Sanuel Pepys had a busy day at work and so did I but I went with the Gentleman Friend to visit the Auckland gallery. It was adequate at best, but had a good collection of portraits of Maori notables by one Gottfried Lindauer. Though the jewel in the collection’s crown they were oddly displayed, along […]
Move on
Yesterday we checked out of the hotel and moved to our next Airbnb, a room in a family house in Lazimpat. This is the embassy district of Kathmandu, about a 20 minute walk from Thamel. The main road is full of restaurants and shops, and behind it is the usual Kathmandu warren of very narrow […]
Eight goddesses go to battle
Last night, we were walking back from Sanepa (more on that later) when we saw some bustling around the Nakbahi shrine. We stopped to watch and saw a group of men in coloured silks and jewellery being tended to, and a great air of excitement in the crowd. We stopped to watch, of course, and […]
Three meetings
A long day today. We started off with breakfast at Patan Dhoka, the gate to this old royal city, newly painted with colourful figures, then ventured to an artist’s studio set off the main road in an unusually green and treelined street. We were let in by a student who called the artist, Lok Chitrkar, […]
Day in East Beirut
Yesterday was Saturday and the Gentleman Friend and I woke up bright and early for a breakfast of knefeh and to be taken to Beirut. There, the GF was to participate in some beach cleaning while I was to meet a relative who is in town for work. I was meeting her for lunch so […]
Arrived
Arrived in Phuket after a delayed, but not dramatically so, flight. The delay appeared to be due to the late arrival of the crew (not, as the announcement stated, unavoidable technical difficulties), which I don’t really understand but there it is. At immigration we were in a queue with a truly unpleasant immigration official whose […]
More success
This morning we went to Brahma Tirta, an art studio I had, after some really vigorous sleuthing, as the place where a batik wall hanging originated. I had seen this wall hanging in a shop in Bali, lusted after it, but then said nothing as I was not in the market for wall hangings. When […]
Dance dance dance
We went to see Ramli Ibrahim at KL Pac last night, accompanied by a couple of friends, a Malaysian Chinese woman and her Finnish husband. The place itself, an old railway yard I think, was lovely. Peaceful and green, speckled with lakes. It had rained earlier so it was very cool and damp, with yellow […]