Two weekends ago, I was in Macau and it was quite an experience . . . imagine being in a Chinese city where the names of practically all the streets, buildings, and establishments are in Portuguese (think of Portuguese as misspelled Spanish).

There, I realized how much simple knowledge of generic names matters: just the knowledge that this establishment is a tailor shop, that one is a carpenter shop, and that other one is a dry goods store reduces one's insecurity to a tremendous degree. Here in Hong Kong, I cannot even be sure about which establishment is in which business.

We made the 40-mile trip to Macau by jetfoil in less than an hour (Macau has no airport and so one gets to it by steamer, hydrofoil or jetfoil depending on how quickly one wants to get there and how much one is willing to spend). There is so much traffic between Hong Kong and Macau that over a 12-hour period every day, there is a trip every 30 minutes or so).

Macau itself is just about 2.5 square miles on the mainland and by a judicious combination of walking and taking cabs, one can see almost all the tourist spots in a day -- from the Barrier Gate (Portas do cerco) that goes into China (about the northernmost point of Macau) to the A-Ma temple, the oldest Chinese temple in Macau (located near the southernmost tip of the peninsula). I also got to see the ruins of St. Paul Cathedral and went up to the Guia fortress (something like Intramuros placed high up on a hill so the cannons could command the water approaches to the city).

I also visited the Kun Iam temple and the Luis de Camoes museum. Even apart from the paintings, sculptures and other art works, the museum building itself is of interest since it was once the headquarters of the East India Company's select committee.

Not too many tourists visit Macau's two offshore islands -- Taipa and Coloane (and the tourists that do are not likely to visit the places we visited. We took the 1.6 mile bridge from Macau to Taipa and then the causeway from Taipa to Coloane. We didn't stop at Taipa (where Asia's only harness-raising track is located . . . along with numerous fireworks factories), but spent a couple of hours at a the Vietnamese refugee camp at Coloane and drove through the leper colony and the insane asylum.

No, I didn't do any gambling in Macau. I didn't even buy any souvenirs. I sort of figure I'll visit that place several times over the next couple of years.