Table of Contents

Travel was always in my blood, even though I did not realise it.

We came alongside a tuk-tuk containing a large Western man. He lay limp in the back. A woman was screaming.

An ode to Hong Kong. Submitted for publication.

Life and love in the Philippines.

Life and love in the Philippines – Payback.

Life and love in the Philippines – The denouement.

I had been warned how dangerous Jakarta was, but after six months of travel I had become complacent.

Off the beaten track in Malaysia and Thailand.

An interlude on the smuggling route between Thailand and Burma.

The war spills over.

One carton of Triple Fives, Johnny Walker Red and a Jeep for hire.

Riots in Prome, curfew in Taunggyi, demonstrations in Rangoon, the base of the Shwedagon pagoda covered with anti-government banners.

Marlboros, magazines and the matriarchy.

While I had a mild cold and a case of the runs, Ben had full on dysentery.

Jed took hold of the dried lizards, I took the bong, and together, we ran to the train.

I removed her jacket like a gentleman, spread it across the coarse stone steps so that we could sit down in comfort, hidden in the darkness, our small personal haven.

The deaths peaked in 1991 when almost five hundred died that year out of a population of 606,901.

An usher had shown me to a secluded area, behind a trellis screen away from the stage, and I was seated at a bar top table, when the manager walked over.

Loneliness and self-doubt in Vietnam.

I know in my heart of hearts that it’s me blocking myself, not a bossman on the other side.

Two months later, weird Ted Bucco and I moved into a single-story white cinder block hut at the top of the hill.