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The fifth and final installment in the Tales of Asia series takes us back to British Empire in the East Indies in the 1800s and 1900s. We visit Rangoon (Yangon), the capital of British Burma; as well as George Town (Penang) … Continue reading
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Dear armchair time-travellers, here’s a clip featuring highlights from my talk at the Woodlands Regional Library, Singapore on 18 October 2015. A link to entire talk is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYa3SA8_7HY Be sure to come for my next talk on 25th Oct… details … Continue reading
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In 1883, the celebrated author and explorer, Isabella Lucy Bird had this to say about her extended sojourn in Malacca, to which she had decided to wend her trans-continental journey, on a whim: “Malacca fascinates me more and more daily. … Continue reading
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Malacca doesn’t have a Grand Hotel per se, but it does have Majestic Hotel, which is almost as historic, and has been recently refurbished so it recalls these other Grand Hotels in the region. The “peranakan” or mixed architecture of … Continue reading
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Malacca is the first European colony, and the most colonised city in Southeast Asia, having been taken over by the Portuguese in 1511, and having had not just one colonial master, but three (the Dutch from 1641, and the British … Continue reading
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Georgetown, Penang is a quaint little gem of a town. Founded in 1786 and named after Britain’s King George III, it is quite possibly the best-preserved example of a British colonial town in Asia. It is also easily taken in … Continue reading
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The Oldest One Standing The Eastern & Oriental Hotel, or the E & O, as it is more familiarly known to Penangites, was one of the first of its kind in Southeast Asia – a grand hotel in the European … Continue reading
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“Neither the mainland nor the adjacent islands attracted any interest in this country till the East India Company acquired Pinang in 1775, Province Wellesley in 1798, Singapore in 1823, and Malacca in 1824. These small but important colonies were consolidated … Continue reading
Dream Of A City 