Favourites

I've been in London for more than a year now. I came here expecting to fall in love with the city the way I fell for Bangkok - dramatically, in a swirl of bright colours and monsoon rain.

It didn't happen that way. It has been more like a gradual coming into focus, like shaking a polaroid that takes too long to develop. Here are some photos of places I have grown to love in London.


Flower tea at Ping Pong Restaurant

It is noisy at Ping Pong. A roaring and clattering of many people eating dumplings inside a low-ceilinged, darkly wooden space. There are giant photos of steam rising on the walls. You can have flower tea there. The waiter pours boiling water over the tea balls and you watch the flowers open as steam rises and swirls and as your dumplings arrive.


Statue on Great Portland Street; Chinatown

That is John Nash's statue at All Souls Church. He was rich and then went bankrupt, so he did a few architecture jobs to earn some cash. Jobs like redesigning Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and Marble Arch and other Extremely Famous Places. Next to John Nash is the entrance to Chinatown, where the best Asian grocery can be found. You can buy Pocky, Hello Kitty sweets and almost any Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai food. Today Lauchlin and I got: tom yum soup paste, red bean buns, gyoza dumplings, a bamboo steamer and miso soup.


Chinatown; Charing Cross Road

We ate fresh steamed buns that were like white clouds. With red bean in the middle. Then we wandered down to Charing Cross Road - where all the best book shops are (and a whole lot of sex shops too). While I was buying postcards (normal postcards!), the old man in the shop told me that Spiderman was climbing the building outside. This I had to see. But truthfully Spiderman was at the pub across the road with his mates, singing and posing for photos.


Leicester Square; Trafalgar Square

I paid a visit to Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square, watched the pigeons and tourists and felt strangely at home.