Missing In Action

No, this has not become yet another derelict blogsite, abandoned because of its author’s short attention span. Rather, Blind Muscat and his wife, Nancy, spent nearly the whole month of January traveling in Southeast Asia—the Philippines, Cambodia, and Bali,  with bonus airport experiences in Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Not only did this put us in unusual Hemispheres—the Eastern for the whole trip, and the Southern as well in Bali—and generally out of cyber-touch; it put us smack in the middle of non-wine country, a refreshing experience.

Most of my travel in recent years has been to one or another outpost of winedom, with an itinerary packed with winery visits, vineyard strolls, and the draining of various choice bottles. Not this time. Although I’m sure a dedicated oenophile could have tracked down serious wine in all these places, we found, even in quite upscale restaurants, little more than convenience-store-grade Australian and Chilean plonk.

Which was fine, because there was plenty of local and imported beer and endless umbrella drinks, each concoction more far-fetched than the next. I tried half a dozen variations on the famous Singapore Sling, including the one served gratis (even in the economy section) on Singapore Airlines, as well as Mai Tais, Golden Temples, Monkey Glands, Baby Lovers and assorted Punches. Not only that, there were temples from the 9^th century, Hindu holidays festooned with decorative offerings, and the occasional copy of the International Herald-Tribune. Under the circumstances, there was no reason to miss Merlot.

I’ll pass on a few random travel tips  next month—after I recharge my wine batteries with four days of seminars and a humongous wine industry trade show in Sacramento, the annual Unified Wine and Grape Symposium.