Last week marked the fifth anniversary of my blog, and over the years this blog has evolved in many ways, most notably its visual appearance and writing style. Many of you, dear readers, have been very kind in leaving comments, thoughts, even emails allowing me […]
Pura Singapadu: Beauty in Details
We only had 3 hours left before we had to be at the airport in Bali to catch the flight back to Jakarta. But after watching the Barong performance at Batubulan and having visited some of eastern Bali’s most picturesque palaces, gardens and temples we […]
A Day of Retreat at Stanley
From Hong Kong Island’s heavily-indented southern coastline a sleepy town called us in on a chilly winter night. The double-decker bus that we took meandered through winding, narrow roads, dimly lit by street lamps, while houses and apartments were occasionally sighted from the bus’ window. […]
2014, A Year of Islands
Tempus fugit, where has the time gone? It feels to me that my second trip to Hong Kong was just a month ago. But the truth is it was back in late January, the first of a series of trips this year. Quitting my old […]
Revitalizing A Haunted Building
A woman with long black hair wearing plain, white long cloth appeared, but her eyes looked menacing, her skin so pale, and her feet not visible. A man waved to the infrared camera, signaling his defeat to the challenge and a call for help. A […]
Colonial Splendor of the Lion City
A whitewashed spire emerged from the greenery amid a bevy of sleek and modern skyscrapers. Its Gothic-inspired windows were each fitted with wooden shutters, letting just enough tropical sun light penetrate into its nave. As the church of the Anglican Diocese of Singapore, also the […]
From Mei Ho House to the World
China, 1946. The World War II ended just a few months earlier, ending the brutal Japanese occupation on China. For decades the armed forces of the Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party fought against a common enemy. But as soon as the Japanese […]
A Mother’s Trouble
A big family were walking down the outer courtyard, each donning bright-colored traditional costume with some of the family members carrying ceremonial paraphernalia: small umbrellas with very long wooden handles and baskets made from woven palm fronts. As they walked further away from the candi […]
Candidasa: A Lesson for All
Palm trees fill both sides of Bali’s eastern coast road, with small puras – Balinese Hindu temples – occasionally popping out amid modest houses, a scenic setting for a juxtaposition of bucolic scenes and modern twists. It bears little resemblance to the raunchy atmosphere of […]
The People Who Stayed
China and India today are two of the most populous countries on Earth with a combined population of more than two billion people. In a planet where people live in more than 200 countries and scattered across six continents, the two Asian giants account for […]
A Boat Away, A World Away
Protecting the southwestern coast of one of Asia’s foremost financial centers from the occasional violent gusts of the South China Sea, Lamma Island with its heavily indented coasts boasts a life pace so different from the constant haste in downtown Hong Kong. A part of […]
Dance of An Eternal Battle
Since the dawn of mankind on Earth the planet has changed so dramatically, caused both by Mother Nature’s relentless energy to twist, turn and flip the world’s tectonic plates, volcanoes, skies and oceans, and humans’ insatiable demand for resources. So often we hear that the […]
What an Amazing World! 