The Strange German Connection to China’s Shangdong Province
Qingdao is a beautiful coastal city in China with a unique colonial history. With over nine million inhabitants, it is the capital of the Shandong Province. A bee line from Qingdao…
Lost, Found, and Almost Scammed: Driving around Maui
I was driving in the opposite direction that I were supposed to be going. I didn’t know this at the time, blissfully ignorant of our impending doom. I was riding with…
The Rich Layers of Loan Words in Bahasa Indonesia
Language is a living, breathing entity. I imagine it to be like a geological creature, formed by layers and layers of sediment dating back through time. Analyze a particular section…
When the World Shrinks: Amazing Coincidences while Traveling
The world becomes smaller when you travel. I don’t mean that in the proverbial sense, where meeting new people from different countries and learning about their cultures exposes us to…
Jakarta in the Time of Cholera
I’ve definitely encountered my share of sketchy food abroad. From clandestine dog meat in rural Guangxi to nationally famous duck blood soup in Nanjing, China can offer as many culinary…
Bali’s Sacred Day of Silence
Bali is predominately, and dominantly, Hindu. And while all other islands in the Indonesian archipelago are majority Muslim, Bali still vehemently maintains its religious practices that date back to the…
The Easiest Language in the World to Learn?
Many people take pride in learning languages like Chinese, Arabic or Russian. These are considered some of the most difficult languages for foreign speakers to learn, and students may attempt…
The Real Chinatown of New York City
The origin of Chinatowns in the United States is an interesting one. According to my professor of Chinese history, virtually all second or more generation Chinese people in the United…
Farewell to the Majestic Huangshan: China’s Ethereal Ink Painting
This is the second part in my series on hiking China’s Yellow Mountains. Start from the beginning here. This is the last time I’ll be talking about the Yellow Mountains.…