Wow Macau

Macau is a small city off the coast of Hong Kong with a population of 500,000-- you can literally walk from one end to the other within a few hours.

The city used to be under Portuguese rule but now belongs to China. Along with Hong Kong, it’s considered a "Special Administrative Region", which means it retains a certain level of independence from "the motherland".

Macau is a mosaic of churches and casinos, Portuguese streets and Chinese stalls, old-world charm and over-the-top glamour. It's like an adolescent that's poised to become something, but no one's quite sure as yet what.

Gambling is a major source of revenue, and the government actually receives about 40 percent of all proceeds from the various international casinos located here. In fact, Macau recently out-did Las Vegas in gambling money!

At the kind bequest of the Macau Government Tourism Office, which wants to promote its city to Indians, my colleague Himanshu and I were invited for a four day “sight-see” along with a small group of Indian journalists from various publications (pictured above).

This was Himanshu's first visit abroad and he took a photo of every single thing, including a blurry snapshot of the water as the ferry transporting us from Hong Kong to Macau began its journey.