Well, apologies that I’ve been silent in the blogosphere, but there was a flurry of activity internally as we decided to move forward with the one brand notion. The new website is www.macau.com where the fun (and the blog) continue uninterrupted.

As promised, I revisited Melco’s Crown Macau Casino (MPEL) yesterday (Tuesday 7 p.m. approx.). I thought what better way to get a feel for the place than to take the shuttle bus from the city centre. Well, true to my earlier report, a line formed waiting for the bus. I estimate a dozen or so individuals took the trip. As “burro” wondered, some people were just along for the ride. There appeared to be a few employees as well as a few individuals who did not go into the casino when we arrived. However, a good portion of the bus did enter the casino. I heard that there has been some active promotion on the part of the casino to bring people over to their Taipa property and true to this we were given a ticket that gave us a chance to spin the wheel when we arrived. My colleague’s ticket won that chance, but because he didn’t have his passport with him, he was thus ineligible…a bit disappointing.

The Crown Macau Casino has 5 floors. The first three are gaming floors, the fourth is a restaurant, and the fifth floor is a higher-minimums gaming floor. The first 3 floors had an active gaming scene. By this I mean there were a lot of tables in use, some to capacity but some empty. The central parts of the floors were busier than the fringes. Definitely, it wasn’t shoulder-to-shoulder like it can be at the Sands sometimes, but on the other hand, the first 3 floors had a scene, i.e. you wouldn’t think “This place is dead anyway.” (Swingers quote). The fifth floor on the other hand was empty minus a few individuals. This could be that minimum bets are more or less equivalent to my monthly rent. As for the punters, I heard more Mandarin (mainland) than Cantonese (HK, Macau, Guangdong Province).

In sum, I’ve walked through the Crown Macau on three occasions now (Grand Opening, one month ago, yesterday). Each time the casino has been busier than the last time. The Greek Mythology Casino in the New Century Hotel is right next door and it is one of the most profitable casinos in Macau. The location is probably the biggest obstacle, but as the Greek Mythology Casino has shown, it’s an obstacle that can be overcome with the right marketing. (I understand they cater exclusively to mainland tour groups, so the Crown Macau is likely going to pursue a different model.) My general feeling is that Macau is maturing into the type of destination that will attract visitors interested in visiting the Crown Macau. Maybe the Crown Macau is not packed this month, or this year, or even next year, but the property is in line with what most developers are planning and anticipating. I’m going to try and check the Crown Macau out again this weekend to note the difference.

By the way, I ate at the Crown Macau’s Monsoon noodle shop. Yum. I had Cantonese wonton noodle soup with Chinese chives and honey glazed BBQ pork. Delicious and very nicely presented.

Any comments, questions, etc. click below…

Our most popular blog posts have irrefutably been those on Melco’s Crown Macau (MPEL). The interest came from not only the general public, but also a few financial forums… Yahoo and MSN come to mind. Anyway, given your keen interest in this topic, I feel compelled to keep you abreast of happenings and give you, when I can, the bird’s-eye-view from a Macau vantage point. Here it is…

As you may have read elsewhere, Crown Macau is located on Taipa Island. Macau is tiny, but some say the short trip across the Pearl is a billion dollar gap. Well, perhaps it’s not that large, both figuratively and literally… Allow me to 开门见山 for you putonghua-ists…

The Crown Macau has a bus that shuttles punters from central Macau (right in front of the Hotel Sintra and Fortuna Japanese Restaurant, which is a hop, skip, and a jump from Grand Lisboa) to Crown Macau. Well, I’ve walked past this bus everyday for the last month+. And… the bus has been empty. The poor sweetheart waiting to greet customers seemed so lonesome. I wanted to jump in the bus, head across the strait, and throw a few tokens into the heart of the beast, just to give her some sense of purpose. Well dear friends, times have changed. The past week, the shuttle bus has not only had people, but also a queue! I’ll say it again for the flabbergasted… A Queue! And today, on my way to the office, the bus was chockablock jammed with punters, eager as beavers. I’ll make a trip out that way in the coming week and give y’all the 411 on whether there’s a noticeable difference on the floor.

Good afternoon, everyone. I’m back at the helm of the blog after my brief (seemed like an eternity) respite from the office. Things are heating up in Macau, and it’s not just the balmy weather. Recently we (GoMacau.com) wrapped up negotiations and finalized our purchase of Macau.com. This is probably not a secret to those of you who follow developments in Macau and last week’s press release definitely announced the sale internationally. However, given that the Macau Insider Blog is our own personal mouthpiece, it’s only fitting that I make the announcement here as well.

Anyway, we’ve released some preliminary information about the direction the two websites will take and in a nutshell, GoMacau.com’s focus will remain unchanged. We’ve been building this company to serve the travel needs of Macau and this will go on as scheduled. Keep your eye out for e-commerce developments, as well as other cool functions throughout the summer. Macau.com serves as a natural gateway for Macau-related information and we’re going to aggressively expand the site to better serve that segment of our customer base. There will definitely be synergy between the two companies (as you may have noted if you were directed to the blog via Macau.com). Anway, we’ve let one cat out of the bag, so expect the other kitties to be released from the cat-bag on a regular basis. We just had a closed door planning session over oyster omelet (disgusting…how can that be considered tasty??) and the website is going to be a blockbuster.

Anyway, there’s the scoop. It has been exciting times with GoMacau.com since our beginning in early 2006. Assuredly, 2007 will be equally as fantastic.

GoMacau.com: Your Macau Travel Insider!

Dear readers, accept my unconditional apologies for not “sounding the trumpet” the past days. I’m away from the office on a little R&R, thus I’ve been slightly neglectful of my obligations to you. We drew winners in the blog contest last week. Check them out on the contest entry page. While away, I had my mate AH go check out the Thai boxing duel. Here’s what he had to say.

Managed to get some complementary tickets to see the ‘Fury in Macau’ Kick boxing event held at the Macau East Asian Games Dome in Taipa last weekend (2nd June).

Excellent event!

Several kick boxing bouts where spread out over the evening with plenty of supporting entertainment to keep eyes and ears occupied. The boxers originating from Thailand, Australia, China, etc were generally evenly matched providing an entertaining display of kick boxing skills and aggression with plenty of knock downs and the occasional KO! (No pantomime antics here, this was the real thing!). A knowledgeable crowed ensured the atmosphere reflected the nature of the event and kept everybody on the edge of their seats.

A slick production, well worth seeing if it happens again.

Word of warning: Make sure you arrange transportation home before you go; there isn’t a great deal of public transport around the East Asian Games Dome last thing at night.

It’s me again… AH sure describes a good event. I was surfing on YouTube in the arvo and came across a few videos posted by fight fans who also attended the event. This one has a few good moments…

We have a new Top-Dog Blog Contest winner this week. The gentlemen at Sinocidal, after realizing that our contest was not just a sheister sham, joined the fun and beat out our reigning champion Mr. Poon. They’ve just contacted us and reported that in turn they are going to give the hotel stay away to the winner of their photo-naming competition. It looks like this week’s prize is a bit of a hot potato.

This is the photo to which you can submit your captions. They’re accepting new captions up until Sunday June 3rd, after which point they’ll select the top few and let their readers vote. If you want a crack at the hotel room or to take part in the voting, you can find the action on Sinocidal.

So I took another stroll through Crown Macau on Monday night. I was a little unsure of what to expect following the Grand Opening but frankly I was impressed. There were a bunch of punters on the first two floors. We went to the top floor bar to swill a few finely concocted drinks. Fair prices, nice ambience. High ceilings and patterned chandeliers make the upstairs casino and bar comfortable. Colour scheme: greys.

With an effective means of getting people to the casino, it looks like they’ll have a pretty good thing going. I noted that Crown Macau now has shuttle buses waiting in central Macau right outside of Hotel Sintra and Fortuna Japanese Restaurant.

Hey all, the Blog Contest winners have been announced. We put it up online yesterday, but I didn’t get a chance to blog it (yesterday was a holiday here). This week’s King of Fortune Lucky Draw Competition winner is Janis from Macau. Congratulations!

The winner of this week’s lucky draw portion of the Top-Dog Blog Competition is 米迦 (Micah) from Macau. Here’s her post about our contest. Congrats Micah.

Just noted some prestigious news showered down upon Macau’s beloved resort, Wynn Macau. For those of you planning to visit Macau, this hotel is a top choice. I’ve spent a fair few nights (nay, early mornings) at après parties in the magnificent suites overlooking either Wynn’s fountain or the harbour. Nothing like a 4 a.m. bottle of bubbly in exquisite luxury.

I digress. Condé Nast Publications, the publishing house responsible for pretty much every magazine you’d want to read, just released their Concierge.com/Traveler Hot List for 2007. Wynn Macau won big. The entire resort places on the Hot Hotel List. Il Teatro, the famed Italian restaurant overlooking the fountain show, places for restaurants. And The Spa places for, well, best spas (my colleague is updating our spa directory and our tech team is designing search functions, so you’ll soon find all the spa info you require, including The Spa at Wynn Macau, on our website.).

FYI

I’d like to take this chance to highlight a few other blogs that are in the contest that have caught my eye… I’m going to turn to Hong Kong where we have HKMacs and The Culinary Chase.

HKMacs describes itself best: “A fountain of knowledge for all things Macintosh, liberally sprinkled with cynical, politically-incorrect observations on politics and life in general and garnished with Mrs HKMacs delicious recipes topped up with delightful musical interludes.” Hehehe. Funny.

Ms. Chase has the most appetizing photos in the entire blogosphere and the recipes she digs up make my stomach rumble. Bookmark this page if you need a new dish that is going to impress your date.

Over and out.