(no subject)
Wow. So I'm in Macau.
Macau is amazing. It's, as Scott has pointed about about thirty times in our walk tonight, much more SE Asian than any city we've been to so far in China. Yet at the same time it's even more European feeling than Shanghai. I think he's mostly referring to the smell.
It's an amazing collage of cultures, architecture, language, ethnicity and history. There's Portugese influence, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, (general) European, and this is all just from a few hours of being here.
The food here, Macanese food, is supposedly a mixture of Portugese, Chinese, African and Indian foods. Generally my reaction to this combination is "How could you go wrong."
It's odd being back in a place where I understand Zero of the language going on around me. Even Shanghai it seemed most people operated in Standard Mandarin, and if some people spoke Shanghai dialect and I understood nothing of it, that didn't matter 'cos anyone I talked to spoke regular mandarin. Here I've got to go up and ask people what language they speak. Generally they speak mandarin, though I've had a few who couldn't understand it. Anyone who speaks English will also speak Mandarin, so no use for that, though Portugese might still be a possibility (I'd have to use my best Portugese-intelligible Spanish). Not looking forward to finding a place in Hong Kong, 'cos everywhere is fuckin' booked up. I wish I just knew someone I could stay with. But maybe no dice. Hmm...
I guess we've got a few days to try and figure it out. Maybe check some travel agencies? Apparently they can get good deals, unlike their American counterparts.
More news as it breaks!
Good to be me.
Macau is amazing. It's, as Scott has pointed about about thirty times in our walk tonight, much more SE Asian than any city we've been to so far in China. Yet at the same time it's even more European feeling than Shanghai. I think he's mostly referring to the smell.
It's an amazing collage of cultures, architecture, language, ethnicity and history. There's Portugese influence, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, (general) European, and this is all just from a few hours of being here.
The food here, Macanese food, is supposedly a mixture of Portugese, Chinese, African and Indian foods. Generally my reaction to this combination is "How could you go wrong."
It's odd being back in a place where I understand Zero of the language going on around me. Even Shanghai it seemed most people operated in Standard Mandarin, and if some people spoke Shanghai dialect and I understood nothing of it, that didn't matter 'cos anyone I talked to spoke regular mandarin. Here I've got to go up and ask people what language they speak. Generally they speak mandarin, though I've had a few who couldn't understand it. Anyone who speaks English will also speak Mandarin, so no use for that, though Portugese might still be a possibility (I'd have to use my best Portugese-intelligible Spanish). Not looking forward to finding a place in Hong Kong, 'cos everywhere is fuckin' booked up. I wish I just knew someone I could stay with. But maybe no dice. Hmm...
I guess we've got a few days to try and figure it out. Maybe check some travel agencies? Apparently they can get good deals, unlike their American counterparts.
More news as it breaks!
Good to be me.