Macau Trip Day 1 – The Venetian

Hubby and I decided to go on a trip together, just the two of us.  We had always travelled in large groups with my family members and kids so this was something new for us.  In order for the trip to be enjoyable, it had to be somewhere that both of us like, so after much discussions about the place to visit for a short 4 days 3 nights trip such as Genting Highlands (hate the bus trip up the hills), Bangkok (but we’ve both recently just returned from there), Hong Kong (I was there 2 years ago with the other LZBs), Macau…Bingo!  Although hubby had been there about 6-7 years on a company trip, the casinos will do no wrong for him.  Although I was there for a 1 day trip with the LZBs during our Hong Kong trip, I really liked the mix of Portuguese and Chinese cultures of the place (can’t call it a country, can I?  Hmm…), so it’s not a bad decision at all.  Our trip was from 27th to 30th May, 2015.

Luggage wasn’t packed till two days before the trip and that’s unusual since I usually pack way beforehand.  It was because I was so busy at work and had to work late, only getting home late in the evening and getting knackered.  But we were good to go on Wednesday morning, a day after my birthday.  Our trip was booked via Tiger Airways, both flight and accommodation.  Of course it’ll be slightly cheaper if we had booked separately but it’s more convenient to book from one source.

The 4-hour flight wasn’t comfortable due to the cramped space (budget air!) so I tried to occupy my time playing on my tablet.  Hubby had to have his coffee/drinks so we ordered them despite the hefty price at $4 per drink and also tidbits.

Upon touch down at the Macau Airport, we could’ve taken the shuttle bus provided by the Venetian Hotel to the hotel itself but hubby insisted on taking the cab.  It turned out to be a big mistake as it’s only a short drive away, less than 10 minutes.  The cab driver almost couldn’t believe himself when we told him we wanted to go to the Venetian and he looked none too happy about it.  In the end we paid him double to make up for the supposedly wasted trip he had to make.  It was supposed to be about MOP30 but hubby gave him all the small notes we had, which was HK60).  Lesson learnt for hubby: ALWAYS listen to wifey when she was the one who did all the research and planning!

Checking in was a breeze.  The counter staff at the Venetian all speak good English, most speak Mandarin, and hubby and I both understand a little Cantonese.  We were given direction to the elevator to our room in the South wing, which involves cutting through the casino which is huge, like a maze.  Even hubby with his excellent sense of direction, got lost once and I’d like to think that it was because he was without me LOL

The Royal Suite might be the cheapest room in the hotel but with 70sqm, it’s still much bigger than the deluxe rooms of other hotels.  It is richly appointed and clean, although since we had the smoking room, the smell of cigarette smoke is always there.  The hotel might be getting on with age and you can see it from the bathroom taps (tarnished gold), the room is still very attractive and comfortable, not to mention luxurious.  Too bad there isn’t any coffee-making machine.  It’s only available in the more expensive rooms.

Two tvs in the room…one in front of bed, the other in the living area.  It’s a waste since we only turned on the one in front of the bed and for less than 5 mins.  Too much to do outside, and even when we were in the room, we had our tablet games to wind us down before bed or before we headed out again.

So luxurious that even toilet roll get a housing…

It was in the early evening when we checked in so after freshening up in our bedroom and taking photos, relaxing a little, it was time to go explore the hotel and search for sustenance.

The Venetian Casino

The casino has a few entrances and each entrance is guarded by security staff, mostly gruffy men/women in their 50s.  There are also many touts who would walk past you muttering ‘Do you need to change money?’ or ‘Do you need to swipe your credit card’ – meaning ‘do you want to borrow money’.  They won’t look you in the eyes, pretending to be walking past, because if they were caught by the security, they would be evicted from the casino.  Saw a man being chased by a couple of security personnel but since it’s a regular occurrence, the staff usually are quite familiar with the touts, and in this case, the staff were even joking and laughing with the tout when they caught up with him.

This touting problem was one of the reasons why hubby didn’t enjoy the one night when he was free to roam the casino.  Other days we were out visiting places and he only had occasional visits to the casino to use the smoking lounge after a meal or before we head outside and while waiting for me (strict no-smoking rule inside the casino and around the hotel lobby).

Btw, you can’t take photos in the casinos.  I managed to snap a few shots, some blurry, but I think I went too far and got caught at the…umm…The City of Dreams, I think.  Prior to that I had taken pics of the casinos at the Venetian, Sands, Galaxy, Lisboa…  But this will be covered in the Casino Hopping blog (if I remember to blog about it!).

The Venetian

In the Venetian’s advertisement, David Beckham kicked a ball that swerved round this globe…at least that’s what I thought but I always never managed to watch the full ad that is constantly shown in the elevator.  I think you can catch the ad on Youtube or on the hotel website.  Ok, found it: Ad

The Venetian Deco

The Venetian Deco

The Venetian Deco

The Venetian Deco

The Venetian Deco

The Venetian Deco

The St Mark’s is a shopping area within the hotel which has fake blue sky and gondolas plying the man-made canal.  The gondoliers have very good singing voice and they would sometimes break out into a song.

Market Street

St Mark’s

St Mark’s

The gondoliers will start the day singing a song as they walk out to the applause of the visitors.  Below pic taken on the last day morning as I went in search of the famous Koi Ke Portuguese egg tarts for my sis, Lina and Stef.

St Mark’s

I spent hours on my last night in the hotel shopping in this little souvenir shop.  Lots of lovely stuff but mostly quite expensive.  But I did get good buys like a teacup and saucer set at MOP35 only (bought 2).  The Venetian Hotel mini glass costs MOP38.  Pictures of my spoils below.

Market Street

Souvenir

Souvenir

They have characters like this one below to welcome guests at the hotel entrance…

The following pics were taken outside the Venetian…

This pic was taken on the 2nd day morning.  I had forgotten to bring the selfie stick I borrowed from Bert (my brother), and I had to trudge all the way back to the room to get it.  It’s a bloody 15 minutes walk back to the room considering the size of the hotel!

These night pics of The Venetian were taken at night on the 2nd evening when we came back from Taipa Village:

We ended up eating at the food court in the hotel the first evening.  I had the pork chop buns that Macau is famous for (you see eateries selling that everywhere!) and hubby had the Portuguese baked chicken rice which he didn’t like.  Neither do I think the pork chop bun was anything to shout about.  Well, food court…what did we expect?  Oh, they have a stall selling Singapore food like chicken rice, Prima Taste Nonya laksa, etc, but we didn’t try that.  Not too impressed with the food court but then none of the restaurants in The Shoppe interest us too, being too pricey and not suitable for our palettes (Indian or expensive Chinese restaurant with snobbish waitress, and there’s an ale house that’s full of Westerners drinking beer).

– Pork chop bun

Guess that’s all I have about the Venetian Hotel.  On a side note, don’t forget to leave some tips for the chambermaids who housekeep your room.  You will get a better job done and toiletries, bottled water and coffee/tea get replenished even if you haven’t used any of them.

Next up will be Senado Square and Taipa Village.