The Altar of Heaven
Some may, perchance, with strange surprise, have blundered into paradise. - Francis Thompson El Nido at the northern tip of Palawan is famous for its steep limestone cliffs, white sand beaches and offshore islands. Before the highway it was a gruelling combination of jeepneys and outrigger boats to get there. Six hours bouncing around an...
El Dorado of the East
SUNGAI LEMBING, PAHANG Sungai Lembing is 42 kilometres northwest of Kuantan the capital of Pahang state on Malaysia’s east coast. En route Rapid Kuantan bus C50 passes kampongs, palm oil plantations and a limestone karst housing the Gua Charas cave temple. Before World War 2 it took four hours by river steamer then fifteen miles by light railway to get there. The road, a gravel and...
My Kind of Town
THE PRINCESS OF PORTS Isla de La Paragua - A beautiful Princess – Massacre at the Plaza Cuartel – Face to face with a man-eating crocodile – Iwahig Penal Colony – Searching for the Pearl of Puerto – Chao Long in Chinatown – The Palawan Special Battalion – A motorcycle legend – The seaplane base - Sundowners...
A Very One-Sided Thing
"You can't be both east and west at the same time. You have to choose between the two." ¹ I only went to Hong Kong’s Queen’s Theatre once before it closed. The film I’ve forgotten, the experience I remember. Marking ‘X’ on a seating plan I was handed a ticket written in green pencil. The cinema was wood paneled, crown emblem on the seat backs, red ceiling to floor curtains covered the...
I’ve had a few
ONE SMILE SINATRA FLIES IN On a little street in Singapore. Browsing photos of Singapore in the 1960s there was one of singer Frank Sinatra. Sinatra never performed there and the picture was uncaptioned. Showing him mobbed by fans at Paya Lebar Airport the photo was published in the Straits Times on December 5 1961 under the heading ‘One smile Sinatra flies in’. Sinatra and his entourage landed...
TRACES OF FRANCE
In 1863 Cambodia signed a treaty of protection with France that lasted until independence under King Norodom Sihanouk on 9th November 1953. Sihanouk was ousted in a 1970 military coup by Prime Minister General Lon Nol. His government surrendered to Khmer Rouge rebels on April 17th 1975 and it is estimated between one to three million people were killed by the new regime. In 1978 Vietnamese...
Crossing the Bar
ONE DAY IN BANGKOK 'One morning, early, we crossed the bar, and while the sun was rising splendidly over the flat spaces of the land we steamed up the innumerable bends, passed under the shadow of the great gilt pagoda, and reached the outskirts of the town. There it was, spread largely on both banks, the Oriental capital which had as yet suffered no white conqueror'. ...
Bravo Zulu
A VICTORIAN HERO IN COLONIAL SINGAPORE Bravo Zulu is a naval signal conveyed by flags or radio meaning ‘well done’ for actions, operations or performance. Writer and historian Ian Knight posted this photo on his Anglo-Zulu History Group: The Victorian gentleman wearing a kimono is Colonel John Rouse Merriott Chard V. C. Commanding Officer of the Royal Engineers, Straits Settlements from 1892 to...
About The Blog
In March 2020, after 28 years in Hong Kong, I moved to Penang as a base to travel in the region. The Covid 19 pandemic ended that plan and I spent much of the time re-reading books I had collected over the years. The only new book I bought was ...