Mr Kosol Tananitporn has an ingenious way of building his wardrobe. He offers you a carrier bag of goodies and all he asks in return is to take a photo of the two of you together and send him a copy. Read on…
I sit on a stone in the shade of a walnut tree and watch a young farrier hammer 3-inch nails though a mule’s hoof, nipping the excess nail off before bending the stub over. It seems over-kill on size, but as I’ve never shod a mule who am I to say? Read on…
Xieu, (pronounced Choo) is the Chinese owner of my favourite café in Valencia, Spain, and as much as I would love to, I always restrain myself from greeting him with ‘Ah, Choo’. Read on…
Despite dire warnings about walking at night through darkened streets, the only place I have ever been mugged is right outside my own front door in Valencia. Read on…
There seems to be two main ways people buy Moroccan carpets. The first is to carefully mull. Will the colour clash with the furnishings in the living room? Will it get too much wear in the hall? Is that orangey one better value than the greeney one? Read on…
I’m sitting in a small restaurant in the heritage area of Luang Prabang in Laos. There has obviously been a lot of money spent restoring some of the traditional beautiful wooden houses and those from the French era, with wide verandas, slatted shutters. Read on…
I was having a coffee with my friend Dan in his splendid deli-diner in Valencia, Spain, when we got on to the subject of Spanish cuisine. Knows a thing or two about food, does Dan. Read on…
A gong chimes, the mellow sound resonating through the trees. After a moment’s pause it chimes a second time, this time joined by the howl of a dog. Read on…
The only thing worse than going uphill on a camel is going downhill, or at least it is if you don’t count the getting on and off, or the camel standing up to begin your trek. Read on…
Being a mixture of football and rugby played with a round ball Gaelic Football seems to have very few rules at all – other than kicking the hell out of the opposing team. Read on...
Sat in the rooftop restaurant of my hotel in Jodhpur, The Blue House. Overlooking the roofs of the city may sound romantic but while the terrace is attractive in a blue-painted, amusingly decorative kitschy sort of way, Read on…
I sit at the entrance to a small hotel just up from the Democracy Monument in Bangkok, sipping from a paper cup of coffee bought from the 7/11 next door. The ‘dee-do’ of the door-opening tone of the shop is incessant. Read on…
I’ve only experienced a couple of genuine seers in my life but a chance encounter with a couple of mechanical ones at Tesco Lotus in Bangkok’s Chinatown took me back to the clanking and whirring of fairground automatons of my childhood. Read on…
One of the main criteria I have when looking for a new home is that I must have somewhere to grow a few plants, and I was overjoyed when I found my apartment in Ruzafa a couple of years ago. Read on…
When you are wandering through the souks, you spend half your time dodging mopeds. At least the mule carts and bikes travel at a sedate pace. Read on…
I have something in common with Judy Garland, or more correctly, the feisty Dorothy she played in The Wizard of Oz. I have a pair of red shoes, although admittedly if I click my heels they won’t take me back to Texas, and frankly, I wouldn’t want them to. Read on…
