Macau, Macau, Macau!

This is the heart of Eastern gambling country. And so you know, Macau qualifies as another country as I was whisked through passport control leaving, arriving, and returning. We can attribute 4 stamps in my passport for that excursion.

Macau is about a one-hour fast ferry ride to the mainland, China that is. Costs about $18 and gets you there before you know it. Upon arrival, you simply pick the hotel/casino you wish to see and a shuttle van races you to the tables so your precious HK dollars can find themselves in the hands of the Casino bosses before lunch time. I took fell victim to the casino and invested $150 with MGM Grand.

Gambling in China, let alone another country was a lesson in futility. My game is craps and that is exactly how it felt in the beginning. The wranglers knew some English but it mainly consisted of casino English. Asking questions is not suggested as a garbled response of which some words I recognize spits out of the under 25 year old gambling staff. But the by the end of the day, you are listening to the Cantonese swishing back and forth among gamblers. What sounds like loud arguing over incorrect bets, or just plain stupid ones, is really just the musical quality of the local tongue. The Chinese are a very vocal group and I felt right at home as soon as I learned how to gamble in Chinese.