Summertime in France

The journey from Malaysia to France was extremely debilitating taking a total of 46 hours door to door but I guess that's the price you pay for a very cheap flight (£187)  ... so for the first few days I did a lot of yawning but not much else ....however ... the new workaway project at my friend Edna's  house in Angles sur l'anglin, Poitou Charentes,  is extremely interesting (refurbishing the kitchen) and the bed is extremely comfortable (the bed on the last project had a  broken base!) ... the food is good and we have managed to at least talk through and 'mock up' the basic design and when finished will enable her to offer Chambre's d'hotes (bed and breakfast) accommodation in this "Les plus beaux villages de France".

France I'm pleased to say is experiencing a mini heatwave which has made the culture shock more bearable but when I was flying back and staring at strangers (which is an alarming habit I have)  I realised how much I'm going to miss the sight of the asiatic female physiognomy and although I am very admiring of french culture, manners, food, history, architecture (pre 1950 anyway) writers, film makers etc etc there is no getting away from the fact (imho) that the Asian female is generally a lot easier on the eye than the European with the exception of course of any that I happen to be writing to! 

During the long and occasionally tedious journey back to Europe the subject of 'what next' was often in my mind and I concluded that i am not yet ready to 'settle down' and prepare for that final journey into oblivion.  Although travelling is often physically and mentally extremely demanding the 'highs' are so exhilarating that they overshadow everything else so thoughts as to 'where next' are drifting around seeing friends and family in uk and then either Thailand ...  Sri Lanka .... South America for the winter ... but .... there again ..... !

Chateau Brosse (2kms)  Chateau Touffou (10 kms)

Local views of Angles sur l'anglin

 

Back to Malaysia

"When English author Somerset Maugham spun his tales about the fascinating and little-known Southeast Asian colony of Malaya, he invoked an era of tropical opulence, married to the intrigue and drama of hidebound British civil servants and expatriate planters living in paradise."

One of the photos below is of the Royal Club in Ipoh, a large town in central Malaysia, and it was evocative, poignant and a bit weird to be in a place which Somerset Maugham visited and to imagine him and other expatriates sitting under the shade of the trees watching pink faced English men in 'whites' calling out " oh jolly well done old boy"

http://www.gotaiping.com/

Having stayed in the most boring hostel of my travels in Ipoh I am now in Taiping helping a young and inspiring couple to hopefully realise their dream of setting up a sustainable development project.

26th April ... Another volunteer and myself have gone to Langkawi Island for r&r!

April 30th ... have decided to move on to the next project on pangkor island.   The "youthful enthusiasm" consisted of too much 'dreaming' and not enough 'planning' and 'doing' with the consequence that in the three weeks I was there only two days were actually spent 'doing' what had originally inspired me to apply as a volunteer.  However in spite of everything I managed to make a bench saw which utilises their circular saw and lay a concrete pad for the first building.  I still think that eventually they will succeed in creating something resembling their dream once they get past the first faltering steps.

The hosts of the pangkor island project are in Australia until May 11th visiting friends and family which coincidentally happens to be 4 miles from where I was in November / December 2014 visiting my sister Trish.  So for the next few days I have a 3 bed house to myself in Lumut with the use of a 125 cc moped. This morning I decided to try out the motorbike and go shopping at a supermarket about 4 miles away.  It was an extremely exhilarating and extremely frightening experience in equal measure due to my lack of recent inexperience on motorbikes and the lack of adherence to even basic laws of the road by the majority of other road users but after having got lost and literally going round in circles for an hour or so I eventually found my way 'home'.  

An interesting acquaintance

Fascinating roots

Wonderful colours

My dream home!

L-R Clarissa Yoong Melissa Mo

What a lucky man I am!

 ?

Local restaurant

'Howzat!'

Proposed kitchen

Taiping Museum

Dark clouds ahead!

Aloe Vera

Hard graft

Langkawi Island

A new friend!

W/away project on Pangkor Island

Turtle sanctuary

Back again in Istanbul!

After 50 years I returned to Istanbul and if my memory is correct the hostel is, or is close to, the hostel where I originally stayed.    Fortunately this old part of the city has avoided to a large extent the modernisation that has taken place elsewhere, there are still the wide open spaces, beautiful parks and Mosques and friendly warm hearted people who will quite happily stick 50% on the price of an article or service but generally wouldn't dream of stealing your bike!

Old city park 

Model of the Grand Mosque

Back street

The Grand Mosque at night

Local pastries

It was probably easier then!

4th C Egyptian obelisk

 

Exquisite furniture

Street cafe scene

Public spaces

A warm winter in the Island of Cyprus

The decision to leave Laos and come to Cyprus was not an easy one.   Although I had a second bout of food poisoning which had left me once again hesitant to eat anything I was still reluctant to leave South East Asia with which I had connected on so many levels.  However the instinctive need to go to what I hoped would be comfortable and hygienic circumstances with a diet that was familiar was very strong and in spite of cost and a long journey it has all been worth while.   Andy and Nicky, the workaway hosts, have been exemplary in providing a high standard of eveything I had hoped for and the work has been enjoyable and satisfying with the consequence that I feel fully recovered.   Since I arrived there have been Oleg and Irina, a Ukrainian couple and Sabrina, a German woman here as volunteers as well  and the conversation has been interesting and informative especially listening to the Ukrainians and their sad stories of a country being torn apart by meddling foreigners whose only concern is greed.  Last weekend we all had a very enjoyable visit to Nicosia visiting both the Greek Cypriot part as well as crossing the "green line" and walking round the Turkish controlled part of Cyprus.  The German volunteer has now left and tomorrow the Ukrainians are moving on as well.   This afternoon friends of Andy and Nicky have asked if I will undertake a small plumbing job (paid) on a property that they are caretakers for and I have also received a request to volunteer at a workaway project in Thailand which I will seriously consider in May or June although summer in Eastern Europe has its appeal!
  

We are the blue icon

View from the hosts balcony

Waiting for the pool to warm

Local landscape

Street scene in Nicosia

Restored building in Nicosia

Maroni

L - R, Sabrina, Andy, Nicky, Irina, Oleg

Andy & Nicky call in at the French workaway project on their way back to UK