One of my favorite spots on a Sunday in Brussels is the Jeu de Balle Square in the Marolles neighborhood. Ducking under the towering Palais de la Justice, in the lower part of town, the Marolles have always been a poorer, worker’s neighborhood, deemed somewhat unruly. It’s precisely for that reason that the Palace of […]Read More
And, in a final analysis, here are the figures for all the other things you spend you money on in daily life: (super-) markets, public transport and taxis, culture, my phone and other expenses. Depending on how much I cooked, I paid more or less in supermarkets around the globe. It was one of the smaller […]Read More
I’m grumpy today, simple as that. Maybe I didn’t get enough sleep after last night. Maybe it’s pre-return blues. It was a nice, sunny day – and finally not hot and humid but really agreeable! But I only left the house at around 4. Again, several plans for the day kind of fell through, and […]Read More
Market time! I took a stroll through Santiago’s famous fish market, the Mercado Central, with its fish stands and fish restaurants. The restaurants are a bit touristy, and you can’t walk through without a camarero trying to get you to sit down, but it’s a fun place to visit. After the stint at the Estación Mapocho, I […]Read More
Before flying out to South Africa, I had a last morning in Delhi. Time for a little stroll into the old part of Delhi, the ‘grown’ part, that is so distinct from New Delhi’s constructed and planned-out map. It’s pure Indian craziness in there, with the traffic, the people, shops, Bazaars… like Varanasi, maybe a […]Read More
Again, like yesterday, I had no energy for sights… I went to the beautiful Lodi Park a bit South of the center. Surrounded by beautiful and clean tree-lined streets, there were a number of beautiful houses and nice gardens in the area. Obviously a better-off area. The tuk-tuk let me off at one of the gates […]Read More
I met up with Shashank, a freelance TV producer, who is currently preparing a documentary for a TV team from Singapore, on Mumbai’s street food vendors. I simply went along for the ride, as he figured out a few places and family businesses that would be willing to be interviewed. First stop: Chowpatty Beach, a […]Read More
The week in Bangkok is already over. To my shame I have to admit I haven’t done much and explored only a few parts of town. In my defense, in 34 degrees and with that humidity, I simply could not be bothered. The pool seemed like such a great alternative. Even late at night I […]Read More
I did a few trips around Hong Kong Island, to Middle Bay Beach, and to Stanley, a little town on the South coast of Hong Kong Island. It’s famous for its Stanley Market, which left me a bit unimpressed though. It’s a market full of the usual trinkets, clothes and stuff you can basically find […]Read More
My second day pretty much evolved like the first: random wandering through Macau’s old town and sniffing around markets, food stands, museums and other random places I wandered into. I walked south this time, over to the Church of Sao Lazaro, walked into a dragon procession with firecrackers, over to the another food market and […]Read More
It was finally time to visit the other part of town: Kowloon, on the mainland. I took the ferry from downtown that brings you over the Victoria Harbour in less than 10 minutes. The views on Hong Kong are fantastic. If it weren’t for the smog over the harbor and all around. It was hard […]Read More
I’m on Hong Kong Island, an area called Sai Ying Pun. It’s a bit west of the center and downtown, but high-risers are everywhere. In my case it is more residential high-risers than office glass towers. But it’s dense nonetheless, after fall they need to fit those seven million onto the island, somehow. Sai Ying Pun seems […]Read More