Year: 2010

  • Crunching cashews

    We all love them. When we are on those long flights crunching away on cashews, while sipping our drinks, we consider them a bit of a luxury and on this trip to Thailand I found out why. Cashews grow on a bushy big tree with orange-yellow fruits which produces the kernels of nuts.What I did…

  • The island of Phi Phi

    There are some magical islands in Thailand and the temptation to lose oneself on them is great. We had the pleasure to take a day excursion out to Phi Phi island where we enjoyed the wonderful coral reef and the fabulous marine life. We saw Godefroy’s sea cucumber, which was a pale grey sluggish sausage thing with…

  • James Bond Island

    Few people in the world dont recognise the name James Bond and 007 – but Thailand has its own claim to fame with the hero and that is the island of Ko Ping Kan which was used to make the film “The Man with the Golden Gun”.Better known as James Bond Island it is a…

  • Cabbages and Condoms

    Shopping in the never ending markets of Bangkok can be exhausting. There are roads and roads of stalls, malls and malls of floors with everything one can imagine, just reproduced a million times over. So one of the rewards of all this consumerism is a good meal and this restaurant is one of the famous…

  • The land of a thousand smiles

    Now that the Commonwealth Games are over we can digress and what better place to go to then the land of a thousand smiles for some of what is quirky, exotic and bizarre. The smooth, almost fake looking pear apple which is exactly what its name says it is. An artful combination of both fruits in…

  • Positive Outcome

    A positive outcome of the Games at the moment is the fact that given the empty stadia and venues the Delhi authorities are making free tickets available to school children and children from underprivileged backgrounds.Will it spur them on to achieve sporting greatness for their country or rouse the anger that is long overdue for the…

  • PS on Snafus

    I am delighted to be able to share what SNAFUS means with you. It is a second world war US army slang word meaning “situation normal, all f***** up” My friends Gill and Gordon Fraser from Divonnes les Bains in France wrote and told me. New one for my list and totally delightful.

  • The Commonwealth extravaganza and Snafus

    Well it was almost alright on the night and Delhi put on a great display which was a celebration of its cultural richness and diversity which was not unlike the festivites of a great big extravagant Indian wedding. The show did justice to all the efforts that were put in by the thousands of volunteers. The best bit…

  • Before and After

    The title to this entry was suggested by my driver Shiva as we drove past one of the well known slums by Vasant Vihar. Words are almost superfluous in this case. Though we are worlds apart he knows what he sees and so do I and are thus united by a common humanity. BEFORE : AFTER:…

  • Getting into the Spirit

    Last night I attended the Opening of ART CELEBRATES ! 2010 at Lalit Kala Akademi. The show is a collection of contemporary Indian Art with the theme of Sports and the City and Sheila Dikshit the Chief Minister opened the exhibition in the presence of many art fans. The detail on this painting was exquisite.…