Adelaide…The “Rad”.

Adelaide, dear readers, the Queen of the South, the Athens of the Antipodes, the Paradise of Dissent. It was here that my ancestors toiled, span and weaved, punched and ducked, danced and drank, plowed and plunked, they squeezed accordions and strummed guitars, broke horses and ran bars, sat in Parliament and stood at sit-ins. Adelaide […]

Balinese Bods, Odds and Sods.

Some sensible and practical advice (based on sound reasoning, close observation and awful rhyming.)

The Ubudese live a life of ease you rarely see their Bali knees Soloans sweet as honey bees but ditto with their Java Knees Folks are playful, kind and squeezy, (Particularly those in Sulawesi). Frank Sumatrans do it their way Orangutans have awful hair days. But my fellow pale faced friends If fearful that your […]

My very first Dragon

OK, I’m no linguist and I think perhaps that “Komodo” may well be the generic Balinese name for Lizards. But anyhow, I’m getting ahead of myself. So there I was, I’d finished my Chia and mixed fruit bowl with a ginger and lime juice featuring, I think you’ll agree, a VERY tasteful stirrer. Sated, I […]

Bali Kites

So I lied. Get used to it powderpuffs.

Now HERE is the last blog from Bangers, luckily for you all there’s no wifi at the station or on the train. Here is the sensational Dum sim from the Shanghai mansions. Served by the incredibly beautiful and kind Ruby. When Ruby asked after “Madam” and I explained that K was in Adelaide to be […]

The Temple of the Fish-Eyed Goddess

We’ve been intrigued by the Meenakshi Temple at Madurai since reading an essay on it by William Dalrymple in The Age of Kali. Meenakshi is a form of the goddess Parvati. She is the wombless issue of the Pandyan King Malayadhwaja and his wife Kanchanamala – a gift from Shiva. She is born with three breasts […]

The VERY BIG TRAIN and the teensy-weensy lane.

Once upon a time, in a deep dark cave (right next to a teensy-weensy lane full of love) there lived a VERY BIG TRAIN. Now not just once but several times a day, this throbbing, smoking, rattling iron Dragon would hurtle its several hundred thousand tons of flashing steel out of the cave, down the […]

Da Nang: Valley of the Coffee Dolls

We were lying in bed in Da Nang watching the neon sign of the Hotel Miami Beach flicker. It’s all strangely quiet and tourist free. We had expected a bigger badder Nha Trang but there’s not a growling, beetle-browed Russian bear in sight. No bears, but quite a Dragon. Da Nang is famous for it’s […]