I first tasted loloh cemcem at a Balinese restaurant in Jakarta days after its opening in June 2022. When we saw it on the menu, James and I decided to give it a try out of curiosity, thanks to the green elixir’s color and unfamiliar […]
Author: Bama
Mesmerized by Mexico
Mexico had always been one of the countries I most wanted to visit, and if you have been there and written about it, there is a good chance I have commented on your blog posts about it and said how much I dreamed of going […]
Cijin Island: Kaohsiung’s Natural Protector
Imagine a city by the sea, prone to the occasionally destructive forces of nature, be it strong gusts or crushing waves. Now picture a small island separating the city from the ocean, providing a natural barrier from the same elements, as if it was a […]
Registan: The Jewel of the Silk Road
The taxi that took us from the train station weaved through the streets of Samarkand. We had just arrived from Tashkent on a two-hour journey now made possible thanks to the Afrosiyob, the first high-speed rail system in Central Asia which was named after an […]
Bibi-Khanym Mosque: Too Big for Its Own Good
When one strolls around the downtown area of Samarkand, the Registan will undoubtedly take the spotlight. It is to Uzbekistan what Machu Picchu is to Peru, the Great Pyramid of Giza is to Egypt, or the Great Wall is to China. Simply put, they all […]
Navigating the Grief – A Year Later
It was exactly this month last year when I lost my mother to cancer, an event that shook me to the core like no other one before. Although I have previously written about all the feelings that came rushing inside me following her death, I […]
Cholon: Saigon’s Eclectic Chinatown
The Year of the Wood Snake is just around the corner, and ethnic Chinese communities across the globe are gearing up for the festive season. Families gather, people travel long distances to be reunited with their loved ones, even many shops, factories, and offices are […]
Meet Timur the Conqueror
Conquerors must be among the most divisive figures in human history. They are often regarded as heroes by the people they represent, whose territory grows following victorious military campaigns. But on the other hand, the conquered see them either as an evil force or as […]
A Sunny Winter’s Day in Tung Lung Chau
It’s that time of the year again when I’m anticipating my annual winter holiday in Hong Kong, a tradition that only resumed in 2023 after a three-year pandemic-induced hiatus. To me, what makes Hong Kong such an endlessly attractive place is the wide variety of […]
New Hopes Rising from the Ashes
On a particularly sunny day in June 2023, James and I revisited the National Museum of Indonesia as we were curious with how it looked after being closed for renovations. Across the courtyard of the old wing, a few statues that were placed at inconspicuous […]
How Good Meals Saved the Day – A Kintamani Story
In November 2022, when the skies of Bali were mostly gray, I found myself standing in the courtyard of a large Hindu temple complex I had never been to before. The island’s tourism industry was still recovering from the nightmare that was the Covid pandemic, […]
Anping: Where Modern Taiwan Began
When a country is named after a place, you know the latter must have played a significant role in the nation’s history, and is expectedly well worth a visit. On a sandy peninsula once called Tayouan in the southwestern corner of Taiwan (in what is […]
What an Amazing World! 