Dragon's Treasure Show at City of Dreams, Macau

The City of Dreams is just across The Venetian Macao and was our last stop on our day-long Macau excursion. It's the usual casino with gleaming marble floors, interesting ceilings and nice water features. Isn't it obvious that I'm all casinoed out by this time?

Anyway, we decided to watch a show at the Bubble Theater to see what everyone's raving about in blogs and message boards. We joined the long lines and bought our 50 MOP tickets at the counter. This show is every 30 minutes at 12:00pm to 6:00pm (probably on account of the large day-tour crowd from Hong Kong) and every hour thereafter up to 10:00pm, so getting a ticket was not a problem.

The show itself was great. You enter into a domed theater like what you see in a planetarium. It's better to be situated at the back to better appreciate the 360-degree screen.

I loved the bright and colorful lights and the speed of the dragons swimming onscreen. I got a little dizzy following all the characters around, haha! Truth be told, I barely paid attention to the story because the LED lights were just so awesome.

                                         
 The show lasted all of 10 minutes and was a great experience, a perfect end to a wonderful day. On our way out, we saw the pictures taken on our way in, plastered on key chains & refrigerator magnets.

                               

We looked somewhat nice in it--and since my sister was still pining for the Disneyland photos we forgot to claim the previous day--so we grabbed these photos for $20. That ends our Macau adventure and we took the free shuttle bus to the terminal to catch our 5:00 pm ferry back to Hong Kong.

City Of Dreams
Estrada do Istmo
Cotai, Macau
Tel: (853) 8868 6688
Email: contactcentre@melco-crown.com

The Venetian Macao

The Venetian Macao is huge. It is the largest single structure hotel building in Asia and the largest casino in the world. It has the usual casino amenities but what sets it apart from the rest is the Venice-inspired part of the building where visitors can ride a gondola around the San Luca canal while the gondolier sings.

But first we needed to get some lunch. We went to the Venetian's food court and ordered some Hainanese chicken which was great and this beef soup that was so hot even for us Bicolanas, it practically burned our tongues!

Good thing we had plenty of water to wash it down, but our Mama was just floored by how ridiculously hot it was. So my sister Maris and I just shared our food with her because that soup was just unbearable.

We walked around and found the Venice side of the building. Hmmm that ceiling was really cool. It looked like real clouds up there. A gondola passed by and the song the gondolier was singing was "Dahil Sa Yo" a Filipino love song. It's true then, you can find Filipino workers everywhere!

                       
The ornate ceiling fascinated me--truly, casinos go for this kind of thing--the flashier the better. The golden orb in the lobby was no slouch either and we enjoyed the opulence of the place by posing for seemingly endless photos. The human statues in the hallways were pretty good too, but it must be a tough job. I hope they get to keep the money thrown at them at the end of their shifts.

It was a shock to step out of the building and see how bright and sunny (& hot!) it actually was. That virtual cloud really had as fooled for a while.

Grand Lisboa, Macau

The Grand Lisboa Hotel and casino is the tallest building in Macau at 261 meters (856 ft.). It has the flawless 218-carat diamond "Star of Stanley Ho" on permanent display in the lobby together with the Qing dynasty sculpture of a bronze horse head from the Summer Palace.

It's a worthwhile visit just for those two, but throw in our tourist guide's hilarious stories about the Grand Lisboa's owner, "The King of Gambling" Stanley Ho's complicated love life (4 wives, 17 children!) and we've got a very entertaining glimpse at the life of one of the world's richest men.

I loved this building's unique structure with its lotus-inspired facade and sharp edges. The intricate design of the ceiling was quite eye-catching and mom just had to pose beside the giant vase near the entrance.. oh ma!

Dragon of Fortune @ Wynn Macau

Wynn Macau was our first stop from the ferry terminal. We were just in time for the "Dragon of Fortune" to make an appearance from the globe dome located at the casino atrium complete with billowing smoke and fire.

                     

Lasting for four minutes, this show is pretty dramatic, especially the opening of the gilded ceiling. Very Vegas... after the dragon did his thing, he went back down to his domed lair just to pop up 30 minutes later to give the gawking tourists another round of fierce stares amid the fog.

                     

Since we didn't plan on gambling, we just went about the building and enjoyed the opulence of the place. It's just amazing to see the people milling around--throwing loads of money on designer bags, shoes and jewelry--too bad, I'm too cheap to comfortably spend that kind of money around, haha!

I'm very grateful that I have enough money to travel with my family now, so I'm not whining too much. Although the plan is to have enough to buy that Prada or Hermes bag without too much guilt in the future.

But for now, appreciating stuff on my travels like Wynn's "Performance Lake" fountain show (pictured above), is the way to go.