The Venetian Macao Experience

Today was our last day in Macau and we are already on the airport, waiting for boarding as I write this blog post. Our last day was spent briefly at The Venetian Macao, a hotel and casino resort located at Cotai Strip (a newly-developed area away from where Lisboa and Grand Lisboa are). The hotel is designed much to how its sister hotel, The Venetian, in Las Vegas is, a mixed use complex of hotel, shops, entertainment and convention space.

The Venetian is well-known among visitors mimicking in style the gondolas of Venice, Italy, cruising at the network of canals and bridges in the city.

There were other entertainment going here and there along the complex like short opera performances, pantomimes, or even jugglers to entertain passers-by.

 

I've been to The Venetian and Palazzo in Las Vegas and I could say that the one in Macau is very similar and just as grandiose as the original one. The place was still under construction when I went here last 2007 and was glad to finally visit this complex. Similar to the Las Vegas one, the design of the shops, restaurants and outlets inside is like walking at the streets of Venice. They even had the ceiling painted with blue sky and clouds so you would really feel you are outside on the streets, minus the heat of course.

 

We had our lunch first after walking around at Shanghai Cuisine, one of the restaurants inside The Venetian.

There we had sampled dumplings, chicken with buns, and other things that I forgot to take pictures of some due to hunger (it was past lunch time already).

 

me and Roshie

 

 

Of course, we cannot leave the place (as we were in honeymoon) without trying their signature gondola ride. Price per person was MOP108 and since there wasn't a lot of riders that time, we had a gondola for ourselves, accompanied of course by a singing gondolier.

Here are some pictures I took as we breezed through the canals of The Venetian Macau

 

 

It was a quick 10 minute or so ride of the gondola. It was a good experience, specially for us newly-weds, as it felt very romantic with a gondolier singing as me and my wife sit down comfortably together.

After this, we left The Venetian to go back to Hotel Lisboa and take our things on the way to the airport (we had checked out earlier that morning and just left our things). The night was cap of with a short dinner (noodles and chicken nuggets) at the airport as we wait for our flight back in Manila which should be boarding in a few minutes.

 

In a honeymoon mood or not, Macau has been very good for us, despite the challenge in language (we speak no Cantonese nor Mandarin), every moment spent for the past days will be cherished and we definitely look forward to getting back again even before we leave this city.