In which there are no pirates in the South China Sea

Well, none that I saw, anyway. There were a hell of a lot of private residences on islands that I now view with a gimlet eye, having heard that much of the prime real estate in the area has been used by the triads to launder money.

This is all a long way of saying that this afternoon I took a ferry to Macau, the Vegas of China (note I don't say Monaco).

Macau is definitely more clearly post-colonial than Hong Kong, and also more depressingly not preserving the remnants of that past that might be worthwhile. There are beautiful buildings that are either built over by high rises or currently home to Starbucks, Levis, and DKNY. I'm glad I made the trip over, if only for the peaceful ferry journey through the island-dotted sea, but I think it's relatively low on my list of local reccomendations. On the other hand, my local reccommendations pretty much just consist of my repeatedly saying "Holy shit... HONG KONG!!!" so that may not be much to go by.

Tomorrow I meet up with Alan and Cristoph in Kunming, in Yunnan Province. Then we'll see how equipped I really am to deal with this side of the world!