Over the years I’ve returned sporadically to places like Penang, Chiang Mai and Kathmandu, those watering holes where I and so many others ‘chilled out’ (in today’s parlance) along the great Asian overland route in the 1970s. Once or twice I have sought out those same fabled flophouses, the seedy Chinese hotels and the [...]
Posts tagged freelance
Tell Them to Get Lost: Back on the Ba...
Over the years I’ve returned sporadically to places like Penang, Chiang Mai and Kathmandu, those watering holes where I and so many others ‘chilled out’ (in today’s parlance) along the great Asian overland route in the 1970s. Once or twice I have sought out those same fabled flophouses, the seedy Chinese hotels and the [...]
Revisiting The World’s Most Liv...
Lately I seem to have become a tourist here in my own town… yes, the one which styles itself The World’s Most Liveable City (even if recent events have sorely tested that smug assertion).
Having the company of two young Japanese house guests, one after the other, has taken us out and about to see the local sights through fresh eye [...]
Negotiating the labyrinth – a v...
I’m heading back to India soon, an opportunity too good to miss. But first, the formalities…
Indian border security conjures up images of khaki-clad troops and paramilitary police, propped on folding chairs outside semi-permanent tent camps, flipping idly through passports or fingering their cumbersome rifles. Flies buzz, gaunt ca [...]
To the Manor Born at Hartington Hall
Our latest home exchange in Britain was drawing to a close. By now we had explored much of the Midlands from our base in the ‘Black Country’ between Birmingham and the Welsh borders, so it was time to venture further afield – except that this would prove to be the wettest April recorded in England for a hundred years.
Hartin [...]
Is it safe to go to Egypt?
Honest, officer, I’m a big boy now. I can do it all by myself… but the Tourist Police officer seemed less certain, as he walked me to the public toilet in Cairo’s bustling Khan el-Khalili quarter and positioned himself outside the cubicle.
Khan el Khalili quarter, Cairo
Foreign governments urge us to ‘reconsider your need’ to visit E [...]
