Left my heart in Sydney

Recently, I took a very brief but rewarding trip to Sydney...when I say recently, I should clarify that I left Australia just about 12 hours ago! It was my first time back in Australia in 16 years and my first as an adult. It had been so long that I knew the experience would be akin to visiting this unique country for the very first time, even though I actually spent my teenage years in the country's capital. I enjoyed growing up in Australia so it wasn't like I vowed never to return but the responsibilities that come with getting older took away the luxury of being able to run off to any destination whenever I please. Somehow, 16 years had flown by. Coming back here allowed me to reflect on how has happened in my life since I last stepped foot on this remote land down under.

Even though I grew up in Canberra, I had visited Sydney dozens of time so I didn't feel obligated to do too much sightseeing. I wanted to come here, catch up with some dear friends and spend time in the city centre to get a flavour of what the Sydney cosmopolitan experience is like in comparison to London and New York. I stayed at the Swissotel Sydney, which was an excellent choice. Located right in the heart of the city's Central Business District, I was in easy walking distance to the main landmarks within the city centre, including UNESCO World Heritage site Sydney Opera House. I was so central that looking out one of the windows (they kindly put me in a corner room), it was as if the Telstra Tower was right next door!

Sydney is one of those rare hub cities where you have the best of both worlds; it is a commercial and cultural epicentre that is located along a coastline so not only can you go to the visit the museum of contemporary art or see a production of 'South Pacific' at the Opera House but you can also spend a lazy Sunday afternoon at a heavenly beach. There are plenty of beaches to choose from around the city but the most famous Sydney beach has got to be Bondi Beach. My friends took me to Bondi the day that I arrived and as far as jet lag-relieving activities go, lying in the sand as you watch hunky surfers and lifeguards going through training drills wearing their little 'cossies' is definitely not a bad choice. It was as if my Sunday had turned into an Aussiebum swimwear photoshoot!

An indirect benefit of this trip was my heightened appreciate of the gay scene in London. Although it has long been considered one of the gay capitals of the world, a reputation that has been cemented in the past few decades by the world-renowned Sydney Gay Mardi Gras, the nightlife culture here is somewhere less developed compared to London and New York. The 'scene' is concentrated all in one area, along the stretch of Oxford Street in Darlinghurst. The bars and pubs that I visited with my friend all seem slightly dated, both in decor and the clientele. I don't intend to be flippant and it is certainly not my intention to make an ageist remark. There is nothing wrong with places that are welcoming and casual but from what my friends tell me, there is not a great deal of variety in the scene. People tend to go out only at the weekend. Unfortunately for me, I spent the weekend travelling to Australia so it would be unfair for me to say too much more about the scene here. Still, even if the gay nightlife in Sydney is somewhat lacking during the week, that is not to say that I didn't have a fabulous time going out during my trip. My friends and I went to some memorable cocktails at some of the most glamourous hotels in town. I found style and sophistication in abundance so if you are a traveller who enjoys the finer things in life, you will love Sydney, especially if you are staying in the CBD.

Anyway, I just arrived in Bangkok not long ago but I'm still on Sydney time and it's already 8:30am so I should probably go to bed soon. Here's hoping that it won't be another 16 years until my next trip to Australia!

Bombay, baby!!!

It's my last evening here in Mumbai. Tomorrow, I fly back to London at lunchtime. This is my first trip to India and it has been a bit of a whistle stop tour as I just arrived in India five days ago. Even though it is a common thing for first time visitors to India to feel like being here is an assault on one's senses - the air, thick with exotic scents, and at times, pollution and repulsive odours, the overwhelming taste of the wide array of spices that flavour every local dish, the vivid colours of the beautiful saris that the local women wear, regardless of their socioeconomic status, the musicality of Hindi and over a dozen other regional languages - there is no doubt that I have just experienced a minutiae of what this grand country has to offer. Of course, you could spend a year traveling all corners of the country and still not feel like you have adequately experienced the vast arrays of cultures, cuisine, geography, etc. India is a country of almost 3.3 million sq km with a population of over 1.2 billion. Meanwhile, I have only spent a couple of days in two parts of it - the provincial Central India city Indore and the metropolis that is still called Bombay by the locals. All I can do is accept that I am only getting a tiny taster of India and be grateful for that.

The main purpose of my trip was to attend my oldest friend's wedding. A British-born Indian who is almost as unacquainted with Indian culture as her non-Indian guests, my friend married her Belgian husband last summer and was only having this Indian wedding to please her parents who wanted to celebrated their daughter's marriage as much as they wanted to celebrate their Indian heritage with their countless relatives and friends in India. It was a lovely affair and I couldn't have been more thrilled that I could have been a part of it.

After the wedding, I decided that I wanted to spend a couple of nights in Mumbai before returning to England. Although I, like millions of people around the world, had seen 'Slumdog Millionaire' when it came out in 2008, I knew that that there had to be more than just slums and squalor in this city by the sea (the Arabian Sea). I visited many of the iconic sites and places of Mumbai, including the Gateway of India (an archway that was erected to commemorate George V and Queen Mary's visit to India in 1911), Mani Bhavan (a house where Mahatma Gandhi lived for many years, whenever he was in Mumbai) and the majestic central rail station here, Victoria Terminus (although, officially, it is now called Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, an example of the renaming of key building and institutions to reflect the end of British rule).

My favourite place was Mani Bhavan, which now houses a modest but compelling museum to the Father of India. It is pretty hard not to be inspired by the man and I know that I'm not the only one. US President Barack Obama visited India in 2010, he was so moved by the man whose legacy Mani Bhavan represents that he subsequently sent a piece of stone from the Martin Luther King. Jr. Memorial, as a token of friendship between the two nations.

To use a rather common phrase that every city or country likes to use to describe itself, Mumbai is a city of contrasts; the old with the new, the religious and the secular, the rich and the poor, the last of which is more pronounced than anything else. You see people sleeping on the street and kids selling things as they weave in and out of the traffic. Meanwhile, there are billionaires living in ostentatious 27-level mansions towering the rest of the city. Of course, I am not one to judge since here I am staying in my 5-star hotel and taking a private city with my own driver and a separate English-speaking tour guide. The money that I'm spending in my short time here could probably be better spent by a few families living in the various slums that we drove by today. The picture below, by the way, is of the city's Dhobi Ghat - open air laundrette. It is where the middle class take their clothes to be washed by the poorer people who live in the surrounding slums for a small fee. Like Jenny from the Block once sang (using a line stolen from 20th Century Steel Band's 'Heaven and Hell Is on Earth'), 'everyone's got to make a living'!

I am staying at Trident Nariman Point in the affluent South Mumbai area, right by the sea. It is ranked third in the top hotels in Mumbai on Tripadvisor. The top two hotels are The Oberoi, followed by the iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. Both of these hotels were attacked by terrorists in 2008. Many people, locals and foreigners, were taken hostage and killed. I felt uneasy about sleeping in these hotels as I felt like they were the sites of some shocking violence and I did not want to absorb any of that energy. Little did I know that Trident Nariman Point is adjacent to the Oberoi! Oh, well...I'm leaving in 12 hours so what does it matter now?

Security is extremely tight getting into my hotel or any other 5-star hotel in this city (I experienced the same thing at the Grand Hyatt Mumbai on my first night here). This is a direct consequence of what happened in 2008. You are confronted by the sight of guards using car bomb detectors before you are even let through the gate and once inside, you have to put all bags through a bag scanner and walk through a metal detector. I don't enjoy this at the airport and I certainly don't enjoy this upon checking in at my luxury hotel when I'm on vacation but after what happened in 2008, this is definitely a necessary evil!

These past few days in India have been interesting and memorable. I'm not sure if or when I will be back again but if I do return, I will hopefully be a bit more prepared for it all and it is fair to say that there will always be an infinite amount of new experiences to be had!

Queen of Silom Soi 2

Today, my mother and I had the pleasure of going out to lunch with my dear aunt Pah Maliwan and her friend Pah Naruhnee. I have known Pah Naruhnee ever since I was little as she has been best friends with my aunt for decades and I have always known that she was the landlord of a small commercial area in central Bangkok but it was always very vague to me. We dined at Grand San Yord, which is famous in Bangkok for its tender and sweet roast duck, and being the Ah Mahs that they are, both aunties told me to finish the last prawn dumpling.

Pah Naruhnee said 'Eat this and you'll end up with a beautiful wife', to which I replied 'But I don't want a beautiful wife'. Without missing a beat, Pah Maliwan said 'Eat this and you'll end up with a handsome husband'. While I have never really discussed my sexuality with older relatives so much, it has been an open secret for a while now but in that moment, for my mother's elder sister, a woman that I have always been very fond of, to acknowledge, without making a big deal out of it, this part of my identity...well, it really moved me. It confirmed what I have long believed to be true; that my relatives in Bangkok love and accept me unconditionally, just as I am.

After lunch, my mother and I dropped off both aunties. Pah Maliwan was going to her Private Members Club to meet up with my cousins while Pah Naruhnee was heading home. My mother drove us to Silom and as we went past Bangkok's infamous Patpong district, I realised that we were approaching the hub of gay nightlife in Bangkok, Silom Soi 2-4, which turned out to be Pah Naruhnee's turf! She is the landlady for all the bars and clubs patronized by any gay person who has ever lived in or visited Bangkok, locals and expats. As we pulled away, I commented to my mother and aunt that these two alleys owned by their friend are full of bars and clubs. Both of them casually replied, that's correct, gay bars! Good times! Think I might have to visit Pah Naruhnee's hood before I leave Bangkok in a few days. It won't be my first time there and certainly won't be my last!