We were in a queue outside a Kuala Lumpur restaurant again. I think it was the 3rd time that weekend. “What sucks about this, is that if it was me and Elysia alone, I would have no way of finding a place like this. How do you do it? What’s the trick for someone that isn’t a local?”, I ask Brendon. His answer is snappy and confident. “You follow the crowds”, he says. And follow the crowd we had. An hour through Sunday traffic in Kuala Lumpur, to a worn down, hole in the wall that’s like a beehive of [...]

“So… what do you cook?”, I ask; a question that has never before been the beginning of a dining experience for me. I ask it instead of “Do you have a menu?” because the answer there seems obvious. That was the start of our first meal on Folegandros. It started in a van, being driven by Yanis, making our way along the main “highway” of the island of Folegandros. We’re quietly traversing rolling hills and easing around gentle mountain curves. You don’t easily lose sight of the ocean as you drive. Folegandros is small.  Mail this post

I get sentimental over little places like this. For I love them so much, but I have a fear: A fear that one day they will be no more; forced out of our lives by big stupid chain stores with no heart and no care. But for now, spots like Chanteroy French Deli are real, and we must cherish them. A hole in the wall Delicatessen in the suburbs of SW London, with room enough only for a countertop and a single file line of customers. A bustling little establishment with 4 or 5 busy young French guys behind the [...]

It’s been 2 months since we left, and still I daydream about Hania. Yes, that’s the same Hania where I shattered my elbow. The same Hania where I spent 2 days in hospital. The same Hania where a confident surgeon botched my operation and at least doubled the time it will take me to recover from an already serious injury. And yet the scenes of those quiet old streets still glisten in my memory. Hania is spellbinding. I’m not sure a place has ever had such an effect on me. From the moment we arrived, we knew there was something [...]

Sitting on an intricate maze of canals and waterways, Bangkok was once known as “the Venice of the East”. While you could certainly come and go from Bangkok without spending a minute suspended above water, touring these waterways is a heck of a fun day and a fascinating glimpse into the capital as it once was.   Basically when it comes to touring the Chao Phraya (the main river through the city) or the canals of Bangkok, you have two options:  Mail this post