Holy flang!

Ok, remember that comment I made a few hours ago about this place I'm staying being an internet-less gulag? I take it back. Completely. This place has net, and I am currently writing this post from there! Amazingness!

So that means I actually get to write a proper post instead of the quickie I gave you's before (get ur mind out of the gutter, Dr. Love). I do have an important announcement to make before I tell you about what's been happening to date - it appears blogspot blogs are banned in China (see wikipedia entry here). Therefore, I'm gonna have to find someplace else to host this tirade of misinformation and poor attempts at humour. When I do find something, I'll just link straight through in my last post from here. Nuff said.

Arright, I don't have any new photos as such to post either, coz I haven't been able to charge my latpot, but now that situation's changed too, so I'll get a few phots of the place I been staying and put them up, er, tomorrow or something :-)

The last few days have been pretty cool. Linds and I have been hangin' out on the island of Taipa, which is over the bridge from Macau, and it's a little bit prettier here. In fact, there's trees and stuff here. Amazing. The view from our lodging is a little spoiled by the power station nearby, but according to Dogbert pollution has vitamins, so who's complaining? I think the power station is coal too, so this unseasonably hot weather we're having? We don't need to look toooo far for the culprit. Boo! Hiss!!

The peeps we're hanging out with are all good too. There's a real range of folks, some who have spent time in China already, so it's been pretty invaluable in terms of knowing what to expect. Of course, I can't go into too much detail about this gathering, but needless to say, it's with a bunch of cool peeps, including dudes and dudettes (okay, more like fogies and fogettes, but there are a couple people under the age of 40 here) who actually live in Chengdu and haven't dissolved from all the pollution there. Yay for us!

The food here is great! No blocked toilets this time (although... oh never mind, you don't need to hear about it). Sleeping arrangements aren't too bad - sharing a dorm with people from Oz (kangaroos, not wizard of thereof), England and the US, plus a couple o' cute li'l kiddies who are comin' with there mommy and daddy to Nanjing (I think), and the dorms are air-conditioned from 8pm to 8am. Ain't bad for an all-up cost of $125 USD (incl. food!), if I may say so myself.

Hey, speakin' of USDs, holy crap man, do NOT under any circumstances bring US dinaros to Macau. Apparently (so the rumour goes) there was a host of counterfeit notes circulated during the 90s, and now banks don't like them one bit. Added to that is the fact that many money-changing places will re-sell the notes to other foreigners, so your notes gotta be in tip-top condition. Let me give a specific example:

Linds and I are leaving Best Western. All good. That'll be $1100MOP (about $150USD), says the hotel clerkess. Swet, I say, lemme just get some USD changed over. That's cool, says the clerkess, but you'd be better off changing it at the bank just across the street - 8 MOP to USD instead of 7.5, which is what the hotel offers. So I head over to the bank, and then....

"Too llinkly."

"What?" I say, chagrined.

"Too llinkly. Your dollar too llinkly. We sell to other customer. Too llinkly!"

"Flang! Too wrinkly? Ok, is there a bank around which doesn't have a problem if my notes don't use moisturizer?"

"(Name of bank censored)"

So I head to (name of bank censored). "We no buy US dollar! You go to headquarter to sell!"

"Ok, where's the headquarters?"

"Shanghai."

Get the picture?

Pies out.

Pies suggestion of the day (actually it's my second): Seek everywhere for internet. The Good Book says you shall find. Usually by knocking some heads, but that's not mentioned...