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Five flavours: Day -2 Teaser preview
Soundtrack: “Spice Up Your Life”, The Spice Girls Five flavours to bind them all and in the humidity eat them. Sweet, sour, salty, spicy, and bitter are calling me. Don Walker may have written, “Went back to South East Asia, I know the answer sure ain’t there,” but I don’t think he’d even been to Bali at the time he wrote “Khe Sanh”. Maybe he was asking the wrong question, because if he’d been wondering about where to go to find a handful of awesome flavours that make the backbone of amazing cuisine, then SE Asia is the place to be. Five. Don Walker, Phil Small, Steve Prestwich, Ian Moss,…
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7NNT25: Day 37 – Singapore & home
Soundtrack: anything and everything by Lady Gaga; “Without a Trace”, Soul Asylum “Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,Do not go gentle into that good night.” — Dylan Thomas Figured I’d mix up the quote, as I know I tend to use the opening from Sylvia Plath’s “Two Lovers and a Beachcomber by the Real Sea” at the end of trips a fair bit. I’m writing this from the relative comfort of my home, over a day after arriving back in Noongar Boodjar, a contented dog snoring softly beside me. I say “relative comfort” as, after 5 weeks…
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7NNT-Day 0: Prep
Lagman, shivit oshi, khao soi, pho, banh canh, pancit, jook-sing, laksa, hor fun. It’s time to travel again. Case is packed, I know where my passports are, a new playlist has been synced to my venerable ipod mini, and the world awaits. Uzbekistan, Thailand, Viet Nam, Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore, 5 weeks of sun, fun, walking, touring, sweating, drinking, and of course, eating. Some of these places I’ve been before (this is my 5th time in Viet Nam) while others are completely new and unknown, places I’ve only seen on maps, or read about, or, in the case of the first stop, gone from almost zero knowledge to…
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@home, 2024 | baltics24, estonia, europe, finland, helsinki, istanbul, latvia, lithuania, riga, tallinn, turkiye, vilnius
Baltics24: Days 19-20 – Istanbul – Home
Home. Not Istanbul, nor Constantinople, nor Byzantium. Not Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn, Helsinki, Stockholm. Just a couch with a dog that has mostly forgiven, and the heater on, because we’d certainly acclimatised to 30 degree weather and are feeling the chill of an otherwise mild Perth winter. The journey home was uneventful, Singapore Airlines generally took care of us well (except for their website stuffing up L’s gf selection, and their online help being next to useless to correct it — Jeshua I’m keeping my eye on you). We bounced through Changi with enough time to grab some duty-free, and it’s good to see Changi airport has a lot more stores…
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Baltics24: Day 0: Perth – Transit
And we’re back, like we’ve never been away. Or never been home. Or home for quite a long time working up an appetite and budget for the next jaunt. Does any of that actually make sense? I don’t know, it’s already been a long day and it’s only getting longer. This time around the focus is the Baltic Sea and surrounds: Stockholm, Helsinki, Talinn, Riga, and Vilnius, with a stop at the end in Istanbul (not Constantinople) (and I can’t promise that’s the last time I say that). L has already had a week over that way, and we’ll meek up in Stockholm. L has done some of her booking…
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Vietnam the third: Day 1, Transit Day
Who doesn’t like a 3am start? Me for one, but when the mobile starts beeping and calling out that wonderful catch phrase, “Smile, you’re travelling!” then it’s just a case of sucking up the entitlement and hauling my white arse out of bed. An added bonus was pissing the cat off by having the audacity to get up before she’d had a chance to get in my face about her breakfast. So it was last minute run around, make sure animals were sorted, recheck the notes for the house sitter, and drive to the airport. Being generally prepared and seasoned travellers, we aimed for 2 hours pre-flight and weren’t too…
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Vietnam the third, Day -1
And we’re back, just about ready for the next trip. This time it’s back to Vietnam, and a few days on the way back in that Disneyland with the death penalty, Singapore. Our first trip in a post-COVID world. The packing is almost done, just the few basic bits like electronics and toiletries to pack. Nothing fancy is needed on this trip, as it involved Hoi An so there will be many more clothes joining us there. It’s an early morning flight, so I doubt I’ll sleep much tonight, but L has done her magic on the bookings so it’s business class all the way to Hanoi. It goes without…
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Day 0: PER to KUL
The tired and grumpy baby edition. And that’s not referring to the grumpy and tired baby waiting to board behind me, heck I sympathise entirely. It’s way past everyone’s bedtime, and who at Malaysia Airlines decided that 2.10am was a reasonable time to fly? I’m talking about the muppet waiting next to me, who has his mobile volume turned up and all the sounds trned on. I’m getting every beep, whorp, woowoo, and ding, and in my rather tired state not enjoying the soundtrack at all. I may not have documented this previously, but consider this a new pet peeve: just turn that shit off. I’m killing time, waiting to…
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Been halong time…
Yup. Due to Life, the universe, and everything, I haven’t used my passport in over 2 years. I’ve lost my gold frequent flyer status, and have 6 months to rescue my silver. Some days it feels the furthest I’ve been lately is Mandurah, and regardless of what my ipod plays it doesn’t look like the cover of Born Sandy Devotional anymore. But this is about to change. In just over a month, this blog will be alive with images of Indochina; posts about pachyderms, musings on nuoc mam cham, ramblings about rambutans, dribbling about durian, scribblings on sticky rice, warblings about wats, and ponderings on pho. Stay tuned.
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[NYC Day 0] Leaving Perth
Weird to think that I’m on my way to New York City. Boarding is not for a while, I got through security etc in very little time so I’ve got a moment to chill in the Qantas lounge. The place could use an extra power point or two, but the air con is good and the peach iced tea is drinkable. It’s probably a good thing I’m on my own this trip as there’s no real champagne in the place for L. I’ll be happier when they finish all the work around Perth airport. The drop off bays are really badly signposted, the roadworks make it way too interesting, and…
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@home, 2015 | new york new york, new york city, north america, preparation, saratoga springs, transit, usa
[NY Day -5] A new trip beckons
It’s been a while, and there are a few posts missing. And somewhere an update crunched the template I liked so there may be some further changes to how it looks around here. But enough of the boring stuff, a new trip is on the horizon! Next Sunday I’ll hop into a big ol jet airliner that will take me to JFK in NYC. As Michelle Shocked said, “New York City, imagine that”. It’ll be a whirlwind 13 day trip taking in the sights and sounds of both New York City and Saratoga Springs, NY. I’ll share some more stuff later, once the packing starts. <insert a message from my…
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Day 32 – London – Transit – Dubai – Transit – Perth
The end. Woke up in London, packed all the last minute stuff, and had out last continental breakfast. Also 5 minutes for my last errand, leaving behind the contained mum’s ashes were in. Took this to the church around the corner, St James. Tried to find someone to speak to, in the end I wrote a note, lit a candle, and put my remaining coinage into the donation safe. Had a miniddrama at the airport, as Emirates wanted to slug us extra for the upgrade (apparently the UK has a tax on upgrading to business class). Us, being simple, honest folk who believe if we’re quoted a figure, we’ll pay…
