"We are damned and we are deadAll god's children to be sentTo our perfect place in the sunAnd in the dirt" - Marilyn MansonDay 2 dawned bright and rickety. The European s***head Challenge had been concluded the night before, and I had failed miserably to catch Vinny. He won by 180 games to 160. We were now to break out a new deck of cards and begin the Asian Open. I noticed a book on the little communal table, amidst the bottles of water and playing cards. Le...

"Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to..." - The Fellowship of the RingThe day dawned bright and fresh. There was something electric about the atmosphere, some whisper of excitement that we couldn't touch, couldn't hear, but could feel to the very depths of our being...Today, Luck willing...

"Me and Poll are loving your Blog, Poll is addicted to the thing but all you seem to be doing is getting pissed, great fun for you and the randoms along the way but not good info!! Put the bottle down and get on with some sober adventures ( you know the ones that happen during the day!! )." --- Extract from an e-mail Karim sent me the other day.Fair point. And let it not be said that Vinny and I don't respond to the constructive criticism that our fair travel...

"You know, if we invested half the time we spend checking out women in things like experiencing cultures or learning languages, we'd be like the best people who ever lived..... I suppose that's what's inherently wrong with us, as a gender" - Me, to Vinny, about two hours ago.What did you do last night?It being a Saturday, perhaps you took a loved one out to see a show? Or perhaps cooked a meal at home and stayed in watching Variety Performances from c...

"Nowhere else will you find a greater hive of scum and villainy" - Star WarsWe were due a little bad luck, so when we arrived in Moscow at 5AM without any accommodation booked it was no great surprise that things didn't go great. We had spent the last twenty four hours trying to book some kind - any kind - of accommodation so we weren't just turning up on a wing and a prayer, but had been unsuccessful. So we based ourselves in a cafe in the train station ...