North by North East

Incredibly…somehow…you’ll be shocked gentle reader but it’s true…we left Adelaide…the crucible of democracy, birthplace of the Arts, rivers of fine wine and bubbling beer brooks. Crumbling cliffs of Golden North Honey Ice Cream, Menz Yo-Yo biscuits standing stiffly in a row, Woodroofe’s lemonade flowing from the fountains, King George Whiting the size of blue-fin tuna […]

Ubud…the Dancing Quince.

Certainly I was overexcited. There’s no point denying it. After a month of being a shipwreck on the shore of the sea of life, only staying afloat due to very occasional uplifting encounters with mermen and mermaids like Mirek and Ksenija. (They have a truly excellent beautifully written and put together blog by the way, […]

The Green Palace of Mysore

When in Mysore we stay at the Green Palace Hotel. The GP is a stately pile, evidently built by the Maharaja for one of his sisters. We think it may have been a less-favoured sister as the place, glorious though it is, is, (in Mysore Maharaja terms) more of a hunting lodge, albeit a grand […]

Kochi #2

Kochi is so very beautiful, so full of amazing tableaux that it could not be contained in one blog. Thus…White ginger sifters, black Santa, Dhobi Wallahs, Ayurvedic massage recipients bearing uncanny resemblances to road accident victims, a Hebrew village, Bolsheviks, Catholics, Dutch Skulls and crossbones.

Udupi Idyll: Let’s Dance !

Udupi, Karnataka is a temple town, a place of pilgrimage and prayer, with rather amazing temple chariots. Rooly trooly chariots of the Gods. It is a charming place but we have a terrible, terrible confession to make. We know that in your eyes we are like a cross between Scott of the Antarctic, Edmund Hillary, […]

Hypochondria ? Can you catch it ?

Hypochondriacal inclinations are, (like everything else in SE Asia), magnified. As I write this on the banks of the Nam Khan River, huge blue and gold butterfly’s flap past, enormous, dappled, layered, cloud covered mountain ranges loom, elephants trumpet (seriously, there are several sanctuaries within […]

Bears, Buffaloes and Butterflies

The Tang of Luang Prabang After 12 hours in a bus on a death-defying mountain road sustained only by our collective suspension of disbelief in the laws of gravity, and by many, many novenas, confessions of guilt and beggings for forgiveness, remembrance of sins of omission and commission, Ave Maria’s, Stations of the Cross and […]

The Road to Luang Prabang

Correction: The looooooong and winding road to Luang Prabang Bing and Bob weren’t onboard but there was certainly a plethora of Dorothy Lamours complete with sarongs, (though smaller, browner and marginally less glamorous). We were picked up in the VIP chauffeur-driven cattle truck and bumped merrily along to the bus station. The usual Security Committee […]

Chaos in Laos

The intricacies of getting a Thai visa in Vientiane make Maurits Escher’s stairs seem like a small folding step ladder. One moment you’re confidently striding upwards, the next dangling from monkey bars above a pit of writhing snakes. There are religiously special times for a cascading series of spectacularly badly defined but rigorously upheld procedures. […]

The Kindness of Strangers

Take a bow world. People, pat yourselves on the back. Goodness and decency flourish. Kindness, laughter and generosity of spirit rule. Like Blanche Dubois we are constantly amazed, warmed, delighted and thankful for the generosity and warmth we’ve encountered from total strangers on our travels. Here are some of the stars of our show, people […]