London
Lived in Kew and Twickenham for about 7 years so made quite a few trips in to the City. Also studied at SOAS for 3 years which is just off Russel Square.
New York
I've been twice and would definitely go back. Before I went there for the first time it didn't interest me in the slightest. Unconscious (and ill-deserved) bias against all thing 'Murican, I suppose.
Paris
Here I witnessed a hat-trick.
I would have been 19/20 and a friend was working as an au pair for some diplomat in Paris. The diplomat and family went on holiday for the summer and my friend invited several of us over for a party. That was her first mistake. News had somehow got around that a party was going on in the diplomat's mansion and friends of my friend turned up. She let them in. That was her second mistake. That the place wasn't totally trashed is a minor miracle but some stuff got stolen. When we left the next day my friend was so scared of what her boss would say when he found out about the theft she tried to make it look like there had been a break-in. Hat-trick!
Rome
I spent a few hours there in the late 80's on a backpacking trip around Europe. I wandered around but wasn't impressed enough to stay the night and got the overnight train to Florence.
Berlin
December 1990, not long after the wall came down. I arrived on the train early in the morning and had a good look around. I would have stayed longer but I had to get the midnight train to ...
Moscow
I should have been here for the New Year's Eve celebrations in Red Square but because of a storm in the North Sea I was running about a day behind. I spent New Year's Eve on an old Soviet train with a broken bunk and a bottle of orange squash. What I got to see of Moscow was impressive and the Underground system was stunning. And then I had to get another late night train. The Trans-Mongolian express to ...
Beijing
Together with friends I'd made on the train (mostly Scandinavians if I remember correctly - one I'm still in touch with) we stayed at the same hotel and organised a mini-bus trip to the Great Wall. It was freezing. I was wearing 2 pairs of jeans, 2 jumpers, a coat, scarf and furry East German Army hat that I bought in Berlin. And I was still cold.
On the way there we stopped at some weird place with various models from Chinese history/myth/religion and, I think, about a million steps up to a bell on a hill. It was like some really crap theme park but we had no context to frame it in.
We also visited Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden Palace, just outside which, on a trestle table was a butchered tiger presumably being sold for Chinese medicine.
But amid the weirdness and the cold and the horror there was a restaurant/bar - just a shack really, with a corrugated metal roof and an open fire - and the lady there cooked brilliant food for pennies. And the bottles of beer were about 10pence. And the squares and gardens where the older people did their Tai-Chi or danced (strictly ballroom). And the revolving restaurant at the top of some building. And the smog and the bicycles and the dark, cavernous train station with people huddled around braziers to keep warm. And the isolation. Total isolation as the friends from the train went their separate ways.
And then another late night train. This time to .. Hong Kong. Sorry SW, but you got the order wrong here.
Singapore
Same trip but a couple of months later I'd got a succession of trains and busses from Bangkok to Singapore via Penang. It's definitely doable, SW. Not that impressed by Singapore but I had neither the money or the time to go full touristy as I had to organise a flight to Australia.
Hong Kong
After the bleakness of the Soviet Union and China, Hong Kong was like a neon slap around the face. I was stunned. Literally stunned. As I walked over the border in to HK territory I was so bewildered by the bright, flashing lights that I could not move for about 15 minutes. I stayed in a sleazy flop house/backpackers place called Chungking Mansions. The second night I was there it burned down.
Ok, it didn't really burn down but there was a fire and we were all evacuated to a local school and given a plastic chair to sit on. I decided to take in the nightlife for the lowlife. I found a bar pretty easily. It turned out to be a topless bar that had been used in one of the James Bond films. I was being hassled to order something more exotic than a beer and I don't mean a cocktail. Well maybe I do if I spelled it differently. Anyway, I left and found another bar where other residents of the Mansions were drinking. We were allowed back in to the hotel at about 5:30. Too tired to sleep, I got a coffee and walked down to the harbour to get the ferry to HK Island. I needed a visa for India and that was where the embassy was. Sat on the ferry, The ferry moved off and I fell asleep. I woke up back where I started. I finally got to the embassy half an hour it was due to open and was asked to take a seat. I woke up an hour later with a queue of people looking at me.
Edinburgh
I've been a couple of times. Not nearly enough. Beautiful city.
Sydney
Stayed here for 6 months and loved the place. I was young, Kings Cross was kind of edgy and I saw a couple of the '92 cricket World Cup matches.
Bangkok
Been here twice. Got shot at by the Thai army the second time. May '92: demonstrations against the military take-over, people being killed or disappeared by the government, curfews, buses being burned by the protesters, roadblocks. Could write a book about it.
Copenhagen
Nice place. Went there by train, train went on the ferry. Strange but good.
Sorry. Went on a bit there. But as NW said, so many memories.