travels with an ageing punkrocker/publisher
A fairly quiet day really, as the plan was that I’d get picked up around 4pm at the hotel for my flight to HCMC then home. I’m writing this at Da Nang airport, after my flight was due to depart, as VietJet have been sending me updates all day telling me my flight is delayed. In theory I’ve got about […]
Read moreMy last full day in Hoi An, and also L’s birthday. After breakfast we went to pick up our laundry, things sure are fierce along laundry street. once we’d got our clothes we walked the length of the street, and no less than two other locals, looking at our bag (and assuming it contained dirty clothes) gestured for us to […]
Read moreCoffee. Viet Nam is one of the world’s largest producers of these wonderful beans, though they rarely get recognised for this as the majority is robusta, not the better marketed arabica variety. I’m not even sure many self-proclaimed coffee snobs know much about robusta beans, as these tend to form the backbone of the instant coffee market. Kind of like […]
Read moreThe historic village of Hoi An sits about 25km south of Da Nang. Even 10 years ago, there as a definite undeveloped space between the two. These days, the coast south of Da Nang is full of new resorts, and resorts under construction, so it’s hard to say where Da Nang ends and Hoi An begins. If you want something […]
Read moreWhere I become an accidental pilgrim, and walk a lot. Woke still quite tired, but with my hotel room facing east the morning sun was warming it up (there is an aircon in the room, but it is more noise than cool) so it was time to go walking. Found an interesting and popular place, Leni Loves Coffee I think […]
Read moreLast full day in Edinburgh, so spent almost 17,000 steps making the most of it. First stop of the day was the tram down to Haymarket, basically the closest laundromat. They apparently do pick up laundry from my hotel, which reception failed to advise me late night when I asked them where the nearest laundromat was, and they also do […]
Read moreBasically a day of wandering around Edinburgh, seeing pretty things, buying a few things for me and others, and eating things. Kicked off with a bit of a wander through New Town, and by new, we’re talking only built up around 250 years ago. It’s a chunk less touristy than the Old Town, there are odd spots but generally the […]
Read more“A short trip to Dufftown”, words that will live in infamy almost as long as the Duke of Cumberland’s orders of “No quarter” at Culloden. Travelling with a member of Clan Donald, a visit to the battlefield of Culloden was on the itinerary. You won’t get a history lesson here, as a chunk of what I know is derived from […]
Read moreNow where were we? Then it was walk, kebab, sleep, hangover. Welcome to Glasgow. Ah, I remember now. It was a rather slow morning, doing as little as possible while my liver and kidneys did what I brought them along to do, and the paracetamol kicked in to help some. I was upright and mostly human by around 11.30am, just […]
Read moreThe final actual day in Frankfurt, and I’ve done a lot of walking the last couple of days, so I took things a bit slower. I had planned to take in a couple of museums, the Senckenberg Natural History Museum and the Stadt Museum, but I stuffed up on the research as the Stadt is closed on Mondays. Fortunately the […]
Read moreOur last full day in Singapore, and, weirdly enough, according to our various step trackers, our most walked day of the trip. We kicked off with the Gardens by the Bay, that wonderful Singapore landmark with the crazy artistically fake trees that you see in all the tourist videos. Our rideshare driver taking us there was a hoot, had lots […]
Read moreIt’s kinda weird to be back in a place where people speak English, signs are in English, cars drive on the left all the time, intersections are controlled, people queue in an orderly fashion, yet at the same time looks and feels foreign. Singapore, somewhere I’m yet to spend enough time in to gain anything but a surface understanding of: […]
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