http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Drunken-Tiger/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Drunken Tiger en-us Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:35:31 +0000 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:35:31 +0000 Time follows me around in Shanghai like a cloying beggar tugging at my sleeve. Down on the Bund the Rolex salesmen dreambusters of the promenade fall into step beside me peddling their fake visions of corrupted time.As I gaze at the Huangpu they seem to be screaming Stop staring at the river looking for memories of Sampans Japanese warships paper flowers and paupers' coffins That's the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/blog-421040.html You're in China sir where time and life have no meaning. Thus speaks the Eurasian warlord in the impossibly glamorous Shanghai Express 1932 as a cow halts the locomotive on its winding journey out of a Peking of hissing pistons darting shadows shouts and whistles. The film is shrouded in smoke smoke from the train and of course smokeassex from Marlene Dietrich as she announces It http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-406497.html Hong Kong Reasons to be CheerfulA ride on the Star Ferry between Kowloon and Hong Kong IslandThe skyline from the waterThe cardboard cut out of Elvis in the breakfast room at the Anne Black Guest HouseKowloon Walled City ParkShort ferry trip to MacauChungking Mansions only to look at never to stay inLibraries free facilities such as internetThe civic relics of colonialism The YMCA Salvatio http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/blog-413060.html As my train snaked through the suburbs of backstage Beijing construction sites alternating with old tower blocks with stained air conditioning units I already suspected that there was little I would understand about this huge contraption of a city. There was history in the air for sure seeping from the brickwork and the vanished temples and arches that hung in the ether. But it was a histor http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-392945.html After the mystical experience of Lake Baikal time speeded up again as we headed for the Mongolian border. Carriage 10 became a microworld the passengers all setting their own boundaries and establishing the roles rituals and routines that were mutually noticed yet never acknowledged. The smallest sound became audible whether the drone of JeanPaul humming a demented tune at the far end of t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Gobi-Desert/blog-372611.html On the TransSiberian Express you kill time in more ways than one. This is a journey where time slows to a halt drained from the environment and stripped of any linear dimension. For once we are in control of time yet also free to decide what it means. Modern life with its neurotic assumptions about schedules and arrivals falls away leaving a protected environment and the freedom for six http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Far-East/blog-349049.html A 'riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma...'. The 'Iron Curtain' the 'Russian Bear' the 'Great Game'... vivid images but what does all this mean today And what can you learn of the famous Russian soul armed only with a few words of the language and a TransSiberian railway ticket My expectations were low as I picked my way across the minipotholes littering the platform at Belorusskaya http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Moscow/blog-320776.html In Graham Greenersquos ldquoTravels with My Auntrdquo Henry a retired bank manager sets off with his favourite lsquospinsterrsquo aunt on a series of exotic travel adventures. Henry rescued from suburbia is challenged by Aunt Augustarsquos eccentric ways which include cannabis growing exlovers in all corners of the world and an undimmed spirit of adventure. This was the 1960s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Moscow/blog-287256.html