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Always Pack a Runcible Spoon a round the world adventure possibly involving a pussycat, an owl and a pea-green boat |
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Categories
About this Runcible Blog (1)
About Us (2) Absurd photo du jour (4) Adding a comment (2) Asia is easy to love (9) China (48) Food - the weird, the wonderful, the just plain tasty (17) Hong Kong (7) India (43) Indonesia (7) Japan (6) Singapore (3) Taiwan (3) Thailand (19) Things that perturb me (3) Travel thoughts and whimsy (10)
Recent Entries
* Don't put dunnage on the armrest
* This candy tastes like jumping (presumably) * Pickled items, problems with * Too little time, too much China * Live Life Large * Punk is not dead (and other tales from the Beijing subway) * Strange days * The strange things you see ... * Wintertime dag * Beauty, coldness and rose-tinted glasses * Pepsi as a heated beverage * Beijing goes Russian * Beijing shopping disaster No. 2 * Beijing shopping disaster No. 1 * New China, courtesy of Shanghai * Hello, I think I love you * Not your average truck-stop * Wonton soup heaven * Ginseng: longer, harder, uncut! * Eternal East Bus Company returns us to the Middle Kingdom
Archives
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March 31, 2005Don't put dunnage on the armrestJust DON'T (because whatever it is, it sounds BAD and people could get hurt) ......Read this update This candy tastes like jumping (presumably)(Actually, why lie? I tried it and it wasn't like jumping at all. Where's consumer protection legislation when you really need it, huh?)...Read this update March 29, 2005Pickled items, problems withIn an earlier entry, I had cause to blog about the highly amusing fact that airlines in India do not permit the carriage of certain pickled items. O! for those simpler days, when life was so carefree ... As of...Read this update Too little time, too much ChinaChina is still big. Three days after my last post, size continues to be an issue here. There's just too much STUFF. It starts to make me crazy, when I think about it for too long. What to blog, what...Read this update March 26, 2005Live Life LargeBeijing is big, way big. It's big enough to make me wary of saying flashy and dramatic things about how much I love big cities. Instead, like an overstuffed five-foot-high plush panda won at a seedy funfair, Beijing's girth makes...Read this update March 20, 2005Punk is not dead (and other tales from the Beijing subway)These guys materialised on the Metro platform in front of us tonight. Wearing their jackets emblazoned with references to the Sex Pistols, and their hairdos spiky as weaponry, they caught my eye among the sea of neat-and-prim 'winter casuals'...Read this update March 19, 2005Strange daysIt's hard at the moment not to fall headlong into the trap of thinking each day, 'it's not long now until this trip will be over ...' That's a bittersweet thought - I mean, there have been countless times I've...Read this update March 18, 2005The strange things you see ...... in a capital city far from home. In no particular order, these have caught my eye in the past two days: A bevy of dwarves (or little people, if you prefer - but the setting is so unbelievably exploitative,...Read this update Wintertime dagNot coming from a cold weather climate, I am a bit befuddled by all the gear that's necessary just to get through the day here in Beijing without one's extremities freezing off and falling to the ground. But now having...Read this update March 17, 2005Beauty, coldness and rose-tinted glassesChina is a strange destination in many respects. Just when you think you have a handle on things, it turns around and slaps you in the face. As much as anything, it's China's ability to confound that has drawn me...Read this update Pepsi as a heated beverageAs offered on the menu of the trendy Cantonese restaurant we ate in tonight: Hot Pepsi with sliced Ginger. My thoughts? 'That's weird.' Andrew's thoughts? 'That sounds just the ticket for curing my cold!' He duly ordered it, and reports...Read this update March 16, 2005Beijing goes RussianOn a previous trip to Beijing, we got to check out the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. We sampled Peking Duck, and ate the world's most delightful dumplings by the steamer-load...Read this update Beijing shopping disaster No. 2Yesterday was given over to making 'travel chore' type arrangements - a task which, in China, can rapidly spin from everyday dullness into a something that foments a kind of pent-up rage at the seeming idiocy of things....Read this update Beijing shopping disaster No. 1It is fatal, absolutely fatal, to think that you can come to China and 'just pick up X'. For example, if you buy an outrageously expensive goosedown jacket before you come, then you may well see equivalents being sold at...Read this update March 13, 2005Hello, I think I love youThis man called out to us as we were strolling down a Shanghai street. He wandered over, stiff with age and the confines of his padded jacket, but all eagerness to talk. He wanted to know where we were from,...Read this update Not your average truck-stopIt was a nice re-introduction to China. For a start, the bus actually stopped about as often as you'd want for toilet breaks. But then came this. We were ushered off the bus when it reached Shantou, and saw we...Read this update Posted by Tiffany on March 13, 2005 02:14 PM
Category: China, Food - the weird, the wonderful, the just plain tasty Wonton soup heavenThere's not much that needs saying about a dish like this. The setting is a small shophouse improbably nestled in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay. It's crowded and bustling, but unlike larger Chinese restaurants, here people are eating alone or with...Read this update Posted by Tiffany on March 13, 2005 11:29 AM
Category: Food - the weird, the wonderful, the just plain tasty, Hong Kong March 12, 2005Ginseng: longer, harder, uncut!I know, I know. The deal with Ginseng is that it's supposed to look like a person. What I didn't realise was that that would mean that its GENITALIA would feature quite so prominently ... For those who want to...Read this update Eternal East Bus Company returns us to the Middle KingdomWe are riding a vehicle belonging to the Eternal East Bus Co, and we're en route from Hong Kong to Xiamen in Mainland China. We cross the border in the early morning, having left Hong Kong's darkened streets at an...Read this update Nostalgia and longing in the Place of Nine DragonsI didn't actually like Wong Kar-wai's film 'In the Mood for Love'. (I have to hide this fact from most movie-minded people I know, but it's well and truly out there now!) The movie and me, we just didn't gel....Read this update March 03, 2005When the rains come (or, is rain the sweetest scent of all?)Yogyakarta, Bladok Losmen, 27 Feb 2005 Nothing is better than the feel of hard, fresh rain after unbearable tropical heat. Finally, after we return from 5 hours at Borobodur (left 5am, returned 10am), the rains break the heavy, stifling heat....Read this update Train out of Jakarta: fragments from my mindThe city spreads out below us, as we're travelling on a high train track. Then the line dips down, and we're running just a fingertip away from shanties where people's difficult lives play out right along the train-tracks. Piles of...Read this update March 02, 2005Drag-racing Teletubbies do BorobodurA few days ago, we visited Borobodur. It's an ancient Buddhist temple arrangement set in impressively misty, atmospheric Javanese jungle. Go ahead - google for better photos and text than I could ever hope to serve up. As attentive readers...Read this update Nine months, two days ... Look, Ma, I could have had a baby!Two days ago, something happened. We reached the nine month mark of this twelve month-long trip, and it felt great. Admittedly, nine months is not quite the 22-month gestation period of an elephant, but the thought that it's long enough...Read this update Dirty, dirty, diiirrrtyI am officially the dirtiest I've ever been. However, it's not necessarily a rolling-in-mud kind of dirt. On a good day, you hopefully wouldn't notice it if you met up with me. But on a bad day - watch out!...Read this update |
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