Malaysia, Macau and Las Vegas 4/15-4/25/2019

Thank you for all of the details in your report. Hope you're having a great time!

 

This is so fascinating. Thank you so much for all the detail.

 

Enjoy your custom tailored pants, one of the great advantages of visiting Asia for oddly shaped people such as myself. Also now can visit the platiPla casino


My impression from reading this is that you have been walking around a giant mall-like complex of casinos.
Is that place located in a city? Do you have any plans to see anything outside the building?

Also what do you think of the Malaysian food you have been eating? I once had a Malaysian roommate who cooked everything with some tiny dried fish the name of which I can't remember. It was interesting and not bad but I got tired of it very quickly.

 

Very interesting report and pictures, this is definitely a trip I’ll never get to make so I’m really enjoying all the information!

 

Hi Dailun:

Actually I was not that classy. Long ago when I was home from college I was seeing a girl and did get an unadvertised short term room rate. But no money changed hands (except between me and the hotel clerk who was happy to take the cash and did not bother to have me sign in or give me a receipt).I had told the motel clerk I wanted a few hours "to rest" but did not need a whole night and he quoted a discount price.

But I do not want to distract you from your trip report. Thanks for letting us view a different casino world.

 

95 Kilos is 210 lbs. They must have less "muscular" people in Malaysia.

Also you got a handpay on less than $800? Is there a particular threshold that requires hand pays?

FAB

 

Top notch report as always. Really enjoyable, learning about how everything there is. Thanks

 

This whole place is

 

OK, getting towards the end. My knees, wind, and general mobility have degraded to the point wherfe it makes more sense to take a taxi From First World hotel over to Genting Hotel. The cab ride is only 10 MYR ($2.40 USD no tipping). I decided to do that, because the buffet is over at Genting Hotel and I wanted to do some "chip collecting" at the Genting casino.

The buffet lunch was 44 MYR (about $11.00 USD, there were stations for Malaysian, Chinese, Western, Japanese (not open when I got there)
From the Western station I had a small salad with meat.

I then focused on the Malaysian station where I had Ipoh Hor Fun Soup with Yellow noodles and Fish

But my real focus was the Hainan "style" chicken rice with steamed chicken

This was sooooo good, I'll (like another poster) have to try to make it at home.

Lunch finished, I went to the Genting Casino to see how I could "collect" chips

I played Sic Bo (In Malaysia they call it Tai Sai), a dice game.

I broke 300 MYR and the gave me one 100 MYR chip and eight 25 MYR chips.
I played one, four, and five three times and got surprisingly lucky. I ended up with 375 MYR, and took 25 of it in five 5 MYR chips.

Notice that even the 5 MYR ($1.25 USD) chips are serialized.

NOTE LOCAL RULES:

1)You HAVE to give them your car when you play
2)You HAVE to give your card when you cash out at the cashier's cage

They are VERY CONCERNED about money laundering and security (more on that later)

That being accomplished, I took a taxi back to First World, it was time to pick up my pants.

I noticed that my BFF had just called me. He is currently in Japan with his wife, and I needed to find a reasonable quiet place to call him back. I stopped in the DC Cafe, which was conveniently right next door to Giordano.


I had a strawberry waffle and Blue Curacao soda, total of 36.80 MYR (<$10 USD)


If you're a DC comics fan, you'll Love this place. I'm sure there is at least One in the US. Lots of DC comics memorabilia




Called my BFF. We did a quick "catch up". He and his wife are heading back to the US on Saturday, and I will meet him in LV on Tuesday.

I went next door to pick up my clothes, and realized that I hadn't brought my receipt, but the gentleman at the counter was nice enough to release them to me.


Made it back to the hotel and took a short (1.5 hr.) nap.

I was due to meet Aaron who was to introduce me to the Manager who deals with all overseas customer before dinner at 5 in the Gold Casino.

 

I thought that this was significant enough that I should post it at the top of the update.

So, in order to "repay" the hospitality I was afforded, I bought my hosts gifts. I bought 4 boxes of chocolates from the "Love" chocolate shop. When I got to the Sky Casino entrance, the guard stopped me and said "No Shopping bags allowed".

I looked and they were turning away anyone that was carrying anything larger than a purse or a man bag. No backpacks, not rucksacks allowed.

I called Aaron and explained the situation. He came down and called Eveline. Eveline came to pick up the bags. Eveline is half Chinese, half Portuguese very cute. She thanked me for the gift and went on her way. Aaron and I went upstairs and I met Sumathi, the manager of overseas customer. We chit chatted and I told her that I arrange most of my Asia comps through Playstudios Asia, but would cc her on any future trips.

We parted and I talked to Aaron regarding a question that I had been trying to get answered the entire trip, which was:

"How many MYR to make one Tier Credit?'

The explanation I got I have been processing since Aaron explained it to me. The actual explanation is proprietary and Aaron couldn't explain it to me, but each machine takes into account the following factors:

1)time in/out (you are clocked when you put your card in and clocked out when you remove it)
2)bet level
3)play rate (presses over time)
4)machine theo
5)casino you are playing at - Sky, Silver, Gold and Platinum have different accrual rates)

and calculates TC from that.

So, relating this to Las Vegas, it's closer to Venetian/Palazzo than CET or mLife.

I'm not really a fan of this process, but they are taking into consideration their clientele, which is the "compulsive Asian gambler" (almost everyone else playing) and trying to nullify the "strategic Asian gambler" (me). They Sk Casino, which has the LOWEST TC earning rate, was PACKED on a Friday night.

OK, so taking this into account, this is why they encourage people to play at the HIGHEST level casino that they have access to, since the TC earning will be better.

BUT, I THEN ASK MYSELF:

Since they are not required by law to publish the payback returns, wouldn't that motivate them to lower the percentage payback in the higher level casinos?

So that's as much as I can tell you. Perhaps some with more experience a RW Genting can chime in. Disregard everything I told you about the equivalent of a CET 500TC day to make Silver. It's all different.

I told Aaron that if I had played at a higher level (I "only" earned 123 TC) I would have taken him up on the limo ride to the Airport. He mentioned that he could set me up with a taxi or a Grab (Malaysia and South Asia version of Uber/Lyft), I told him no thank you, since my plane didn't leave until 4PM, I could still leave at checkout time and have plenty of time to make it one the bus (for a whole lot less).

OK, that being done, I went to the Gold casino for chip collecting, but the two Blackjack tables were full, and $25 and $100 USD minimum, so I headed over to the Silver Casino. I played Baccarat ($12.50 USD minimum bet) and bet banker 3 times, and the total was "break even", so the five Silver Casino chips cost me about $5 USD.

Hmmm. The Silver Casino chips aren't serialized. The chips are the same as follows:

Genting Casino
Sky and Silver Casino
Gold and Platinum casino

CHIPS ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE outside of their assigned casinos. Silver and Sky are interchangeable, but Silver and Gold are not.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO KNOW

PHOTOGRAPHY IS NOT ALLOWED IN THE CASINO. THIS IS STRICTLY ENFORCED (IF THEY CATCH YOU). The picture I took of my hand pay in the Silver Casino, I could've gotten in trouble if I was caught.

OK, that being done, it was time for dinner I had a 150 MYR ($36.11 USD) comp to the Highline Rooftop Market

This is the view from where I sat (using panoramic mode in my camera)
Here is the menu:




So, I ordered a steamer bucket, and a half dozen oysters, which came to 152 MYR. HOWEVER, the manager rejected the order because the comp was only for 150. I couldn't pay the excess, they had no way to account for it, so what I ended up doing was ordering a bucket and an extra order of mussels and clams, and paid for the oysters out of pocket. I ordered the extra mussels and clams with butter cream sauce.

I went to the bar and ordered a drink, and the girl told me to pick it up at the bar, but the ambient noise (music) was so loud and she spoke so softly, that I didn't understand what she was saying, so I just nodded and went back to my table.

Finally, after asking again, the bartender told me that I needed to go to the bar to pick up my drink, and did so. I received my drink and went back to the table:
Here's what came to the table.
The bucket (sambal spice sauce)

and clams in butter cream sauce

and mussels and oysters


I was provided with several sets of poly gloves (the kind that the food handlers use). It kept down the mess. There are also a row of sinks at which to wash your hands after the meal.

This IS a messy meal, but "messy good". The Spicy Sambal sauce was good, the butter cream, meh, but some might like it. I wanted to try both, and got to do so.
The total that I paid for this was (including the comp) 68 MYR (about $16.50 USD for the half dozen Canadian Oysters) The total bill would've been 216 MYR ($52.00 USD. A lot of food, but worth it even if I had to pay cash for the whole meal.

OK, a note on this, there was so much food that I couldn't eat the extra order of clams, so I offered it to a Chinese lady from Singapore at the next table. I didn't want it to be just "thrown away". After her husband came back, and declined himself, she graciously accepted it, and I left. Whether she ate it or not, I don't know, but I left with a clear conscience.

I was going to go to The Void, the VR exhibit in Skytopia, but my legs were hurting so bad that I just wanted to limp back to the room and prep for tomorrow's departure. I'm ready for bed . . . . .

 

OK, so much for that plan. I woke up at 2:30AM and knew that I wasn't going to get back to sleep, so I decided to go over to the Gold casino to convert currency. When I got there, I decided to have a quick snack, Pai Gwut Mien (pork spareribs with dry noodles) The cost in the Gold casino was 21 MYR (about $5.00 USD)

Not a bad snack for $5.00 USD!
I then went to the cashier's cage and was told that I couldn't cash out except what I had exchanged in for that day. This is apparently to combat money laundering.

IMPORTANT NOTE
1)You can only exchange what currency that you converted, and only up to the amount that you converted.
2)Any other currency exchange must be done at one of the "external" currency exchanges or bank

So, in 2 days, I have finally figured out the shortest path from my room to the casino, and it's THROUGH the amusement park. I walked back and saw a whole new set of restaurants that I want to try the next time I'm here (but I'm NOT staying at the First World Hotel. I want something with A/C!!)

That's where I'll be going tomorrow morning before I leave. I have about 3700 MYR that I want to convert to HKD.








Walked back to the hotel room.

Well, that's pretty much all of it. I am a little disappointed that I didn't get to spend more time here. There are a TON of restaurants that I didn't get to try or even share with you. My limited physical capabilities were a part of it, plus the fact that this trip is barely a third over. I will have LOTS more things to post about Macau. Hopefully, there will be a little less walking.

I will summarize tomorrow from the lounge at the airport.

 

Oh, and one last thing. I mentioned that one of the pieces on my itinerary was "womanizing"? There were AFAICT (As Far As I Could Tell) very few (almost no) unaccompanied females in the casino or resort.

However, I know (from past experience) that that will be different In Macau.

Oh, and on a note, I will be going back through this TR and adding/deleting/improving grammar to many of the posts, so don't forget to check back and read again.

 

OK, woke up at 6:30AM, time to pack and get ready to go. I've decided that the itinerary for today will be:

1) Pack
2) Eat breakfast
3) Exchange money (rates will be better here than at the airport, I'll bet. We'll see) I'm exchanging to HKD to make things simpler.
4) Go to KLIA Airport via the Awana Skyway/ bus direct to KLIA2

I won't be publishing anything from the bus ride, there are plenty of YouTube videos on that.

Priority Pass has 4 Premium lounges at KLIA2, but there is a 3 hour time limit, so the key thing is to get there early, but not before 1PM.

One last thing. . . .the quality of the towels at the First World Hotel. They remind me of the towels I used to get in High School (when they still distributed cloth towels) or the towels they provide at a Public Swimming pool.

Now, off to Breakfast . . . .

 

Loving this TR. great food details!
Have a safe trip to Macau!

 

Well, part 2 starts. I decided to leave early in the morning to make sure that I got to the airport in plenty of time.

On the way to the Awana Skyway, I had Nasi Lemak Rendang Beef. A filling breakfast for a little over $5.00

I should've waited for this.

Here's a few pictures taking the tram down the mountain.


I wonder if these are the hostel buildings


I took the bus from the Awana bus terminal Parking lot to KLIA2. Buses were coming In and out to all different locations.

The total cost was 8 MYR for the tram down the mountain, and 35 MYR for the bus to the airport. The total in USD was a little over $10.00.

It was about a two hour ride down the mountain. The mountain was so steep and curvy that there were speed bumps in the road. It was about 10x steeper and curvier than Hwy 50 to Lake Tahoe.

Exchanged almost all of my Ringgit at the airport and converted to HKD. I have about 169 Ringgit left. $40 USD to cover the up front costs of my next trip.

Ate lunch at the Priority Pass lounge out at the departure gate at KLIA2.

modest, but filling.

So, the Air Asia flight was late arriving, which made us late leaving. There was also a mishap that the advance purchase of Duty Free items that was supposed to be delivered to my flight didn't make it, so that is something I need to deal with in the next few days.

OK, here's what Air Asia meals look like. They only cost $3.00 if you buy them in advance


For an extra 12 Ringgit I got a Coke and a cup of coffee

The cup of coffee was freshly brewed, single serve.

My goal is to make the Macau trip with whatever HKD I have. I really have no desire to gamble here, except to put in some time at MGM Cotai. I still have two days left in Las Vegas.

Staying at the Holiday Inn in Macau, on the old side of town. Got upgraded to the Executive level since I'm a "valued member" of the IHG club. (been a member for about 20 years)



I'm really, really tired, so I'm going across the street for a bite to eat and then coming up and start fresh tomorrow.

I'm locking up most of my cash in the safe, there is a small casino downstairs.

See ya tomorrow.

Before I go to bed, I will leave you with these three tidbits.

Went around the corner to the Landmark Casino, and upstairs to the Diamond casino. Thank goodness I'm primarily a slot player, because these were all "card casinos". Baccarat was the primary game.

Stopped across the street and had won ton mien (won ton and noodles) in soup for $70 HKD ($8.92 USD)

and lastly from the "whos's the effin' marketing genius that came up with this idea . . . . ?"

This shot was taken from my bed

Yeah, I could see if I had my GF (or FGF for that matter) with me and we could take turns giving "shows" to each other . . . NOT!!!!

 

OK, 4AM and I got some uninterrupted REM sleep. I think I'll start on the Macau side this morning and then go over to Cotai. There are the Wynn Macau and MGM Macau, also the Casino Lisboa and the Grand Lisboa.

I think I'll end up this morning at MGM Macau and I'm sure that there's a free shuttle to MGM Cotai. My goal will be to check out the casinos in general and look at the craps games and VP.

Oh yeah . . . and before I forget. Thank you for having WORKING A/C!!!!!!

 

So, is it the "best planned lays" or the "best laid plans"? Either way, things didn't work out so well this morning.

At about 5AM, I took a cab to MGM Macau and got my player's club card and was down about $500 HKD (The exact amount is $63.73 USD, so let's use that as a guideline 500 HKD = $65.00)

I wanted to take a shuttle over to MGM Cotai, but the shuttles don't start running until 9AM, and it was 7AM. So, I took a taxi, and it cost about $120 HKD ($15.00 USD).

Ended up at MGM Cotai and tried to get my comps, but they wouldn't come up in the system. So I ended up playing. So far, I haven't SEEN a Video Poker machine in
Macau, or in all of Asia for that matter. I can't even remember if I saw them in the Philippines. SO, for you VP players, and they guy who asked me to check out VP, AFAIK, there isn't any. I will go over to Venetian later today and if they don't have any VP among their 3400 machines, then there isn't any.

Standard Asian casino rules. No photography on the casino floor, but these are of the entrance to the casino area.


This is a HUGE place, and not the biggest by far.



As for slot machines, 98% Asian themed, and I'm about done. Dropped more than I wanted to/should have at MGM Cotai, and now I'm not even getting comps.

There were some Interesting variations on 5 Dragons that I hadn't seen in the states, but 5 Dragons is 5 Dragons. It's not Buffalo.

Anyway, at about 9AM, I decided to stop and have breakfast. I ate at the MGM Cotai casino restaurant "The Coast" and had the breakfast buffet. I think that I will use USD going forward since I have the OANDA currency converter In another window. Anyway, the buffet cost $29.17.

OK, the buffet had Western and Asian foods. I started taking pictures of the buffet and then realized that the lids were shut,

so I waited for a quiet (no traffic) period and opened the lids to take pictures.

OK, pretty much all that's left is to take pictures of the food at the buffet.
First, the salad and cold bar


Hooray!! Smoked salmon!!

Then the noodle bar with condiments

Cooked to order eggs
The "bread and breakfast bar", featuring
Croissants and Danish


More danish
more danish, and donuts

More donuts

Bread

Finally, plain croissants and butter

"make your own breakfast bowl"



The hot entree selections
Char Siu Bow (pork buns)

Beef Siew Mai (dumplings)

Teochew dumplings

Fried rice and chow mein

Pork ribs and the chef filling the corn and purple potatoes

Corn, Purple potatoes, chinese pans and taro root
Mushrooms, Tomatoes, and Bacon

Sausage and Baked Beans

The beverage bar
Fresh Juices
Orange, Carrot, and Watermelon

Cucumber juice and Iced Tea

and milk

and the coffee machine

My two plates and bowl of noodles.



So I'm back in the room to "break in" to my spare cash, just so I have "walking around money".

Lunch may be over at Wynn Cotai, or Venetian. I really want to see the "worlds largest casino".

 

Missed you by a day. Returned yesterday to my condo in Pattaya, TH. Stormy weather yesterday in Macau. Left the Rio Casino by taxi to the Macau Airport at 11:30AM, arrived at my condo at 8PM. Long day but a successful gaming trip. Baccarat was good to me. Best of luck to you.

 

I want to advise you to go to the Spa at the Rio Casino, floor 5. Take a taxi, cost about 70 HKD. You will have much fun. It is the best Macau has to offer. Enjoy Macau.

 

Yeah, One of my friends LOVES the spas in Macau. I'm not a spa kind of guy. I pay 'em to go home.