Every city makes planning and development mistakes in the course of its history. No city is perfect, but a good city will at least try to rectify the err of its urban planning ways. The city of Seoul is a modern city that has razed most of its heritage buildings. The highlight for most visitors […]
Bun Cha Obama: visiting the restaurant that Obama and Bourdain ate at in Hanoi
During the 2016 Presidential visit to Vietnam, Barack Obama went to a bun cha restaurant in Hanoi with Anthony Bourdain. If you didn’t see what happened check out the video and this interview with Bourdain on meeting Obama in Hanoi. I wasn’t planning to visit Bun Cha Obama on my visit to Hanoi. There is […]
Thao Dien – the coolest neighbourhood in Saigon
Even though Ho Chi Minh City is approaching the status of megacity, there aren’t distinct neighbourhoods compared to cities of a similar size. Apart from the colonial-era inner city, most of the city has the same uniform mayhem to it. There is a Japantown in District 1, and a couple of Korean enclaves. Cholon is […]
Cool cafes in Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is a major hub for travel in Southeast Asia and is a great city to make a stop-over. While I’ve always enjoyed coming here for the food and to go shopping at familiar stores, the cafe scene has consisted mostly of the big chains (Starbucks, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf et al). The […]
Visiting the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur
Even though I’ve visited Kuala Lumpur over 20 times in the last ten years, I had never been up the Petronas Twin Towers. My frequent visits fell into a familiar pattern of visit favourites restaurants and finding cafes to work from. When my dad was visiting KL I took this as a good excuse to […]
The regeneration of Kuala Lumpur Old City
The first time I visited Kuala Lumpur was when I was overlanding my way down the Malay Peninsula in 2006. Like most backpackers I ended up in a cheap guesthouse in the Chinatown area of KL. I was amazed that there were so many heritage buildings that had not been restored. There are sections of […]
Best cafes in Georgetown, Penang
Georgetown is a former colonial city on the island of Penang in Malaysia. The old town is lined with colonial-era buildings and and the entire inner city is a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site. Traditional cafes here are kopi tiam style, which offer a simple food menu and a place to chat with friends. They […]
Giving Shenzhen a second chance
Shenzhen and I didn’t get off to a good start the first around. It was the end of 2010 and I was finishing a two month trip in China. I was in Shanghai and I had a flight to catch in Hong Kong. Flights to Shenzhen were half the price of those to Hong Kong, […]
A bemused Melburnian returns to Melbourne after two years absence
I returned to Melbourne after being away for just over two years. I didn’t intend to be away so long, as I like to return to the homeland at least once every calendar year. Unfortunately my back injury of 2016 put me out of commission for a while and I wasn’t able to travel. This […]
Darwin as Asia’s gateway to Australia
My first time to Darwin was a stop at the airport in 2007, which we all know doesn’t count as a visit. I was flying from Sydney to Mumbai, which stopped at Darwin on the way. That flight route was made famous by Ralph Fiennes and a Qantas flight attendant, though my flight was not […]
