Erik von Daniken’s ‘Chariots of the Gods’ came to my town when I was a kid. Alexandra, New Zealand was perhaps a bit information-starved. There was one-channel TV, radio of course, and a couple of newspapers. And then there were the ‘Pictures’ (one a week movie screenings… Read more
Monthly archives of “January 2016”
Lebanon – Last Gasp of the Cedar Forests
Europe to Australasia is long-haul, and if you are not into heroics, it’s nice to break the journey somewhere. I wonder how many travellers consider Lebanon? The big draw-card for me were the famous ‘Cedars of Lebanon’. This is a highly relictual patch of trees… Read more
Cheap Eats Nanjing 12 – Sticky Rice Cake and other nibblies
I spotted this little take-away cake shop one evening after getting a cheese fix opposite. Pleasant woman in charge and bunch of nice looking things for sale. I settled on two muffins and a sort of cake. It was very dense, but I had no… Read more
Estonia – the Swamp and the language tree
Estonia was my first-ever experience of driving, by myself, on the right hand side of the road. I tried to keep it simple. All I needed to do was pull-out from the car hire place (small town, Viljandi linn), negotiate a round-about at the edge of town, then I… Read more
Cheap Eats Nanjing 11 – Fried Dumplings
I’ve been making eyes at this place for ages – the dumplings get cooked in an guaranteed eye-catching arrangement on a hot plate on the street by the front door (see Featured image) and inside it’s usually chocka-block with customers. Eventually I gave them a… Read more
Mongolia – “Armour-piercing, mate”
“I’ll have to show these to my colleague”. The security guard at Brisbane’s International Airport took the two objects from my bum-bag and walked off. Oh shit… A few weeks before I had been travelling south through Mongolia’s South Gobi region. It’s basically a gravelly,… Read more
Turkistan, Kazakhstan, not Tukmenistan
I’m not at all sure I remembered when all those ‘stans’ appeared on my radar. Did I know about them before the Soviet Union fell apart, or did they just appear in the news so gradually it seemed like they were always there? There’s Uzbekistan,… Read more
Cheap Eats Nanjing 10 – Cat in the Kitchen
I thought I had this place sussed. Nice small spot, friendly staff, and a nice noodle dish that the staff kept pointing out to me on the menu before I could find it. And a cat called Wang-Cai. The name got some giggles when I… Read more
Mongolia – The Ghost of Moron
It was on the flight back to UIaan Baatar that I remembered the ghost. My field partner, Nyambayar, and I had been working in an area near the Mongolian town of Moron (pronounced ‘muh-roon’). Moron lies in the far north of Mongolia and is the gateway to… Read more
Cheap Eats Nanjing 9 – make your own soup
I was a bit dark on this place to start with – only because my favourite place suddenly closed just along the street, more or less as this place opened. I was suspicious…. But the owner is keen to attract clientele and I relented and… Read more