Travel

Once Upon A Time In Mazagan

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still — Dorothea Lange. The Portuguese fortification of Mazagan, now part of the city of El Jadida, 90-km southwest of Casablanca, was built as a fortified colony on the Atlantic coast in the early 16th century. It was taken over by the Moroccans in 1769. The fortification with its bastions and ramparts is an early example of Renaissance military design. The surviving Portuguese buildings include the cistern and the Church of the Assumption, built in the Manueline style of late Gothic architecture. The Portuguese City of Mazagan - one of the early settlements of the Portuguese explorers in West Africa on the route to India - is an outstanding example of the interchange of influences between European and Moroccan cultures, well reflected in architecture, technology, and town planning.

Desolation

Before the crisis, Marrakech’s streets were crowded, city squares noisy and its markets and historic shrines bustling with visitors from all over the world. Marrakech was the top tourist destination in Morocco before the coronavirus pandemic knocked on its doors. The red city could not withstand the pressure as the pandemic swept through, causing the closure of most of its facilities and halting tourism movement after Moroccan authorities stopped international travel. All of this made Marrakech stand still after it was the most bustling and sought-after city in the country. Photo taken in December 31th, 2021.

Curved

The straight line belongs to men, the curved one to God - Antoni Gaudi.

Traveling Lights

Dubai is like nowhere else in the Middle East. In fact, it's like nowhere else on the planet. With some of the world's tallest skyscrapers perched where the desert meets the sea, this is a city that's changed dramatically from its days as a fishing port.

A Tale By Light: Dubai

Few cities on earth can compete with Dubai for sheer verticality. The pale sands of this once forgettable port alongside the emptiness of the Arabian desert have proved fertile ground for all manner of skyscrapers. This city is one of only a few locations worldwide where iconic architecture is not only encouraged, but actively pursued: as long as it is eye-catching, it seems that anything goes, from the sublime to the outrageous, and sometimes a combination of the two.

Beijing After Hours

I love the silent hour of night, For blissful dreams may then arise, Revealing to my charmed sight What may not bless my waking eyes. ― Anne Brontë

Street Life

The street is the river of life of the city, the place where we come together, the pathway to the center - William H. Whyte.

After Dark

In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present - Francis Bacon.

Gateway To The Unknown

One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end - Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Weapons Of Mass Distraction

Many of us joke about how we – or other family members or friends – are addicted to their smartphones. But, there is a serious side to this ubiquitous behaviour and although smartphone addiction has yet to be classified as a mental disorder – psychiatrists and psychotherapists are dealing with troubling symptoms linked to technology overuse. The key sign of smartphone addiction is when the importance of using the phone plays a disproportionate role in your life to the extent that your functioning is impaired. This amount of things we now do on our phones – from checking bus/train times, the weather and the news to listening to music – all create a dependency on the phone which fuels smartphone addiction for some people. But it is the compulsive need to check what’s going on, upload comments and/or check feedback on social media apps that are the real signs of out of control use of a smartphone.

Stillness

Without desire there is stillness, and the world settles by itself - Laozi.

The Calligrapher

Nestled within the heart of Kuala Lumpur, Lorong Panggung, alternately known as Kwai Chai Hong, is a neglected lane in Chinatown restored in 2019. Inside this laneway are six murals depicting the daily activities of the Chinese community in the area during the 1960s. One of them is of a calligrapher. Malaysian Chinese in the old days would seek out the services of a calligrapher who had the necessary education required to write letters to their families and auspicious sayings.

Garleries Royales Saint-Hubert

Designed by Dutch-born architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaer and completed in the mid-19th century, right in the heart of Brussels, are the magnificent Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, one of first shopping arcades built in Europe. From the day of their inauguration, these 200 meter long glazed galleries have been highly successful and entertaining. Later on, the luxurious specialized shops added their part to this success. The "exterior" terraces of the cafés, cake shops and ice cream sellers attracted a smart public that came there to forget the humid Belgian climate for a few hours.

Rest In Peace

Poblenou cemetery in Barcelona was originally created in 1775 due to space issues caused by the growing population within the old walls of the city. Destroyed by Napolean’s troops in 1808, it was later reconstructed in a neoclassical style with the aid of Italian architect Antonio Ginesi. Peaceful but macabre, the cemetery of Poblenou is an intriguing place to visit.

Stones & Walls

The Gothic Quarter, or Barri Gòtic, is a dense web of historic buildings and shady atmospheric squares nestled between La Rambla and the Via Laietana, and has formed the central part of the Old City since Roman times. Layer upon layer of different architectural styles illustrate the different periods of Barcelona’s history, from remnants of the Roman city to contemporary architectural solutions seen in renovation work and extensions to old buildings. Gothic ­predominates, however, reflecting the glorious medieval period when Catalonia was at its height.

Hired

Hong Kong is one of the few cities in the world with such a uniform fleet of nearly 20,000 taxis. Not only do they share the same color (red in the urban areas, green in the New Territories and blue on Lantau), but also more than 99% of all taxis are Toyota Crown Comforts, a distinctively boxy model of car made exclusively for taxi use. So, being ubiquitous and iconic, Hong Kong's taxicabs aren't just a way to get around – they define the city's visual landscape.

Memories Of Green

Between the time the last train leaves and the first train arrives, the place changes: it's not the same as in daytime - Haruki Murakami. Murakami’s words hold true for one of the most vibrant, fast-paced cities in the world, namely Hong Kong. The latter offers to its visitors two contrasty day and night faces. From a beautiful city in the daylight, it turns to a magical place at night: the setting of the sun and decreasing humidity breathes new life into Hong Kong.

Minutes To Midnight

Tracing its history into the modern age as well as into the future highlights many aspects of Hong Kong that are distinct from other major cities in the world. From its hot neon lit shopping malls to its dark, dirty underworld, Hong Kong creates a unique space as a city, existing simultaneously in the past, as well as the present and future. Its visual spaces, filled with chaos, sexuality, violence, peace, and calm exist together in a strange harmony that presents a vision of the past struggling to maintain its identity in an uncertain future.

Definitely Closed

When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us - Alexander Graham Bell.

The Bicycle

The return of the bicycle to the modern urban transport paradigm continues unabated. However, all over the world, citizens are rediscovering the benefits of cycling. Cities are responding by building the infrastructure to serve and keep them safe. This rush to increase cycling levels and improve the quality of city life is the greatest movement in global urbanism. Of course, not all cities are equal. Some charge ahead, while others lag.

Ta Prohm: A Timeless Beauty

Built from 1186 and originally known as Rajavihara (Monastery of the King), Ta Prohm was a Buddhist temple dedicated to the mother of Jayavarman VII. It is one of the few temples in the Angkor region where an inscription provides information about the temple’s dependents and inhabitants. Almost 80,000 people were required to maintain or attend at the temple, among them more than 2700 officials and 615 dancers.

The Great Wall Of China

China's Great Wall is one of the world's great feats of engineering and an enduring monument to the strength of an ancient civilization. This network of fortifications is the product of countless labors over a period of some two thousand years. Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a unified China, took the remnants of truly ancient fortifications, walls, and earthworks begun in the fifth century B.C. and linked them into a unified wall circa 220 B.C. as part of a massive project to protect China against marauding barbarians from the north. By the time construction on most of the stone-and-brick Great Wall, with its turrets and watchtowers, was completed during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the Ming Wall had become the world’s largest human-made object. At its peak, this amazing the Ming Wall was guarded by more than one million men. It has been estimated that somewhere in the range of 2 to 3 million Chinese died as part of the centuries-long project of building the wall. The Mutianyu Great Wall served as the northern protective screen, guarding the capital and imperial mausoleums for generations.

Shower Of Colour

Colour is all. When colour is right, form is right. Colour is everything, colour is vibration like music; everything is vibration - Marc Chagall. Suspended from mid air by wires between buildings in Siem Reap, stunning colourful umbrellas put other art installations in the shade. Walking under that sky is magical.