Category Archives: Culture & Lifestyle

Hotel Majestic, Ho Chi Minh City

This gallery contains 11 photos.

One to rival the French In Ho Chi Minh City, I chose to accommodate myself in the Hotel Majestic, rather than the older and much much more legendary Hotel Continental.  In Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, the Majestic is mentioned … Continue reading

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14th St: D/F (9th to 11th Aves)

This gallery contains 9 photos.

9th to 11th Avenue plays host to what is now only nominally known as the Meatpacking District.  Up until the late ‘90s, this area packed in meat of two different kinds.  For almost a century, it contained the city’s largest … Continue reading

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14th St: Our Lady of Chelsea (6th to 9th Aves)

This gallery contains 11 photos.

14th Street between 6th and 9th Avenues sits squarely in Chelsea, one of the most eclectic, beguiling and bi-curious neighborhoods in Manhattan.  Architecturally, one sees a transition from the macho, Type-A glass, steel and cast-iron of contemporary Big Capital, to … Continue reading

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14th St: Big Capital (3rd to 6th Aves)

This gallery contains 11 photos.

Between 3rd and 6th Avenues, another kind of American landscape prevails – one that is infinitely more dramatic and that belies the big forces that have shaped the very identity of the Nation. At the very centre of these three … Continue reading

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14th St: The Theater of the Everyday (1st to 3rd Aves)

This gallery contains 11 photos.

The boundary between Alphabet City and the rest of Manhattan is strikingly obvious. Suddenly the streets and sidewalks become thronged with cars, cyclists and people – commuters rallying to start a new work day. Between 1st and 3rd Avenues, there … Continue reading

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14th St: Border Politics (Avenue C to 1st)

This gallery contains 7 photos.

North of 14th Street sits one of the most iconic and architecturally imposing private housing projects in New York City – Stuyvesant Town. Named after Peter Stuyvesant, the last Director-General of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, the complex opened … Continue reading

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14th St: Colours of the Alphabet (Avenue C to 1st)

This gallery contains 7 photos.

The walk through the far eastern end of 14th street is divided into two parts, as a reflection of the stark difference in incomes and urban landscapes immediately north and south of the street. In this first part, I explore … Continue reading

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Manhattan in 12 Streets: 14th St – State of the Union, or Swinging Both Ways

This gallery contains 3 photos.

14th Street is an intriguingly in-between kind of street in New York.  For starters, 14th Street plays host to the L train – one of the few subway lines that cuts across Manhattan rather than along, and which shuttles New … Continue reading

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The Manila Hotel, Manila

This gallery contains 12 photos.

A Grand American Hotel Manila features on my Grand Tour because of the Manila Hotel, which, in its heyday in the early 19th century, was considered one of the three best hotels in the East, together with the Raffles in … Continue reading

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The Grand Tour II – Fabled Opulence… Manila, the Philippines

This gallery contains 8 photos.

“It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great ideal. It is like a stone wasted on the field without becoming a part of any edifice.” Jose Rizal, Noli Me Tangere Of Martyrdom and Making-Do It was … Continue reading

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