Well, I've never been to Vegas, but something tells me they don't just give out free tea and coffee spiked with that dangerous ingredient, molasses. Genevieve has assured me that the real Sin City is much bigger and crazier than the ex-Portuguese island state of Macao. To get there from Hong Kong we took a turbojet ferry which takes about an hour of not so pleasant seas. After passing through immigration and getting over our sea legs we hopped on one of the free shuttles from the ferry terminal to the Wynn. Genevieve was initally disappointed by this place as the one in Vegas is supposedly much bigger.
It was here though that we discovered and learned the intricacies of what must be Asia's favorite gambling game, Sic-Bo. It quickly became our favorite as it allows low minimum bets and requires absolutely no skill. The whole premise is you bet on the outcome of 3 dice being rolled. The betting board looks similair to a roullette board, but with numbers and different dice combinations. The easiest bets, which pay 1 for 1, are even/odd and small (4 to 10)/big (11-17). You can also bet on specific sums, double dice rolls, triple dice rolls, specific combinations of the dice and all sorts of other silly bets. We became big fans of big, even, and the number 14. Somehow by playing this game at the Wynn, the Sands, the Grand Lisboa, and the Venetian, we were able to run our initial investment of 1500 HKD between the 2 of us to around 4000 + HKD and then lose it all. Such are the up and down swings of Sic-Bo.
Macao wasn't a totally losing proposition. We did manage to stuff ourselves twice. First for lunch we were tempted by the house specialty sandwiches at the Grand Lisboa cafe. Genevieve opted for the Monte Cristo sandwich while I went for the Monte Cristo Club. We also ordered the specialty of fried bacalao. You can see my great discomfort in eating our lunch of palm oil disguised as a sandwich and fish ball in the picture. We made up for it that night by finding a Fatburger in the Venetian canals (I believe they have one in Italy as well) and opting for that instead of one of the 30 various asian food stalls. Watching the guys behind the counter work make you appreciate a proper American fast food hamburger assembly line. While the burgers and fries were delicious, they were not exactly piping hot after the workers spent too much time perfectly placing pickles, lettuce and tomatoes. It was delicous though.
We turbojetted back to Hong Kong a bit sad we had lost money, but we made up for it the next day by going to the Happy Valley Jockey Club and winning it big - a whole $9 HKD.
It was here though that we discovered and learned the intricacies of what must be Asia's favorite gambling game, Sic-Bo. It quickly became our favorite as it allows low minimum bets and requires absolutely no skill. The whole premise is you bet on the outcome of 3 dice being rolled. The betting board looks similair to a roullette board, but with numbers and different dice combinations. The easiest bets, which pay 1 for 1, are even/odd and small (4 to 10)/big (11-17). You can also bet on specific sums, double dice rolls, triple dice rolls, specific combinations of the dice and all sorts of other silly bets. We became big fans of big, even, and the number 14. Somehow by playing this game at the Wynn, the Sands, the Grand Lisboa, and the Venetian, we were able to run our initial investment of 1500 HKD between the 2 of us to around 4000 + HKD and then lose it all. Such are the up and down swings of Sic-Bo.
Macao wasn't a totally losing proposition. We did manage to stuff ourselves twice. First for lunch we were tempted by the house specialty sandwiches at the Grand Lisboa cafe. Genevieve opted for the Monte Cristo sandwich while I went for the Monte Cristo Club. We also ordered the specialty of fried bacalao. You can see my great discomfort in eating our lunch of palm oil disguised as a sandwich and fish ball in the picture. We made up for it that night by finding a Fatburger in the Venetian canals (I believe they have one in Italy as well) and opting for that instead of one of the 30 various asian food stalls. Watching the guys behind the counter work make you appreciate a proper American fast food hamburger assembly line. While the burgers and fries were delicious, they were not exactly piping hot after the workers spent too much time perfectly placing pickles, lettuce and tomatoes. It was delicous though.
We turbojetted back to Hong Kong a bit sad we had lost money, but we made up for it the next day by going to the Happy Valley Jockey Club and winning it big - a whole $9 HKD.
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