Monday morning is hereby cancelled by order of hangover. We struggled down to the restaurant for lunch, thought a laksa might bring me to life but hotel version not the greatest. Back upstairs for a nap and a massage: I got the wonderful gentle one, L got tortured. Boarded a metro train to the next stop, a weird busy mix […]

Rose early for the big fat Chinese wedding. The plan was for the boys to be on the road to the bride’s house by 9, but some things are cross cultural: when the bride’s hair and make-up isn’t ready, everyone waits. The cars for the groom’s party arrived and we piled in, briefed for our roles but still not prepared […]

I think it was the Pabst that gave me the crappy head, as I only had three very small measures of baijo. The hotel breakfast took most of this away, with all the staples plus some chicken noodle broth and some loal cardamom-flavoured doughnuts. The breakfast buffet does offer a wide selection, including broccolli/cauliflower, taro cakes, pumpkin balls, black rice […]

China is a magnificent, ancient, land of culture. I am, if nothing else, maybe slightly above the average base grade western barbarian tourist. I don’t speak the local lingo, save for a handful of words (thank you, hello, pork dumplings, fire water/Chinese ‘Whisky’) and can read nothing in Chinese script. So I’m obviously prepared. The good news is that L […]

This trip takes L and I behind the great firewall of China, and then across the alleged land of the free, the USA. Kind of in Nixon’s footsteps, so to speak, especially given the final stop of my itinerary is the World Fantasy Convention in Washington D.C., and I figure if anyone had world fantasies in D.C., ol’ Dickie Milhous […]