Pondering Deeply

The Gospel readings across the New Year is full of evocative pinings for the reflective, contemplative believer, to ponder, reflect, and discern deeply.   Heb1:1-2 At various times in the past and in various different ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our own time, the last days, he has spoken…

Lijiang, Yunnan, China

The city of Lijiang in Yunnan, China was reborn out of a 6.6M earthquake that devastated the city in 1996. When we visited the city in 2009, we had witnessed the rebuilding of a city that was perhaps more than ever oriented towards its original past and its future in tourism than to the reconstruction…

The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken   The term “the road less traveled” has often meant different things for different writers. A travel writer in the Straits Times in 2006 used it to evoke the adventure of lesser known destinations. Others have used it to define a course of action or life that is not in keeping…

Ta Nei

As we leave behind us the mid-day siestas of the drivers and their vehicles at the massive complexes of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, we travel to spend 30 minutes in the quiet ruins of Ta Nei, a late 12th century Bayon-style temple which lies deep in the forest north of Ta Keo, and west…

Along the other Mandalay Road

The quiet route that leads from Balestier Road to the big hospital on top of the hill at Jalan Tan Tock Seng, traverses a myriad of roads and streets thematically named, since the 1960s, after Burmese cities. This unusual legacy and lattice of  evocative names (e.g., Moulmein, Mandalay, Martaban, Irrawaddy, Pegu, Bassein, Shan, Akyab,) lends…

The Monsoon Flowers

The Honolulu creepers and the Spider Lilies of the west garden has been on the fence for the longest time – more than 20 years. And they have been through thick and thin. The creeper has survived eradication from one home-owner to the next, hibernating as a decapitated trunk, to emerge and flourish once again…