Theme Week Philippines – Puerto Princesa

21 January 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Portal of Plaza Cuartel © Joelaldor/cc-by-sa-4.0

Portal of Plaza Cuartel © Joelaldor/cc-by-sa-4.0

Puerto Princesa, officially the City of Puerto Princesa, and often referred to as Puerto Princesa City, is a 1st class Highly Urbanized City in the Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 255,116 people. It is a city located in the western province of Palawan, and is the westernmost city in the Philippines. Though the seat of government and capital for the province, the city itself is one of 38 independent cities within the Philippines not controlled by the province in which it is geographically located and is therefore an independent area located within Palawan.   read more…

Theme Week Philippines

20 January 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  17 minutes

Boracay Island © panoramio.com - Alexey Komarov/cc-by-3.0

Boracay Island © panoramio.com – Alexey Komarov/cc-by-3.0

The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Situated in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands that are broadly categorized under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. Bounded by the South China Sea on the west, the Philippine Sea on the east and the Celebes Sea on the southwest, the Philippines shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Vietnam to the west, Palau to the east, and Malaysia and Indonesia to the south.   read more…

Goa in India

17 January 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  9 minutes

Arambol Beach © Vijay Tiwari/cc-by-sa-4.0

Arambol Beach © Vijay Tiwari/cc-by-sa-4.0

Goa is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the region known as the Konkan, and geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is surrounded by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the east and south, with the Arabian Sea forming its western coast. It is India’s smallest state by area and the fourth-smallest by population. Goa has the highest GDP per capita among all Indian states, two and a half times that of the country. It was ranked the best-placed state by the Eleventh Finance Commission for its infrastructure and ranked on top for the best quality of life in India by the National Commission on Population based on the 12 Indicators.   read more…

Theme Week Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur

30 November 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  11 minutes

© flickr.com - naim fadil/cc-by-sa-2.0

© flickr.com – naim fadil/cc-by-sa-2.0

Kuala Lumpur, officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur and commonly known as KL, is the national capital and largest city in Malaysia. As the global city of Malaysia, it covers an area of 243 km² (94 sq mi) and has an estimated population of 1.73 million as of 2016. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.25 million people as of 2017. It is among the fastest growing metropolitan regions in Southeast Asia, in both population and economic development.   read more…

Theme Week Malaysia – Malacca City

29 November 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

Malacca River flowing through Bandar Hilir © panoramio.com - jetsun/cc-by-sa-3.0

Malacca River flowing through Bandar Hilir © panoramio.com – jetsun/cc-by-sa-3.0

Malacca City is the capital city of the Malaysian state of Malacca. As of 2010 it has a population of 485,000. It is the oldest Malaysian city on the Straits of Malacca, having become a successful entrepôt in the era of the Malacca Sultanate. The present-day city was founded by Parameswara, a Sumatran prince who escaped to the Malay Peninsula when Srivijaya fell to the Majapahit. Following the establishment of the Malacca Sultanate, the city drew the attention of traders from the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia, as well as the Portuguese, who intended to dominate the trade route in Asia. After Malacca was conquered by Portugal, the city became an area of conflict when the sultanates of Aceh and Johor attempted to take control from the Portuguese.   read more…

Theme Week Malaysia – Federal Territory of Labuan

28 November 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  10 minutes

Kwang Fook Kong Temple © CEphoto, Uwe Aranas/cc-by-sa-3.0

Kwang Fook Kong Temple © CEphoto, Uwe Aranas/cc-by-sa-3.0

Labuan, officially the Federal Territory of Labuan, is a federal territory of Malaysia. It is made up of the eponymous Labuan Island and six smaller islands, and is located off the coast of the state of Sabah in East Malaysia. Labuan’s capital is Victoria and is best known as an offshore financial centre offering international financial and business services via Labuan IBFC since 1990 as well as being an offshore support hub for deepwater oil and gas activities in the region. It is also a tourist destination for people travelling through Sabah, nearby Bruneians and scuba divers. The name Labuan derives from the Malay word labuhan which means harbour. Labuan is often referred to as the pearl of Borneo.   read more…

Theme Week Malaysia – George Town on Penang Island

27 November 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

Eastern & Oriental Hotel © Gryffindor/cc-by-2.5

Eastern & Oriental Hotel © Gryffindor/cc-by-2.5

George Town, the capital city of the Malaysian state of Penang, is located at the north-eastern tip of Penang Island. It is Malaysia’s second largest city, with 708,127 inhabitants as of 2010, while Greater Penang is the nation’s second biggest conurbation with a population of 2,412,616. The historical core of George Town has been inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008.   read more…

Theme Week Malaysia – Kuching

26 November 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  9 minutes

Damai Beach Resort north of Kuching © flickr.com - Bernard DUPONT/cc-by-sa-2.0

Damai Beach Resort north of Kuching © flickr.com – Bernard DUPONT/cc-by-sa-2.0

Kuching, officially the City of Kuching, is the capital and the most populous city in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia. It is also the capital of Kuching Division. The city is situated on the Sarawak River at the southwest tip of the state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo and covers an area of 431 square kilometres (166 sq mi) with a population about 165,642 in the Kuching North administrative region and 159,490 in the Kuching South administrative region – a total of 325,132 people.   read more…

Theme Week Malaysia

25 November 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  13 minutes

Fort Cornwallis in Penang, first British colony in what was to become Malaysia © Cmglee/cc-by-sa-3.0

Fort Cornwallis in Penang, first British colony in what was to become Malaysia © Cmglee/cc-by-sa-3.0

Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of 13 states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia (Malaysian Borneo). Peninsular Malaysia shares a land and maritime border with Thailand and maritime borders with Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia. East Malaysia shares land and maritime borders with Brunei and Indonesia and a maritime border with the Philippines and Vietnam. Kuala Lumpur is the national capital and largest city while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government (List of cities and towns in Malaysia by population). With a population of over 30 million, Malaysia is the world’s 44th most populous country. The southernmost point of continental Eurasia, Tanjung Piai, is in Malaysia. In the tropics, Malaysia is one of 17 megadiverse countries, home to large numbers of endemic species.   read more…

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