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Five flavours: Day 13 Bangkok to Chiang Mai
Soundtrack: “Young and Beautiful”, Lana del Rey It probably says something about the last few days that I slept almost okay the night before a flight. I woke up once or twice too often, and certainly didn’t feel refreshed and bouncing by the time the alarm went off, but I’ve definitely had worst nights this (and other) trips. It wasn’t the most organised and elegant packing job, but everything fit okay. It’s just over an hour to fly from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, so while I packed essentials into hand luggage, I wasn’t too fussed about making sure I had a book to read and stuff like that. There’s also…
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Five flavours: Day 11 Bangkok
Soundtrack: “Pink Pony Club”, Chappell Roan “Bangkok, oriental setting, and the city don’t know that the city is getting … I’d let you watch, I would invite you but the queens we use would not excite you.” So go the lyrics by Tim Rice and Bjorn Ulvaeous, and in the context of the Chess musical fair enough. But I can tell you that Bangkok queens should excite you. Just don’t get too excited. I woke up after too few hours sleep, too little water, and possibly one too many drinks the night before. Bangkok is a noisy city, and my generic hotel room’s airconditioner is possibly overpowered for the space:…
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Five flavours: Day 10 Hoi An to Bangkok
Soundtrack: “England 2 Colombia 0”, Kirsty MacColl Our last breakfast in Hoi An was mi quang, wonderful rice noodles, pork, quail eggs, and shrimp, in a salty broth full of flavour. I did a better job of making the ca phe sua da, being more patient in my water pouring. The hotel dining room television has generally been off during out stay, but today the Mexico vs England men’s world cup football game was on, so as I ate I watched the second half. The Vietnamese commentator was getting very excited when goals were scored or came close to being scored. I haven’t been paying the hugest amount of attention…
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SG24 – Day 3
One day I’ll be too old to be standing on a couch in a drag bar next to a transgender cheering on drag queens at 1.30am. For better or worse, that time is yet to come. For all of the multitude of wrong that is the Hard Rock Cafe, the Singapore establishment has been hosting a regular Saturday night drag performance Riot! for some time. For 2-3 hours they close the main area and let Becca D’Bus and other queens take over the stage (while there are still diners upstairs, who are probably wondering what they’ve walked into).I’d booked a seat in the “nice” area, far enough back from the…
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Day 22: Amsterdam
My full day in Amsterdam, and where I realise that I didn’t really have my act together planning this bit. After possibly not enough sleep, I made an earlyish start for the Rijksmuseum. I figured I could wander down the street my hotel is on and there must be somewhere I could get breakfast, as this also worked for getting the direct tram to the museum. As described yesterday, I really don;t know which establishments actually serve food or coffee in this city, which was made abundantly clear when I headed towards a large stand on the corner, to find that it sold all manner of chicken, from eggs by…
