architecture

Hue: A City Echoing Vietnam’s Imperial Past

May 25, 2013 by Bino 6 Comments

Deep in the heart of Vietnam lies Hue, a city that’s a bit out of the way for most travelers (which may actually be a good thing) but is a treasure trove of cultural attractions. Hue was the imperial capital of Vietnam in the 1800’s, during a time when the country practiced a dynastic form of government with emperors at the helm. Imperial life then centered on the royal court, and elaborate buildings were built in and around the city’s citadel to host all the pomp and pageantry. With that undeniable Chinese influence, the Imperial city at Hue consisted of hundreds of buildings which served as government offices, residences for the emperor and his concubines and temples. Most of the Imperial City was destroyed however, during the Vietnam War, and today, barely a dozen buildings remain.

palace of supreme harmony, hue

It is perhaps the extent of the ruins which lead many to skip Hue while in the country. Truly, it would take a lot of imagination for one to recreate what court life would have looked like during the peak of Imperial Vietnam. Nevertheless, the imperial monuments in Hue were declared as a single UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. I decided to check this out during my third visit to Vietnam.

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The Silk Road Journey Pt3: The Holy City of Bukhara

April 21, 2012 by Bino 7 Comments

From Khiva, we left early in the morning for the long and bumpy ride to the holy city of Bukhara – our next stop in the trip. People weren’t kidding when they said that the road was bad. The road conditions between the two cities were probably the worst I have seen in any highway! I reckoned it would not have made much difference had we driven on the sandy desert path instead.

the kalon mosque

The drive only reinforced the idea of how isolated Khiva was. We practically crossed a desert that extended for hundreds of miles, across empty wastelands with nobody and nothing but the odd shrub in sight.

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Petronas Towers: The Monumental Bling Bling of Malaysia

March 28, 2012 by Bino 2 Comments

If there was one sight / monument / building / attraction that people tend associate with Malaysia, it would undoubtedly be the iconic Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

the petronas towers during blue (more like purple) hour

Though no longer the tallest buildings in the world, the twins still never fail to make an impression to those who visit the city, no matter how many times it’s been. It was my fourth visit to Kuala Lumpur when I took the photo above and I was still awed by the Middle Eastern motif, particularly the cross section of the towers which was based from the Islamic Rub el Hizb symbol. It’s especially picturesque at night when it’s lit up very brightly like crystal with spotlights and can be seen from several miles away.

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Singapore’s Chinatown: A Street By Street Look

March 24, 2012 by Bino 14 Comments

At first glance, having a Chinatown in a city where the population is three quarters Chinese seems rather… redundant. In Singapore, however, unlike in other traditional Chinese enclaves, the area seems to function more as a bastion of things past, a conservation area, rather than as a living, breathing mixture of establishments and houses genuinely catering primarily to the local Chinese community.

the massive buddha tooth relic temple at night

This is the second of three entries being done on the country’s ethnic quarters (the previous one was on Kampong Glam). This time, we zoom in on the city’s Chinatown which is loosely defined as the area immediately west of the financial district. This is the area that was historically set aside during colonial times for the burgeoning Chinese population in the island, though as we now know, the Chinese eventually comprised the majority of the island’s population and settled elsewhere as well.

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Turning Pink in Jaipur

March 8, 2012 by Bino 7 Comments

If I were to list down the most exotic-sounding city names I have ever heard, Jaipur would be a shoo-in (along with Timbuktu, Ouagadougou, Samarkand and of course, Baghdad). Jaipur – the name alone brings to mind images of maharajas, stately palaces, bearded men with turbans and snake charmers – it’s the quintessential India in the eyes of naive foreigners like me who lack familiarity with the myriad of cultures actually found in this massive country.

more peach than pink… but yeah, i’m in jaipur all right

To be honest, it was not the iconic Taj Mahal in Agra nor the scattered UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Delhi that prodded me to come to India. It is rather the desert state of Rajasthan – a region of colors, festivals and bright architecture – which led me here. And surely, there was no better introduction to this northwestern Indian state than through Jaipur – the pink city, its capital.

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Delhi: My Absolutely Chaotic Introduction to India

March 3, 2012 by Bino 10 Comments

Even from the very beginning, there was red tape. At the Air Asia X check-in at KLIA, the counter staff asked us for a visa. It seems that not a lot of people use India’s visa-on-arrival facilities so the staff was still thinking twice whether to board us on the flight. But we eventually argued our way through.

chaos!!!

We landed at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Airport after a flight time of approximately 5 hours. Their terminal seriously reminds me of Changi – the carpeting and signage look like they’re copied down to a tee. But I do have to hand it to them – DEL is really pleasing to the eyes. The visa-on-arrival desk is hidden in one of the obscure corners of the terminal and took us a while to find. With only 1 guy manning the booth, it took us nearly an hour to get our visas.

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The Real Iran Pt4: Esfahan – Half the World in a City

November 24, 2011 by Bino 15 Comments

reflections at the sheikh lotfollah mosque

After two days of wandering aimlessly in maze-like streets and surveying what looked like Aladdin’s Agrabah, it was time to make a move again. I left Yazd with both sadness and excitement. I really liked the city, and told myself that I’d return one day. But at the same time, I was looking forward to our next city, which everyone we met along the way had been raving about. There was this rhyme that a local had taught me, it was a Persian adage that goes: Esfahan Nesf e Jahan which means “Esfahan IS half the world.” To the unfamiliar, this may seem like a cheeky thing to say. But I later realized Esfahan is one of those places where you really have to be there to see it. Home to awe-inspiring mosques, palaces, gardens, churches and bridges, Esfahan is considered the masterpiece of Persia and widely considered to be – you better believe it – one of the world’s finest cities.

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