Well, it’s almost time. In less than a week, at 7am on Friday 1st September, I’ll close my hall door for the last time until mid December and head off by bus for the Dublin Ferryport with my backpack, under 10kg, on my back. I’ll be taking the first step[…]
In my last blog, I said I would be going across Russia and then leaving from Vladivostok to travel by ferry to Korea Japan and China. On reflection, I have decided to eliminate the Korean and Japanese legs of my journey. This is mainly because of the time it would[…]
First of all, I’m not a train nut. I don’t wear an anorak and stand in the rain at the end of railway platforms and scribble down passing train numbers in a cheap notebook with a blunt stubby pencil while peering myopically through my rain splattered specs and wondering if[…]
Last Autumn, as I noticed the evenings drawing in, I reflected that less than a year ago I was traipsing around China with a pack on my back and without too many worries in the world. I felt a familiar itch in the soles of my feet and said to[…]
Jaysus, I’m so hungry I’d ate a nun’s arse through a convent wall, I said to myself as I shumbled out of the damp dreary Dublin dusk into the bright warm welcoming embrace of Cornucopia. I marvelled, as I often do, at the glorious incongruity of the very existence of[…]
The weather is slowly changing here in Hong Kong. A few days ago, there was a very slight, almost imperceptible, nip in the air. Everybody started wearing coats and long trousers. “It’s freezing” I overheard several people say. Yet, the mercury hardly dipped below 25 degrees C. The humidity has[…]
I had about a thousand word article written for this blog but unfortunately the dreaded cybergobbler devoured it. Not sure how I managed this but I was trying to free up space and deleted it accidentally. I had a local copy on my iPad and not my Dropbox and deleted[…]
On motorbikes, motorcars, mosquitoes and mangy dogs. And magnificent mangoes too. First of all, mangos. What a magnificent fruit they are. The taste, sight and smell of them will always conjure up the sense of Asia for me. The last time I was in SE Asia, two years ago, I[…]
On monsoons, monks, manky meals, mediocre meals and magnificent meals, mangy mongrels, mosquitos, motorbikes and meandering Came to the end of my first week in Thailand. I can’t believe it’s just over a week since I left dear old damp Dublin. Settling into the ways of being in Asia. Once[…]
On a level road now in Chiang Mai. Getting to know the ropes in the new job and the people working here. I’m seriously impressed with the programme and the practitioners. I have worked in this field for quite a while now and have experience of some terrible places as[…]
Sun 19 July 10:30am In Bangkok Airways, “The Boutique Airline” lounge. Quite posh, free grub, internet, coffee, etc. My flight is at 12:30; 2 hours away. Last night, when I mentioned at the reception desk of my hotel that I would be departing the next day and could they order[…]
What I meant to say was ‘Here we go again’ and talk about Hong Kong. Mind you, now that I think about it, there are not nearly as many earwigs about as there were when I was a chiseler. They seemed to be everywhere then. Lift up a box or[…]
