Where's Scott?

I’ve touched base with a friend of mine from Yahoo who’s living in Shanghai, and it looks like I might be able to drop by on my way home and see him! In the meantime, I’ve noticed that life using the Blackberry as the sole source of internet access is limiting (ie. I can’t book […]

Seb and Mabel are finally splitting for the UK. After having his start date at EasyJet extended for several weeks allowing us some extra beach time (and Tokyo!) Seb finally has to actually show up for work. Most of his heavy gear he’s stored in a friend’s closet at her (permanent) hotel room by the […]

We hit the malls – this is really the heart of KL; there aren’t too many tourist spots, and not much historical architecture, but if they know how to do anything, it’s build malls. The malls compete for size, and the competition is fierce – the first one we hit is as large on each […]

We splurge, and book a room at one of the nicest hotels in KL, the Sheraton Imperial. Seb works his pilot magic, flashing his expired Air Asia badge, and manages to get half off his room. The rooms are immense, and I have a magnificent view of the city from my throne in the bathroom […]

With Mabel and Seb sleeping in late, I wander about and check out Paco Park. It’s a fascinating circular cemetery with some very elegant trees, apparently one of the more interesting sights in Manila. It appears to be a popular student hang out, and there are several groups of what appear to be Japanese youths […]

We return to the warm, humid comfort of Manila, and Mabel arrives from Cebu to meet us. Poor Mabel’s been quite sick over the last week, and has lost quite a bit of weight, now weighing in at a little over 35 kilos (not a typo, that’s 78 lbs!). Is there a flea-weight category? We […]

We have a plan to have lunch at the sushi house that Gaku recommended (but was closed on our last trip). We arrive and stare at the small house wondering if we really have the right place – it’s down a small, quiet street in a quiet business district. We step in and find a […]

Seb’s brother Jascha has suggested we check out Yayogi park, so we jump the train for the far side of the city. We arrive to a packed station and shuffle out with a morass of people to the bridge leading to the Meiji shrine. Grouped on the bridge are dozens of young girls dressed up […]

Yes, the sake is phenomenal, as is the bill! We’re closing The Bar at 4:30am and my credit card’s been declined! They run it several times, but it’s clear something’s very wrong. A quick call to the intl customer care, and we discover someone has tried to use the wrong PIN on the credit card; […]

We wake with a plan to not leave the lodging to the last minute. We motor down to the 5-star hotel’s meager i-cafe (2 English computers) and at extortionate rates find a couple of real i-cafe locations. That sorted, we wander the town a bit and I listen to Seb lament that we missed the […]