I arrive at 4:30am at Panaji, totally exhausted from a night-bus ride from Pune, and it was completely dark around us. Not a single building light in view. Going down from the local bus, all the Rickshaw folks quickly headed my way. “We take you best best beach, only 500 rupee” they start bargaining between themselves on which beach they should take me to and how much I should pay for that. I just took my things and followed the local bunch into the darkness. After a 5 minutes walk, a few lights emerged and the local bunch stopped at a local Chai tea-shop. I got myself …

Half way through my Mumbai experience during my first day in India, I decided to head out of Mumbai to a more peaceful country-side relaxation spot up on the famous British hill-mountain stations. I arrived at the Victoria terminus and bought a ticket to the station where the slow train was suppose to take off from to get there. I was naive, to say the least, about India rail travel. With the ticket in my hand, I asked the conductor where my train was, he asked me whether I’m sure I want to take this train, and I wasn’t sure what he meant. When I confirmed, he pointed at the train that was about to leave with whistles indicating that …

The other day, I went with John and his family around Tainan County, and although we were aiming for the Lantern festival, the number of people and cars directed us in a different direction. We eventually ended up heading up to one 5 Gods Temple (Wu Wang Temple) near the town of Madou.     …

This was, by far, the most insane fireworks display I’ve ever been in. The Lantern Festival (元宵節/元宵) is a Chinese festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunar year in the Chinese calendar. During the Lantern Festival, children go out at night to temples carrying rabbit-shaped lanterns (免子燈) and solve riddles on the lanterns (猜燈謎).The Lantern Festival is also known as the Little New Year since it marks the end of the series of celebrations starting from the Chinese New Year. (Wikipedia) …

Arriving at India’s Mumbai international airport at 4 o’clock in the morning with barely reading anything about what to expect is not something I’d recommend anyone. I arrived at the airport and my first impression was that it was - by far - the worst international airport I’ve ever seen.

I distinctly remember finding it extremely strange that while going to the toilets there was a person there directing me to the free booth, opening/closing the water stream and handing me a clean tissue to wipe my hands when I was done with my private business. Naturally, he asked for a small Baksheesh.

Heading out, leaving the terminal, I saw the dozens of drivers attacking all the other tourists, so I headed …

Celebrating Israel’s 60 years of independence Taipei Fine Arts museum is showing the works of Israeli Paul Goldman, a somewhat unknown name who’s behind some great - even historical - Israeli photography (link). Exhibition will run from 11th of March to 22th of June. Here’s a bit about that (thanks V for the translation): …