Muscat, Oman. Visited 16-17, January 2025. I flew into Muscat, the capital of Oman, on January 16. Unlike many of its GCC neighbors, Oman is relatively unknown and seldom makes the headlines. When was the last time you heard about…
Baghdad, Iraq. Visited on 28 – 29 January 2025. After spending 10 days in Oman, I made a last-minute swerve and flew from Muscat to Baghdad, Iraq. While in Oman, I heard from some Chinese that it is safe to…
Stop 1 – Jakarta, Indonesia. Visited from 22-24 November 2022. I have not properly gotten to know Indonesia, though it is our close neighbor. I thought that the Indonesian culture was not too dissimilar to Malaysia’s. However, I discovered that…
Stop 2 – Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Visited 25-29 November 2022. After 2 days of enjoying Jakarta’s diversity, I now depart for Yogyakarta, toward the center of Java Island, on an 8-hour executive train ride. Lush green paddy fields rushed by, and…
Stop 3 – Bali. Visited from 1-5 December 2022. Lombok from 6-9 December, then returned to Bali from 10 – 15 December 2022. After enjoying the rich culture of Yogyakarta and the excitement of Mount Bromo on Java Island, I…
Stop 4 – Lombok. Visited 6-9 December 2022. After the big party in Bali and the hangover, I am now ready to move down a gear to Lombok. From Kuta, I shared a minibus with some Western tourists to Padang…
Stop 1 – Seoul, South Korea. Visited 19 – 20 October 2024 I have spent almost 25 days in Japan in the past few weeks. From the last stop in Japan, Hiroshima, I flew to Seoul, the capital of South Korea.…
Stop 2 – Gyeongju, South Korea. Visited 25 – 26th October 2024 After six days in Seoul, I rode the train southward to Gyeongju. The train arrived at the station at Gyeongju earlier than I anticipated. In a slight panic, I…
Stop 3 – Busan, South Korea. Visited 27 – 31st October 2024 From Gyeongju, I traveled a further 80 km south to the southern coastal city of Busan, Korea’s second-largest city. It had been drizzling. I wanted it to be a…
Stop 4 – Jeju, South Korea. Visited 2 – 5 November October 2024 The last stop of my South Korean visit will be its southernmost point, Jeju, an island 82 km from the nearest point on the Korean peninsula. From Busan,…
Stop 1 – Tokyo, Japan 21st September 2024. I flew into Tokyo from Kuala Lumpur. By the time I cleared the customs, it was already midnight. Public transport had stopped. So I joined many others for a slumber party at the…
Stop 2 – Nikko, Japan 29 September 2024 Japan is more than just Tokyo. So, after 6 days in Tokyo, I went north searching for more. I headed to Nikko, a mountain town 2 hours train ride away. The Sinkyo…
Stop 3 – Hakone, Japan. Visited 1st October 2024 From Nikko, I returned to Tokyo to proceed westward to Hakone, about 86 km away. Hakone is an illustrious hot spring town, also known for museums, nature, and ah, the view…
Stop 4 – Kyoto, Japan. Visited from 3 October 2024 From Hakone, I moved on to Kyoto. Others along the way told me I was going to like it. How do they know, right? It was drizzly and kept going…
Stop 5 – Osaka, Japan. Visited 7-10th October 2024 From Kyoto, I rode the train to Osaka, only 60 km away, barely time to warm the seat. Osaka is one of the largest cities in Japan, known for its fun, nightlife,…
Stop 6 – Nara, Japan. Visited 11-12th October 2024 From Osaka, I proceeded to Nara, only 32 km away – almost a short commute. As I passed through Nara Park on my way to my accommodation, wild sika deer were already…
Stop 7 – Himeji, Japan. Visited 13-14th October 2024 From Nara, I continued my journey westward, this time to Himeji, a mere 130 km train ride. Arriving in the city center, the castle can be seen from various spots, towering over…
Stop 8 – Hiroshima, Japan. Visited 15th October 2024 If ever there is one great poignant reminder of human tragedy, Hiroshima stands out foremost in my mind. And it is so close to home. Japan was the only country to suffer…
The route: China Urumqi > Turpan > Kuerle > Kuqa > Kashgar > Kuqa > Nalati (via Duku Scenic Drive) > Kuerdening > Yining > Sailimu Lake > Yining > Urumqi > Buerjin > Kanas Lake > Hemu > China…
From Urumqi, I next headed to Turpan, 180 km away. I provided my passport number and bought my train ticket online. At the train station, after they verified my passport in a split second, I queued with hundreds to board…
16-18 June 2024 Kuerle, Xinjiang I went to the train station to try to catch the train after failing to book the ticket online. After waiting for half a day at the train station, I eventually got on one in…
Kuqa, Xinjiang, China, visited 18 -21 June 2024 From Kuele, I now boarded the train which sped across a desert landscape to arrive in Kuqa, less than 4 hours away. Kuqa was the homeland of the ancient Buddhist Kingdom of…
Kashgar, Xinjiang, visited on 22-23 June 2024 From Kuqa, I took the night train to near the Western border, Kashgar, perhaps the most well-known of the Uyghur cities in Xinjiang. The old city is extensive, consisting of West Old Town…
Duku Scenic Drive (独库公路) to Nalati. Visited 25-26 June 2024. With the Kashgar visit, I completed my tour of Southern Xinjiang, known more for its cultural experience. I now set my sights on Northern Xinjiang, more for its natural sceneries.…
Kuerdening, Ili, Xinjiang. Visited on 27th June 2024. After a full day enjoying the grassland in Nalati, I again joined a pool car to go westward into the state of Ili. Many from around China drive here, enjoying the freedom…
Stop 9 – Miyajima, Japan. Visited 16th October 2024 After a serious day in Hiroshima, I made a day trip to Miyajima island, the train ride and ferry took about 1-2 hours. As soon we disembarked from the ferry, everyone…
Yining, Ili, Xinjiang. Visited 29 June – 1 July 2024 I arrived in Yining, the capital of Ili State, Xinjiang, after exploring the grasslands of Nalati and Kuerdening. I took the opportunity to take in more of the Xinjiang and…
Sailimu (Sayram) Lake, Xinjiang. Visited 30 June 2024. I stayed a few days in Yining, Ili, to rest from the gallops on the grass the past few days. While resting, I made a day trip to Sailimu Lake (Sayram), only…
Buerjin, Xinjiang (布尔津). Visited 4 July 2024 From Yining, I returned to Urumqi by train, then took the night train to arrive at Beitun (北屯), and the last leg by bus to Buerjin (布尔津). Buerjin is the stopover point before…
Kanas Lake, Xinjiang. Visited 5 July 2024 After spending a day in Buerjin, I am now ready for Kanas Lake. As with most scenic spots, the Kanas Scenic Area is gated so visitors could be charged a fee for the…
Hemu, Xinjiang. Visited 6 July 2024 From Kanas, I booked a taxi to take me to Hemu, only an hour away. In the Hemu Scenic Area, I took the cable car up to the summit at Yun Xiao Feng(云霄峰). At…
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Visited 10-11 July 2024. After spending 25 days exploring Xinjiang in China, I wanted to hop over to Kyrgyzstan, next door to Xinjiang, a neighbor of China. So, on the 9th of July, I flew from Urumqi to…
Bokonbayevo/Issyk-Kul Lake. Visited 12 -13 July 2024. After 2 nights in Bishkek, I rode a public shuttle eastward for 5 hours to Bokonbayevo, almost touching Issyk–Kul Lake. Bokonbayevo is a small town; even the head statue of Lenin is unusually…
Karakol, Kyrgystan. Visited 16th July 2024 The following morning, I took a shuttle bus to go towards the eastern end of the lake, Karakol. A large part of the road was unsealed as it was being resurfaced and reconstructed. The…
Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) to Khujand (Tajikistan). Visited 20-25 July 2024. I planned to go south to Nardyn and then to Osh after Karakol. When I heard there was flooding down south, I changed my plan to return to Bishkek and headed…
27 July 2024 Panjakent and The Seven Lakes (Haft Kul), Tajikistan My journey in Tajikistan started with Khujand. I then took a shared shuttle bus to Panjakent, five hours away. In Panjakent, I joined a group of four other Europeans…
Iskanderkul Lake, Tajikistan. Visited 29 July 2024. I left Panjakent in a shared MPV. It dropped me at the junction of a highway and the mountain road leading to Iskanderkul Lake, 22 km short of the lake. I was informed…
Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Visited 30 July – 4 August 2024 After a night at Iskandarkul Lake, I made my way to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, less than a 3-hour bus ride away. I ended up staying for a week, to lick…
Dunhuang, Gansu, China. Visited 8 August 2024 I started this journey by flying from Kuala Lumpur to Urumqi on 12 June 2024. I toured South and then North Xinjiang in 25 days. I then explored Kyrgyzstan, followed by Tajikistan. From…
9-10 August 2024 Jiayuguan (嘉峪关), Gansu, China From Dunhuang, I next went to Jiayuguan, 360 km away. The high-speed train whizzed me to my destination in less than 3 hours. Godspeed to my journey! You know The Great Wall is…
Zhangye (张掖), Gansu, China. Visited 11-12 August 2024 After scaling the Great Wall at Jiayuguan and reconnecting with ancestral history, I continued eastward in northern China, pretty much still along the ancient Silk Route. The next destination was Zhangye, just…
Lanzhou, Gansu, China. Visited on 14 August 2024 From Zhangye, I made an unplan detour to Xining in Qinghai after hearing that there were attractions worth seeing. The train only took 2 hours to arrive. After failing to find suitable…
6-8 October 2022 I remember Vietnam well growing up, alas, not in a good way. It was imploding fighting each other, the North against the South, a battle between those who believed in communism and those who did not. The…
9-11 October 2022 After spending 4 nights in Ho Chi Ming City, I rode the train going north to Nha Trang, a coastal city eight hours away. I arrived just in time for dinner, so I rewarded myself with a…
12-13 October 2022 My next destination is Da Nang, which lies along the coast but is more than 500 Km by road and would take more than 10 hours to reach. Instead, I opted for a one-hour flight. Da Nang…
13-14 October 2022 My next stop from Da Nang was Hoi An, only 20 km away. Of all the destinations in Vietnam, this one sounds particularly Chinese, it is ( in Chinese 会安）. It was a name given by both…
15-16 October 2024 My next destination from Hoi An is Hue, still in Central Vietnam. The rain followed me from Hoi An, and it was damp and dark when I arrived in Hue in the late afternoon. The following day,…
17-18, 23 October 2022 From Hue, I flew to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, located in the northern part of the country. I started my journey on the 6 October, nearly 2 weeks ago, from Ho Chi Ming City in…
20 October 2024 Ha Long Bay For many travelers, Ha Long Bay best epitomizes Vietnam’s unique beauty. Wherever we are traveling around Vietnam, a pilgrimage to Ha Long Bay is too sacrilegious to miss. It is conveniently located only 170…
4 Feb – 6 Feb 2023 It’s time to visit Thailand properly, our famous neighbor to the north. I mean, go the whole length of the country. So, I snuck into Thailand from the south. From Malaysia, I walked across…
7-8 Feb 2023 From Krabi, the next destination was another island group, the largest of which was Koh Phi Phi, 2 hours boat ride away. I climbed to the top of a hill to see 2 beaches of stunning water…
9-12 Feb 2023 2 hours boat ride away from Krabi was another well-known island, Phuket, my next island-hopping destination. Many came for the beaches, others, to be wild. Patong Beach was the most famous of the beaches in Phuket. It…
6-10 June 2023 I have been looking for places that are exotic and exciting to visit, but not too far away. Many places are still trouble spots. These hot spots are still too hot – I want to try to…
11 June 2023 After staying a night at Madaba, I drove to Petra the next morning. The land turned browner and more hostile. Even the sky looks unhappy; covering the sky from end to end with murky grey. Petra is…
I soon left Petra in the rear-view mirror and drove south toward Wadi Rum. The enjoyment continued, the roads wound around the hillsides and hilltops, surrounded by rocky mountains and valleys, shaped by the elements over countless millenniums to look…
An hour away from Wadi Rum is the Red Sea. I have read about Moses parting the Red Sea, so I wanted to see it. I mean the sea, not the parting. I drove past downtown Aqaba and headed to…
I want no bloodshed, but we should learn lessons from the past. I wanted to see bullet holes, not blood. After Jordan, my next destination was Lebanon. Going via Syria would have been the shortest and cheapest, but it could…
From Beirut, I would make a second-day trip, this time to Baalbek, 85 km away. Having gone through the stomach-churning ride in the local mini bus yesterday, I decided to hire a taxi this time. He was equally suicidal, but…
15-17 Feb 2023 After a few days in laidback Koh Samui, I would now go to Bangkok, Thailand’s capital. It promises to be mouth-watering. Thai cuisine is popular the world over. It stings, it sets the brain on fire, it…
Caption: Itinerary on this trip through The Maldives, Sri Lanka, India and Nepal: 12 Sept 2023 I flew to the middle of the Indian Ocean, trying to land on the Maldives, made up of many small islands scattered across many…
18-20 Feb 2023 Before there was Bangkok, there was Ayutthaya, the capital of the old Kingdom of Siam. After 3 days in Bangkok, I was heading north. I had to go back to go forward. Ayathuya is 80 km from…
21-24 Feb 2023 From Bangkok, I was continuing to head north, Ayutthaya, Sukhothai, and toward Chiang Mai. Away from the beaches of the south, the north landscape became greener, hilly and cooler. Ancient Buddhist temples sought isolation and seclusion among…
25-26 Feb 2023 I have by now traveled the entire length of Thailand from south to north. From the northern tip, I want to see Laos by boat up the Mekong. At Huay Xai, the Laos border town, I took…
27 Feb – 1 March 2023 It was fun and therapeutic sailing down the Mekong for 2 days, through the scenic mountainous north of Laos. In the end, another reward awaited – Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It…
19th September 2023 Colombo 3 days of in the sun and sea, my nose burned red and my lips cracked. This was the world where I chased the fish, giant turtles, sharks and nearly dolphins. I joined them in their…
21 September 2023 After seeing Sigiriya, I rode a tuk-tuk for 18 km to Dambulla, then a bus to Anuradhapura which was a further hour away. Anuradhapura was once the old capital of Sri Lanka when it was invaded by…
23 September 2023 Trincomalee From Anuradhapura, it was a 3-hour bus ride to Trincomalee on the east coast of the island. All along the way was the jungle, with houses nestled in it. Some coconut and banana trees and paddy…
26 September 2023 Train ride from Kandy to Ella From Trincomalee on the east coast, I took the local buses towards Dambulla, in central Sri Lanka. After staying a night, I boarded another bus for Kandy. After another night there,…
29-30 September 2023 Merissa From Ella in central Sri Lanka, I headed south towards the southern coast, to Mirissa. Many foreigners came to rendezvous with the beaches and whale watching. Along the way, some rivers nearly burst their banks. This…
2-3 October 2023 Mumbai So, on this trip, I first flew to Malé in The Maldives, from Kuala Lumpur on 13 September 2023, then onward to Sri Lanka, on the 18th of September, and now commencing this extravaganza trip in…
6 October 2023 AhmedabadAfter 2 days in Mumbai, I took a night train to arrive in Ahmedabad at 6.30 a.m. Stepping into the arrival hall, many were still sleeping snugly on the floor, like on their warm beds. They made…
8-9, October 2023, Udaipur, India From Ahmedabad, I continued northward by train. 6 hours later, I reached Udaipur. This part of India was getting into late summer and becoming cooler. I did not realize I was further away from the…
10-11, October 2023, Jodhpur, India From Udaipur, I headed north to Jodhpur, another city in the Indian state of Rajasthan. At my guesthouse, which was at a foothill, the towering Mehrangarh Fort rose in the sky, like a monstrous structure.…
13-15, October 2023, Jaisalmer, India I continued my adventure in the Indian state of Rajasthan. From Jodhpur, I took a bus ride for 5 hours to Jaisalmer, near the Western border with Pakistan. It looked yellow, right in the center…
16-19th October 2023, Day 1 Jaipur, India From Jaisalmer, I now went eastward for 13 hours to Jaipur on an overnight train. It was not pleasant as I slept in a 6 bunk-bed compartment on a bed I had to…
20-21st, October 2023 Agra, India From Jaipur I now rode the train to Agra, arriving the evening of Thursday. Everyone comes to India to see the Taj Mahal. I was rubbing my hands with great anticipation. Of all days, I…
22-23th, October 2023 New Delhi, India From Agra I now took the train to New Delhi, the capital of India, to see what has become of India. First, a look at her past – the Red Fort of New Delhi,…
24-26th, October 2023 Varanasi, India From New Delhi, I took the train to Varanasi, the holy city of the Hindus. As I walked toward the guesthouse at about 6 am, people were already on the streets, holding little jugs and…
26th October – 1 November 2023 Pokhara, Nepal It was hard to emerge from Varanasi after the incense, the orange robes, tilak, rituals, and the drumbeats. That is a fitting clomax to my discovery of India, though barely scratching the…
2-3 November, 2023 Katmandu, Nepal. During the 5 days in Pokhara I did try to rise as high and as early as I could, to get a closer look at the Himalaya peaks, and to see Nepal from high up.…
4th November, 2023 Katmandu, Nepal. There are 3 main squares around Kathmandu. I have visited the Durbar Square. One in the bag, 2 more awaited. So, the next day I set out for more. These Katmandu squares have the penchant…
3-4 March 2023 From Luang Prabang, I continued south to Vang Vieng in a new Chinese-built train, arriving in 2 hours. I rented a motorbike and went looking for the famed blue water lagoons. I rode mostly on dusty dirt…
8-11 March 2023 I was eager to get to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat. Don’t ask, Angkor what? It is the world’s largest temple complex, made up of many temples, of Hindu but later became Buddhist. When it comes…
12-15 March 2023 An estimated 2 million died in Cambodia in 1975-1979 under the Khmer Rouge, about a quarter of the Cambodian population. I was a young man then. It happened in my lifetime, in my neighborhood. A barbarity beyond…
23-24 For the past nine days, I was stuck back in time, more than 3,000 years ago. I witnessed antique coffins of dignitaries from time immemorial, ancient tombs hidden deep in the desert ground, wall inscriptions few today understand, temples…
2020 We were going about our daily chores, just like any other day, and the days before them. About 12 months ago, we were still partying in the streets to usher in the New Year. Two months later, the Chinese…
2-3 Although I live most of my life in Asia, Central Asia is as remote to me as any other continent. I flew into Almaty from Kuala Lumpur. Pardon my ignorance, but I had never heard of Almaty before now,…
4 After a brief stay in Almaty, I was looking forward to seeing more of Kazakhstan. I took an MPV taxi heading west to Taraz with a few other fellow passengers. The car was loaded to the hilt for the…
6-8 From Shymkent in Kazakhstan, I took a taxi to go west toward Tashkent, Uzbekistan. An hour later, the taxi dropped me at the border. I then walked into Uzbekistan and straight into Tashkent, which is conveniently just next to…
8-9 After two days in Tashkent, I was on the evening train bound for Samarkand. When I got on the train, I walked into a carriage packed with locals piercing me with their curious eyes. I felt out of place,…
10-11 From Samarkand, I then took the train to Bukhara, just three hours away. As soon as I disembarked, a ball of fire engulfed me. It sure was hot as hell. I hastened to the nearest air-conditioned burger joint; I…
12-14/5/2018, I shared a taxi with a young Spanish doctor, each of us paying USD 20, to drive to Khiva, which was 400 kilometers away and would take about seven hours. The car often drove into the oncoming lane to…
9-11 When the virus came calling, we all took cover at home. Going overseas was still off-limits, but domestic travel was free to go. I started from Kuala Lumpur, heading northward first, to try to cover as many states as…
12-13 After two days in Ipoh, I drove on to Kuala Kangsar. Kangsar is the royal town of Perak. The Sultan of Perak state lives here. There is, of course, a thick royal air in the town. The golden dome…
14-15 The outbreak of Covid cases stopped me from going farther north to the next state, Kedah. So, I instead went eastward to Kota Bharu, the capital of the Kelantan state. I literally drove into a thick tropical forest, slicing…
16-22 From Kelantan, I proceeded southward into Terengganu state, blessed with beaches and beautiful islands. I stayed overnight at Besut. The next morning, I took a speedboat to Perhentian Island. My luxurious accommodation was a tent up on the hill,…
23-24 I spent some brief time in Kuantan when small. This is the town where many of my relatives still live. But the city has morphed into something unrecognizable. The Kuantan River still flows through it. The old part of…
19-21 Penang is special. I had been there in my early teens. This recent visit was simultaneously nostalgic and refreshing. I fell in love with it, kind of head to toes. It did not charm me with its glamour, just…
I returned to Shanghai again after the Chinese New Year.
I have gone behind the firewall the past couple of weeks where Instagram, Google, Facebook are not available.