The Place

The Place! Pipkin and Domo stopped by The Place, which is a terrible name for a place. Any place. In any case, The Place is a mixed-use retail centre in the heart of the business district of Beijing. Pipkin and Domo stopped by because they wanted to see the giant LED Sky Screen. The screen, 250 m by 30 m and 24 up in the air, is one of the largest in the world, and projects live events, video games or even photos uploaded by visitors (for a short time, and for a fee, of course!). Most of the time, it projects a moving aquarium scene.

But not today. Today, nothing's happening, and Domo's pretty miffed about it. It takes SO. LONG. to get around Beijing! Making a special trip out to The Place took time and...for nothing! Grrrr...

And it's not like you can do much else underneath the screen, like enjoy a bonfire, play with fireworks, have a nap, bike, skate, play raquetsports or...uhm...hm. Pipkin thinks you're also not allowed to plant seeds or practice ballet. Or maybe that last one is not climb ladders the wrong way. Sounds about right.

Hopefully if you ever visit The Place, the screen will be on for you. These guys have no desire to look at designer shoes and watches, so it's on to the next place!

TurboJetsetting to Macau

Feelin' like a gangsta in the lobby of the Grand Lisboa

For the weekend, Pipkin and Domo joined the TurboJetset crowd and sailed to Macau by hydrofoil. Macau is a former Portuguese colony made up of two islands just 60 km southwest of Hong Kong. Pipkin was excited to see the mix of Asian and European architecture. Domo was psyched to do a little gambling. Macau is known as the "Monte Carlo of the Orient", and when the major American hotels and casinos began operations in Macau a few years ago, Macau became bigger for gambling than Las Vegas.

Armed with his lucky labbit's foot (four of them! That's even luckier!) Domo went to Grand Lisboa, easily recognised in Macau as the tallest building. He tried his hand at Pai Gow, Mah Jong and Fan Tan before hitting the blackjack and poker tables. Sorry for the lack of photos, but photography on the casino floor is forbidden. To sum up, let's just say Pipkin's feet are not so lucky, and Macau's economy is in better shape than it was before they arrived on the island.

A little to the right...

Domo was disappointed to lose, but his spirits lifted when Pipkin took him to Fortaleza do Monte, a fort built in the early 1600s by the Jesuits to defend Macau.

A plan started to form in Domo's mind.

Aim...

FIRE!!

But nothing came of his plan. Curses! You just can't trust centuries old ordnance.

At the Night Market

Pipkin and Domo visited this night market in central Taiwan, and sadly Pipkin can't remember the name of it. It was large and took up several streets, and it was filled with people out getting food for dinner, shopping for clothes, toys, and groceries. Although it was closed to cars and trucks, scooters and mopeds often loaded with up to 2 adults and 2 children, darted between the pedestrians on the crowded market streets. This market had everything!

Vendors, casually smoking over a variety of live, raw and cooked food. (How long have those raw things been out under the hot light of day?) The spinning ribbons over the seafood are keeping the flies from landing.

The buckets of fried squid are a tasty snack to share with a friend - if you're not vegetarian like Pipkin.

But maybe the fried squid isn't filling enough. You don't want a snack, you want a MEAL. Well, here's your meal. Whole BBQ tentacle! Domo is pleased.

If it's fashion you're after, the market has you covered from head to toe.

Pipkin got excited when this truck rolled through the street lighting firecrackers. He may have hopped onto the truck and snuck off with one...

Apparently the lighting of the firecrackers was the beginning of some sort of religious procession that Pipkin didn't understand. First went the truck with the firecrackers. Then these two men marched in semi-ceremonial garb and weapons in hand:

...who were followed by a line of people with incense burning and some sort of ceremonial treasure. As you can see, there are varying levels of involvement.

"Yo, can't talk right now, doing this ceremonial thing..."

For reasons Pipkin doesn't understand, the two men would dance about, chant loudly, and hit themselves with their swords.

Until they bled. Not sure how long that went on for, because Pipkin and Domo found something much better than self-mutilation and Harley-Davidson rejects from Red Deer, AB. Ice cream!