musings on places and journeys
21-25 September 2025 in Bali, Indonesia As a family, we spend many a summer holiday on the West Coast of Scotland, joining another branch of the family (and our ‘big’ cousins) in the remote coastal village of Diabaig in Wester Ross, near Loch Torridon, where – I remember – the days were long, there was … Read more
20-21 September, Borobudur, Indonesia It is, roughly, seven and a half thousand miles from the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua in Italy to the Temple of Borobudur in Java: two treasures of world heritage, seven and a half thousand miles and five and a half centuries apart. Both are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The former I visited … Read more
19 September 2025, en route from Tokyo to Jakarta Facial recognition seemed like a good idea. Having purchased my ticket online for the Keisei Skyliner to take me from central Tokyo to Narita Airport, the site gave me the option of registering for facial recognition. Why not, I thought. No need to scan your … Read more
17 September 2025, a brief foray to Osaka from Kyoto On Wednesday, since everyone I met was talking about it, I made the short hop by train to Osaka and to the World fair, EXPO 2025! And why not, since it is only there till October, and what are plans for, if not to be … Read more
16-18 September, in Kyoto, Japan As Gold Hill in Shaftesbury is to England, so Hanamikoji Street in Kyoto is to Japan: idyllic, evocative and picture postcard ready, and both cobbled, though the former steeper and the latter with Geishas rather than the Hovis bread boy and his bicycle to the sound of Dvorak! (and if … Read more
13,14 and 15 September, Tokyo, Japan. A good soldier will tell you that time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted, and though it has sometimes felt indulgent to have spent quite so much time over the past six months in London engaged in desktop research, I am, as a consequence of it, arriving in each … Read more
10-12 September, in Bangkok A childhood rhyme suggests that the day of the week on which we are born shapes our character. “Monday’s child is fair of face. Tuesday’s child is full of grace… Wednesday’s child is loving and giving…” and so on. The 27th June in 1965 was a Sunday, and while it would … Read more
10-12 September, in Bangkok The learning so far on this trip is that nothing is quite as venerable as imagined! Take Pad Thai, that delicious stir-fried rice noodle confection that is the defining dish of the national cuisine here and the staple of a visit to any Thai restaurant in the UK – and my … Read more
8 September 2025, in Lisbon, Portugal. Facing the sea… The iconic statue of Cristo Rei in Lisbon is unusual, different in one important respect from all the other statues. Standing tall over the Tagus River, his arms outstretched as if in blessing and protection, it dates – I discover – only from 1959. Seeing it only from … Read more
3 September 2025, Edinburgh, Scotland. “There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.” — Thomas Aquinas On Wednesday, from Glasgow through to Edinburgh to catch up with some old friends. It’s only forty five minutes from Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Waverley, and though the stations themselves in each city … Read more