It was the second week of my visit to Hong Kong earlier this year, the weather was rather gloomy and the temperature dropped significantly. Around the same time the Sochi Games had just started, yet Hong Kong was even colder than the 2014 Summer Olympics […]
Gangsters running around dark alleys, carrying automatic weapons to shoot any raiding policemen they see. Prostitutes standing under neon signboards, in claustrophobic settlements where the sun hardly penetrates. Meanwhile, residents doing their daily activities, indifferent to the madness around them, carry on with their business […]
We step out of Diamond Hill MTR station in Kowloon, walking towards a walled area surrounded by tall housing estates and bordered by overlapping flyovers. A gilded pavilion emerges behind the walled enclosure, standing on a small island in a pond, glowing under the midday […]
We are standing at a bus stop in Sai Kung, a town with relaxing ambiance in the New Territories, anything but similar with the busy downtown of Hong Kong Island. It is a Wednesday morning in January with clear blue skies, a nice break from […]
Hong Kong Island is a small piece of land constantly bustling with round-the-clock activities, keeping its inhabitants living a fast-paced life. It is where new skyscrapers are built, often over the rubble of older ones, to continuously change the face of one of Asia’s economic […]
In early January when heavy rain poured over Semarang on a daily basis, I was sitting in my room – sorting out photos for my future posts from the amazing trip to Bali and Timor-Leste with James last December – when an email arrived in […]
Being an Indonesian, there are some perennial questions that I always get every time I return from a trip. “How was the food?”, “Did you try anything weird?”, “Was the food spicy?” are some of the most frequently asked questions. Sudip, my cousin-in-law, was startled […]
White canoes embellished with traditional carvings painted in red and black rested on a cove, just shy of the breaking waves. Their pointy tips were decorated with dark feathers, making each canoe unique to one another and from other traditional boats. The Tao have been known […]
The 19-seated Dornier 228 was parked on the far side of the apron of Taitung Airport. A huge hose was blowing Oxygen into the cabin when James and I entered the plane. Seated on the first row behind the cockpit, we could clearly see what […]
Our 5-hour train journey ended at Taitung, one of the biggest cities in the eastern coast of Taiwan. I could only understand the size of the city as our taxi driver navigated his way to our hotel, passing through empty streets. A stark contrast with […]
Sitting on a bench at Taipei Main Train Station, we tucked our luggage between our feet – 2 backpacks of mine, 1 backpack and 1 small suitcase of James’ – while waiting for our train to Taitung, a small town at the eastern coast of […]
Rice fields and houses with small vegetable gardens stud both sides of the highway from the airport to the city center of Taipei, giving a glimpse of how agriculture is still an important part of many Taiwanese despite the world-renown high-tech industries of the country. […]
What an Amazing World! 