travels with an ageing punkrocker/publisher
Happy New Calendar Year. It’s a good thing that the Vietnamese seem to be happy celebrating every new year, be it calendar, Chinese lunar, or their own lunar (which may or may not coincide with Chinese lunar) as around 1140pm on New Year’s Eve the heavens opened up and it rained a bit for at least the next hour. Fortunately […]
Read moreIt’s new year’s eve, and from the 15th floor of the Odin Hotel we can clearly hear what sounds like the strains of a passionate karaoke singer, while out the window the Grand Hyams Hotel is one big light show. The streets of Quy Nhon are full of families on scooters, but its not the same dense throng we saw […]
Read moreI neglected to mention that there was also dessert on last night’s food and scooter tour, wonderful milk puddings, basically pannacotta/creme caramel (something else the Vietnamese kept when they sent the French packing) in three flavours: matcha, cream cheese, and caramel. Quite delicious. Started with a decent breakfast at the hotel, noting that their banh canh is quite different to […]
Read moreAnother fine day in Ho Chi Minh City. We checked out the hotel breakfast, it was pretty good, plenty of local options and no baked beans nor scrambled eggs to be seen. Highlight were definitely the chicken mince skewers that were wrapped around lemongrass stalks. L and I took in the sights of old Saigon, including the Notre Dame cathedral […]
Read moreAnd we’re back to South Seas Asia, Viet Nam again. A quick 12 day jaunt for me (L has a few extra days at the end as she doesn’t need to go straight back to work) for food, shopping, and generally soaking in the VN vibe. The day started, as these trips generally do, with the damn early Singapore Airlines […]
Read moreThere’s a line by Mick Thomas in a Weddings Parties Anything song that goes, “There’s no point writing postcards on your bad days” and I quote it a bit. I’m gonna tweak it a little today, and turn it into: there’s no point writing long postcards on you long days; and with today being a long long long day, I’ll […]
Read moreChiang Mai is the largest city in Thailand’s north, and while still quite large feels a lot less busy than Bangkok. Like many cities, it’s pretty quiet on Tuesday nights, so when L and I checked out the 6ixcret drag show, for the first half of the show we were the only audience before another couple wandered in. All credit […]
Read moreI get my kicks around the waistline sunshine. Especially when laughing a lot and being thoroughly entertained by the amazing and fabulous queens at Pangina’s House of Heals. The queens they use definitely excite, and we were treated to a fabulous show by Meanie Minaj, Zandy Cyanide, Gimhuay, Zebee, and the sublime Angele Anang. If in Bangkok just go, be […]
Read moreSMILE, YOU’RE TRAVELLING! goes the Henry Rollins quote/frequent catchphrase. Usually said ironically. It’s that time again, the eve of a much deserved and needed relaxation break across Thailand, starting with one night in Bangkok before Chiang Mai and Phuket. The single step on this journey is a sleepy one, as Clouds played the Rosemount Hotel last night, not ideal for […]
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 moreGin. All over the world, countries that have never grown juniper berries are making this stuff. And then a selection of these come to Singapore, to the ground floor of a crazy faux art deco tower. Atlas Bar. I first came here in Feb 2020, during a Singapore boys’ trip that I meant to blog but never got around to. […]
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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