One thing that struck me was the number of pawn shops situated readily near the casinos. The neon of these shops glowed as brightly as that of the casinos like they are brothers in comrade, depending on each other to increase their profit margins.
I did not walked down the entire casino stretch at that time, just staying in the vicinity of Grand Lisbao, Lisbao and Wynn. I thought Wynn is a very apt name in terms of marketing strategy. What could have been a better marketing tagline than ‘Come to Wynn (win)!’.
Right after satisfying my trigger happy fingers, I headed for Nam Van Lake. According to the tourist brochure, there was supposed to be some cybernetic shows on the lake during the weekends. No timing was given but I thought I tried my luck anyway.
If cybernetic means seeing neon tubes sticking out of the lake, than I had it. Otherwise, there was not any show of sorts which was a disappointment. The entire stretch had a few bars and restaurants, but as far as I observed, they are hardly open and I am talking about on a Saturday night. I guessed putting the chips down in casino is better a pastime than placing chips (fries) in your mouth and enjoying a nice lake view in Macau.
With time to spare before the Cinderella clock struck, I headed back to St Paul, hoping to capture some nice night scene photos. The crowd was gone alright, but there were still a good handful of tourists and locals.
From my map, I discovered that I had missed out going up to Monte Fortress (just next to St Paul) in the day. So I headed up. The route I took up was pretty steep, made of uneven steps cut from granite and not exactly brightly lit.
Ordinarily, it would have been dangerous to be out at that time and at that place for fear of crime. I said ordinarily because there were still some elderly brisk walking around the fort and it kind of reduced the illusion of danger. Of course, having said that, it would have been ironic if I had been robbed by a couple of cane touting grandmas.