Let's start with a dose of surrealism ( Read more... )

The deal ( Read more... )

Today began automatically better than yesterday because not only did i find proper tea in the market (and a far-flung market it is), but i also went shopping for books and found a Rohinton Mistry novel i've been looking for for about 3 months... the book is titled A Fine Balance and anyone even remotely interested in India should pick it up, or at ( Read more... )

Well, shit. It's official: i'm boarding a train thursday afternoon, 21 hours afterwhich i will magically pop up in shanghai. That trainride is the end of my travels and when i walk out of the station someone will be there to escort me to an apartment with a writing desk full of worries and responsibilities stuffed in the drawers. I'm having a panic ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Within a few hours of entering china, the bus pulled into a rest area for a toilet break. The smokers lined up outside the building and decided lungs come before bladder, and with that we added a few extra plumes of blue to the sky. I've noticed and done quite a few lovely things because i'm a smoker, as one of the advantages of addiction is that ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Alas, I live ( Read more... )

Wandering around Hanoi, there are always beautiful ladies selling baskets of fruit in the dappled sunlight and gangs of people sitting curbside with cups of coffee in their hands. Conical hats pop up in the crowds doing their afternoon shopping. Some people are even smiling, and it's scenes like this -- with the throngs of women in ao dais and ( Read more... )