Improvise and overcome – Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge I’m told the population of Taipei is 2.8 million, and I’m staying in its beating downtown heart. But yesterday a thirty second walk from the vibrantly buzzing A Dot Hostel, then a … Read More »
My first encounter with the far east’s, and more particularly China’s, emphasis on the importance of face came not in China but Bangkok in 2009. I was at the snake farm attached to one of the city’s several world class … Read More »
The North Downs of Kent and Surrey, like the more beautiful South Downs of Hampshire and Sussex, are predominantly chalk. Highly porous, their streams are few and far between but here and there, where chalk lies above clay, a small … Read More »
Sandwiched between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, here’s Bridlington on Saturday. [ezcol_1half][/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end][/ezcol_1half_end]
Seven am. The rhythmic thumping of dhobi women on the ghat below has been with me since before dawn. As Rajasthani summer gathers pace, nights as hot as day have me sleeping nude without covers on the bed; fan on … Read More »
Yesterday evening. I deem it a fine joint, given that it’s the first I’ve rolled in a quarter century, but Guddu’s tone has a dismissive note I don’t entirely care for at so milestone a moment. On what criterion does it … Read More »
It’s tricky, negotiating a way down this baked and rutted track to a lake spied from the road. I have to calibrate. Too little power and I come a cropper as front wheel fails to steer round or over the ruts, pitching the machine sideways. … Read More »
How rude of me! I haven’t yet shown the view from my window. Here it is: After coffee and fruit I took myself down to a park, south of town and near the lake. First thing I happened upon … Read More »
Stuff to do! My first task, after coffee of course, is to get myself to the spice market a mile to the northeast of my den on Gangaur Ghat. I prefer to walk at this time of day, though some … Read More »
[ezcol_1half]Early yesterday morning a cormorant on Pichola’s north-east corner, in Udaipur’s Old City where it narrows to a canal connecting the lake to Fateh Sagar, caught a pipefish a foot long. I didn’t see the duo surface, the one to … Read More »