I'm not in Kansas anymore...

Earlier this year, if you'd asked me about my favourite foods, I would have happily waxed lyrical on many Eastern cuisines: Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai.  But Chinese food wouldn't be on the list. In fact it would not have even come close. I mistakenly believed that the luminous, MSG-ridden stuff you get in foil containers with cardboard lids takeaways was the real deal. One day, a friend who had grown up in China chastised me for my dismissive attitude and told me I hadn't lived until I'd eaten on the  mainland. And, oh how right he was.  I am a self confessed foodie and having subsisted on lentils, vegetables, dahl and dahl baht for the previous 6 months, by the time I landed in China I was ready to eat. And eat I did. In fact, I couldn't stop eating. Each meal was just too good to be true - and in local Chinese restaurants the price was an absolute snip. I enclose below, some 'food porn' for your gustatory viewing pleasure. Enjoy!  *apologies to John B...

Me and Will: back to city life China. I embarked from a plane with probably the most lax attitude to airline safety ever in terms of people wandering around, belts off, as we were landing and queuing to get out before we had even taxied off the runway. In Shanghai I was confronted with total, Western first-world-madness beginning with the high speed Maglev which rocketed us from the airport to the city at 140km/h and culminating in the glittering 24th floor city apartment which would become my home for the next week. The flat belongs to my dear friend Will who had 'jumped off' 8 months earlier and taken a placement in Shanghai from his employer, Tesco. Will and I have had a deep and long standing  relationship and it was interesting coming face to face with him after a hiatus in which both of us had undergone such a profound life change. There he was, relaxed and comfortable in his ex pat life and here was me with matted hair, a tan, BO and a head full of Shiva! The...

First sights of Nepal: children living in poverty Nepal was a place of many realisations for me. When I crossed the border and had to navigate my way to the airport alone, on the back of a cart amidst political crisis and angry villagers brandishing guns, although I was fearful of my own safety my prevailing thought was surprisingly one of gratitude. For the poverty that I witnessed as I took that terrifying drive to the airport was like nothing I had ever seen before. Despite my circumstances, I was able to be thankful even in that moment that I have grown up with food on the table, clothes on my back and wanting for nothing. I realised that all of my perceived problems were merely trifling and "first world".  And then as I trekked in the overwhelmingly beauty of the Nepali countryside I was struck not only by the simplicity of peoples lives but also by their incredible kindness. To quote Shantaram "there is no act of faith more beautiful than the generosity of the...

Tibetan prayer flags litter every building in the camps Ever since I was a young child I have had an interest in Tibet, Tibetan monks and Buddhism. My inherent interest in this culture was only enhanced by my recent stay in Dharamsala, home to the Tibetan government in exile and the Dalai Lama. Tibetan people seem to me to emanate a natural peace in spite of all of the social and political challenges that they have faced. When I landed in Nepal, the Tibetan theme continued  as I realised that despite its relatively small size, this country is home to an estimated 30,000 Tibetan refugees and Tibet is everywhere - whether that be in the form of handicraft shops, the sound of the "Om mani padme hum" mantra echoing from shops, prayer flags fluttering overhead, even Lama schools - you can't help but see the Tibetan influence exerted on Nepali life.  Washing hanging to dry inside the camp The refugees began to arrive in the early 1950s but came in their droves after...