A lemon tree of our own

The thin end of the wedge for the harbour?

I know it is quite normal for people to moan about how things "aren't like they used to be". And a lot of people say that the beauty of Crete has been drastically reduced by all of the tourism development and modernisation on the island. Certainly the film clips from Anthony Sooklaris show an island that in many cases has now completely disappeared.

However, we think we spotted a new low for the globalisation of Chania. Just as you enter the old Venetian harbour, opposite the fountain, a coffee and ice cream parlour that opened last year has closed down. There is obviously some work being done to get it ready for the season, and on the plastic sheets keeping the elements away from the work, there is sign advertising for staff.......for the new Chania harbour branch of Starbucks.

Visiting Venice in China

The biggest attraction near to us in Macau - and I mean biggest - was The Venetian casino. It is being built on reclaimed land that used to be between the islands of Taipa and Coloane, and it dominates the skyline. It opened in August last year and has already had 10 million visitors. In fact Macau's economy has come to rely heavily on gambling being legal in this small 'Special Administrative Region' of China, and between them, the casinos of Macau now take more money than Las Vegas.

The Venetian, as the name suggests, is built as a replica of Venice. The outside features old Italian style housing, with the large hotel rising like a tower block in the middle. It comes complete with a fake St Marks Square - and a facsimile of the Doge's Palace.

Plus a fake Bridge Of Sighs.

Inside, the building consists of a giant shopping mall. This has canals, complete with gondolas with singing gondoliers, There are wandering opera singers, and the ceiling is painted to look like the dusk sky. A clever use of lighting and an air-conditioner driven breeze give a pretty effective illusion that you are outside.

The casino floor itself is massive, with lots of different games to be played on tables, and an army of one-armed bandits. We had a good afternoon spent there on the slot machines. I fancied going on the tables, to try one of the popular Chinese dice games like Sic Bo. However, I came round to thinking that since I didn't understand the game, or understand the language being talked around the table, standing there throwing away £10 a game didn't represent very good value for money, so I gave it a miss.

It was quite good fun though, and one night we got a meal in there and had a beer in the inevitable fake Irish pub, but you did feel that it had somewhat dwarfed the natural charm of Taipa. Besides which, there just seems something really, really odd about finding a corner of the world which is a unique mix of Portuguese and Chinese, and then plonking a giant great big replica of 16th century Italy right in the middle of it!

Fire! Fire! The Macau fire service museum

We've recently been in Macau, and I've been pretty slow about writing it all up for the blog...

After our visit to the park, cemetery and art gallery, our next port of call was the Fire Service museum. This is housed next to the current fire station on the Macau peninsula. In the opening lobby it features a couple of trucks used by the service in the 1950s and the 1960s.

On display was all sorts of kit used by the fire service through the hundred or so years of their existence. They also had a wall of photographs of them in action, fighting massive fires in the crowded streets of Macau, and rescuing bewildered old ladies who were no doubt now delighted to be on display in their predicaments.

There was a lot of old communications equipment from the 1980s on display as well. I was struck by how simply massive it was, when now you could do the whole thing off a small laptop and use Bluetooth headsets.

We were also a bit worried by these photographs, which seemed to illustrate the time when some 60s Doctor Who monsters staged an invasion of Macau that was only valiantly fought off by the fire crews.

The only disappointment of the visit was that you didn't get to exit the museum by jumping out and sliding down one of those lap-dancing style poles firemen are so fond of.

Film of Crete from the 1960s

If you enjoy our stories from Crete, you might also like this blog about the island. It has been publishing a great series of videos from YouTube of what the island looked like in the 1960s. This clip is of Chania.

The films were taken by Anthony Sooklaris in 1961. If you enjoyed that, then the Crete blog has linked to a couple of others, including views of Iraklio and of Agia Triada.