I like walking around. I especially like walking around when I am traveling, never knowing exactly what is going to be around the next corner. I took the attached photos walking around the south coast of Barbados between Bridgetown and Saint Lawrence Gap. I’ve also included some bits of information to help puts things in context. • Green monkeys are native to Barbados. They roam freely around the island, and while they are fun to look at, they can be quite a nuisance. On my morning walks, I’ve seen them trying to break into parked cars, rummaging through garbage cans, and [View Full Entry]

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Herman Melville, in the opening of Moby Dick, may have said it best: “Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.” Melville was [View Full Entry]

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Quick - name the only country, other than what is now that United States, that was visited by George Washington. Time’s up! The answer is Barbados. (Two point penalty if you said England.) It was 1751 and young George’s older half-brother had consumption. It was thought that the soft air of a Caribbean island might cure the disease; so off he went, with George as his companion. (Hmm…wonder if I could get my doctor to sign off on this prescription…) Once there, the brothers found the accommodations that they had been promised were no longer available. But, hey, we have this [View Full Entry]

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Every year on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, the Barbados Turf Club hold some of the richest horses races of the year at the Garrison Savannah. Sponsored by Diamonds International and Audemars Piguet, this meet often boasts some pretty nice horses. But the best part of the day isn’t always the horses. As its name implies, the Garrison Savannah is the former parade ground of the British troops that were once stationed in Barbados. The British are gone, but the garrison still remains, though now it houses the Barbados Defense Force. The Garrison Savannah is also home to one of [View Full Entry]

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When I go to Barbados I stay in a small hotel, well, it’s really a small apartment house, with twelve studio apartments. It's on the south coast right across the street from Rockley beach. Like most beaches in the Caribbean, Rockley Beach is home to a number of local vendors selling snacks, souvenirs, and handicrafts. The first time I ventured onto Rockley Beach there was one kind of tattered looking guy sitting close to the parking lot making bracelets and necklaces out of beads and selling them. His hips were twisted as if he may have had polio as a child, [View Full Entry]

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Chicago is well known for the blues musicians that have made Chicago their home, if only for a little while. Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Etta James, Koko Taylor, and Buddy Guy are among the well known names associated with Chicago blues. Blues musicians still flock to Chicago, and it’s a great place to hear good music. Buddy Guy still has a bar/blues club called Legends located at 720 S. Wabash. When I went there, the exterior of the building was covered with scaffolding, making the place hard to find. I was there at lunch time, and it was pretty dead, but [View Full Entry]

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One of my very favorite places in Singapore is Raffles Hotel. If there is one place that epitomizes British Colonialism in tropical parts of the world, that place is Raffles. I kept expecting to see Somerset Maugham coming around a corner. Cool, solid, stately, and elegant, there are many legends around Raffles - and most of them are true. See if you can tell fact from fiction: Raffles was actually built by four Armenian brothers. True. Even though the hotel is named for the English founder of modern Singapore, Raffles was actually built by four brothers from Armenia. The Sarkies brothers [View Full Entry]

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Little India Sir Stamford Raffles is considered father of the modern-day Singapore. Under the Raffles Plan for Singapore, the city was divided into different sections for people of different religions and ethnicities. Some say this was done as part of an English plan to divide and conquer, others maintain it was done to prevent fighting among people of different languages and culture. What ever the original reason, those ethnic neighborhoods still exist today. Little India was once home to a race track for the European settlers, along Race Course Road, and livestock pens along Buffalo and Kerbau Roads. (Kerbau is Malay [View Full Entry]

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What is now known as Stanley was once the hangout of the notorious pirate Cheung Po Tsai. The area was called 賊柱 (Chek Chue) which is Cantonese for Bandit's Post. There are some people who say that Chek Chue is actually Hakka for Red Pillar, 赤柱, for the red blossoms of the cotton trees in the area. I like the pirate story better, so Bandit’s Post it is. The English gave the town and the bay of Chek Chue the name Stanley after Lord Stanley, the English Colonial Secretary in 1885-1886. This is also the same Lord Stanley for whom the [View Full Entry]

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Coming into Hong Kong at night is like coming into the beginning of the movie “Blade Runner” - minus the flying cars. Lots of neon, huge video screens, narrow streets teeming with people and crammed with traffic. Hong Kong is crowded and noisy. Traffic lights beep at you to tell you when the light is going to change, escalators beep at you to tell you when they are coming to an end. Taxis will honk at you before they run you over - and taxis will not give you the right of way. In fact, Hong Kong is the only place [View Full Entry]

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