Macau: Night Walk at the Central

It was barely an hour’s rest for the afternoon. A 15 minutes power nap at the least then I hit the showers to freshen up for the night walk. The day isn’t ending yet. There’s a lot more to see. Regrouping at Ponte 16‘s lobby by 6, we got into our comfy seats at the couch and headed for a very short drive at the central where clusters of luxury hotels and casinos clustered together beam of dazzling lights to lure people in.

We dropped in at the lobby of Hotel Lisboa to wait a while. We were welcome by these tall and lovely guest relations officers and one was a 6-foot tool Filipina. I think our guide Joao was waiting for a show period so while killing time we saw this short performance of a group doing lip-sync of an American dance tune.

15 or 20 minutes had passed, we crossed the street and went inside the moderately sized but elegantly designed lobby of Starworld Hotel. It has neatly arranged flowers then walls adorned with crystals. We moved on again a few minutes after to walk a short distance to Wynn hotel. We got there just in time before the “Tree of Prosperity” show is about to start.

There were already a few people gathered at the center where a large dome is on the ground and at the ceiling are elegantly carved Chinese and western astrological symbols. The lights dim and orchestral music started to play. The ceiling opens up with a dazzling play of colors then a chandelier like formation descended down. With culminating music in sync, the dome below opened up to give rise to the tree with 98,000 leaves made up of 24-karat gold and brass. The lights render the different seasons in color. People started tossing coins as the tree revolves and soon it descends. The dome closed and the ceiling shuts.

It was an interesting multimedia experience but I think the Bubble blew me away more. We went outside then to see the display of the dancing fountain synchronized with audio. I want to take a picture but my lenses got fogged out coming from the very cold interiors of the hotel. I just waited for the fog to clear and enjoy the show before I can shoot.

We crossed the street again to a pedestrian side of the street where we could see the nearby luxury resorts in Macau. Each hotel here are trying to out-show each one with all these attractions like the “Tree of Prosperity” and “The Bubble” while also building bigger and better facilities to attract customers.

We head down to the pedestrian underpass where we see another side of Macau’s glitz and glamor. Prostitution here is an open secret. Instead of the actual hostess walking the streets, they can just leave fliers for potential customers to pick up. At the other end of the escalator, our coached picked us up for another short drive down south to Coloane.