Not again... I don't know why it has to be so bloody difficult to fly these days. I mean, the concept hasn't really changed that much. You arrive at the airport, board the plane and take off. This Friday proved to be another good example of why flying in Europe is usually best avoided. Yes, the fact is that when it comes to airline operations, the first world still has a lot to learn from the third. But before jumping into the fray, let me first ponder a moment on the reason for this annoyment. The story begins on December 31, 2006. As luck would have it, I had a sizeable chunk of Eurobonus points to spend, points destined to be scrapped at the end of the year. I had completely forgot about this, and with ... read more

Having endured yet another boring summer at the office I was finally gearing up for my first long escape from work, and the thought was very refreshing. This time I had scheduled a few weeks to catch up with old friends; and circumstances had allowed for me and Joanne to be able to visit Thailand at the same time. And not only that; I had learnt that my old friend Manuella from Timor Leste was on holiday in China at this time - a hasty arrangement and we decided to meet up in Hong Kong. It was looking to be a busy trip with lots of interesting reunions which made my cynical heart smile a little. I had prepared by bringing loads of fish, the only European staple to meet with a high enough approval rate ... read more

There wasn't much point in finally coming to rest at five in the morning, only to have to get up one and a half hours later. As I lay there like a trainwreck looking at the dreary and rainy morning outside, it would have been an easy thing to call off the border excursion to Shenzhen, were it not for the fact that I had already made plans with three of my friends. And what a plan it was! As my dear friend Joanne had got wind of the fact that I was headed to Hong Kong (and was suitably pissed off that I didn't come to Beijing instead...) I had invited her to come down to Hong Kong to meet me. Unfortunately she didn't hold the necessary travel permit and obtaining one on such shorthand ... read more

Friday - Maxxing out the credit card Well, it wasn't really as bad as it sounds, but Friday proved to make a big dent in my travel budget as I was occupying myself by continuing to hunt for good music. I had got a tip from my friend Michael that there were a number of second hand cd shops to be found at the Sino Centre, a marketplace style shopping arcade on Nathan Road close to Yau Ma Tei. When I finally came to my senses after a long sleep I headed out back to Kowloon in the early afternoon. At first I walked right past it without noticing, it is not uncommon for shops and buildings to seem very inconspicious on the outside, I guess it is because of the constant onslaught of advertisements and ... read more

It happened on a Friday late in the afternoon. I was at my desk feeding yet another redundant time management system with the weekly time report before calling it a day and heading home for the weekend. Little did I know that the stale boredom of the office routine was about to be changed rather abruptly. It started with an email forwarded by my colleague Patrick, one of those promotional blurbs from a travel website. However, sharing my passion for Asia (as well as having endured my endless bitching about wanting to go to Hong Kong or Bangkok but not finding any reasonably priced tickets) he had noticed flights to Asia starting at around 3500 SEK (that's roughly €400 or $500 for you int'l readers...) and figured it could be worth checking out. The campaign was ... read more