Skip to content

Posts from the ‘ASIA-PACIFIC’ Category

Oct 24

26 Comments

Travel sketch: Yogyakarta

Jogja collage

Yogyakarta holds a small handful of short but vivid memories. The immense scale of Borobudur, its stupas carved in black andesite, rising from an emerald green countryside blanketed with palms; rows of hand-carved furniture lining a dusty street, puttering vehicles kicking up clouds of ochre; and standing wide-eyed at the foot of Merapi, beside a large sign warning of the danger ahead. This beautiful but lethal giant, at once life-giving and brutally destructive, was the first volcano I had ever seen. Read more

Oct 14

33 Comments

A taste of the Big Durian

“Indonesia huh? You going there to eat?”

The hairdresser chuckled at the thought.

I smiled and mentioned Mount Bromo, but not before admitting my excitement about the spicy cuisine. Nasi – rice – was perhaps the first word I learned in Bahasa Indonesia. This was followed by ayam and sapi – chicken and beef, cumi (squid), udang (shrimp), timun (cucumber) and eventually, terong (eggplant). Months ahead of the trip, Bama had told me about sambal, traditional chilli sauce with an untold number of variations. Read more

Oct 12

45 Comments

Rough and ready in Jakarta

My memories of that first trip to Jakarta, before the Asian Financial Crisis of 97 and Suharto’s fall from grace, are few and far between. I remember only specific details: the tiled roof of the international airport terminal, yellow-tinted water running out from a tap, and the two figures with outstretched arms on Tugu Selamat Datang – the ‘Welcome Monument’ built ahead of the 1962 Asian Games. Read more

Oct 7

57 Comments

Breathless at Mount Bromo

High up in the mountains of East Java, the village of Cemoro Lawang is a far cry from the heat and humidity of the island’s north coast. We are here a quarter after six on a Sunday night, searching for dinner along one of its two streets laid out in a Y-shaped pattern along the rim of the Tengger Caldera. Below our feet the ground is coated in a thin layer of fine volcanic dust, a sign of the active volcano residing on its doorstep. Read more

Sep 1

13 Comments

Guarding the Barren Rock

It was the twelfth year of the reign of Guangxu, emperor of China’s ailing Qing Dynasty; in Western terms, 1887. On a headland at the eastern entrance to Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, a new fortress was nearing its final stages of completion. Read more

Aug 25

19 Comments

Echoes of Kowloon’s Walled City

Centuries before the British took control of Hong Kong, a small outpost was built on the shores of its deepwater harbour to manage the local salt trade. Eventually this evolved into a coastal fort on Kowloon, the peninsula of “Nine Dragons”. Then, in the mid-19th century, came the disastrous First Opium War. Read more

Aug 14

3 Comments

Cruising the unexpected, Hong Kong

For such a small place, Hong Kong packs a lot into its 1,100 square kilometres. Just behind the soaring skyscrapers and traffic-clogged streets lie a surprising array of beaches, hiking trails and windswept islands. Read more

Aug 6

116 Comments

Hiking to the clouds, Longji

Hair wrapped artfully in a turban of black cloth, her tough frame is softened by a lilac top and short frilly skirt. As she saunters in and out of the room, I watch the light momentarily catch on her earrings – they are two silver crescents, raw and slightly tarnished, sweeping around a hollow in the shape of the full moon. Read more

Jul 19

36 Comments

Five Colours from Plus Ultra

Erica from Kizzling Around has kindly nominated me to join the Capture the Colour photo competition run by TravelSupermarket.com. The idea is to publish a post with five original shots from your travels, each one representing the colours blue, green, yellow, white and red. Read more

Jul 12

19 Comments

A change of heart, Guilin

“I dreamed about Kweilin before I ever saw it,” my mother began, speaking Chinese. “I dreamed of jagged peaks lining a curving river, with magic moss greening the banks. At the tops of these peaks were white mists. And if you could float down this river and eat the moss for food, you would be strong enough to climb the peak. Read more

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »