Random memories from Asia...

Some more random small memories from travelling in Asia which I probably didn't mention first time around...

• The 50-something American guy in Amman talking proudly about how much his diet has improved since his heart attack - talking while chuffing away on a cigarette at least every 10 minutes
• Asking at reception how much the Amman hostel charged for wi-fi access, hearing the American guy behind me complain that he'd been charged twice as much, and the Jordanian receptionist shoot straight back that because he was American he must be able to afford it!
• My Couchsurfing hosts in Tel Aviv being amazed that Queer As Folk wasn't originally American
• Locals in Petra shouting offers of "air conditioned taxis"... meaning camel rides
• The barber in Chiang Mai who after cutting my hair (in a domestic garage) insisted that I take a swig of mouthwash
• Being beckoned over then groped by a 'woman' on the street at night in Kuala Lumpur who I realised only too late was a ladyboy and a prostitute

Health and safety greatest hits:

• A minibus driver in Jordan smoking a cigarette while operating a petrol pump on the forecourt
• Pedestrians in India ducking under the level crossing gates which had just come down
• A family of six, including one small child, riding on one ordinary-looking motorbike in India

The delights of budget backpacking:

• The little old lady on the hostel reception in Hong Kong who spoke virtually no English but seemed to think if she talked long and loudly enough in Cantonese I'd understand... And finally generating enough understanding with her by pointing
• The hostel in Chiang Mai with signs in toilets instructing you not to flush toilet paper down the bowl because the pipes are too narrow, but to put it in bins instead - bins which were tiny and usually overflowing. You imagine the rest...
• The hostel in baking, steaming Singapore which told me flatly they won't switch on air conditioning in dorms before 10pm, and that if I wanted it during the day I'd have to pay for a single room
• ...and then that if I left my big rucksack at the hostel on the morning of my departure without being there at exactly 10am to tell them, they might throw it away
• The hostel in Tokyo that charges for use of the showers

...All the sorts of things which make the trip! :-)