Heroes: Tragic and Comic This could be Rotterdam or anywhere, chilling in a shopping mall coffee shop half the temperature that bathes the city outside its sliding glass doors guarded by a pair of goons in blue and white pressed uniforms, until you take a closer look. The products and prices are western, made in China, Korea, Japan, western as it’s come to be known, lipsticks, yoga mats, silk blouses, skin creams, cappucinnos, handbags, donuts. The shoppers are Chinese, an affluent minority constituting roughly a fifth of Surabaya, the highest density of Chinese in the country. Many of them live in concrete mansions towering above the floodline, drive luxury sedans and tinted SUVs, employ a half dozen housekeepers, a cook, a driver, a gardener, wander the air-conditioned mall in their best clothes, eat western food and ... read more

Medan: English Lesson with a Happy Ending It’s a day faster and with Air Asia it’s actually cheaper to fly KL to Medan, Indonesia's third largest city, a quick hop across the Straights of Malaka but I need to reach it by sea, want to relive bygone days of explorers and spice traders. The ship, however, is oblivious to any romantic notions, a low aluminium hull tosses its cargo from port to starboard and back mile after nautical mile, air con preserving passengers like produce in a refrigerator, no promenade deck for shuffleboard, just a muddy window pane, and a neighbour reeking of tobacco smoke and in dire need of a shower. Customs and Immigration are efficient and friendly, a young man in a tight grey uniform reminiscent of C.H.I.P.S. steers me to the front of ... read more

The same day stretches six weeks long, waking, sleeping - it’s the same - denying routine, denying necessity, progress, change, accepting sunlight, escaping cold, watching an apartment block’s shadow creep up the block like a giant sundial tracking the day’s journey. Ants pass aboard buses, crowded into minivans, on three wheeled bicycles laden with boxes. Measuring time with questions. What next? Feeling the victim of circumstances, easier to procrastinate, stagnate, grow weary of a love affair. My lover and I argue, see the less than perfect existence, the differences between us multiply, a beauty once compared to a constant light begin to pulse, interrupted by moments of uncertainty, a Ming vase start to crack. What next? Late night we cross the road under the green man’s safe passage. Shxpir pulls me back by the coat sleeve. ... read more

Two weeks to cross south China, aboard a sleeper train from Kunming to Guilin, an expected two hours later than listed in the time table. A bus parked in front of the station departs for Yangshuo, an hour's drive down a highway resembling a long parking lot. I'm greeted by a pushy hostel staff member who quickly arranges my onward bus ticket to Shenzhen before booking me into an empty discount dormitory a short walk from the tourist congested centre. I am unwell for my few days stay. A kind young woman, Shanghainese, Christian, English speaking, works in a popular guesthouse tucked inside a narrow alley, and serves affordable coffee al fresco, takes me late morning to the doctor's clinic. He pierces my vein with a needle, hooks up an IV. Proteins, sugars, healthy chemicals drip ... read more

There are rules in Kunming as in all towns, in all societies, but the young expats, a tribe of drifters, don't much adhere to them. One guy, I forget his name, remains behind bars, caught with a large possession of drugs a few months ago. A girlfriend paid him a visit. I forget her name too. She invited Joan but he declined. Like most in Kunming he had distanced himself from the pusher, told me in a taxi ride various instances that summarized the enprisoned foreigner's fate as following logically. There are plenty of pills in Kunming. Little baggies exchange hands, conversations mention 'pink ones', 'green ones'. It comes from labs in Guangzhou is one story or smuggled across from Burma. In the hillsides throughout Yunnan the clear mild weather encourages cannabis to grow wild. In ... read more