This weekend began with a small group expedition Friday evening to Macau. For those unaware, Macau is a former Portuguese colony that was returned to China in 1999 after a good four hundred years or so of foreign rule. It is administered much like Hong Kong, with its own private government, currency, and strict border rules. The whole of the island that Macau is on is a small bit of land that is crowded as hell and can easily be crossed end to end within an hour. It is an incredibly accessible place to visit, but has quite a bevy of goods to offer as well.

Andrew and I bussed across Shenzhen to the ferry point in Shekou where we met up with Mike, Steve, and Chris, our posse for the evening. An hour and half over the water led us to circling around the southern tip of Macau, under the three enormous suspension bridges that link the main part of Macau to the new islands south that have been built with land reclamation and casino money. As a whole, the former colony is best known in Asia as the Vegas of the Orient, and even from the ferry the neon lights were easily visible. This was our first destination, and upon arriving we set off by foot across the city for the casinos.

Our gameplan was to stay up for all night gambling. However, after a bit of time checking out the tables and the minimum bets, it quickly became clear that, as in every other casino I have visited, I am financially out of my league. Instead, we wandered different casinos and settled down into a bar nearby, sharing a bottle of affordable Ballantine’s as the night passed. Our best efforts to gamble were later met by losses, and as the sun came up we headed back across the city for the ferry terminal. At this point, some Filipino girls started to talking with us at a square, showing us where we could get some breakfast and later the ruins of the St. Paul cathedral, one of the major historical sights of Macau.

The ruins sit atop a hill, and are the only remaining part of what was no doubt a quite impressive church. A Korean music video was being filmed on the stairs, and from the plaza at the top there was a lovely view of the city below us, and for those of us who enjoy Arrested Development, there was finally a great chance to use “anyong” to say hi. Next to the ruins is a hill with the old Portuguese fort and cannons atop. At this point, our group was down to Andrew, Mike and I, as the others had headed back to Shenzhen to sleep. While atop, we actually managed to cobble together a conversation with a Chinese woman — in Mandarin. It was perhaps the most successful I’ve felt since arriving in China. After this we set up shop on the grass and took some naps.

The remainder of our day, after waking, we wandered through the city, walking along the hills until we found an entire village full of faux-historic architecture complete with Amsterdam canal houses where we indulged in fruit smoothies. It was a bizarre little area. Afterwards we made our way down to an art museum and began cutting our way back through the city to the ferry port. Exhaustion had caught up with us by this point, and we caught a quick bit of dinner at a noodle house before heading home. As a whole, we spent a bit over 24 hours actually in Macau, but when one hardly sleeps, then it is quite easy to cram that time full of experiences. The city is quite an experience, more manageable and accessible than Hong Kong, and missing the hordes of Western tourists that haunt Kowloon and HK Island. It also has the most European feel of any place I have seen over here, a pleasant distraction from the bombardment of China these past months.