You know the traffic’s bad when people can make their living selling cigarettes and snacks through stationary car windows. Sitting in an airport taxi in traffic that looks as though it stretches from the past way into the future, I can hardly see a thing. It’s only 5.30pm, far too early for sunset but the…
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In Kuala Lumpur, the best malls are the worst malls. New malls are largely cavernous, too-brightly lit spaces made of glass and faux marble with endless floors connected by a labyrinth of escalators that look as though they were conceived by Escher. As soon as these new malls open, all sparkly and new and yet…
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As in Singapore, our first night in Kuala Lumpur is spent in a thunderstorm. British storms begin like a growl in the back of the throat and grow into a little tantrum of rain. More often than not the sky tires of its noise and activity and gives up after half an hour, leaving behind…
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It was 2am and the city of Singapore looked like a simulated toy town, illuminated by the white, artificial glare of streetlights and skyscrapers. The streets were immaculate, unpopulated and surrounded on all sides by glinting steel and glass reaching up to touch the inky black sky. I felt as though I had shrunk down…
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You can’t really prepare for Bangkok in all its contradictions. Like all big cities, the extremely rich and extremely poor share the same streets, but in Bangkok they literally brush shoulders. Every stretch of pavement is fair game; giant shopping malls cater to the label-obsessed super rich and right outside children sit on the street…
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