MACAU

So, through no real desire to visit Macau despite the alleged Vegas standard casinos, my direction to Macau was purley finance driven, with it being the cheapest flight out of Bangkok towards China.

Hong Kong was initially in mind to see how the place had changed post-Chinese handover from my last time there in 1994, although at 450 pounds to fly there it will have to remain a mystery to me for the time being!

Macau however is convieniently placed at the Southern tip of China (although a state in it's own right - another stamp in the passport - nice!) meaning that I can move in one direction and cover the ground I want to without any backtracking, for once something random that works in my favour!

The place itself is described under one of those 'East meets West' cliches, and to be honest is about right. The heavy Portugese influence of the past has left lots of Meditteranean style multicoloured buildings amongst the sea of neon McDonalds, Gucci, Prada etc. that seem to fill the place.

On the whole the place, at only 27km long is pretty lively, although the abundance of money everywhere (financial orginisations, casinos, stores etc.) means it's not really my kind of place whilst I'm in backpacker mentality, a fact highlighted by me seeing no one else lugging around their equivalent body weight in beer t shirts, mosquito nets and guide books!

So, although the place was clean, vibrant and having plenty of ways to spend your money quickly (that usually makes me stay somewhere!) an overnight stop was enough and I booked myself on a bus over the Chinese border to Guangzhou, where I'll be hoping to catch one of the many long distance trains Westward to my eventual destination of Tibet...

Update to follow from Guangzhou....still no USB anywhere so will bombard the site with photos at the first opportunity!