The steep cobblestone street that raises up on the right side of the expansive Gülhane Park is filled with stone artifacts from the Byzantine era, all lined up on one side of the street creating an outdoor exhibition of the fragments from the city’s long […]
The 55 stone steps take me to a vast underground opening where rows of floodlit columns are partially submerged under the clear freshwater. Grey fish – some are bigger than a cat and never see the sun – roam around the submerged columns, undisturbed by […]
From the outside it is a structure of plain layers of bricks protruding from the exposed weathered pink wall, supporting a massive dome flanked by four minarets varying in size and color. A dull outer narthex with a more elegant marble-walled inner narthex separate the […]
Crisp winter air caresses my face, a delightful sensory sensation after a 14-hour flight escaping the tropical humidity. The sun has just started to peek into the sky a few moments earlier, leaving a warm hue coloring blocks of apartments with bright tint. The minivan […]
Throngs of vendors fill the narrow alleys outside the royal courtyard. Colorful shirts for souvenir and appetizing scent of bakso – meatball soup – keep bargain hunters and tourists stay in this maze-like seasonal market for hours, among other things. It takes a while for […]
In a summer afternoon my cousin and I arrive at the Coventry Bus Station, after a 45-minute journey from Birmingham. Contrary to my expectation, the bus station looks unassuming and drab with rather tedious interior, making me wonder if the rest of city looks as […]
It is a sunny and quiet morning in Kemang, a district in South Jakarta. The usual traffic congestion is absent, supplanted by silence, the occasional sound of chirping birds and the faint banter of breakfast vendors. I walk around the neighborhood and turn down one […]
If I had to describe the year 2012 in only one word, it would have been ‘change’. A change of my traveling speed and style, a change of my job, and a change in the place where I live, to name some. I chose Hong […]
On a sunny Saturday morning at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, I look around, trying to locate the taxi stand. 200 meters to my right, less than ten cabs are parked while the drivers are having their morning banters. I walk towards them and […]
When I learned history at school, there was one particular maxim that was repeatedly mentioned in various topics on the histories of nations around the world. Familiarized by Julius Caesar as the strategy used by the Roman Empire to conquer other nations, it was later […]
It was in 1778 when a group of Dutch scholars established a scientific institution to promote research in the fields of arts and sciences in the Dutch East Indies, following the Age of Enlightenment in Europe. When the British ruled Java for a brief period […]
What would come first in your mind if you have to mention one of Southeast Asian ancient temples? Angkor? The temples of Bagan? Borobudur? For those who have visited Indonesia or are planning to go must have heard about Borobudur and Prambanan temples – both […]
What an Amazing World! 