Jose P. Rizal may sound like a South American rapper, but the Filipino Doctor-Poet has a park dedicated to him in the centre of the Philippines' capital, Manila, and has a garden to commemorate his execution. I knew very little (read: nothing) of the history of the Philippines. A collection of islands that were united and subjugated by the Spanish in 1565, and named after their reigning monarch, Phillip II. Jose P Rizal comes in at the end of the Colonial Philippines. He was born in Calamba, Laguna (some thirty miles south of Manila), to a wealthy family. His ancestors were a mix of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese, the most notable of whom were Chinese merchants and entrepreneurs. At an early age, Rizal and his brother were already annoying the aurthorities with their political ideas ... read more

These stories generally end with me weeping internally and praying that the person leaves on their own accord. People tend to come up and start talking to me and I'm not entirely sure why. It might be because I normally smile at people, regardless of whether I know them or not. Many of the people who come up and start talking to me are genuinely lovely people who are just curious or fancy a chat. Eccentricity doesn't bother me. Pasha and the Pervy Babooshka were not eccentrics, they were really, really creepy. I met Pasha in a bar when I was living in Tver, not far from Moscow. The bar was on the main street, not far from our lodgings, and the group that went consisted mainly of the Scots, French and Finns that were studying ... read more

In order to get into practice for this blog, I am going to write-up some of my time in Hong Kong. My track record with accommodation in foreign countries is less than cheerful. My first few weeks in Russia were, let's say, 'uncomfortable'; I lived in a two bedroom flat with a single mother, her daughter, her sister, and sometimes a man... who may or may not have been a brother. She would laugh at me if I tried to speak Russian to her, and she spent a lot of time shouting at her toddler. I was relieved to move into the student flats above the classrooms a week later. I'm still not sure if my first month in Hong Kong was better or worse. On 3rd October, I wen to view a flat in Kwai ... read more