Have you ever been in a situation where you have visited cities and towns far from home, but you’ve never set foot in the one just on the other side of the mountain or across the river? In the late 1990s my parents moved to […]
Cisadon and A Look Back at 2021
In a post I wrote last year, I referred to 2020 as annus horribilis, the horrible year, for life as we knew it suddenly ceased to exist. Cities became eerily quiet, our movements were restricted, we could only meet friends online, and wearing a mask […]
Kathmandu’s Garden of Dreams
Six years ago this month, I set foot for the first time on a land that felt foreign yet familiar at the same time. India and Indonesia are separated by the Indian Ocean, but relations among kingdoms from the subcontinent and the sprawling archipelago had […]
A Short Escape to Ambarawa
“Please take me somewhere out of town. I want to see something refreshing.” That was a request my mother made over a phone call prior to my week-long holiday in Semarang back in late May/early June this year. For months until my father’s death in […]
Memories of Anuradhapura
I don’t know about you, but I am one of those people who like to look at their old travel photos to relive the good memories that might otherwise have been forgotten. Images I took at night around Singapore’s Marina Bay remind me of the […]
Snippets of Yogyakarta
About one and a half years ago, we were all shocked into disbelief as the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic, and life as we knew it was abruptly turned upside down. In the ensuing months, we adopted new habits so that we could […]
A Slice of Taiwan in Semarang
Kota Lama. That charming part of my hometown Semarang seems to know how to keep me visiting whenever I’m in town. Despite the haphazard “revitalization” done by the city government (although they will be quick to point the finger at the central government in Jakarta), […]
Exploring the World, Pandemic Style
When I began exploring places far from home more than ten years ago, cultural sights and performances were always high on my list of things to see and do. I can’t remember exactly when it started, but my interest in cultures that are different from […]
New Spirit of A Grande Dame
Part 4 of 4 For the longest time, Semarang was known as a place to rekindle one’s nostalgic memories of things from the past. Having traditional snacks that had become increasingly hard to find in other big cities and dining at vintage restaurants serving Dutch […]
Vestiges of Semarang’s Ethnic Quarters
Part 3 of 4 Jalan Pandanaran is a busy four-lane street in downtown Semarang, a city of 1.6 million people that is also the capital of Indonesia’s Central Java province. Its prime location connecting the city’s main square with a major roundabout to the west […]
The Hong Kong and Paris Trips that Never Happened
“If I get the chance to go abroad again, there are only two places that I want to see: Hong Kong and Paris.” He told me this back in April 2019 to my surprise, not only because he had never been too interested in traveling, […]
Kota Lama: Between Restoration and Reinvention
Part 2 of 4 Only time will tell. This cliché has been proven over and over again. We’ll never know what the future has in store, and despite our best efforts to anticipate what lies ahead, in the end we have to let time do […]
What an Amazing World! 