I am staying at the old Gurkha (British Army) Barracks at Perowne in Hong Kong. Tuen Mun to be precise. 2 Castle Road to be even more exact. It is a visit that is strangely affecting me in a way I was not expecting at all. Let me test the feelings and see what it…
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Sunday is “maids day” in Hong Kong. We passed a flood of them pouring down the hill towards Central as we made our way to the tram terminus. Filipinos and Indonesians mainly. Like their sisters in the Middle East, Malaysia and Singapore. But my experience of them here in China is coloured by the abuse…
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Cultural impressions can occur in a range of different ways. You can walk up the back streets of Beijing and watch a man have his ablutions on a tin tray at one o’clock in the morning. Or drive the escarpments of Eastern Tibet and take an English class in a village which cannot ever recall…
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Pickledeel views on this subject can be found on Eric’s page. Though I don’t really believe haggling is necessary, culturally relevant/observant or otherwise in a visitor’s interests the Saudi’s in the Riyadh gold souk are certainly up for some negotiation. Just make it loud! 653 total views, 54 views today
653 total views, 54 views today
Travel is a great introspective tool, strangely mixed up with the opportunity to step outside of yourself to see how you fit in the world. An existential flux if you will. The more I travel the more I want to do more, not for the sake of travel (though worthy a motivation in itself as…
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2009 starts as it does with any other year – with plenty of colour and noise, folk travelling from all over the world to start the year here. It helps that the weather is hot and humid at this time, though new year in a snow bound New York has a certain appeal I have…
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At this time of the year I am especially alert to potentially lethal spiders that lurk in our gardens and right now are running about a bit earlier than usual looking for mates. Over the last week I have been digging trenches for new plumbing and have found a handful of their tunnels so am…
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But she meant well. It was a roast meat meal cooked on a spit which, when it took its full course disabled me in a hotel in Bangladesh two weeks later. Her two small boys hung around in the back of the stall. No one else had come near her stall all day and she…
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We were set a task of writing a short story romance (2000 words) which included reference to a black and white photograph. I started with a photo I had found in a second hand store in Vietnam, but always thought the face gazing out of it looked Malay. I picked it up off my desk…
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Another amateur photographer friend took this brilliant shot in NZ. It is the mountain parrot, best known for plucking the radio aerial off your car, ripping open your pack to get into your cereal and fruit and otherwise being a likable rogue. For the most part. Farmers take a different view when they select lamb…
653 total views, 54 views today