I encountered this scene a short drive from the city of Kurunegala in central Sri Lanka. My family and I were sitting in the van on our journey to Dambulla when we encountered men offloading piles of coconuts, while the ruggedly weathered man nimbly sheds husks off the drupes that surround him.
Category: Travels
“Children on a Bicycle” is one of Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic’s iconic street art in Penang, and is really popular with tourists. There was a group of Chinese national tourists hogging the mixed media graffiti for their numerous selfies when all of a sudden an old man speeds down the road nonchalantly at top speed, […]
I was looking through my archives when I spotted this picture from my last trip to NYC in 2013. Guggenheim is one of my favorite museums, both for its collection of art works as well as the building itself. I like how easy the circular ramp slope leads you up to the top of the […]
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Sek Tek Tong Arch
On my way to a dessert shop, I spotted this pretty ornate arch sandwiched between shophouses, serving as an entrance to the ancestral temple of the Cheah clan association. There were restoration works going on in the temple while I was there, so I skipped going in. Numerous delicate and detailed ceramic trimmings deck the beams and ceiling of the arch, each serving […]
I can’t find the exact name of this graffiti or the artist(s) responsible for it. The style of the caricature reminds me of 1980s anime, and seems to play on surreal humor on the classic box cutting magic trick. The idea of the magician’s boxes plays off nicely on the grid surface of the shophouse […]
I was walking around Penang’s Armenian Street when I chanced upon this graffiti. The mural was created by artists Jim Oo and John Cheng, collectively known as Penang I-Wall, back in 2014. The street art extends all the way to the concrete drain covers at the bottom, which used to feature speech bubbles of common […]
There’s so much going on at Penang’s KOMTAR bus interchange… There are plenty of commuters going about to work, trishaw peddlers double checking their rides and then there’s this dude sitting by the side of the bus ticket kiosk deep in thought. He seems to be the only one not particularly in a rush to […]
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Pagoda of Rama VI
The architectural style of the Pagoda of Rama VI, also known as the Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas (万佛塔), is an amalgamation of Chinese, Thai and Burmese influences to reflect Kek Lok Si (极乐寺) temple’s embrace of Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism, along with trickles of Taoist traditions. The octagonal base of the 7-storey pagoda is […]
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Mansion on the Hill
I spotted this mansion perched atop a slope as I was walking down a flight of stairs after lunch at Penang Hill. It made me curious as to who owns the place and if it, like many other mansions on top of Penang Hill, has a name of its own. The mansion may have great […]
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View from Bukit Bendera
The aerial view of the urban development on Penang island can be pretty awesome when viewed from the top of Penang Hill, also known locally as Bukit Bendera. On my way up the hill via the funicular, I met a Malaysian who was touring Penang, expressing his disappointment that the tram-ride up was devoid of decent […]
So I was just casually surfing the net, checking out non-serious news on my day off from work. Dealing with world news, albeit in picture format, makes me reluctant to surf anything but casual quirky reads. I was going about reading Jezebel, a blog known for its feminist content, when I chanced upon an entry on a […]
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Tadashi Up-close
A close-up view of the Tadashi (正殿), the main hall, of Shuri Castle (首里城). Shuri Castle served as the royal court and residence of the Ryukyu king (琉球王) for at least 450 years. That’s pretty impressive! Unfortunately, everything seen here is a reconstruction of the original that was completely decimated during World War II by the US […]
There’s nothing more therapeutic than spending some quiet time by the sea… Waters look pristine and pretty shallow, possibly due to low tide. Picture taken in the middle of Mid-Sea Road (海中道路) showing Kinbu Bay (金武湾) on Okinawa island.
Found the perfect view at a quiet spot after viewing Cape Manzamo… The view from the cliffs overlooks the beach and the ANA InterContinental Manza Beach Resort. The white boat on the far left looks to me like a semi-submarine. It’s funny how most of the tourist hog the view of Cape Manzamo but seemed […]
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Chapel by Tancha Bay
Woke up to this balcony view around 5.30am. The sun sure is bright so early! Yup it was also pretty windy too. That chapel, which is part of the beach resort, doesn’t look exactly fitting on Okinawa though. Probably the result of the theme wedding trend the island is experiencing. Quite ironic since couples have […]
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Aerial view of Taoyuan, Taiwan
The airplane flying above Taoyuan, Taiwan, in full view of Taoyuan International Airport and the surrounding towns. The aerial view of this part of Taiwan seems rather disorganized and scattered… It felt incredible to get a full view of the airport before the plane lands, which is probably attributed to the geographical location of the […]
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The view from out above
The view from the window seat of an Airbus A300 above the South China Sea, somewhere between the Philippines and Taiwan. Lucky to snag it. I haven’t got the chance to sit next to the window of a plane for a pretty long while… It was the strangest flight (heck everything on this airline is […]
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Typewriter
Saw this at one of the exhibits in MoMA I think… I’ve never used a typewriter before, although there was one at home. Probably fortunate to have skipped that portion of technology since I’m prone to typos. After all, the correction fluid is my best companion back in school. This typewriter looks like something more […]
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Analog Toronto
There’s always a special place in my heart for Toronto. Strangely the city reminded me of home, for whatever odd reason, when I was studying in Buffalo. My return to this city reminded me how much has changed over the years. There’s even more new construction around. This city has this perpetual urban redevelopment going […]
George Segal’s Cinema (1963) is one of the more prominent pop art sculptures on display at Albright Knox Art Gallery. The last time I was at AK, I only had my iPhone with me and I snapped a photo of this sculpture too, alongside the other pop art paintings near it. AK has a huge […]