Back for a month

To follow on from my last posting here, the Leonard Cohen concert in Edinburgh turned out to be something special, just as expected. It is encouraging to see and hear how (at 73) he is getting better with age. I’ll attach a picture. I have a video I wanted to post too but the file seems to be too large. It was good to meet my cousin Janet and her husband Bryan there – who had travelled all the way from Bristol for the event! That's me and Janet before the show.

Last weekend I met even more of my rather wide extended family up in Aberdeen and in Dufftown at the annual Highland Games there. The format seems to have remained unchanged for ever, and I reckon that is a real strength. The weather is a big variable though, and I’m pleased to report that this year it was ideal. I took along Ali Baxter (Linda and Vic's son from Aberdeen) and the highlight was probably his lucky programme winning the prize of two bottles of the local produce! My pictures are of the Buckie Pipe Band coming down Conval Street in Dufftown (where my Granny McWilliam used to live) and of Auntie Annie and cousins Kate and Eleanor.

And a couple of videos – some of the massed pipe band march at the Games (with how not to toss a caber in the background), and another showing how to do it right!

My return at the beginning of July coincided with the start of a by-election campaign in Glasgow East, and I decided to get involved. It seemed that there was a chance here to make a difference to something; so I did a bit of leafleting and canvassing work in the cause of the SNP. I’m delighted with the result, which has helped put the cat amongst the pigeons at the Labour Party, and it is pleasing to feel that I might have contributed a bit. Apologies to any Labour fans out there. I've tried to steer reasonably clear of political bias in this blog but this time it is unavoidable.

I’ve been thinking about my next bit of travelling too, and am now booked to go to the USA for a few weeks in October, and for a few days in Italy at the start of November. In the US the highlight will be hitting the tourist spots around Los Angeles with Elaine and Chloë. I’m hoping to spend a long weekend in New York on the way back. In Italy it is Judy McK’s 40^th celebration which is the big attraction.

Back in Glasgow, Emina has moved on (to Oxford) and I have the place to myself for a while. In September my nephew Douglas, who is a student at the University here, will be taking her place.

This weekend is the start of Festival time in Edinburgh and I hope to get across for several visits, and at least a dozen or so shows. In the meantime Glasgow had the River Festival. It was pretty good, and I'll include a photo of the Clyde to show that it sometimes doesn't rain here.

On the work front, I’m not doing much other than contemplate some options, but I’ve been stepping up my activity as a panel member with the Glasgow Children’s Hearings system. I’m up for reappointment at the end of the year and I need to try to make up for my rather long absence in recent months!

Finally, regarding the all-important garlic soup subject, I’ve had a few more attempts (despite Emina’s protests), and I have to confess that I still have some work to do to match the Himalayan variety. I will enjoy trying though.

Garlic soup update

I’ve been back for more than a week now and just thought I’d add some footnotes here.

I haven’t done very much in that time, not that is worth mentioning here anyway, but I have actually been reasonably busy doing not very much. My leg is getting better, after a course of antibiotics and dressing. Tomorrow I’m going through to Edinburgh for the Leonard Cohen concert at the Castle esplanade, something I am looking forward to very much - not to mention the reunion there with my long-lost cousin Janet.

Chuda has been busy at the Namuna Mahila school in Nepal and I have a backlog of documents to edit for him.

The main news, though, is that I tried making some Nepalese garlic soup the other night – according to the recipe that I noted here in the blog, and as witnessed in a Nepal mountain kitchen. Somehow or other it didn’t quite work out as intended. I think, in retrospect, I probably put in too much of everything (except water), and I had to compromise on the masala element. In Nepal I saw them use what they called red masala and then white masala, and I assumed that it would be straightforward to get these here, if not in Tesco then at an Asian shop on Great Western Road. All they seem to sell here is something called garam masala, which is a green/brown colour. This is what I used in my soup. I have now found some red stuff in an Asian shop, but they say they don’t know what I mean by white masala.

Maybe it isn’t important, except as a disclaimer in case I get any complaints from people who have tried the recipe from here. Personally I enjoyed the product of my efforts, on its own as well as using the large surplus as an added ingredient to mix with other soups. Emina (who is here till the end of July) didn’t share my views though and had to open most of the windows. Come to think of it the street has been emptier than usual these last few days.

Sorry I didn't take a photo of the soup, but you can have one of Glasgow's Botanic Gardens the other day. I don't have my own garden here but this one is near enough and I am a regular visitor.

Back in Glasgow!

Well I’ve made it back in one piece. Yesterday was a very long day – with the flight from Delhi to London and then a long wait for the flight to Glasgow. It shouldn’t have been much of a surprise, but the BA flight out of London was an hour late in leaving. They are simply always late in getting out of Heathrow. I don’t know why they don’t just rewrite the schedule so that it reflects reality.

In contrast, none of my Asian flights were late. My two Thai Airways flights took off exactly on time, and all 4 flights with smaller airlines actually got off the ground about 5 minutes ahead of schedule.

The photo is of the pile of mail which was waiting for me here – and which I still haven’t had the courage to tackle. It was a fine summer evening yesterday, as you can maybe see from the sunlight shining through my mucky window – about 8:30 pm.

Emina has done a good job in looking after the flat (apart from the window cleaning), and I’m grateful for that. Later today I hope to have my car back – having left it in the hands of my pal Jim Maclean. When I spoke to him last night I was slightly concerned to hear that he and his wife Jenny had just come back from a holiday in Ireland – but he reassures me that my car wasn’t there with them. I haven’t been behind the wheel of a car all the time I have been away; so I guess it will feel a bit odd at first.

Although I am in one piece, I have a burn injury on my right calf – from taking a ride on a motorbike “taxi” in Vietnam about 10 days ago. I was wearing shorts and managed to touch the hot exhaust as I got off! I haven’t been very concerned about it because it didn’t seem particularly bad. But it has been getting a bit more painful of late and I stopped off at a pharmacy for advice earlier today. They tell me that the wound is infected and should be treated today. So I’m now in the hands of NHS24 (the round-the-clock health advice service) and I’m expecting a call-back inviting me to go down to the Western Infirmary for treatment.

I’ll probably bring this blog to an end fairly soon, unless I can come up with some new soup recipes to tell you about. It will remain in place though until the website folks decide to scrap it. Thank you to those who have tuned in from time to time and for leaving comments or for emailing me. I know that the comment facility isn’t very user-friendly. My email address is there as a link on the blog (on the "profile" page); so please feel free to use that to let me hear from you any time.

I’ve made a lot of new friends on my travels, and I look forward to staying in touch and hopefully to seeing many of you again.

It's hot here!

Delhi is extremely hot today - maybe 40 degrees and humid. I've been wandering about all over the place (including the main railway station for a bit of train-spotting) and so I'm soaking in sweat, even after sitting on the hotel rooftop for a while with an ice-tea.
I discovered this morning that there is a Bandh in effect across the city (and much of the rest of the country). This is a kind of general protest strike about something and seems quite common in India and Nepal (where they call it a "bandha". I'm not really sure what today's is about - except that it appears to be about puttting pressure on the government to get their act together after disagreements amongst coalition partners about some kind of land transfer. I have a strange suspicion that the level of support might also have something to do with the fact that there is a big crunch Asia Cup India vs Sri Lanka cricket match on the telly!
The bandh has the effect of closing virtually everything - certainly most shops. It seems to work because of fears of retribution against those who defy the bandh. That leaves plenty of street-traders though and the city seems to be as chaotic as ever. Besides, as the day progressed a few shops began to open up. On my travels today I had a late lunch at the United Coffee House at Connaught Place - which I also visited when I was in Delhi a few months ago at the start of my trip. It is a place I recommend for a bit of refreshing respite from the noise and chaos around this city. And the best pot of tea in months!
It hasn't rained yet today, and I believe that it is not expected to - very unusual at this time of year. But I can well understand why Indians look forward to the monsoon season so much.
I need to get up at 4 am tomorrow for a 5:45 check-in for my flight to London; so I'm signing off for now.

Arrival in Delhi - and Bangkok Belli!

It's midnight in Delhi. I arrived about 10:30 - rather later than planned and mainly down to inefficiencies at Delhi airport. I'm at the Ajanta hotel, in a different (Paharganj main bazaar) part of town than my last brief visit. The hotel is much nicer than the last place I stayed at in Delhi. I have all day tomorrow here and then an early flight to Heathrow and on to Glasgow on Friday. I don't have any big plans for tomorrow, but I enjoy exploring new places; so I'll be happy to wander about. We are near the main railway station apparently; so I will definitely go along for a look at that - and maybe even take a journey!
It rained for much of the day in Bangkok yesterday, sometimes very heavily. The sun did make an appearance for a couple of hours and so I managed a bit of the intended lounging by the pool as well as some exploring of the Bangalamphu area despite the rain. It does have a kind of "village" atmosphere, and I like it there.
In the evening I went off with Greg from Canada to Sukhumvit Road market - by a long tuk-tuk ride for a reminder of how big and lively this city really is. We came back by "skytrain" - an elevated metro rail system. Very impressive!
This morning my stomach was giving some problems again. Must have been some of that pavement food we had last night! This isn't the best condition for a longish journey, but a few Imodium tablets have helped get me safely enough to Delhi.
I'll try to attach a picture from the Bangkok hotel rooftop - showing the deserted pool and some of the "downtown" highrises in the far distance.... and maybe some looming clouds before they broke again.

PP day 2 (& some Cambodian soup)...and Bangkok

I had a nice leisurely breakfast yesterday, chatting at the Okay with Joshua (from Nigeria via Singapore) and with Sangky (a 7 year old member of the Okay household). Sangky is a bright lad who has already devised a plan for a satellite system to defend Earth from alien invaders. I'm sure we will be safe in his hands. Joshua was heading for a Sunday church service. Maybe I should have joined him for something out of he ordinary!
Instead I went to along to the Russian market as planned - and gave in to a few tempting bargains, including the new belt I badly needed. No single photo could do the place justice. It is a marketplace for virtually everything, including jewellery, watches, fake designer clothing, apparently looted or fake Bhuddist relics, motor bikes, as well as local foods of all sorts. The Barras pales by comparison!
I had an afternoon stroll in the city after another tuk-tuk ride. My picture shows the Independence Monument at the end of a long wide boulevard (shortly before the darkening sky turned to a torrential downpour). If I had turned the other way though, the scene was one more of post-war devastation - completely flattened buildings for street after street. The Pol Pot regime seem to have wanted to destroy everything of cultural or educational value and return the country to the stone-age with just peasant farmers and no monetary system.
I'm giving you another soup picture today. This time it's the "rice and chicken" at the Okay GH, but it is so delicious and full of garlic that it deserves a mention. This was my second!
I met up with Claudia from Holland again in the afternoon on her return from her Killing Fields and museum visits. In the evening we headed out together for a meal at a nice Khmer restaurant nearby. Like a lot of hot cities PP seems to come even more alive in the evenings - with night markets and people just out for a stroll. I felt rather sorry to be leaving so soon.
I'm now in Bangkok and checked in to the Rambuttri Village Inn - in the Banglanphu area near the river. This is backpacker central, but I'm very pleased with my choice of hotel so far. It is like an oasis in this gigantic and now mostly very modern city. And there's a rooftop swimming pool very close o my top floor room. all for about US$19 per night.
It's 6 pm and it feels like I've had a long day already. I was up at 5:15 for the fight from Phnom Penh - in the very pleasant company of Diane from Rugby - flying back to the UK today at the end of an 18 month world tour. Di, you are an inspiration, with your positive attitude to getting the most out of life despite your difficulties!
It wasn't quite as easy as I hoped to get fixed up with an onward flight to Delhi, but I finally got something sorted out for Wednesday.

For my two days here I don't think I'll be going very far from the Rambuttri Village. Everything is on the doorstep, and I suspect that 'll be tempted to lounge by the pool for a while reading my latest Michael Connelly book.
My last picture today is of the river close to the Bangkok hotel.
PS. Again the sky darkened very quickly in late afternoon and we had long downpours for much of the evening

Phnom Penh day 1

Well I've done much of what I wanted to do today in PP, after deciding to hire my own tuk-tuk service (for $15) with driver called Napp. We first went 15km or so out of town to the Khmer Rouge "killing fields" at Choeung Ek, and then to the museum of the genocidal attrocities (housed in a former secondary school at Tuol Sleng which they turned into a terrible prison and torture camp).

I was actually glad to be on my own in these places. Speech is more or less forbidden anyway, and the best way to see them must be just to walk in thought and silence. No graphic pictures here of course, but I'll give you an oblique shot of the pagoda at Cheoung Ek.

As it happens I bumped into a Swedish couple who had been companions on the journey from HCMC - and a rare fellow-Scot. None of us felt like speaking much.

I'm not giving history lessons here, but I certainly hadn't realised quite how bad things were in this country until really very recently. After all that the Cambodian National Museum was a good way to get a bigger perspective on what Cambodia has been about over the centuries.
Photos aren't allowed inside, but you can have one of the fine internal garden and pond area. The other pictures are of of the back of Napp's head and some of the street scene from tuk-tuk level (the local version is really a motorbike with a trailer) , and a group of novice monks walking past the royal palace. There is a lot of (re)construction going on around the city and it has a pretty positive feel about the place.

I've decided to fly to Bankok on Monday with Air Asia (a Thai low-cost airline) and then look for the best onward connection to Delhi. That leaves me with another day in PP, and the right thing to do seems to be to hit a market area called Psar Tuol Tom Pong (also known as the Russian Market for some reason). I'm told it is one of the cheapest places in Asia for all sorts of goods, some of which may even be genuine. So now is the time to give me your shopping lists.

I'm beginning to take more to the Okay GH here. I had very pleasant chat tonight with Claudia from Holland, who had just arrived on today's version of my own trip yesterday. I had a lot of sympathy for how she felt - and we had a lot in common to talk about over Nepal.