Oh Calcutta

Snatches of Calcutta; the Oberoi’s Chauffeur, a Sikh in Sudder St, an explanation of Hijab in the Muslim quarter.

The Boat to Bali

Banyuwangi, unlike Krakatoa, actually East of Java….well…..Far eastern Java anyway. Let’s see, our last sight of Java was Ronnie, the Sunglasses King. Nice guy. The Customs Guy gave us a cheery thumbs up, though arguably technically not. More a fist really. Yes. Let’s face it. He was giving us the fist. I looked deeply […]

The Java Express

Toot toot ! Alllll Aboard ! I was very almost bodily carried from the ticket counter to the waiting room and from thence onto the train by these lovely Indonesians. What fine, kind people they are. I’m sorry this is such a crummy shot but it took me by surprise when all the porters at […]

Beautiful Boat People

The glamours of the KM Kelud on parade for you.

The coffee shop at the Pelni Boat Terminal Bataam

Well, not so much a coffee shop as a collection of crisps, biscuits, chocolates and sweets laid out on a tarp and/or pinned to a crumbling wall. The barista pours the powder into a plastic cup, tops it up with hot water from her pink thermos and voila ! Ye Gods above but Indonesian coffee […]

Singapore Farewell

Singapore is a great work of art, once a swamp but now a glittering paradisical homage to progress and tradition, a buzzing blend of cultures.

Central Market KL

The Happy People of Bukit Bintang

Kristen is still away grieving with her cousins and Aunty. I’m suddenly all on my own, a callow youth of barely 60 summers, lost in the big steaming megalopolis of KL. It sometimes makes me feel like this, While at other times it’s more like this, But bless the cotton socks of the Bukit Bintangians. […]

The Excellent Women of Ipoh (and a few good men).

Ipoh, Malaysia

I was upset when I arrived in Ipoh. Uncle Peter was dying. Kristen was in Adelaide. It was hot and sweaty. My hotel had run out of beer. Everything seemed to be closed. Places that said they were open were closed. It was pissing me off big time. I contemplated leaving straight away. Then it […]