This is a follow up on my previous interview with Simon Foster about the Silk Road photography tour. Ewen Bell, the other tour operator has added some more details that might interest you:
He’s not visiting there, or on vacation, or anything like that. No, my dentist lives there. He works in a wonderful, big, shiny and modern dental centre with lots of other dentists and nurses and hygienists, and all the other people and equipment you expect to see at the dentist.
I like him being there. Besides charging me about 80% less than what I’d pay for similar work in Sydney or San Francisco, I like the fact that he’s far enough away that he doesn’t call or email every few months about my next check-up or some other annoying “procedure.” No, he just waits patiently for me to transit through Bangkok on my way to or from Sydney. I am firmly in control of our relationship.
I envy those folks who travel but don’t have a burning desire to bring back tokens of their visits. My own home bulges with tangible reminders of the places I’ve been lucky enough to see.
Hey! Fancy reading the diary of a fashionable 19-year-old North Londoner as he parties his way around India and Thailand?
A polite no, is it? Guardian readers feel the same. Well, except for the ‘polite’ bit.
A colleague of mine was telling me today about a program the Malaysian government runs that he might take advantage of. The MM2H program is designed to encourage foreigners to either buy a vacation home or retire in Malaysia.
Cap Go Meh is the 15th day in the Chinese Lunar Year, the first full moon of the year. This year it falls on February 21st.
In China it is also known as the Lantern festival. In South-East Asia, Cap Go Meh is sometimes called the Chinese Valentine Day, because it is a day when young unmarried women gather to toss tangerines into the sea, in a hope that their future spouse will pick it up.
Here are some clips from Youtube on Cap Go Meh in Singkawang, West Kalimantan (2007) by PrimaProduction:
More Clips:
Whether he’s serving slow-cooked chicken or marinated soybean, Indonesian chef William Wongso sees spicing up his dishes with unusual local ingredients as key to his mission to promote the archipelago’s diverse cuisine.
Choosing recipes from his grandmother’s time, such as tempeh, or soybean cake, fermented in garlic and salt until it turns black, the 61-year-old chef introduces new twists to the old on his popular television cooking show “Cooking Adventure with William Wongso”.
