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Small suburban temple near Tainan I’m staring at the temple with a new mix of emotions. Amazement, wonder, disappointment, disbelief and finally anger. I’m in Jiufen in northeastern Taiwan and this temple is like nothing I’ve seen in five months of travel across China. The entranceway pillars are carved Continue reading Chinaland After our very relaxing Monday together, Alisha decides she will return to work in the morning and hands me the spare key to the apartment. This allows me a delightful sleep-in before launching my first real journey into St Petersburg. I decide I’ll return to the city and walk along Nevskiy prospect to absorb Continue reading Nevskiy and the Canals I say my goodbyes to Anna and Natasha as I have to change trains to get to the inter-city station I need for the journey to St Petersburg. This is my first experience with these trains and I have no idea what to expect. I find the station and the platform surprisingly easily; this information Continue reading Onwards to St Petersburg! There’s nothing quite like it. The outright assault of flavour sensations that refuse to step back for a moment. Chongqing hotpot is the hottest, craziest version of Sichuan dining. It’s an oil and water bath filled with a dastardly combination of spices to create a sensual eating explosion. The hotpot container itself is set into Continue reading The Sichuan Dining Experience In the morning I pour Victoria tea and find the last couple of Tim Tams to put with it. “Hey thanks for letting me stay here last night. I wouldn’t have been good company for anyone”, I offer as some kind of backhanded apology. “You were better off staying home last night, it rained most of Continue reading The Sunday Session Sometimes I think I cram two or three days into just one, which is the best excuse I can summon for losing a day every now and then. After the amazing day and the night’s festivities, I awake suddenly only a few hours later being evacuated for the cleaner to arrive. I have another Continue reading There goes a day… “We’re stopped here anyway, just ask her to open the door!”, he pleads emphatically. “But this is a public bus, it can’t just stop anywhere.” “Let me put this another way; if she doesn’t open that door in the next minute I’m going to be pissing all over it.” It’s not a threat, it’s a Continue reading I’ll have another, please. So close..and yet so far away… I look out the window at the clouds and feel sure I wont see the Total eclipse today. Last night the hotel we’re staying in experienced a mad roaming party as more than fifty couchsurfers from more than fifteen different countries setup parties Continue reading The Shanghai Eclipse I just don’t know how to react, so laughter is the only answer. There are a group of rather beautiful Chinese girls gathered in a neat semi-circle around our table. They are all dressed in the same sexy outfits and they’re singing ‘I’m a little teapot’ – including choreographed dance movements. This can only mean Continue reading Chinese Impressionism “You need to get some business cards mate.” I look across the room in his office and raise an eyebrow at Ray. “You know I’m not working for quite a while yet.” “Yeah, yeah, yeah…. But everyone has them here, personal ones and then one for every business they’re involved in.” “Yeah right”, I nod, Continue reading Who am I? We stop in traffic and I glance out the window. I’m soon transfixed by the crazy moment I’ve just joined. There is a young chinese man sitting on top of a makeshift wooden ladder – it appears to have been his last project. He is intently focused on cutting the top off a metal lamppost Continue reading No problem, this is China The Tretyakov Gallery It’s Friday and today has been an emotionally draining time. Later in the day I discover the train tickets are still not ready and I ask him to send them to my couchsurfing host’s apartment directly. I’m glad I’ve already been talking to Alisha for a couple of weeks about my Continue reading The Demon’s eyes in the Russian night I decide that the Novodevichy convent and cemetery will be my primary destination for the day and bounce into the street to find my way there. I stop at a small pavement shop to get something for breakfast and discover they can’t change a thousand rouble note, so I can’t buy anything. I don’t know Continue reading Novedevichy with a side of Beach Volleyball Russian Beery Goodness. I’m early for tonight’s couchsurfing meetup, so I distract myself within the inevitable cluster of pavement shops around the station exit. I find one that not only has beer on tap, but they will sell it to me in large plastic bottles or even a half litre cup. I’m forced Continue reading Russian Party Action with the local Couchsurfers I’ve been walking for just ten minutes dragging my suitcase through the streets of Moscow and already I’m lost. I printed out the directions Victoria gave me to find her apartment building, but correlating the map and the reality before me seems impossible. I think I’m on Victoria’s street, I’ve tried to follow her directions Continue reading First Couchsurfing in Russia I wake up with the domes of St Basil’s Cathedral on my mind and decide I’d better go back and see the inside. Outside the day is warm and sunny, so I decide that the best way to get there is on a boat. I start walking to the nearby river where my guide Continue reading The Moskva River Victoria had told me about Novoslobodskaya Metro station, her favourite of all of these works of indulgent art and wealth; created by Stalin to show how prosperous and happy communist Russia was. So the only issue with my plan to visit a bunch of the more opulent ones is navigating the metro system itself. Acquiring Continue reading The Moscow Metro and the Russian ticket window women “I’ll meet you at the big cow outside Moo-Moo”, Victoria tells me over the phone. I amble my way back to the bovine statue and it makes me smile again. She will be my first couchsurfing host in Russia, but that will happen in a few days. Today she has volunteered to show me some Continue reading First impressions in Moscow… I walk into a mobile phone store to get myself a Russian SIM card and someone asks me what I want, in Russian. I suddenly understand how different written and spoken language truly is; all the time I’ve spent learning written Russian is useless now. Maybe I’m tired, I just spent forty hours awake getting Continue reading Welcome to Moscow |