The Ventian isn't so much a building as a small city, since it houses its own full-sized sports arena, theaters, ball rooms and hotels. Not to mention the huge shopping mall and eatery areas, the outdoor/indoor canals complete with gondalas, and the massive gambling areas. For those of us - myself included - who don't gamble, the venues and options available are many and quite pleasant, all the more so since we at least get a 100% return on our investment!
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| The Venetian Macao, outside during the day (not as impressive as the pictures below!) |
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| The Venetian Macao: lit up at night; gondalas also traverse this area! |
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| The Venetian Macao: Inside, between the hotel and the casino |
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| The Venetian Macao: Same location as above |
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| The Venetian Macao: facing the hotel lobby area |
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| The Venetian Macao: the Great Hall, close to the "center" of the complex. |
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| The Venetian Macao: ceiling of the Great Hall |
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| The Venetian Macao: A canal wraps part-way around the resort area. The canal does have gondalas, as you can see on the left-hand side! Along either side of the canal are shops and eateries. By the way, if you haven't noticed, this is outdoors - yet indoors! The "sky" is actually a ceiling (I believe it's painted, but not sure). |
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| The Venetian Macao: Outdoors, yet indoors! This is the food court. |
Macau Tennis Showdown 2010
This exhibition match has in the past included many of the tennis greats, including Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, Bjorn Borg, Andre Agassi, and John McEnroe. This year Robin Soderling (4), Nicolay Davydenko (5), Tomas Berdych (7), and David Ferrer (11) competed against each other (the numbers correspond to each player's respective ATP Ranking as of October, 2010). Four matches of singles were played, with Davydenko coming out on top. After this, the four players played a doubles match, Berdych and Ferrer against Davydenko and Soderling. In between the matches, performances by the Cirque du Soleil, "street"opera performers, dancers, musicians, and singers entertained the audience. By the end, I realized that this was indeed necessary since the entire event lasted about six hours.
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| Cotai Arena - Pre-match Macau Tennis Showdown 2010. The arena is situated inside the Venetian |
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| Nicolay Davydenko |
David Ferrer
Tomas Berdych Robin Soderling
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The Venetian: Take Two
That's right! The Venetian Macao requires not one, but two visits! Or three. Four? You've got to be kidding... at least five? Whatever. It's a nice place. From the inside, you'd never know you weren't in Venice (except, unlike the real Venice, there is no smell) and from the outside, you'd never know you were so close to Venice.
The tropical side of the Venetian...
Now, here is an excellent example of the flying lion! Remember to keep looking up (especially if you see a flying-lion-like statue)
A Roman soldier framed against the backdrop of the bell tower
View of the front of the Venetian at night
View of the City of Dreams from the Venetian
The Great Hall, view from above
A beautiful evening in Venice.
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Venetian Orient Express (Parcel 5 & 6)
Immediately adjacent to the City of Dreams and the Venetian Macau is another property owned by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation - which, incidentally, is currently in the process of assessing whether or not it would be beneficial to drop the "Las Vegas" part of its name to reflect how it has more recently become a very global company. Indeed, the Sands Corporation has now made significant investments in the Asian market. The Venetian, the resort that is now existing, was built on two parcels of land out of a total of six that were sold to the company by the Macau Government. The Venetian Orient Express sits on a second two parcels of land, numbers 5 and 6. The remaining two parcels owned by the company will be developed in the near future.
The Venetian Orient Express, a massive project. The towers are 160m tall, and the roof of the complex sits about 40 stories about the ground.
Side view of the project from the City of Dreams
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Other Entertainment Venues
... available in the Taipa, Cotai, Coloane arena. Macau proper will be covered another day, but for now, rest assured there is always plenty to do and - as always - not enough time in the day to do it all in! Upon request, some of the pictures that will be posted from now on can be expanded for better-viewing.
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| The Venetian isn't the only resort complex currently in Cotai! There are several. The City of Dreams is seen above, as viewed from the main entrance to The Venetian. The theme for the City of Dreams appears to be water from the many fountains and decorations inside. |
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| The City of Dreams complex as seen from Taipa. |
Fountains surround the City of Dreams
At night, music is piped out to the plaza and the many fountains are lit a dazzling display of different colors; blue, green, red, purple... you name it, they've got it!
Purple fountains, watery mist...
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