I thought i had experienced India's monsoon back in 2006, but now I'm not so sure. I've never seen India quite like this. It rains, hard, night and day, and when it stops you find yourself looking at the sky and thinking, 'something's not quite right here.' Then the clouds come again, and all's right with the world. Most of the things i own are drenched, and we are often in cabs that conk out in the puddles, but Mumbai has never been so charismatic in my eyes. In our two days here, we've been busy. The Mumbaikers are mad for this monsoon weather, and people at the Gateway of India were deliberately standing right by the sea wall so that the massive waves would drench them. Why not, eh? We walked out to the Haj ... read more

I love Chinatown and whenever I’m in London, I always end up here, even if it’s by mistake. I’ll be walking in Covent Garden or Charing Cross, and it’s as though my feet pull me here. It’s not the world’s best Chinatown - it’s small, and Gerrard Street is touristy - but the place has charm. If you come here at eleven in the morning, before it gets crowded with visitors spilling in from Leicester Square, you find the streets jammed with vans and delivery men wheeling boxes of fresh fruit and vegetables to small supermarkets like Seewoo, where I buy my Korean ginseng tea. Hardcore shoppers are already squeezing down the narrow aisles of these stores, carrying instant noodles and vats of Chinese cooking sauces. Girls wearing marigold rubber gloves wash the windows of restaurants ... read more