27th September 2009 - 29th September 2009:

We broke up our Hong Kong stay with a couple of nights in Macau, which has a number of large Las Vegas styled casinos.

On our first night we went over to visit the City of Dreams Casino and the Venetian, which was an exact replica of the one in Vegas. Whilst in the City of Dreams we took the chance to see the free show they had on that was located in a large dome they called the Bubble. The show was projected onto the entire inside of the dome so it felt like you were part of the show and told the story of four different Chinese Dragons and the power of some mystical egg and included a very impressive water feature in the middle of the stage.

Despite not understanding the full meaning of the show we have to admit it was absolutely amazing and probably better than anything we have seen in Vegas - well apart from the Bellagio Fountains of course!!!

When we woke on Sunday morning, Typhoon Ketsana was brewing which resulted in strong winds and lots & lots of rain however this did not deter us from visiting another couple of casino. We started with the MGM Grand, which had an amazing entrance area that looked like a small square filled with Pandas and then went onto the Wynn.

We grabbed some food (joint best Duck during our China trip) and then decided to hit the Craps table - this is one of the more complicated games with a number of different ways in which you can place a bet on the throw of a dice. We recently learned how to play this game and had lots of beginners luck in Vegas so thought we would try and see if it continued here. Obviously given our 'backpacking' status we decided it would be best to only risk a small amount of money - HK$1000 (c.£100).

We played for almost four hours and at one stage had got as high as $1,350 but you can lose money very easily (and quickly) in Craps and towards the end of the night we had fallen down to around $125 in chips. Liza therefore decided to have a throw of the dice and won a few times on the spin which really helped to increase our chip stack. By this time it was just after midnight and we were all "crapped out" so decided to call it a day and left the table with just over HK$300 - so basically we were down HK$700 (which was around £70) but thought that was not too bad a price for a great night of fun.

However on the way to the cashier's desk Liza suggested that we just put the whole lot on Roulette and be done with it - very crazy we hear you say!!! Given that her last few throws were the reason we actually had any money left Sean agreed and so we headed over to the nearest table and placed HK$25 on six of our lucky numbers (7, 9, 13, 23, 27 & 28 - these are copyrighted and not to be used for any form of gambling, including the lottery!) and the remaining HK$150 on black.

Then the panic, tension and doubts started to set in and before Sean had a chance to take back the bets the spin was over and the ball had landed on………. BLACK 28 - Sean's birthday!!! We were so excited and were jumping around as if we had just won the lotto. The other players around us just watched in amazement as we collected our winnings (the odds on black were 2-1 and an amazing 35-1 on number 28 so totalled some HK$1,175) and quickly proceeded to the cashiers desk.

After collecting our winnings we decided to treat ourselves to a bar of Snickers and some M&M's (we really do live the high life!!) and proceeded to almost float around the casino so amazed that we had won back our initial stake plus a little profit in just one turn of a roulette wheel.

BUT WAIT, IT GETS BETTER……..

As we walked back through the Casino in a haze of happiness trying to find the exit one of the casino table managers came running up to us and asked if we had just been playing on the roulette table and had bet on 28. Our first thoughts were that there had been a mistake and they were going to ask for the money back and, given we had just spunked $50 on non-refundable celebratory sweets, we were slightly dubious to own up but reluctantly said yes.

We shouldn't have worried as to our amazement she went on to explain that in our excitement we had took the winnings but not the actual HK$25 chip that we had placed on number 28 and that on the next spin the ball had landed on……… yep you guessed it………. BLACK 28 and meant we had won again, how crazy is that!!!

After both of us had almost done a "Del Boy in the auction room" and collapsed on the floor in disbelief she told us that she just needed to check CCTV to ensure that it was in fact us and then after about 5 minutes she came back and said it had been confirmed and proceeded to hand us another HK$900 dollars in chips!!!

At this stage Liza was rendered speechless (almost as much of a miracle as getting two 28's on the spin!!) and we went off again to cash in our winnings - we think the cahier behind the desk must have thought we were on some sort of scam as we had only been there literally 10 minutes ago and were laughing so much!!!!

We then headed out of the casino and took some pictures of us with all our winning money and grabbed a cab home - we would have loved to have got a picture of the table computer screen showing the two 28's but they are so strict on taking pictures in casinos that we didn't want to risk being ejected and having our winnings taken away.

The morning after THE night before we woke up and given Typhoon Ketsana was still about we decided to leave early and grab the ferry back to Hong Kong. We left Macau so amazed that we had turned one HK$25 chip into HK$1750 and along with the win on the black meant we had made a profit of £100 - not a bad nights work!!!