Merak. In your language this word may or may not mean something, but in Indonesian it refers to the peacock, one of the most extravagant-looking…
A Taste of the Levant: Lebanon
From the balmy Mediterranean Sea to the snow-covered mountains of Lebanon, the magnificent Roman ruins in Baalbek to the spectacular rock city of Petra, and the scorching heat of Jordanian desert to…
Vijaya and the Defeat of Angkor
Trying to imagine how Vijaya looked during its heyday is difficult when you see what it’s like in the present. The day after we went…
A Slice of Taiwan in Semarang
Kota Lama. That charming part of my hometown Semarang seems to know how to keep me visiting whenever I’m in town. Despite the haphazard “revitalization” done by…
A Slice of Kowloon
Most people visit Hong Kong and spend their entire time looking at the skyline from the Tsim Sha Tsui promenade. It’s a postcard. It’s fine.…
Angkor Wat: Built to Impress
It was a cloudy afternoon on our third day in Siem Reap and we were on our way to a massive 12th-century temple in a forest-studded setting.…
Vestiges of Semarang’s Ethnic Quarters
Jalan Pandanaran is a busy four-lane street in downtown Semarang, a city of 1.6 million people that is also the capital of Indonesia’s Central Java…
Banteay Srei: Poetry in Stone
Over the course of history, we have read and seen how with the rise of great kingdoms and empires these opposing sides of what human…
Wadi Rum: Where Imagination Runs Wild
It is remote and barren. It is a land of scorching heat. Yet, here we are, in Wadi Rum, a large valley in the southern…
5 Reasons Why I Fell in Love with Vienna
I have told you the story of my Eurotrip earlier in this blog. In that post I have said that my favorite city is Vienna. Therefore, I…