Sri Lanka travel
Travel
Sri Lanka’s hill town of Nuwara Eliya
The mountainous interior of Sri Lanka, Hill Country, is full of mountains, picturesque towns, and hillside plantations where the country’s famous tea is grown. Among the towns in the Hill Country is Nuwara Eliya, considered the centre of the country’s tea industry. As a former British colonial hill station, Nuwara Eliya was a favorite holiday […]
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Book reviews
Books
Taiwan
Book review- Formosa Moon
As both a travelogue and a sort-of memoir, Formosa Moon sees Joshua Samuel Brown, a longtime Taiwan expat moving back from the US, bringing his girlfriend Stephanie Huffman to Taiwan for the first time. The trip stems from a premise years ago when after their relationship becomes serious, Brown makes it clear to Huffman that he would eventually […]
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Hikes
Hong Kong travel
Travel
Hiking Hong Kong’s Devil’s Peak
I always like to point out that Hong Kong, despite being famous for its skyscrapers, is actually covered by a lot of mountains and nature parks. Besides that, Hong Kong is also a port city, surrounded by water and virtually next to the Pacific Ocean. A good place to do some easy hiking and see […]
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Malaysia travel
Southeast Asia travel
Travel
Exploring George Town, Penang’s historic capital
Penang might be a small island* off the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, but it is probably the country’s most popular destination to visit. Penang boasts entire streets packed with heritage architecture, great street food, a sprawling hill, and a small but pleasant national park on its northwestern coast. Penang was one of the British […]
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Southeast Asia travel
Thailand travel
Travel
Visiting Thailand’s ancient capital Sukothai
Thailand has had three main capitals. Before its current capital Bangkok, there was Ayutthaya; before Ayutthaya, there was Sukhothai. Located in central Thailand, about midway between Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Sukhothai was the capital of the Sukhothai kingdom, the first Thai state, from the mid-13th century to the mid-15th century. It was then absorbed by […]
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Southeast Asia travel
Thailand travel
Travel
Thailand’s old capital of Ayutthaya
Bangkok is Thailand’s capital and biggest city but it wasn’t always so. Bangkok was preceded by Ayutthaya, the capital of the Thai kingdom of the same name from the mid-14th century to 1767, when it was sacked by the invading Burmese, which then led to the capital being moved to Thonburi (now part of Bangkok). […]
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China
China travel
Hikes
Travel
Hiking Huangshan, one of China’s most beautiful mountains
Back when I lived in Beijing, I made a spontaneous decision one week before Chinese New Year to travel to Huangshan, one of China’s most famous mountains. In hindsight, it was a foolish decision and I learned my lesson not to travel to places at the exact same time as multitudes of Chinese. Besides Huangshan, […]
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