Macau, caw caw!

Casino Lisboa is shaped like a giant pineapple. It is ridiculous.

There's another, older, non-pinapple shaped Casino Lisboa that is all 60's retro. This is a small, small piece of it. It's neon and bulbous and golden and tacky and is easily the coolest casino of them all.

A little park that was sort of walled in by the buildings surrounding it, and they had all been covered in graffitti, it was a really colourful place, like being in a story book.


Incense burning outside a temple.

There are footpaths like this one all over the place, and you're supposed to take off your shoes and walk on them as a sort of self-reflexology. I didn't do this one, but I've done others and it is equal parts painful and nice feeling.


Okay. So there's Mainland China, there's Hong Kong, and Macau. Oh, and Taiwan (a republic of China). They each have their own rules and currency and are considered "special administrative areas" of China. Basically it has to do with money and colonization. That's as far as my knowledge extends.

Apparently, Macau is the "Vegas" of China, since you can gamble here. It was an hour turbo-ferry ride from Hong Kong. They have some pretty gawdy casinos - but they are tacky in the way where it's so bad it's good. But walk a little further, and the Portuguese influence and architecture becomes prominent. Cobble stone streets, churches and brightly painted colonial buildings. Next to all of this, of course, are incensed temples and hawkers selling noodles and meats.