Sep 3
From the plaza it appeared like a fortress, towering high above our heads in solid stone, an imposing presence bristling with spires and sturdy buttresses. The late afternoon sun illuminated the church’s west front as I pushed open the heavy wooden door to a cool, refreshing silence – a far cry from the sounds of the Spanish summer. Read more
Aug 27
Written with a quill, the florid cursive inscribed on the pages of a ship’s logbook was still legible: “Tuesday March 1st – 1796. Light winds…, weather fair and pleasant, a smooth sea.” These were the words of Captain Charles Christie on the East Indiaman Belvedere, then engaged in the lucrative China trade. Read more
Aug 21
Perched on a prime location by Stubbs Road, high above the racecourse at Happy Valley, the bricks of King Yin Lei are a silent witness to the explosive growth of Hong Kong. Built in 1937, the mansion is a dream in ‘Chinese Renaissance’, an East-West blend that was popular before the Second World War. Few historic structures of any significant age remain in this city, which has gained a reputation for tearing down almost anything in the name of profit. Read more
Aug 17
For if every true love affair can feel like a journey to a foreign country, where you can’t quite speak the language, and you don’t know where you’re going, and you’re pulled ever deeper into the inviting darkness, every trip to a foreign country can be a love affair, where you’re left puzzling over who you are and whom you’ve fallen in love with.
– Pico Iyer, ‘Why We Travel’
Aug 12
Sipping at a young coconut in the shade of a pohon waru, a gnarled tree with spade-shaped leaves, I squeezed the cool white sand between my toes. The smell of grilled fish, freshly caught from the sea, wafted over from the beachside warung – a small trio of shacks in bamboo and alang-alang – while a row of brightly painted outrigger canoes lay lined up on the shore.
Aug 6
From the comfort of my seat I watched as our waitress carried a clear plastic bag of chillies into the kitchen, presumably to be chopped up and used in the sauce for our homemade ayam taliwang. As we came down from our three-day trek on Mount Rinjani, during which we were fed vast quantities of banana pancakes, spaghetti, and even a burger with fries, Bama was excited about the prospect of returning to the rich flavours of Indonesian fare. “I’ve been craving something spicy!”
Aug 4
“No hot chocolate?!” The middle-aged French tourist snapped. “But what about the cheeldren?!” The young man behind the breakfast counter mumbled and shook his head apologetically. I watched as the Frenchman’s face contorted and scowled, breaking the trail of angry questions with a final “Never?!” before storming off. Read more
Jul 31
Standing precariously on a ridge of loose volcanic scree, I squeezed the top of the trekking pole and pushed down with all my strength. A thin, broken trail of lights was now snaking its way to the summit roughly 100 metres above my head, a darkened mass that loomed tantalisingly close under the brightness of a full moon. In the distance I could just make out the finish line: two pinnacles forming a natural gateway to the peak. Read more
Jul 29
Five days ago I lay stretched out on a flat, grassy headland below the equator, staring up at the sky and savouring the gusts of wind blowing in from the open ocean. Bama and I were spending a week on the Indonesian island of Lombok, across the strait from Bali and a world away from the madness of Hong Kong or Jakarta. Read more
Jul 15
As a nickname, it’s not nearly as popular as ‘The Big Durian’ (Jakarta) or ‘The Big Mango’ (Bangkok), but some expats have affectionately called Hong Kong ‘The Big Lychee’. Native to the rainforests of southern China, the lychee fruit is protected in a thin, brittle shell concealing a delicate pulp with an aromatic, perfume-like flavour. Read more
Plus Ultra 