Tourist Stuff in London

Anyone who knows me appreciates I’ve been in a bit of a whirlwind in the last couple of weeks. I went from going to Taiwan to cover some metal, to suddenly acquiring a new girlfriend (who was formerly in said band) and who turned up in a planned way on my doorstep last night intending to stay a month.

As I was trundling towards T3 on the Picadilly line the night before last, I started sketching out things we could do in London. Before long I had more that 50 things I regarded as essential, many of which I hadn’t done before. So there’s the list I came up with. We’ve already knocked off Covent Garden, the National Gallery and Chinatown.

Museums

• Tate modern – great building, meh exhibitions
• Tate Britain – good exhibitions
• Hayward – free at the moment I believe
• Victoria and Albert – will miss the next big Friday late, but still good to visit
• National gallery – lovely art, great buildings, great commentary
• National portrait gallery – hopefully something photography that won’t piss me off
• British library – anything worth seeing for non-members?
• Royal Academy – anything free and decent? Worth it if we’re near Fortnum and Mason
• British Museum – cool stiff we stole
• Photographers gallery – 50/50 chance of pissing me off
• Canary wharf (museum) – can double up with Greenwich

Historic Buildings

• Hampton Court Palace – she likes Henry VIII
• St Pauls – great building, great view from the top
• St Martin in the Fields – nice café in the crypt
• Westminster Abbey – never done it. Would be nice
• Buck House – actually neither of us care about this

Theatre Stuff

• Avenue Q – yeah yeah. it’s cheap and funny
• Globe Theatre – bit of culture
• ICA – I’m a member and they show cool films
• IMAX – not especially London, but I want to see Harry Potter

Shopping!

• Forbidden Planet – laugh at the nerds
• Japan Centre – good books, good food
• Hamleys – just because
• Harrods – same
• Carnaby St – not what it was, but Austin Powers

Markets

• Camden Market
• Spitalfields
• Brick lane
• Portobello road
• Covent garden
• Chinatown
• Borough Market
• Marylebone high street
• Greenwich

Other Random Stuff

• London zoo
• Smithfield
• Tourist bus
• River bus/tour
• Primrose hill – view London, nice pubs in the village
• Tower of London/London bridge – at least look at the outside
• Cinema Wednesdays – I got her an Orange SIM. Would be rude not to

Food!

• Pie and mash eels
• City fullers- PIE!
• Teachi – good, cheap dim sum
• Leongs – Taiwanese food in case she gets desperate for home cooking
• Crown and goose – my local. Foamy ale
• Somers Town coffee house – nice pub in an odd place
• Fish and chips
• Brick lane curry
• Drummond street curry – mmmm…dosa

Other Towns

• Brighton – English seaside
• Bath – My old home town
• Windsor – The Castle!

Taiwan has possibly the cheesiest slogan ever: “Touch my heart”. It certainly touched mine.

I cocked up the outward booking slightly by forgetting that an Eastward flight would be an overnight one so I was due to arrive on the day of the “Free Tibet” Chthonic gig. After a typically horrible sleeper and a ninety minute transfer in Hong Kong which was only just enough, I arrived to a hot, steamy, soupy Taiwan summer afternoon. The taxi dropped me near the plaza where the concert was happening and Doris guided me to the artist tents and somewhere to drop my bags.

First mission was to get washed! Louise guided me to the department store that was unknowingly being used as the crew and artist restrooms. I improvised half a shower there and felt significantly refreshed after, getting rid of all the travel crap.

Next stop was FOOD. I’d been reliably informed that Taiwanese street food was the best thing in the world and this proved true with an oyster omlette and some fried dumplings with assorted sauces. Awesome.

I’ve reviewed the concert, but it’s sufficient to say it was great: amazing crowd with full “Free Tibet!” participation. The other bands weren’t too shabby either.

My day rounded off zipping through the streets of Taipei on the back of Louise’s scooter. Let me explain about Taipei and scooters: they’re everywhere. They’ve passed a tipping point, where unlike London where cars don’t give a shit, in Taipei, they’ve reached a critical mass so drivers have to be aware of this fragile little things zipping in and out like mad flies. Power to the people! Oh, they swarm.

My final experience that night was to sleep on a thin mat on the floor like a real Asian. It wasn’t SO bad, I guess.

Our mission the following day was to hit Tainan and Taichung for listening parties for Chthonic’s new album. This was a mildly insane drive from one lenghth of the island to another, setting out at a sensible time in the morning and finishing in the wee small hours of the next day. I didn’t get to see much of the country except for highway and rest stops but even there, the cornucopia of weird foods and drinks in the shops were amazing.

For those who don’t know, the Taiwanese have a very inclusive attitude to food. Being very Chinese in culture, having been occupied by the Japanese for over 50 years and with American and European influences, the choice of munchies ranges wide. Familiar brands like Lays, with some very unfamiliar flavours in the exotic and spicy end of the spectrum just ache to be washed down with an ice cold Taiwan brand beer. And that’s just the snacks. More of the real food later.

Oh, in Tainan, lunch was a nice soup noodle with very good stock clearly made from real bones.

Back to the listening parties. The Tainan one was held in the upstairs room of a lovely bar with around fifty fans in attendance. They played the whole album through track by track with accompanying video presentation followed by a Q+A.

A drive up to Taichung, where we dined on dumplings and had another listening party.

Then a week of not doing very much outside as it was SO hot and I had a major distraction, I did manage to get in an interview with Freddy and lots more great food.

On my penultimate day, Chthonic played a home gig at The Wall, Taipei’s spiritual home of metal.

And then I had to come home. Pretty good flight considering. Sad to be back.

Interview with Freddy
Free Tibet on Demotix
Review of Free Tibet Concert
A bunch of pictures
Another set of pics
Pictures (to buy!) on Musicpictures.com