My trip to Macau was a side-trip from my Hong Kong visit. I did not write a typical report for Hong Kong, but instead wrote a Hong Kong Guide since one did not previously exist. Likewise, at present there is no guide for Macau...until now. Since I was more focused on Hong Kong, my resources were more concentrated there. As a result, this will be more of a mini-guide until I can update it or until someone else comes up with a better guide.

BASIC FACTS

Exchange Rate: 1 US Dollar (USD) = 7.99 Macau Patacas (MOP) (bank rate as of 1/23/05,actual rate a bit less). Hong Kong Dollars are accepted everywhere and are equivalent to the Pataca in value.
Electicity: 220V, 50 Hz. Both Type D and Type G outlets depending on building

P4P Rate Table:

Hotel Brothels	300-500 MOP ($38-$63)
Freelancers	400-1000 MOP ($50-$125)
Saunas	500-1800 MOP ($63-$225)

MACAU LAYOUT

The map above is provided just to give a general understand of the layout in Macau. A printout of the full-size map by Murasaki is highly recommended.

I've highlighted three areas by drawing boxes. The top right box shows where you will begin and end your Macau trip at the Ferry terminal. The center box has the heaviest concentration of P4P activity with the Lisboa Casino, a number of Saunas, and the pedestrian walkway where Chinese and Eastern European freelancers hangout (possibly no longer available due to crackdowns). The top left box is an area where several hotel brothels are located.

ACCOMODATIONS

For reserving a hotel, it was recommended to me that I simply purchase a combo ferry/hotel package at a travel agency in the Ferry terminal. This was easy to do, but I hesitated in deciding which travel agency to choose. I randomly picked Coral Travel Agency. From what I could tell, most had similar deals. Some agencies also have combination packages that include a free session at a Sauna. This was also recommended to me, but I did not go this route as I wanted to keep my options more flexible. There are also travel agencies to choose from after you arrive in Macau.

I stayed at Casa Real for my first night as part of a ferry/hotel package. Casa Real was recommended by the agency and very nice for the cost. This hotel is close to the Ferry Terminal. Personally I preferred to be closer to the action.

If you can find a good deal, I would probably recommend the Lisboa, Emperor, Fortuna, or Presidente. They are all centrally located and should be reasonably priced, although Lisboa might cost more than it's worth due to name-recognition. You will not want to walk-in to any of these unless you want to pay a premium, instead visit one of the many travel agencies located around the city if you do not have a room for your full stay.

If you are more budget concious like myself, then you can stay near the hotel brothels. I spent the rest of my days after my first night in the East Asia for 270 MOP per night ($34). You can just walk into these cheaper hotels, I doubt any of these can be reserved through the travel agencies.

ON ARRIVAL

If you did not yet secure your hotel reservations, stop by one of the travel agency booths near the tourist information area after immigration. As long as you are staying at one of the major hotels, you should be able to catch one of their free shuttles outside of the airport, check with the travel agent to make sure. If you are not staying at one of the popular hotels I would recommend you have a printout of where you want to go in Chinese, many of the taxi drivers cannot understand or read English. Avoid any private taxi drivers offering rides.

CURRENCY

The local currency is the Macau Pataka (MOP) but Hong Kong Dollars (HKD) are accepted univerally. Most ATMs should dispense both. Get HKD when possible and try to spend your MOP before returning since they are not accepted in Hong Kong and you may be unable to exchange them easily.

TRANSPORTATION

Taxis are inexpensive and metered (assuming you avoid private drivers). Many, if not most, will not speak English. Always carry the business card of your hotel with you. I also carried a Hotel Fortuna card with me in case I wanted to be dropped off in the center of the city (the area indicated by the center box in my layout map above...Lisboa, Emperor, or Presidente would also work).

P4P OPTIONS

Hotel Brothels	300-500 MOP ($38-$63)
Freelancers	400-1000 MOP ($50-$125)
Saunas	500-1800 MOP ($63-$225)

Saunas
Due to the quality of the selection at Saunas, Macau moved near the top of my list for preferred Asia destinations. I hadn't experienced this kind of "excitement" since my early Thailand trips with those first few visits to a well stocked massage parlor...for me Darling and Atami years ago.

I can only comment on two Saunas specifically, Darling and Big Boss. Both had spectacular lineups. Darling is more popular, but Big Boss has full sauna facilities and I preferred the presentation there.

Some Saunas, particularly the ones located in hotels, are 24-hour operations. However, as a general rule all Saunas have "prime-times" according to my understanding. This seems to be from about 5pm to midnight from what I was told. The absolute best time is probably 5-6pm before the locals and visiting white collar workers start filing in.

The main drawback of the Saunas is cost. Average price for the popular saunas is about 1400 MOP ($175). They have "models" which are even more expensive, but I didn't find them signicantly better looking to justify the price differences.

There are also lower-priced Saunas such as Hot Spot and Hou Va which appear to average around 500 MOP in price ($63). I only know of these by posts I've read, but they are near the top of my list for when I return to Macau. (I won't be able to resist hitting Darling and Big Boss first)

Click here for the full list of Saunas and their corresponding discussions.

Hotel Brothels
This is generally the least expensive P4P options in Macau. They are basically wham-bam type brothels set up in small hotels. A crowd of Chinese girls sit in the lobby and will lineup all around when you enter. Some may speak minimal English, but most will speak none at all. Prices should be 300-400 MOP depending on the place and if you appear to be a foreigner. A few may quote higher and a few lower, but prices should be relatively standard per location due to competition and peer pressure from the other girls.

All of the hotel brothels that I'm aware of are located near other on the west side of Macau, for their exact locations check out Murasaki's Map. For the discussion, check out the hotel brothel discussion.

The Forsum was the best all-around IMHO. Ruby had some cuties, but seem to have an unpleasant pressure tactic for two-girl sections with a "sister" based on my own experience and another report I read. London had a good lineup, but I didn't have a chance to session there. Man Va only had a few girls when I stopped by, but one was cute.

Freelancers

I could have used my own mini-guide for my Macau trip as I completely missed the main place to pick up freelancers in Macau, that being the basement floor of the Lisboa Casino. The post I had printed out was vague on the location, so I looked for them on the casino floor and came up empty handed. There is a little bit of discussion in the Macau Freelancer section, but the real meat seems to be in Macau Trip Reports. I can't comment else on the Lisboa, so I'd recommend going through those reports if desired, but it probably isn't necessary except maybe for price discussion.

I spotted and picked up a few freelancers near the pedestrian walkway on Murasaki's Map and the Imperador restaurant located at the center, but it appears there may have been crackdowns since my October visit reducing if not eliminating this option. I did notice that the best time to find these freelancers was from about 9pm to 1am for the Imperador, and 6am - 11am for the rest of the walkway. At other times there were usually few if any at all.

I sampled both a Ukranian freelancer and a Chinese freelancer. The Ukranians and Russians hung out more at the table of the Imperador and on occasion the immediate streets while the Chinese girls were concentrated on roaming the blocks to the east towards the Fortuna Hotel. I paid the Chinese girl 500 MOP ($63) due to availability and timing but was offered 400 MOP ($50) by others that were just as attractive. I paid the Ukranian 1000 MOP ($126) which was supposedly standard for the Eastern Europeans, but there was only one other EE freelancer I would have considered paying that much for, most of them were far lower quality than their counterparts in Germany at the FKKs.

I clicked well with my Ukranian, but it was more a personal thing between us. I'd recommend against the EE freelancers in general.

SUMMARY

That's about it. Macau is a bit expensive for Asia, but I enjoyed myself and thought Macau had excellent talent available with Chinese, Thais, Europeans, Koreans, Malaysian, Vietnamese and more on the menu.

Here are a few other things worth noting and/or repeating.

* All the street signs are in Portugese, but few speak the language.
* Most cab drivers do not speak English, have cards or instructions IN CHINESE for the places you want to go
* Besides Imperador, restaurants with English menus were hard to find except near Senado Square and the surrounding blocks
* Go to the basement of Lisboa to look for freelancers, not the casino floor
* Avoid MOP and stick to HKD when possible, particularly as you near the end of your trip. You'll have trouble changing the currency.
* Logging in to adult sites, including CH, may be difficult in Macau. I was able to at the iCafe southeast of the Grandeur Hotel.

Enjoy Macau, please post on other saunas and the freelancer situation when you return.

BONUS

Here are a few samples of my Macau conquests, check the gallery for the rest.

Photo: Darlings Sauna
Photo: Ukrainian Freelancer
Photo: Ruby Hotel Brothel

Funny because the best looking girl of the bunch IMHO is the one from the brothel. I have only been there once but plan to go again as a free stopover with Cathay Pacific.

The main drawback of the Saunas is cost. Average price for the popular saunas is about 1400 MOP ($175). They have "models" which are even more expensive, but I didn't find them signicantly better looking to justify the price differences.

175 bucks for onsite short time? Uhmmm, I'LL SAY that's a bit of a 'drawback'. Always good to hear how the other half lives, though. Thanks for the detailed report.

I did not try Hot Spot or Hou Va either but will vouch that Darling2 is a good alternative. You have a smaller line-up as compared with Darling 1 but priced at 998 MOP as compared with 1400 MOP.

The line up is a collection of 35 to 40 girls and each and everyone "up to scratch".

Very good service with more than decent on-site facilities for the 90 minutes of heavenly sex.

As for the Lisboa Hotel, the best place to be is in either of the two "coffee shops" in the shopping arcade section. Just sit and watch the girls parade up and down and flag down the prospective girl(s) for your "interview". A great way to spend a couple of hours 24 hours a day!

By the way, venture across the border into China, Zhuhai and at half the prices of Macau, you avail yourself to some of the best looking Chinese lasses you care to have for ST at 200 Yuans.

Two recent Lian Hua Lu SWs I had over Christmas vist in Zhuhai.

Photo: Ting Ting
Photo: Tall Girl

Both at 200Yuans ST.

Blazers, the Ruby girl photographer very well and the sauna girls didn't. In real like the sauna girls looked much better.

Porker, yes Macua is more a "splurge" sidetrip. I wouldn't go for more than a few days because of the cost, although I know it'll be tough to leave when seeing some of the talent. Maybe I need to get back to Thailand or Philippines to be reminded why they are mainstream destinations. It's been a while for both.

Very, very nice, Crazier. Suggestion noted.

I chose not to compare on the basis of money. When I went I was enroute to Cambodia and could have had FORTY!!!! hookers the very next day for the same money I spent at Big Boss sauna, so on that basis it seems illogical but I had an absolutely fantastic expirence at Big Boss sauna, and I can afford it, so why the hell not.

Oh yea, did I mention that I thought Ruby hotel sucked big time and failed to meet even the minimum requirements of my usual high standards ;-)

Zhuhai sounds very interesting.

What if any are the Visa requirements to Macau....and also Zhuhai..
I'm always interested in a locale that I can use my Portuguese, but it doesn't sound like Macau fits the bill

The Portuguese names for streets sound nothing at all like the Chinese names, I guess all those Portuguese signs are required by the chamber of commerce for atmosphere. Several times when I tried to go places by taxi the driver would pull out his cell phone and call someone, hand me the phone, and I told them in English where I wanted to go, and they translated for me.
I'd like to see a list of internet places put together. The only one I found was in a massage place kitty-corner to the Lisboa (sorry, don't have my notes handy) and I was able to connect to CH. Another is in the departure area of the airport.

Yankee, I was there about a week about a year ago and I didn't run into anyone that spoke Portuguese; perhaps they all high tailed it out of there before China took over. Few people spoke English in fact. Macau is a special economic zone where U.S. citizens can get visas on arrival (similar to Hong Kong), but for travel to the mainland, you have to get your visas before you travel.
One of the better sites I've used before for China visa info is as follows: http://www.frommers.com/destinations/china/3330020059.html

I've been to Macau a bunch of times, but only a few times for "fun." I was there most recently in October, when I went to one of the nicer saunas. The cabdriver said it was the newest and largest one (they did have a TON of rooms).

Unfortunately, I can't tell you the name because it only had a Chinese name. I vaguely recall a pricing structure of about 500 to 1600. For the lowest amount, they pick the girl for you, although you can always reject and ask for another one until you are satisfied. If you want to choose from the lineup, it costs more. I think the pricing also reflects the nationality of the girls.

You can shower, suana, eat, drink, watch tv, and relax until you are ready to choose. I recall choosing from over 30 girls and I ended up choosing a well-endowed Viet for about 1000 or 1100. The rooms were pretty nice with a decent sized bed and a clean shower. Not a bad time.

I also went to the Darling near the Ferry. Fishbowl kind of set up with mainland chinese, Thai and eastern European women. I think the price for the thai girl I chose was about 600 - 800. More of a brothel type place compared to the other place as there is no suana or place to chill out before making your pick.

One final note about Macau, taxis are sometimes hard to come by. Keep this in mind on weekends or if you are going to places away from the larger hotels.

I concur with seg's weekend warning: the place does fill up, hotel prices go up and it may be difficult to find a room.
On another note, mentioned in another report, those hicks from the mainland like to keep their hotel room doors open, and they don't exactly talk in whispers. This can be real fucking annoying, especially if you don't wake up at 5am like they do. A friend told me that certain hotels keep the yokels on different floors, away from the civilized folks, for this reason.
I don't know if it's only the mainlanders who do this, but one morning at the East Asia I looked out my door to see what the commotion was and saw a bunch of Chinese guys done up in plaid flannel hunting outfits, hats and all, looking like Elmer Fudd. They sure didn't look like they were from HK.

Visa services are available at any travel agency in Macau or HK. They will even give you a free service (you pay the $25) if you book a trip with them. 24 hour needed.