Benders to Beeches

A particularly magical part of the world this country Victoria. A whole generation of cashed up hippie musicians and artists from Melbourne and flotillas of gorgeous and immaculate gay guys from the hospitality sector in Sydney have met half way (so to speak) and created a joyous outburst of fine dining and sweet living. God […]

Jimmy

A slice of Alice on Anzac Day. We emerged from the lovely Diplomat Motor Inn, we’d missed the Dawn Service but comforted ourselves with the thought that the ANZAC’s would have rather been in a comfy bed too. Still, we might get a glimpse of the March ? So out we trundled when suddenly with […]

Bengali Bonhomie. Kolkata Kindness.

Kolkata. Take 2. It’s grand to revisit but especially when a city has captured your heart. There’s something about Kolkata. The place. The people. The joie-de-vivre. The haunting smells of cardamom, rose, garlic, onions and incense. The bite of chilli to your eyes. The constant squawking crow-chatter with their balletic swoops hither and thither. We […]

Délices d’Architecture- Udaipur

Gentle breezes across the Lake, Bursts of colorful bougainvillea, rhododendrons, frangipanis, elusive perfumes wafting from each corner, the light twinkling on the water, the classically beautiful lakeside havelis thronging the shoreline. We are discussing life, love, literature with our new-found, eminently entertaining friends Bob and Wendy. We are covertly and nefariously drinking gin from Bill’s […]

The Fairlawn, Kolkata

We’ve splurged on The Fairlawn in Kolkata for 2 nights. A splendid old bungalow which makes a bold, persistent and unashamed declaration of love to the colour green. (We are told that old, venerable, recently departed and lately lamented Mrs Smith, the formidable and legendary Lady of the House, had the paintwallahs out each day […]

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 […]

King of Jazz

Thailand’s previous King, Rama IX, Bhumibol Adulyadej, who sadly passed away in 2016, was revered by his people as a God King. Apart from manfully shouldering the weighty burden of being both King and Deity Rama IX was a renaissance man, educated in the USA and Europe before the War, called to the throne by the […]

Pad Thai-riffic

You look out for the long winding queue… (the restaurants next door have few diners and, inevitably, long faced restauranters who no doubt dream of slipping arsenic into the bubbling vats or releasing rats and cockroaches into the kitchen) but you can’t miss Thipsamai – and as you can see from the photo above very […]