Macau...she's a tart.

What's happening people? Just got back after spending the weekend in Macau, a city-state which is a part of China. With a population of 500,000 and covering only 9.5 square miles, I had low to no expectations for this trip. We arrived Friday night @ 10:00pm in the city proper and began to search for accommodations. After checking out a few more expensive places, we settled on a $210 HKD/night room in the Hotel Central. It's claim to fame is the oldest hotel in Macau, and unofficially, also the dirtiest. Our luxurious room included no windows, soiled lined and the dank smeall of mold...welcome to the budget hotels in Asia. Undaunted by our ghastly room, Sebastian and I headed out for some eats. While we were walking 'round the city square, we were amazed by the lack of people on the streets on 11:00, Friday night. Not only that, by also how few restaurants were open for biz. Abstaining from Mcdonald's, we ran into another foreigner also searching for vittles, and settled on a Thai place which was good. After filling our bellies with crabcakes, green curry and Singha beers (yes, they had Singha!) we tried our level best to buy a few more beers to lubricate our conversation. Ending up hanging around to 4 A.M. discussing this and that and our new found friend thought he could out-do me in his knowledge of Star Wars. Let's just say although the force was with him, I am a jedi master.

Saturday we slept in 'til noon, then ventured out to see some sights. Macau was once ruled by the Portuguese government, but returned to China's control in 1999. It isn't your garden-variety, asian city as the Portuguese influence is apparent everywhere in the people, architecture and food. It is nice to see colonial-style buildings, cobblestone walkways and eat some excellent food. We had made some plans to meet up again with Grant ( my young padawan learner) @ 6:30 for some food, so rushed back to our hotel to get ready. Just as we were leaving the hotel, we hopped into the elevator and lo and behold our first encounter with a Macanese prostitue. She looked us over then asked if we wanted a massage...we declined, but not without asking how much? She kept trying to entice us into getting off @ the 11th floor with her, and even had some other ladies help her out but in the end we got away in time to meet up with our dining companions. Again, more delicious portuguese food and then off to the Macau's other big claim to fame....gambling.

We decided if we were going to do this right, we should check out the biggest and therefore, the swankiest casino in town called Sands. Let me just say that I have been in a few casino's before, but this takes the cake. One needn't even gamble to feel like a high-roller in this place...huge, opulent and sparkly we managed to drink ourselves into stupor 8 hours after entering. Didn't gamble that much, but did manage to get a few minutes play with the ol' one-armed bandit. Finally @ 7:00am, we said our goodbyes to our new-found friends and went back to our hotel to catch a few hours before the flight back to Taipei.

So, that was Macau...I'd have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by it, and would consider going back again someday. Due to lack of sleep, I took Tuesday off to recover from the weekend, but all it really did was leave me feeling more tired than usual. Oh, this weekend should be low-key as all that's on the agenda is a birthday party, and then movies on Friday. But, that wraps things up for another edition so until next time, vaya con dios.