no one has asked me how i’m going.

no shop assistant has asked me how my day has been, if i collect fly-bys, or if that’ll be credit or savings.

when i place my order in a restaurant, the waiter/waitress doesn’t say ”easy as”, “no worries” or “not a problem”.

gordon ramsay and law and order:svu aren’t on tv every second of the day.

it’s damp. and small, and kind of dark, even in the day.

people don’t wear coats when it’s 20 degrees C.

a white cat in a pink t-shirt isn’t howling for my attention. i don’t have to feed some very demanding crows before breakfast.

it doesn’t get dark at 6pm. people stay up past 10 o’ clock at night.

there are no drive-through “bottle shops”.

there’s no train down the middle of the highway.

speed cameras are big and yellow, and called speed cameras, not multinovas.

people say pepper instead of capsicum. and documentary, salvation army and journalist instead of doco, salvos and journo.

no national news presenter would say “good on ya” during a broadcast (nor call the sports guy “tommo”).

police don’t wear baseball caps… or guns.

there’s no gloria jean’s. no-one knows what a flat white is. i can’t go to dome for lunch.

but i can go to starbucks.

and i can catch a bus at the end of my street (and be in town in less than half an hour)

but i can’t see my dad.

1 may 2008

feel stressed. wake up late and tired and have lots of - argh! - work to do. this afternoon (”arvo”) gem asks me to make myself scarce as a nervous client is coming round. am glad  - it forces me to rest and chill out a bit. after being in holiday mode for three weeks, my to-do list is getting long again. turns out you can only hide out from the world for so long before it comes knocking at your door and dragging you out to play - or rather work - again.

calling my to-do list a “ta-da!” list isn’t making me feel as whimsical as i’d hoped, either.

2 may 2008

try to find somewhere that can make a  vegan meal at a local quay, hillary’s (where there are restaurants and shops etc) but we’re thwarted. end up at a restaurant called soda instead, where i have fish and chips and a nice hot choc. scribble a few postcards at home then get ready for bed. tomorrow will be my first foray into perth city centre, and i don’t know what to expect.

3 may 2008

my dad and i go into perth today. play “spot the multinova” - what they call speed cameras here, they have them somewhere different every weekend - and i WIN! woo. see a very impressive collection of year 12 (17/18-year olds) artwork at the art gallery of WA. some of it is so thought-provoking and humbling. the youth of today might actually be okay…

buy a catalogue to show my appreciation, plus a book called isms, which explains the different art movements and how they’re connected.

have lunch in perth library’s cafe and look in their secondhand shop. get yet another book, this one about the history of women in rock.

then we head across the bridge for a little look at the actual city. it’s another gorgeous sunny day, mid-to-high 20s, and people are wandering around or eating in outdoor cafes. it’s pretty, and not overcrowded. we go to a big borders bookshop, which i love, and i take photos of the books i most covet, some of which aren’t out in england.  i decide to come back and investigate the shopping options further on my own one day soon.

8 may 2008

go into perth on my own. i nearly miss the bus - go for an accidentally epic ramble and end up hell knows where. career round the corner to the bus stop about five seconds before the bus does, and manage to catch my connecting train.

i go back to borders and have a snack at their gloria jeans cafe. when the woman serving asks my name (so she knows who to call out - coffee shops don’t do this in the UK, by the way, they just yell “soy macchiato and a muffin!” or whatever, we’re too private to let strangers know our names) she thinks i say “claire”, and i can’t be bothered to correct her. i splurge on a couple of books, including candy girl. then i head to dymocks and buy another one. oops.

at a bag shop, i’m subjected to the customer service bordering on harassment that gem and my dad have warned me abut - i’m practically chased around the store and needless to say, i do not purchase a thing. i do eye up a kathy van zeeland i rarther like, though. i see sex and the city, the movie, is coming here on 5th june, and vow to come back then.

i’ve walked and walked and i completely knacker myself, but it’s a good day out, and nice to have struck out on my own (just like a proper traveller!) i sleep well.

27 april 2008

what a day! lovely, animal themed fun and one of the best times i’ve had in my entire life, ev-er.

first, an alpaca fiesta (ole!) where we got to pet an alpaca and watch a baby being fed - and learnt that alpaca wool is tubular rather than… something else, like sheep. (that bit was less interesting).

then we went to guildford (not the one in surrey, england…) and to a posh cafe for the most delicious meal. i had chicken and a stack of red peppers (or capsicum as aussies insist on saying) and pumpkin with lightly sauteed spinach and puy lentils. it was faaaaaaaaabulous. while eating, i look at a map i picked up earlier. i see the most wonderful sight: a place called swan valley cuddly animal farm. squee!

my stepmum gem looks at the map, understands how to get there, and it is agreed: we must go! while my dad, um… sits in the car, gem and i spend the happiest two hours of our lives bonding with lambs, baby goats, ducks, rabbits, guinea pigs, chicks and best of all, two little piglets who are mad on gem’s shoes and my bag (le sportsac from new york city, thank you very much), which they attack with their noses.

my bag ends up upside down, contents spilling out as the pigs grunt excitedly and run around squealing in a frenzy and gem and i laugh until we hurt. to my dad’s delight (< < sarcasm alert) we talk pigs, lambs, rabbits, goats and sheep the whole way home.

29 april 2008

off to the salvos (salvation army charity shop, always called “salvos” here) this afternoon, where i pick up a couple of cheap books (paul reiser and meg cabot) and a fluffy pink scarf (for when i get home; it’s hot and sunny today). then we go to gloria jean’s, west australia’s aswer to starbucks (they don’t have starbucks here!) followed by a chain bookshop, angus and robertson, where i get the new marian keyes in paperback and a bar of “chockie” - cadbury’s, of course… made in tasmania. then to a book exchange (why don’t we have these back home?) where you can bring the books back for credit to spend on more - genius. i buy a book about an australian “journo” who moved to new york. next up: woolworths, the same company as in the UK, but they only do supermarkets here. discover sheets and towels are called “manchester” and wonder why.

it doesn’t sound like much, but a day off, gorming around and looking at books? plus sunshine? this counts as one of my very best days in oz.

i can’t believe my time here is coming to an end. i have less than a day left at my dad’s - somewhere i’m rather sad to leave - and just a month left until i’m back at work. (okay, that’s quite a while, i know!) i haven’t got as far ahead with my ‘travel log’ blogs as i’d hoped, but look out for two more to pop up (as if by magic) while i’m away.

you can also, if you’re that way inclined, read a couple of things i’ve written recently…

i’m a bit late with this but here’s a review i did for trashionista: i like you - hospitality under the influence.

also, my feature on the resurgence of crafts (yes, another one) is in this month’s prima, out now! or you can read it here, here and here… it’s a bit long.

my plan now is to spend as little time online as possible over the next four weeks, and to do NO.WORK.WHATSOEVER. for the rest of my time in oz. i can’t quite believe i just typed that…

20 april 2008

busybusy day. up before 9 AM for the first time since i arrived. still too late to catch the parentals, who had left before 8.30. my stepmum does more before midday than most people do before midnight, and more than i do all week. this morning for example, she has made three dishes, plus rice, for seven people, washed and blow-dried blossom the cat, been for a walk, done some shopping, cleaned the house and… i don’t know, invented a new method of harvesting energy from the sun, or something.

today my stepbrother (who i’ve never met before) and his girlfriend (ditto) come round for lunch, as do some friends of my dad and stepmum: everyone is lovely, although i didn’t feel at my most sociable. have realised i hate meeting people, but i like having met them: bit of a dichotomy, really.

everyone leaves around 3, and i’m really tired but in a way that goes past the need for sleep; i’m wired.

we drive out to two rocks, a town - and by town i mean two shops and a pub - named for (yes!) the two rocks you can see out to sea. we eat chip butties in a deserted cafe and the rain pours down outside. just like england.

thankfully, we spot some kangaroos on the way home and i am reassured i am still in australia.

21 april 2008

another day of socialising - i’ve met more people in two days than i had in the previous year! (i’m exaggerating, but only slightly). my stepmum’s workmates from taiwan, who are soon leaving the state and then the country, come round for a cup of tea. they are both lovely. one of them used to be a journalist (for a tabloid-y paper back home) but wants to do something else in future.

later, my dad lays out the options for his post-retirement life as he sees them: building his own home, or joining the circus. it must be quite the hallucinogenic cocktail in his brain…

24 april 2008

lovely weather today. i have lunch al fresco. blossom looks like joining me but demurs at the last minute.

my stepmum and i go to burns beach, take in some lovely sea air, and have a drink. when we get back blossom has pooed on the bed.

i have a lie down on my bed with the fan on because it is too darn hot!

then i get ready for a meal at the local indian restaurant, masala, which is delicious.

just before we head off, i get a stress-filled email from a magazine wanting me to phone an interviewee about something really last-minute. as i’m due to head out in five minutes, and in australia, i have to decline, but email madly before setting off. i’m a bit stressed as i eat, but when i get home later it’s all resolved. phew.

25 april 2008

go to a bookshop in north perth, which sells second-hand stuff at rather high mark-ups. we all load up our arms nonetheless: the shop is piled so full of books in waist-high piles on the floor as well as on shelves. it’s like a maze and you feel you deserve some kind of reward for navigating it. the manager talks at length about theft and bad karma and how he moved here from new york to be a teacher but hated the schools. finally we escape and eat at a lovely balkan cafe.

then we head for some serious roo-spotting, to pinneroo memorial park. yes, the cemetery is where all the roos hang out. and they don’t seem to mind us snapping hundreds of pics of them. the people who’ve left flowers for their buried loved ones might be a bit miffed at the way the kangas are decimating them, though.

more animal spotting later: we go to joondalup lake, which is beautiful, a popular picnic spot, and i can see why. it’s incredibly hot and sunny for “autumn”, at least 28C, and we take some great pictures of the flocks of cockatiels. i think that’s what they are… at one point they have a mad squawking fit and hundreds of them fly close over our heads. it’s an incredible spectacle.

later, i mess around online and an internet quiz asks me if i embark upon adventures when i’m in emotional pain. er… no comment.

26 april 2008

another gorgeous day. start off feeling exhausted and dizzy, as i’m still so tired and jetlagged.

i had been promised a trip to “manor” all week - some posh cafe, i assumed. it turns out to be manna, an unassuming mostly veggie place. that makes more sense.

then it’s shopping time! gem and i attack e-sheds markets at fremantle with gusto. my dad sits and reads a book. and the paper. (we’re gone a while).

there are some great souvenir shops and stuff to see, including a lot of hello kitty merch, which is always good. i buy a koala (not a real one), a kangaroo keychain and some postcards. (tourist, much?)

on the way back, we head to a cafe for coffee (hot “chockie” in my case). it’s sunny and beautiful and the cafe view (a tiny beach on the waterfront) is gorgeous. the service however, is perfunctory at best. we drink up and take photos, including one of me sitting in a tree. no reason.

15 april 2008

after a five hour flight that feels 15 times longer, we arrive in australia just after midnight. i’m in the country of my birth for the first time in 29 years. as we drive the dark and empty highways home, i can’t quite believe i’m here, that i was born here, and that i’ll be staying here until the end of june.

we’re met by my stepmum and blossom the cat, and my guest room here is lovely. (i have my own bathroom, too). i notice there’s one of those annoying “natural sounds” CDs playing in my room, with cicadas, crickets or similar chirping away. i look around to turn it off but discover it’s no CD - it’s nature!

i shove my earplugs in deep, and crash out.

am in a very bad mood on waking, as so horribly jet-lagged. also, my dad wakes me from a very deep sleep and starts telling me what to do in quite some detail. after a heated discussion and a good cry, i think he sees my point of view: that this is a holiday, that i can’t do as much as a “well” person… and that that’s okay.

after that upheaval, i change my mind about not wanting to go out, and we head off with my stepmum to fremantle and a lovely veggie cafe* called juicy beetroot, where i have a delicious lentil dahl and rice. i also get two second-hand books from a big charity shop, including asta’s book, which keris keeps saying is good. (i’d better like it!)

we get take-away coffees/hot chocolate and sit by the waves at cottersloe beach, watching the people and dogs running up and down. i fall asleep in the car on the way home.

the day ends with me checking the net, but studiously avoiding my main email accounts so as not to be drawn back into the world of work: have declared this a week off.

the day also ends with blossom leaving a poo in the laundry room. i like to think she’s saying “welcome to australia, diane”.

16 april 2008

you just can’t keep me away: i log onto all my emails today. thankfully, there’s nothing too traumatic to contend with, but people are still contacting me about a feature i wrapped up 8 days ago.

i can’t believe that this time last week i was in the air, the trauma of my airport fiasco still heavy on my mind. it’s that bit harder to adjust when the start of a journey goes badly, especially for someone like me, who always finds it hard to adjust to anything.

i realise i’m really going to miss my ipod speakers as i tidy my room sans sound effects. i unpack everything with great haste, and then leave it languishing on my bed while i talk to my stepmum when she gets home from work (she works part-time in a nursery - plants, not kids, getting home at lunchtime). she bemoans the lack of good, bargainous clothes shopping in oz.

i take the stuff off my bed and pile it on the floor, neatly this time. putting some more stiff away i discover my dad’s secret stash in a drawer.

not what you’re thinking, unless what you’re thinking is ear plugs. more ear plugs than i’ve ever seen in one place - more than have ever been seen in one place.

“well, i’ll need them for the rest of my life,” he tells me.

19 april 2008

we go to a lavender tearoom in the hills of perth, about an hour’s drive. there are imposing signs about highly poisonous tiger snakes everywhere but “we’ve only seen one once” my dad ?reassures? me. i need to use the (outdoor) toilet and do so vairy cautiously… then i sample some lavender scone but settle on lavender ice cream and a “ginger crunch”. yum.  we see some aussie magpies (much bigger than the british version - i later find out they are two different birds, no relation) making off with leftovers as soon as people leave their tables.

we also see some galahs, like pink and grey parrots (brett had one in neighbours, he gave it to libby. or susan - remember?) they’re very pretty and full of character:

on the way back, we stop at kallamunda, which my dad’s mentioned having been to a few times. i expected a big town, but it’s a really small place, just a few shops on two or three streets, the end.

we go into a second-hand bookshop and my dad comments on the owner’s glass-enclosed catcher in the rye. the owner says salinger is hard to come by, so has to be kept pristine.

 ”most of what they turn out is rubbish, but he’s one of very few yanks who actually can write,” he tells us. i’m too jetlagged and agog to ask where his reading habits have been for the last 50 years.

later, we watch year of the dog, a film starring molly shannon and john c reilly which i wouldn’t recommend. “no, it wasn’t very good… was that your pick?” my dad asks.

*my dad is veggie; my stepmum vegan, so i’ll be having a low-meat couple of months…

14 april 2008

our last day in singapore. (i know, finally, right?!)

we get up, have a delish breakfast (cheese and pepper omelette, made to order, and a huge pile of noodles - the perfect blend of east and west!), finish packing and check out, leaving our cases to collect later.

then we set off to look at the merlion, the symbol of singapore: basically a big lion/mermaid hybrid.

we take lots of pictures of the new, larger version and look at the smaller original.

there are loads of tourists, and a man from thailand sits down next to my dad and snaps a picture of the pair of them together. we have no idea why.

then we walk along to boat quay — or was it clark quay? one of the two quays, anyway –and look around. as we walk along the quay, we are hassled at every turn by restaurateurs trying to lure us in. “you want food madam?” no thank you. “drink? we have tea, coffee?” no. i am hungry but i’m more concerned that somewhere in the last few years i have become a “madam”… this hard sell approach is everywhere in singapore, part of the bartering culture and a little odd considering how polite everyone is here. there is just no taboo against aggressively trying to sell something, but for a reserved brit it’s hard to take in. in my culture, polite = leave me alone. here, polite = be nice at all times… but still try to SELL.

perhaps weirdly, we decide to eat lunch in o’brien’s, an irish sandwich bar we have in the UK. i have a fishfinger and cheese sandwich with ketchup, one of the oddest things i’ve ever ordered. (made a few, but never had one made for me). nice though!

we only have a couple of hours left now, so we decide to do the one thing that’s been missing from the trip (at least from my perspective): a visit to sim lim square, home of everything electronic, electrical and technological. we go by underground, and are overwhelmed by the size and scope of the place.

this one huge mall has to have the biggest selection of technology available in one place, ever. somehow i restrain myself from getting a mini-PC (they have a lot of asus eePCs, which are so tiny), an ipod nano and a tiny-looking 1TB external hard drive.

on the down side, this mall has the worst toilets i’ve ever seen/used (enough said), and the most off-putting food court:

(speaking of shopping, i forgot to mention it in one of my previous posts, because i can’t remember which day we went, but i feel i must give a mention to a store called mustafa. just down the road from our hotel in little india, it’s like wilkinson’s on steroids. you wouldn’t believe the choice: you can change money, book a holiday, buy luggage, clothes, cameras, toiletries, basically everything you could ever want. it’s open 24 hours a day and continually heaving. it’s a tourist attraction in itself: a must-see).

finally, it’s time to head back to the hotel, buy a little budda in the gift shop, and head to the airport.

australia ahoy!

right, where were we?

11 april 2008 (continued…)

so we walk, and walk, and walk, and walk. and eventually (after “just a few minutes” in my dad’s parlance and “absolutely bloody forever” in mine) we reach our bus stop. my feet are on fire. i get the same (attractive!) effect i got in new york, from loadsa flying plus loadsa walking: ankles like watermelons. i do not want to walk any more.

luckily, i did not have to. we sat at the bus stop and studied our timetable and map. our singapore airlines-provided hop-on, hop-off bus would arrive in twenty-five minutes. okay. we sat, and we watched the traffic: cars, buses, and the occasional rickshaw. my favourite was the man on his bike… smoking a pipe.

finally, our bus came.

here my memory has a major lapse, and my notes fail me: i’m not sure where we went first, or what we did when we got there. presumably, it was something good, as everything was running smoothly (at this point). but after we had been to this mysterious place, we hopped back on our bus to go to chinatown. and came into contact with the rudest bus driver ev-ah (singapore airlines ruining their reputation, again!)

this bus is supposed to be free for people on stopovers with singapore airlines, or $3 if you’re on holiday with singapore airlines. despite my being on a stopover, our new driver decided arbitrarily that i had to pay $3. because i had an electronic ticket, i think. (i wondered afterwards if he could read?) he was quite hysterical, grabbing my arm and shouting, “ma’am you are not on a stopover just ‘cos you come to singapore! holiday is not a stopover!” he stopped the bus and showed me a green boarding pass some other people had - i did not have one, therefore i was a dirty liar, was the implication. not wanting to cause any further commotion over a $3 fare, we paid, but seethed a bit. then we went to chinatown.  

in chinatown, we walked through the outdoor markets, looked at some of the ornate temples, were blasted by the incredible heat (and rained on a bit as well) and i saw the biggest/scariest terodactyl-sized bug in the world, which made me scream and run around and shriek “it’s not on me, is it?!” which is always fun.

then went to a “hawker centre”, a kind of pre-food court food court, with the tables crammed in and around the stalls. hectic, cramped, not the cleanest place in the world… but cheap. i had something called hainanese chicken: plain boiled chicken with rice, basically, plus a coke to pep me up. then i used the toilet, which i had to pay for. there were big red flies in my stall with me, and i ‘went’ as quickly as i ever have in my life. *shudder*

i know some people love authenticity and realness when they travel but i love posh hotels, starbucks and homogeneity. what can i say? i’m culturally corrupt and morally bereft, and i like it that way.

we then walked to a shopping centre and looked at some technology (they had lots of littletiny notebook computers, and i wanted one), before catching our bus back. or trying to.

it was twenty minutes late (or ten minutes early, and the previous one was missing), and guess who the driver was? this time, with our $3 tickets, we were free from persecution. but not to worry: some other tourists were being persecuted instead! the driver from hades stopped the bus again to have an argument with an older english couple, who he said weren’t on a stopover either (and yet they were). unlike us, they just refused to pay. “sue me,” the older man said, “you’ll lose.” we bonded with them and their friends about how none of us wanted to fly singapore airlines ever again.

thankful at least that we could relax for a while, we sank back into our seats, planning on staying on until the place we got on, and having a nice look round singapore on the way. but when we got to the botanical gardens, the driver announced “everyone alight and wait for next bus! EVERYONE ALIGHT!”

so we had to alight and join the people who were already waiting for the next bus - which equalled more than one busful in total. everyone looked unimpressed. we got a taxi back to the hotel in the end. i checked in, napped, we had a meal at the hotel and we both had an early night. it had been a heck of a 24 hours.

12 april 2008

today we did something really cool: went on the singapore flyer. it was excellent - much better organised than the london eye, and 30 metres taller, too. we saw pretty much the whole of singapore, including a new ‘floating’ football pitch - not sure how that will work, but fun all the same - and all the construction for a massive new casino/hotel complex. apparently the chinese are mad-keen gamblers. who knew?

the sky was bright blue, the sun was out, it was a gorgeous day, hardly a cloud in the sky… perfect weather to see the city. and then five minutes after we got off the flyer, there was thunder, lightning and torrential rain for the next two hours. we sat around and waited for the weather to abate a bit, but it didn’t, so we headed off to the legendary raffles hotel, my grandad’s stomping ground just after world war two. and the home of the singapore sling cocktail.

as our taxi pulled up, a man in ornate indian (colonial esque, very un-pc) costume came forward with a huge umbrella, and ushered us inside. i could get used to that! the interior is so gorgeous, with chandeliers and plush carpets and really lovely architecture. then you walk around the back and there are loads of shops. pretty, pretty shops.

we went to an upstairs bar and had singapore slings (let’s not mention the price) and an intense heart-to-heart. as ya do. then we trolled around the complex a bit more (was still raining) and headed to orchard road, the main shopping district: one long, long, longlong row of high-street shops, designer shops, and huge mall after huge mall. it’s a shoppers paradise, but not a place to find bargains. i went into a tiffany shop for the first time, but didn’t/couldn’t indulge.

we had hot chocolates outside a cafe and watched the frenetic world go by, and i didn’t want to leave.

13 april 2008

no rain today, for the first time this trip. hotter than hell, though. we went to jurong bird park, which was fab.

there are some birds (varieties of toucan mostly), who make a nest and then the woman barricades herself in until the eggs hatch - for months on end, she never leaves and the man has to bring her food. but if anything (like death) happens to him, she is is faithful and will never accept food from another suitor… and then she and her babies die. plus, there’s a bird called “mad woman bird” because it behaves erratically. erm, patriarchy much?

we saw some non-sexist displays too, like beautiful flamingos, and we fed the lorikeets, which snatched a feeding bowl right out of my dad’s hands, to my amusement.

we had something to eat and i had much fun in the gift shop (my dad, not so much) before heading back to the hotel to soak my book and read my feet. or something like that.

i don’t think i’ll be winning a travel blogging award anytime soon: it’s five weeks today since i left home, and i’ve blogged about my travels exactly once (and i hadn’t even got on the plane at the end of it).

i have however, been keeping a travel diary - with a notepad and pen and everything. i’ve decided that the best way to share it with you is to write posts which include a few days at a time (that way, i might have finished by next october). i’ll continue writing other posts (when i have time) in between the travel ones and i will edit my diary entries somewhat so that i’m finished before christmas.

i hope you enjoy them - either way they will be a useful keepsake when i’m 90 and can’t remember my foreign adventures… let’s start at the beginning, with my arrival in singapore (aka: the molten centre of the earth).

travel log, part one

10 april 2008

on the plane to singapore:

very impressed with self, as my theory of seat booking was correct. i wanted an aisle seat, so chose a row where only the window seat had been reserved. the middle seat would be a last-resort booking for anyone, right? right - huzzah! no-one was in the seat next to me, so i could spread out with my stuff instead of having to duck under my seat to get things.

the man in the window seat was either a big drinker or a nervous flyer, or both: he consumed at least three gin and tonics and three glasses of wine, then promptly fell asleep (and! as far as i can tell, he didn’t, um, “go” once…) as i can never sleep on a flight, i watched lots of stuff on the seat-back screen: ’til death, 30 rock, rules of engagement, back to you, pushing daisies and two eps of sex and the city. i also saw most of a julie delpy film (which i didn’t like much) and juno (which i will be writing another post about soon).

i wished i had my laptop, my carmex and my meg cabot, but i coped.

11 april 2008

before i knew it (okay, it was a long time, and long overdue, but i’m skipping ahead now) we were landing in singapore. the pilot announced it was 26 degrees celsius. “that’s not too hot,” i thought. then i realised: it’s half past five in the morning. after disembarking, i had a short wait at customs and a shorter wait at the baggage carousel, before hefting my heavy suitcase over to the exit, where my dad stood, in his sheffield united t-shirt and shorts. hugs ensued.

stepping out of the airport, i couldn’t believe the heat. it doesn’t creep up on you but blasts you like a thump to the face. we dived into a taxi and twenty minutes later we were at our hotel in little india. everything looked - unsurprisingly! - indian, which was weird for a city whose main occupants are of chinese origin.

back at the hotel, it was about 6.30 AM, and i wasn’t feeling my best. my room wasn’t ready yet, so my dad went for breakfast while i showered and had a snooze. then i dressed, my dad came back, and i acted like i was ready to sight-see, despite feeling like i’d been run over…