Yesterday we went to Macau. It is a bit like the Las Vegas of China — it has tons of casinos and ads for scantily clad women. It also has one of the world’s 10 largest man-made structures. We visited that and it was kind of cool. We got to watch somebody jump off attached to an elastic rope and two guide wires. I also realized that two more of the 10 largest man-made structures are in Shanghai and Moscow, so we’ll get to see those on the trip.

Macau also has quite a few religious places. It was a Portuguese colony, so many of the early settlers were Catholic Priests. There are a couple of old churches here, one of which was destroyed in a fire and lays in ruins. But the front wall is still standing and offers a look at what the church would have been like.

Directly behind the ruins is a Buddhist shrine, demonstrating the theme of the island: East Meets West. There are other Buddhist shrines and temples in the country, including some which are very old and still active. I accidentally stumbled into some kind of ceremony and was rushed out by one of the non monastic caretakers.

One of the kids playing games here in the “Internet King” moved from his computer to one right next to mine. I guess the speakers were too quiet over there. It’s a roaring hell of Asian techno dance music in here, so I’m going to cut this short. That’s about all there was to Macau, anyway. It was a nice place to visit, but I’m glad we didn’t stay there overnight.