After a hectic Christmas day at the pool – and an exhausting evening posing around the Christmas tree at the Majestic Hotel – We were definitely in need of some R & R on Boxing Day, so headed off to the beach in Thailand. Krabi was not quite what I was expecting. Despite the severe… Continue reading Krabi … but not Crabby
Taiwan: Temples, Trains and Toilets
Taiwan is an intriguing mix of the old and the very new – Taipei 101, shaped like a piece of bamboo, was the tallest building in the world until 2004 – – and it’s considered cool to have your picture taken perched precariously on a wet and slippery rock halfway up the mountain behind the… Continue reading Taiwan: Temples, Trains and Toilets
Street food in Taiwan
When you tell anyone in SE Asia that you’re going to Taiwan, they roll their eyes ecstatically and say, ‘Ooh – the food!’ So when I arrived in Taipei, getting to grips with the local food was my number one priority. I really like walking food tours, where the tour guide walks you around an… Continue reading Street food in Taiwan
Two weddings and a funeral – and a blow to my ego
I feel that I’ve hurtled at breakneck speed towards the end of my final term at school here in KL. The tempo increased when, sadly, I had to make a second flying visit back to England, just three weeks after Sam’s wedding, for my dad’s funeral. Once back in KL, it was a sprint… Continue reading Two weddings and a funeral – and a blow to my ego
A week of Thai feasting – part two
Life lessons continued: 3. When you go to visit a friend abroad and she asks what you’d like to do while you’re there, say that you’d like to do a food tour, thereby disguising greed as cultural appreciation. That strategy found me on a food tour of Bangkok with Angel – – here we are… Continue reading A week of Thai feasting – part two
A week of Thai feasting – part one
Life lessons: When a chef brings a pot of his own Thai green curry to a potluck supper, you make a beeline for it. When a friend then invites you to dinner at that restaurant, you accept with alacrity and Old Siam is even within walking distance for me … result! Pad Thai is… Continue reading A week of Thai feasting – part one
Crazy Rich Asian Parents
It’s not just Singapore that has Crazy Rich Asians – the Chinese Malaysian parents in KL are up there with the best of them. The most ridiculous thing I’ve been asked to date by a parent, was whether I thought it would be a good idea for a five-year-old to start learning Latin ‘because it… Continue reading Crazy Rich Asian Parents
Wedding number one …
As I have recently learnt, having just the one wedding when you get married is SO last year – in fact a friend in KL is having three, so I wasn’t surprised when Sam and Alice announced that they would be having two weddings. Wedding number one was yesterday – a beautiful sunny autumn day… Continue reading Wedding number one …
Feeding my addiction
Mindful that I will be leaving KL at the end of the year, and will be cut off from my new favourite foods, I put out a plea on the local residents Facebook page – I got a few suggestions for using salted egg powder instead of the real thing, which just wouldn’t be the… Continue reading Feeding my addiction
White Supremacist joins KL school
I’m constantly shocked by the number of spelling mistakes in the teaching materials at the language school where I work. In a recent lesson on Sherlock Holmes, we had two creatively spelt names to contend with – I can only assume that Dr Whatson is a relative of Dr Who. Then we had a worksheet… Continue reading White Supremacist joins KL school
A Walk in the Black Forest …
… no, not that Black Forest – this one was only black because it was dark, very dark. It was a night walk held at the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia, and our volunteer guide was a self-confessed snake addict. Here he is holding his special snake stick – – I thought it was for… Continue reading A Walk in the Black Forest …
A quandary …
What do you do when your guide on a walking tour turns out to be an obsessive nose-picker – – and then, when you get to a steep step down onto a narrow path between two rice paddies – – he offers you his hand? Do you … a) say breezily, ‘no thank you, I’m… Continue reading A quandary …
Bali Highs and Bali Lows
After a 3-day weekend with a jaunt to Java last week, I had a 4-day weekend this week … gotta love the Malaysian public holidays! I decided to make the most of my time off with a trip to Bali, as it’s just a hop and a skip from KL on Air Asia, and a… Continue reading Bali Highs and Bali Lows
Me and you and a cat named Lou
If there’s one thing you have to do in Java, it’s indulge in a cup of coffee – And I decided to try coffee luwak, or civet coffee as it’s called in English. Civet coffee is the foie gras of Asia … some people are willing to pay up to £60 for a cup, while… Continue reading Me and you and a cat named Lou
The Triangle of Life
I’ve seen The Lion King, so I’m up to speed on the Circle of Life but, never having lived in an earthquake zone, the Triangle of Life was new to me. Luckily my hotel room in Yogyakarta, Java last weekend had a very helpful guide – Unfortunately there was no large chair or sofa in… Continue reading The Triangle of Life
Being Intrepid – some successes and a failure
A perfect night to head off into the jungle to see fireflies – “In a minute, you will see like Christmas tree,” our guide said. And she wasn’t wrong – all the mangrove trees lining the river were filled with tiny twinkling lights. I tried to photograph them, but just got a completely black picture.… Continue reading Being Intrepid – some successes and a failure
When my heart nearly stopped in Borneo
I’ve been on a jungle trekking expedition in Sabah – the furthest outpost of Malaysia, way out on the eastern edge of Borneo. We spent our time either cruising down the river looking for wildlife, or manfully hacking our way through the jungle on what were euphemistically termed ‘jungle walks’. I managed to rip two… Continue reading When my heart nearly stopped in Borneo
East is East …
Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet … … Well, Rudyard Kipling had obviously never been to Malaysia, is all I can say. One of the things I shall miss most – OK, the one thing that I will miss the most – when I leave KL is… Continue reading East is East …
On a journey to enlightenment, also involving chicken feet
One astonishing fact about Malaysia is that there’s only one place in the whole country where it’s legal to gamble. It’s astonishing because this is a country with 6.6 million Chinese inhabitants, and the Chinese love to gamble. So why the government isn’t cashing in on this and setting up casinos in every town, I… Continue reading On a journey to enlightenment, also involving chicken feet
A week of firsts …
After a while, once you get used to your new surroundings, even somewhere as different as Malaysia can seem a bit same-old, same-old. So it was very exciting last week to do a whole host of new things. For starters, I went into Chinatown and had my first ever frog porridge – I have to… Continue reading A week of firsts …