At first glance Burma seems a multicultural place. There are numerous Christian churches in the country’s biggest city, Yangon, dating back to colonial times when missionaries came to predominantly Budhist-Burma to build new congregations. In the Indian quarter there are mosques, but also the Jewish Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue […]
On the streets of Yangon people go about their lives as normal. They enjoy the nightclubs, they visit new shopping malls and eat in new trendy restaurants. The streets are clogged with traffic as people drive in their cars to work. This is all in stark contrast with […]
If tourists visit just one place when they are in Yangon it tends to be Shwedagon pagoda. “A golden mystery upheaved itself on the horizon – a beautiful winking wonder that blazed in the sun,” is how Rudyard Kipling described the temple, which dates back at least the […]
In contrast to the glitz and modernity of Singapore, visiting Melaka is like stepping back in time. There is heaps of interesting history to this Malaysian port city, but it strikes of a place that invested in tourism several decades ago and hasn’t yet truly reaped the rewards. […]
If you’ve been travelling long distances across dusty, uneven roads elsewhere in Asia, arriving in Singapore will come as a pleasant surprise. From touching down at the ultra modern Changi Airport and driving into the city centre, the journey will leave you pretty impressed. Singapore is so clean […]
Raffles is a name that is hard to miss when visiting Singapore. Of course, the city’s most famous luxury hotel – sadly closed for major renovation during my recent trip – boats that designation. But there are many other examples in Singapore: Raffles Place, the financial centre filled […]
Buildings aren’t all they seem in Wroclaw’s central squares. These colourful painted structures in Poland’s fourth largest city appear as if they’ve been here for centuries, but looks can be deceiving – some are skilful re-constructions. Until 1945 Wroclaw (previously known as Breslau) was part of Germany and […]
With paint peeling off the walls and exposed, tatty floorboards, it is an apartment that seems far from the trendy homes that Manhattan has become famous for in recent years. But given that the Lower East Side has experienced a wave of gentrification in recent years, you could […]
From the top of One World Trade Center – the tallest building in the Western hemisphere – New York’s blockbuster sights across all of its five boroughs can be viewed in all their glory. Towering to a height of 1776ft, symbolic given that it was the year of […]
There’s no statue in the centre of Bowling Green park these days. An angry mob tour down the structure depicting George III in 1776 after George Washington’s Declaration of Independence and in its place now stands a fountain. At the same time, the tops of crowns from railings […]
Past In The Present 