before getting all-in last night with AT on a board of AT9 and having the guy call with T9 and catch a 9 on the turn for a boat. Got to love losing when you get all-in as a 90-something%, but at the same time what can you do. Have also been able to have some Raising Cane's chicken here, which is literally the best chicken in the world. Have yet to decide when I'm leaving for LA, probably Sunday or Monday, we'll see how things go I suppose. Flying to Hong Kong in 6 days, should be magnificent. Interesting to note that everywhere in Vegas has slot machines, including fast-food restaurants, the airport, and gas stations. Pretty hilarious. Also, there's an "Occupy Wall Street" protest going on at the strip here, a lot of people dressed like the guy from V for Vendetta. Definitely holding up traffic quite a bit. Today Dan is giving a speech at a math conference at UNLV, presumably I'll have a few stiff drinks and watch that this morning. Certainly I'll have no idea what he's talking about, given that I'm not at all familiar with high-level mathematics, but we'll see how it goes.

Generally speaking, things are going well, weather in Vegas is fantastic and again, getting ready to head off to Hong Kong. Will hopefully get back on track with the 1-blog-post-per-day goal, I suppose we'll just say the multi-day gambling/free alcohol binge which led to no blog posts was just a bit of a break from the writing. Apologies for anyone that was hoping for blog posts the last few days, see you all tomorrow.