Macau
Well, I don't think I've put up a blog entry in a while, and since Carly and I got back from Macau last night, it seemed like now would be as good a time as any.
For those that don't know, Macau is located basically smack-dab on top of Hong Kong (there is a ferry that goes from Hong Kong to Macau, takes approx 45 to 90 minutes - depending on the type of ferry, I think). Macau used to be a Portuguese colony (believe it or not) up until 1999, when it was given back to China. Macau was the oldest European colony in China, dating back to the 16th century.
Macau now has the status of an SAR, or 'Special Administrative Region', within the Peoples Republic of China (so basically, it has the same type of status as Hong Kong). I can't really figure it out, but it's sort of it's own 'pseudo-country', it's "China" but at the same time it's "not China". They have their own currency, it's called the Pataca, and it's pegged to the Hong Kong Dollar (3% less).
At any rate, Macau is quite a cool little place, consisting of (as best as I can tell) 3 main islands connected by fairly long bridges. The streets are very narrow, often steep, and all-in-all it's quite unlike any place Carly and I had visited before. Their is definitely Portuguese influence, and very yummy Portuguese food, but by and large Carly and I both thought it was very much Chinese dominated.
Unfortunately, you're not going to get any pictures of Macau in this posting, because I managed to have my wallet and our camera lost/stolen while we were there. Let me tell you, that's not a good time.
We had some excellent food, including Italian at an absolutely brilliant little Cafe called Toscana's, and some excellent Portuguese food at both Fernando's and a restaurant called Littoral (I think I might have the spelling wrong). At any rate, the Sangria, Chorizo, African Chicken, Pork, Portuguese Rolls and Egg Tarts were all absolutely brilliant.
We also came across a fabulous (and expensive) coffee shop called Singing Bean Coffee. Quite certain it is Japanese in origin, but the coffee was brilliant, and I do believe that the coffee cheesecake was the best that Carly and I have ever had.
We really enjoyed walking around in the areas by Senado Square, which is basically a pedestrian area in what is a unique "outdoor mall" type of experience. We also went through some "Sacred Art Museums" which contained relics of the Catholic Church in Macau.
Friday night we wandered down to the east coast of Macau to an area known as Fisherman's Wharf where we sat down for a couple of drinks at a bar outside, and watched a live band playing right at the water, certainly enjoyable. We then toured through the Sands Casino for a while, I had my eyes peeled for the Hold'Em tables, as I really enjoy watching the game, but the best we came across was Blackjack, among a bunch of other card games I've never seen before.
Um, I think that's probably going to be the end of this disjointed, random and disconnected post for now. Time for me to go do some coding. 
