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 […]

Muzium Telekom

I was wandering peripateticly (as you do,) and came across this staircase, it looked green and inviting so I accepted the invitation and up I went I did. Past this beautiful flower and this sleepy guy, (sssshhhh, come on, lets tippy toe past him). Up up to the corner and around the bend, walking, walking, […]

Lovely Indian Images

Some wonderful images sent to us from our cousin Rono in Kolkata.

Bangkok Bizarrities

Bang Bang

Lets get get one thing straight, we’re albino Bengalis not bang bang kokolees but man oh man what a show Bangkok is turning on for us. But before we settle down with a Chang Lager and Dum sim here is the great Betty Chung’s bang bang. OK, she’s not Thai but we’re all Asian in […]

The Indian Museum

We revisited the Indian Museum on Chowringhee, an amazing shrine to Civilisation, and passed these characters on our way down Sudder Street. The Indian Museum is one of the great museums of the world. A cathedral to culture and industry. Vast rooms, one upon another, each the size of ballrooms, pillared, plastered, soaring ceilings, doors […]

Sravanabalagola

A giant Jain Saint stands meditating on top of a holy hill, 2 hours from Mysore, concrete tendrils winding around his calves as he stands in blissful serenity gazing at the hazy plain below. We took a cab through miles of sugar cane and bananas. Some ladies were letting the traffic thresh their harvest. […]

Graphic Art of India

In Ye olde days (the 1980s) India had fabulous graphic art everywhere. Hand painted and drawn signs, advertisements and giant movie posters abounded. They were glorious, and always just a tiny bit strange, out of proportion, really quite large stars making eyes at each other or gazing dreamily into the middle distance, looking as if […]

Mysore Palace

Mysore has the Palace from central casting. Overwhelmingly beautiful, a melange of styles and colours that come together incredibly well. It’s a pastel wedding cake that perfectly captures the essence of India – a hodgepodge, a mishmash, a series of stratified layers and rings more numerous than any tree or rock, an avalanche of appropriations […]

Madurai

Madurai is the most photogenic place in India. Beautiful locals with soulful smiles, incredible wrought iron, modernist pastel buildings and outlandish graphic art. Our window looks out onto the Meenakshi temple so at around 5 in the morning there is the Quasimodo effect – bells that seem to ring sonorously but interminably. There is also […]