MALAYSIA | Thursday, 4 Jul 2013 | Views [543]
It was the summer solstice and, coincidentally, the first actual day of summer here in these heat blessed lands. I had been having all sorts of weird dreams and awoke with a start. I gave up, I did, didn’t I? I’m sure I did. Then why does ... Read more >
Tags: asia, haze, kuala lumpur, malaysia, summer
CAMBODIA | Thursday, 4 Jul 2013 | Views [486]
I usually have little trouble with children. They know their place and I know mine. In rapscallion moments I have been called a ‘dinosaur’, a ‘mountain’ and things in Chinese I have not the wit to translate. Over time I have ... Read more >
Tags: cambodia, colour, hat, siem reap
SINGAPORE | Thursday, 4 Jul 2013 | Views [322]
OMG, WTF good grief and maybe even WOW, the wasp coloured double-decker bus to Singapore stung my sight. It was so posh that even had a Captain instead of a bus driver, boarding passes instead of tickets and those little screens in the back of seats ... Read more >
Tags: asia, bus, singapore, travel
PHILIPPINES | Thursday, 4 Jul 2013 | Views [751]
It was back to that old ex-US military base at Clark, Manila, The Philippines. And it was for no other reason than there was an available flight. On this, my second trip to Makati City, one of the accumulated cities which comprise Manila, a Dutch tourist ... Read more >
Tags: art, asia, makati, manila, philippines
PHILIPPINES | Thursday, 4 Jul 2013 | Views [484]
I was still nursing a dehydration headache from the flight. It had been somewhat of an experience - the journey from Puchong to Clark International Airport (Manila). The flight was slightly delayed, as low cost flights frequently are, and we arrived ... Read more >
Tags: asia, manila, the philippines
MALAYSIA | Thursday, 4 Jul 2013 | Views [1019]
“Ihachew” “Ihachew” “Ihachew”, those four-year-old’s words still ring in my aging ears. Until this very day I have no idea what I had done for that small child to stand, at three feet nothing tall, purse her ... Read more >
Tags: asia, christmas, food, malaysia, penang
MALAYSIA | Thursday, 4 Jul 2013 | Views [1476]
Cameron Highlands was founded as part of the British love for escaping heat. The British, in their infinite wisdom, tended to invade hot countries and then proceed to complain about the heat - and thereby establishing Hill Stations to escape from that ... Read more >
Tags: asia, cameron, food, highlands, malaysia
CAMBODIA | Thursday, 4 Jul 2013 | Views [486]
The desiccated rat lying under the restaurant dining table was, probably, not the worse experience of my life, but it was, nevertheless, an eye opener to the northern Cambodian city of Battambang (pronounced battenbong).
It had been ... Read more >
Tags: battambang, cambodia
CAMBODIA | Thursday, 4 Jul 2013 | Views [763]
Siem Reap had changed out of all proportion when I reached there nine months later. The old spreading tree, under which I had eaten so many meals, had disappeared to be replaced with a bank of shops, yet more restaurants and a boulangerie. Tourists had ... Read more >
Tags: cambodia, siem reap
SINGAPORE | Thursday, 4 Jul 2013 | Views [1018]
Merlion city was awash with business types, drizzles of rain and a focused rushing towards year end and year beginning.
Singapore was just where I had left it several months beforehand - at the end of the Johor Bahru causeway and ... Read more >
Tags: asia, singapore, travel
MALAYSIA | Thursday, 4 Jul 2013 | Views [1157]
I imagine that cat’s name must have been Tiger, or its equivalent in Malay (Harimau), but I think of him as Blake’s ‘Tyger’. He was certainly one of the most striking cats that I have ever seen. He lay there, in that long greenhouse, ... Read more >
Tags: asia, food, malaysia
MALAYSIA | Thursday, 4 Jul 2013 | Views [555]
To have been bereft of ‘real’ bacon for neigh-on seven years was a great hardship. I was born and brought up as an Englishman; the consumption of bacon, and all things porcine, was second nature to me. The absence of pork products, and in ... Read more >
Tags: asia, food, malaysia
MALAYSIA | Thursday, 4 Jul 2013 | Views [565]
Mother-in-Law’s kitchen was infused with the sort of light which could only be accurately captured by that miracle of Chinese film making - Zhang Yimou. Inside - the ambience was Chinese rustic meets culinary museum as a poignant and pregnant ... Read more >
Tags: asia, food, malaysia
