Ever since I have watched clips of India in the Lonely Planet, I was amazed by this classical cultural dance known as Kathakali Cultural Dance performed by actors in colorful make-up, costumes and their tradition culture. The thought of this constantly rolling in my mind that I told myself I have to see this great performance. At least this once in my life time instead I saw this twice in two straight nights. On the first night I was in fourth or fifth row and I was not happy because I could not take good picture, so I booked for the second night to have the middle seat on the front row, being the only Chinese in the theatre sounds like President Mao came to see the show. Kathakali Cultural Dance originated from Kerala state, India ... read more

I came to witness a courtyard where candidates came to sit for their exam yearly in hoping to be a well known scholar in China. It was a big hoo-haa in China those days, when one is regard as a Noble, rich and famous, an important scholar to help the King and the country. How the Chinese in ancient times fare their exam? One can imagine the times in China were not easy to pass the exam. There were many candidates struggling very hard year after year to be a scholar. I have watched many Chinese movies; I asked myself, “Was it like this in the old China?” I have seen poor little rich man paid their way to be a scholar, another side of this, a poor fella with difficult life tried to feed his ... read more

This was an amazing cave I ever seen. The Guihai Stele Forest showed us the inscriptions from the past, The Sui Dynasty and The Tang Dynasty. This Guihai Stele Forest is located in the city itself. It is at the Longyin Cliff (The Dragon's Eye Cliff) of Seven Star Peaks. The Guihai Stele Forest Cave is displayed as part of the tourist attraction in the Seven Star Peaks. These inscriptions are of ancient rock inscriptions and carved stones tablets (Steles) which are found in the Guilin region. In the beginning of time of Sui Dynasty, it became customary to carve inscriptions onto the natural cliff faces. During the Tang Dynasty more officials and scholars came to inscribe more inscriptions on this wall. They came with many Chinese calligraphies of different style of writing. Different strokes and ... read more

Here I am the one place I have heard of in my younger days and finally get to visit. Guilin is a place where most Chinese from other countries have always wanted to visit besides the Great Wall of China. It was always the next choice. I don’t know why. Ask the elderly Chinese. Maybe it is the lure of the Guilin Mountains. I actually got a free trip to Guilin. It was my job that made this possible for me. Though it was a short trip but it was worthwhile. I did not actually look at the dates and time to see Guilin. I worked and enjoyed at the same time. Guilin is not as busy as Beijing or the famous Shanghai, a medium size city with not so busy streets and crowded city. When ... read more

This was never in my travelling programme when I planned to visit Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi. The driver took us to this quiet place, surrounded by greens all over, very hilly, with broken walls of the ruins that stretches quite a distance as we drove silently into the Muang Sing Historical Park. We soon reached the main temple, it was awesome, brought me back where this place once must be a busy happening place back in the 1157-1207, Lopburi period, with Khmer architectural designs, that shows the power of Cambodian has actually marked their colonization to this western part of Thailand. This park was declared National Historical Park in 1987. The place was damped after the morning shower; weather was good, cooling, never expected rain in this part of the year. It was a pleasant day. ... read more