Wynn Macau

Wynn Macau looks like its slightly-older sibling, Wynn Las Vegas, a gleaming wave-topped structure, dark chocolate-colored glass with horizontal stripes of milk-chocolate, and Wynn's distinctive signature across the top.

There are 600 rooms, and I was staying in the 140-unit Club (Towers) area. Inside the bijou Club lobby, women were elegantly clad in pale salmon two-piece tea frocks, as in Las Vegas. Elevators have framed wall panels - no glass - of Fortuny-style horizontally-pleated dark chocolate fabric, bordered in woven ribbon. Upper corridors, as in Vegas, are milk-chocolate walls with black & white photos, white woodwork, carpet dark chocolate with milk-chocolate squiggles.

I was quickly escorted to room 1608, which oozed space (partly enhanced by the mirrored ceiling panels in the parlor). There was a foyer, with half-bathroom. The big parlor had a black marble floor flecked with white, and a central cream carpet decorated with blood-red, milk- and dark-chocolate squiggles. Walls of both parlor and adjacent bedrooms were milk-chocolate fabric-look paper, and all woodwork was white, as was the fine beaded cornice and ceilings, and frames for reproduction art (mostly Matisse). Decorative end drapes on the whole-wall windows were dark chocolate with soft blood-red squiggles (as on the bed skirt). The parlor had a diagonal-corner bar, with a Wynn-label Nespresso machine. I liked having simple telephones, easy to see and understand. The desk had US and UK electric sockets, and there was a Wynn-labelled retractable cord for broadband, charged at HK$160 per 24 hours. The desk had an ergonomic chair, upholstered in various chocolates and pale persimmon. Two three-person sofas were bright scarlet velvet and there was a corner table with L-shaped bankette. Two ceiling-high green plants were real.

Both parlor and adjacent bedroom have wall-set Hitachi plasma televisions and, what a delight, the remote-control zappers were simple, as are the onscreen instructions. I settled for the Mood sector - my favorite here was great cities of the world, either silent or classical music. There was another television, merely marked Wynn, in the bathroom. There were short and medium Wynn-designed robes (soft towel inside, fabric out), wrapped slippers, and a wall safe. The glass-sided shower, big enough for four, had overhead, wall-set and hand-held outlets. Wynn's signature lemon Bambü toiletries were in the shower, and in a basket on the double-sink counter: there was a Trumper's razor and Colgate toothpaste. I liked having a brand-new Body Image Relaxation spa bath pillow, a loofah and a back scrubber and massager, and a purple orchid.

Dining choices are Chinese, Italian, Japanese and modified Portuguese. I joined the boss of the complex, Grant Bowie, dined in multi-level Il Teatro, lots of fun as you can see into the kitchen. You also have an excellent view of the full-wall display of the outside water feature which, as the evening progresses, goes even more ballistic in its ballet. Every 15 minutes it bursts in a program, which might be water jets going through blue light as they dance one way or another, or perhaps real fire balls bursting up through the water, and the music gets increasingly dramatic, opera style, with each performance. (Steve Wynn, by the way, chooses all the music.) The restaurants, which seat 164, was really packed that night - as always, I was told. The president of Las Vegas Sands for Asia-Pacific, Mark Brown, was with a group, as was Stanley Ho's daughter Patsy, at an all-girls' table. I had a caprese salad, a pair of tomato mounds topped by mozzarella and surrounded by brown squiggles, and then lamb shank on saffron risotto. Walking home, to suite 1608, was quite difficult because of the crowds, 99 per cent Chinese, cramming past - and into - the Armani, Louis Vuitton and other stores in the corridor between gaming areas and hotel.

In the morning I just managed to run before the annual Macau Marathon started, had a shower and headed down to the Esplanade for breakfast. Everywhere was now marvellously quiet, gone were the hordes (I had thought the whole of southern China was here) and the shops were closed. The breakfast buffet was in the 24-hour modified Portuguese, at a buffet that included really fresh juice and outstanding breads. Later, I swam in one of the three pools. I settled the bill with Anne Chiu, from Toronto via Vegas (though somehow she lives in Boston) and a butler took my bag, I was ushered out into a black, cream-lined Bentley, and escorted to the ferry terminal, another zoo of screaming people both coming and going.

Kiwi Collection Luxury Hotels

www.wynnmacau.com