Abook tour is travel of a sort. Of course, most people don't have to sign their way around the world, starting as I did in Singapore, going on to Beijing and Hong Kong and ending in Sydney and magnificent Melbourne for my most recent book, What Next? Still, a fortnight on the road, or rather in the air, through Asia and Australia, offers a few insights for travelling authors - and hopefully other travellers too.

First, Asian airports outperform everyone else's and they look great, too. Singapore's Changi is as easy a place to arrive at, or depart from, as you could want. I like the boiled sweets on the immigration counters. It is counter-intuitive to discover while landing in Beijing how much easier it is these days to get into China than it is the US - and the immigration officers seem much friendlier. An early morning departure from the breathtaking main Norman Fosterdesigned terminal there allowed me to see it lit up like a great Christmas cavern.