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Advantages: Cheap, with helpful staff Disadvantages: pricy food (compared to outside of hostel),
minute walk down the high street from the main building. The entrance is a green door with a key card entry system. This leads to the communal area, which has several dorm rooms off it. The communal area is decorated with bamboo and er...redlanterns, with a couple of PCs and a cupboard stuffed with abandoned Lonely Planet Guides and a few fiction books. There are birds tweeting in a cage and a large table with benches that seat up to ten travellers, with differing levels of pretentiousness. A couple of fridges in the corner offer beer, ice tea and water at reasonable prices. - one Tsing Tao beer costs 4 Yuan (30-odd pence). Most evenings we have returned to the hostel after eating and had a few beers, in the courtyard or inside, although we have had to try and keep voices down because of people sleeping in the adjoining rooms.
The hostel ...
Advantages: Very Well Priced for London ! Disadvantages: Read on.....
The Lantern Taverna
5 Grosvenor Parade,
Uxbridge Rd,
Ealing Common,
London.
W5 3NN.
I know this may just come as a bit of a shock to some of you, but there are some themes I haven't tried out before when it comes to restaurants and cuisine. I am actually quite a fussy eater and this previously restricted me to where I would venture for food when I was a little younger. Now I am a little more open minded and willing to try new things but the boat hasn't been pushed that far out that I can't see the shore line, so I am still paddling around and holding the boat in the shallow water. Step-by-Step.
The latest such bold step into the unknown, was the magical world of a Cypriot restaurant in Ealing Common Londinium.
Anyway, the review?
I was in London for business during the middle of last week for 3 ...
Advantages: Fascinating insight into China before Communism Disadvantages: Slightly odd translation, very Chinese concepts not understandable to all
Su Tong is one of my favourite Chinese authors. Best known for writing the original short story behind the Zhang Yimou film Raise the RedLantern, he writes short stories and novellas. This book is a collection of three novellas, one of which, as the title suggests, is Raise the RedLantern. Having previously read his work in Chinese, I am delighted that an attempt has been made to bring Su Tong's work to the attention of an English-speaking audience. However, his work is not particularly easy to read and a certain level of attention is needed in order to follow the story.
The novellas
The first and most famous is Raise the RedLantern. This is the story of a rich man's fourth concubine and her relationship with the first three. Lotus is from a fairly wealthy and educated family that unfortunately suffers after the death of her ...
