All the calories, none of the kick!

All the calories, none of the kick!

jani

Jeddah's King Abdulaziz International Airport has a bad rep, and on landing I could see why. We were bused into the terminal and let loose in the baggage claim area, which is split in two and entirely devoid of signage of any sort (except to note that porters are SR 10 and luggage carts are free), but the solitary moving belt drew the crowd and soon enough bags from RUH, mine among the first, started plopping onto it.

jani

Abu Dhabi is not one of the world's great airports by any measure, but its quirky terminal seemed downright snazzy after the swirling chaos of DEL. Midnight is rush hour at AUH, but I had no problems snagging a seat from where I could contemplate the utterly bizarre mushroom-shaped spout of lime green and blue tiling that dominates the terminal, although any notions of Zen serenity were blasted out of the water by the endless loop of really, really loud trilingual announcements about vol eh-ygrec trois-trois-cinq a Casablanca or whereever.

jani

When I booked Kafe Warisan for a friend's birthday dinner, I couldn't help but snigger at their slogan of "World Famous French Mediterranean Cuisine in a Classic Rice Terrace Setting" -- surely a little pretentious for a small restaurant in a podunk town in rural Bali, no? And thus I was expecting mediocre, somewhat overpriced food in a cheesy Balinese setting... only to get way more than I expected. This was easily among the best Western meals I've had in Asia, or anywhere else for that matter.

jani

CO-ORDINATES: (0,1) ALLEGIANCE: Independent TYPE: Isolationist Religious Enclave GOVERNMENT: Religious Dictatorship MAJOR IMPORTS: None MAJOR EXPORTS: None ILLEGAL GOODS: Animal Meat, Liquor, Narcotics, Animal Skins, Live Animals, Slaves, Luxury Goods, Hand Weapons, Battle Weapons, Nerve Gas, Robots, Radioactives

jani

Naputeltu jo jokunen vuosi sitten suomalaista lehteä varten, muttei koskaan julkaistu, joten laitetaan sitten tänne.

"Welcome to Jakarrrrrrta", hehkuttaa singaporelaisen lentoyhtiön nukenkasvoiseksi meikattu ja kehoa hyväilevään kebayaan valettu lentoemo. Koneen ovella ilma iskee kasvoihin kuin märkä rätti: kuumaa kosteutta, neilikkatupakkaa, palavia riisipeltoja, avoviemäreitä. Harpon kireäkasvoisten salkkumiesten kanssa kohti Imigrasin tiskejä, sillä ehtimällä perille ennen muita voi leikata odotusajastaan tunnin ellei kaksikin.

At the "Play" nightclub, Ancol.

jani

This was my first trip to the Gulf in living memory, and Abu Dhabi turned out to be even weirder than I expected.

jani

Sometimes four sentences just isn't enough, so here's a full-length review of Thulhagiri Resort, my most expensive vacation evah.

Intro

jani

Suddenly I thought: wasn't coming to this place the reason I had continued on my journey for so long? I was brought here by a countless series of coincidences. Those coincidences did not need a word like "god" to explain them; no, it was just the wind, the water, the light, and yes, the buses. Thanks to public buses I was brought here...

jani

Most Bangkok visitors heading north on the Skytrain make a beeline for the Weekend Market at the end of the line, but next time, stop two stations before at Ari. Also known by the Thais as "Millionaire's Lane", the sois of this quiet residential district hide some of the most opulent mansions in the capital -- and some of the quirkiest hotels, restaurants and boutiques in town.

jani

I'll start with a confession: before this trip, I had never visited Barcelona before, and in fact the entirety of my Spanish experience was limited to a visit to Madrid almost 20 years ago. Plan A was Dubai, cancelled on account of intolerably hot weather this time of year, but despite everybody I talked to urging me to visit Barcelona my impression prior to visiting had, somehow, been largely negative: dirty, crumbling, expensive, full of scams and ripoffs, and above all filled with ravenous pickpockets.

jani

In the course of writing a previous entry I realized that I've never actually written up a master list of all the weird food I've eaten, so here's a first stab at it.

Politically correct note: "weirdness" is in the eye of the beholder, and I'm obviously writing this from a Western perspective. It's instructive to remember that a Chinese colleague of mine still finds cheese of any type to be tough going, and considers the very idea of intentionally moldy (blue) cheese to be utterly disgusting. Without further ado...