When I first came to Bangkok it was August, 2003 and Thailand was a mystery to me. “The land of smiles”: beaches, exotic temples, pretty women. But something ill was afoot. It wasn’t just that I found the Khaosan Road “backpacker ghetto” boring nor that the energy at the Koh Phangan pre-full moon beach…

 The buzz of poorly earthed, pole-mounted megaphones bursts into life at 7am. A pseudo-operatic chorus of unmistakably patriotic zeal fills your hotel room. You know you are not in Kansas anymore. Laos (Lao) is a funny place. It is still a one-party “communist” state controlled by the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party. Early morning public propaganda…

October 21, 2011 “Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner, that I love London town.” As it ‘appens, I’m not one, but I find myself cheerily humming that tune whenever I come up to the capital. To be fair, I am a quarter Cockney by blood, my grandfather was born in the Borough of Bow itself…