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 […]
All posts filed under: Asia
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 […]
An Enchanting Land Called Uzbekistan
Please forgive my absence in the past two weeks as I have just returned from a trip to one of the countries I most want to see. Uzbekistan had been on my wish list for more than a decade. One of the first things that […]
Tainan: Taiwan’s Oldest City
When James and I were planning our trip to Kaohsiung, I was fixated on making a mental list of interesting places to see in this southern Taiwanese city. However, he was very insistent on visiting Tainan as well, some 50 km north of Kaohsiung. I […]
Saigon through More Appreciative Eyes
In July 2011, my younger and more judgmental self was walking the streets of Saigon, Vietnam’s largest city as well as its economic hub. Maybe it was the heat, or the incessant motorcycle traffic, or the fact that a few days earlier I was still […]
The Three Lakes of Bedugul
A long time ago in the north of Bali an ancient volcano erupted, leaving a giant caldera in the aftermath. While studies on this past natural disaster are limited, one thing is certain: this part of the island has been blessed with a high amount […]
What an Amazing World! 