Summer in Hanoi
Hanoi turns one thousand years old this year, and the city’s just on the cusp of summer. The point where the heat begins to turn...
Yearly Archive: 2010
Backpacks and Zacpacks
One of the reasons for the longish silence I’ve been keeping is that Z’s dad joined us in Vietnam this last weekend. The boy, it...
Cab Journey from Hell #1
I really thought, by now, after over four months in Asia and experience with virtually every taxi scam permutation known to man, my naïve London...
The Reunification Express
We flew from Manila into Saigon last week, the day after Ho Chi Minh’s birthday, and rode the Reunification Express 1600km or so upcountry to...
Unschooling. Or Learning as You Go.
It’s a truism that one learns by travelling, and a cliche that travel broadens the mind. From the days when English noblemen embarked on that...
Farewell to Manila
There is such a thing, when playing hide and seek, as being too clever for one’s own good. In which category I would have to...
The Museum of Doctor Rizal
Manila is not a spiritual city. It’s one of those big, dirty, urban sprawls, expanding organically, growing without control, the beating heart of an archipelago,...
The Inflatable Waterpark
This technicolour dream palace is indisputably special. Possibly a little “special needs” too. What is it? You may well ask. For this, my friend, is...
Working Girl
MJ’s been working bars since she was fifteen. Standard shifts. 6pm to 6am. She was an Avon Lady before that, but this pays better. She’s...
Full-Contact Management
We have Doc McGhee, the rock ‘n’ roll svengali who kept Motley Crue, Jon Bon Jovi and Kiss on the road, to thank for the...