The boat glides through the relatively calm waters of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour at a constant speed heading to the west. Screens onboard are playing videos to keep passengers entertained, or at least that’s what I think I see. I’m not paying attention to any […]
Jakarta is hot and humid all year round, but I wasn’t prepared for what Kaohsiung had in store in late September and early October. When James and I were walking along its harbor on a sunny day, I kept thinking of how sweltering this part […]
Toward the end of the 19th century, East Asia was a very turbulent place with two main powers – the Empire of Japan and the Qing dynasty of Imperial China – scrambling for influence and control over the lands between them. The Korean Peninsula, in […]
Four years of not returning to a place is a long time for someone who used to go there almost every year. That is how I felt about Hong Kong, a fascinating city which was at a crossroads during my last visit before the pandemic. […]
Big cities often have humble beginnings. Manhattan was once a land where the local Lenape people harvested wood for their bows, while Tokyo and Dubai used to be merely fishing villages. Kaohsiung, an economically-important industrial hub whose port is the largest in Taiwan, is no […]
Back in my high school years, I always studied in my room from 6 to 8:30pm on weeknights because my parents told me to – they were among those stereotypical Asian parents who wanted their children to study hard to get good grades. But after […]
It was 10 years ago when I visited Taiwan for the first time. While Taipei 101 was impressive with its cool architecture evoking a Chinese pagoda, the gloomy skies and rainy weather of the country’s capital were persistent. Luckily the trip also included a short […]
In December last year, my visit to Hong Kong was not much different from my previous trips to the territory: I spent those days eating a lot of good food (dim sum and Cantonese-style roast duck are always a must), checked out new and interesting […]
Hong Kong has always fascinated me since my first trip to the city back in January 2012, and since then I have returned five more times, with the most recent visit being in December 2019. I always tell people how Hong Kong’s hiking trails, white […]
For its relatively small size, Hong Kong has so much to offer. From some of the tallest skyscrapers in Asia to verdant hills towering over white sand beaches, opulent luxury malls to lively traditional markets, centuries-old temples to an ultramodern museum of art, and small […]
If you google anything about Hong Kong these days, most results will probably show the territory’s number of COVID-19 cases, although compared to the rest of the world, Hong Kong seems to have managed to flatten the curve. And if months ago you also googled […]
Hong Kong is a calm, slow, idyllic, low-rise, and bicycle-friendly place with lots of greenery and nice white-sand beaches. Sounds hard to believe? That’s because I’m not talking about the Hong Kong most people know: a dense metropolis and shopping destination whose skyline is filled […]
What an Amazing World! 