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Return to base.

by Of no fixed abode.

Atmospheric cobbled streets are all well & good but after several near fatal pothole disasters, I’ve had to return to base to exchange the crutches for my collapsible walkingstick.

My landlady thinks there’s been a miracle & and seems to attribute it to a rather dramatic picture in my room, that or she’s trying to flog it.

Every adventure has to start somewhere…

by Of no fixed abode.

I didn’t imagine Luton borough council would be complicit in my long awaited trip to Iran & the Caucasus but I suppose it could be worse although even after a large glass of Merlot I’m somewhat pushed as to what that would be.

I’m more excited about this little adventure than I was going on my first Club 18-30 holiday back in the days that was relevant and the Shah was still in power.

In hindsight the timing is not brilliant, I’ll be in Tbilisi Georgia for Eurovision which will be experience and I still have a week or so on my crutch sentence but hey, there’s never been a channel 4 show about crossing the Caucasus on crutches, so there..

Where’s my Hutong gone?. 

by Of no fixed abode.

Seeing that the Lonely Planet China guide is over two years old (which in China means it’s way out of date virtually after it’s printed), I didn’t have high hopes for the walking tour of Beijing’s Hutongs (old alleyways of houses) when the starting point was supposed to be a historic house but was now a Pizzahut. I bashed on however in the general direction of the guide and was immediately saddened to see several alleyways being gentrified, their previous occupants obviously ‘relocated’ but the further I pushed into the area, the more there were still thriving Hutongs but for how long, who knows…. 

I imagine this is the initial stages of the whole area being turned into a tourist haunt, pretty much like Covent Garden. People walk around taking snaps of a place they wouldn’t have dreamed of visiting a few years ago but if you wander off a bit you can still see life as it was.