Kerk Boon Leng Photographs & Notes

sultanate of simple surprises

fullsizeoutput_1730c — Superman on a hired speed boat in Kampong Ayer. Brunei is more fun than belies its staid image as a oil rich conservative kingdom.

I won’t lie about Brunei.

It is absolutely a place worth going for a break. Many people get it wrong that there is nothing to see in Brunei. The truth is there is more to Negara Brunei Darussalam than its oil, king and islam.

For a country slightly less than twice the size of Luxembourg with a population of just over 400,000 there are surprisingly interesting things to see and enjoyable experiences to be had in Brunei.

It need not be a boring place at all but visiting the Sultanate of Brunei is a bit like going on a spiritual retreat. You’ve got to let go of all expectations, judgment and even your fear to gain amazing insights. You need to quiet down your mind and abandon your ego and all you think you might know about global travel before this lightly-touristed kingdom and its wondrously kind inhabitants open up their generous hearts to you.

fullsizeoutput_17131 — Red hat and furry pet drawing a Sunday crowd

fullsizeoutput_17258 — Music and memorabilia at a flea market on Jalan Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien, the city’s main street named after the king’s father who abdicated on 5 October 1967 in favour of his eldest son.

fullsizeoutput_17140 — Brunei is a great place for raising a family. Here in the 4th richest country in the world by GDP per capita, citizens get free healthcare, tertiary education and subsidised housing

unnamed — Nasi Katok- the local take on the Malay staple of fragrant steamed rice, chilli shrimp paste, eggs, tempeh and crispy fried chicken

fullsizeoutput_172f6 — Ambling along the stilted timber walkways of Kampong Ayer on a hot afternoon with the sounds of lapping water and distant sputter of boat engines brings to mind the country’s name Darussalam – Arabic for “Land of Peace”

The most unique and under-appreciated attraction in Brunei has got to be its calm, quiet and quirky capital Bandar Seri Begawan (called Brunei Town before 1970) which is home to the largest above-the-water city built with wood in the world.

Over preceding centuries people from near and far had come to know Brunei as a powerful Malay kingdom. Even the name of the island of Borneo came from Brunei.

The earliest detailed description of Brunei was given by an Italian explorer who travelled in Magellan’s ship on the first voyage around the world. His name was Antonio Pigafetta. He was from Venice, a famous city also built on top of the sea.

Pigafetta wrote this in his journal in 1521:

“This city is entirely built on foundations in the salt water, except the houses of the king and some of the princes: it contains twenty-five thousand fires or families.The houses are all of wood, placed on great piles to raise them high up. When the tide rises the women go in boats through the city selling provisions and necessaries. In front of the king’s house there is a wall made of great bricks, with barbicans like forts, upon which were fifty-six bombards of metal, and six of iron. They fired many shots from them during the two days that we passed in the city.

The king to whom we presented ourselves is a Moor, and is named Raja Siripada: he is about forty years of age, and is rather corpulent. No one serves him except ladies who are the daughters of the chiefs. No one speaks to him except by means of the blow-pipe as has been described above. He has ten scribes, who write down his affairs on thin bark of trees, and are called chiritoles. He never goes out of his house except to go hunting.”

fullsizeoutput_172f0 — Omar, 45 has been living all his life in Kampong Ayer. He is worried that with the Government’s plan to demolish stage by stage the water settlement his livelihood, heritage and memories will be lost forever.

Unlike other cities built with oil money such as Qatar, Baku and Astana with their crass consumerism and future-pretending architecture, Bandar Seri Begawan surprises many new visitors with its shabby low-rise, down-to-earth and retro seventies appearance, attitude and ambience.

The city lies along the waters of the Brunei River which spouts from its mouth into a sheltered inlet that opens out to the South China Sea. With about 200,000 people living in its urban precinct and the nearby district of Muara, Bandar Seri Begawan passes off easily as a large town in neighbouring Malaysia except here the streets are free from rubbish, the trees are taller and cars reliably stop for pedestrians at zebra crossings.

Eating and getting around is quite easy and cheap. Mini buses ply between stops around the city on 20 to 30 minutes interval charging a normal fare of B$1.00 each trip including the route that stops at the international airport 6.5 km from downtown Bandar.

For these reasons and more I like Brunei.

fullsizeoutput_1725e — After decades of free spending and easy money from oil, the country’s economy is now not in such a good shape. Income has risen this year with better oil prices but high expenses and spending on its largely unproductive citizens bears Brunei down

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fullsizeoutput_1722a — Joining his friends for futsal, Kampong Ayer

fullsizeoutput_17175 — A young stall assistant catching an afternoon nap in the lazy heat

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DSCF1616 — This Kampong Ayer resident and retired school teacher laments that the Government is not doing enough to promote tourism

fullsizeoutput_171c0 — Chinese make up about 10% of Brunei’s population. Despite being born in Brunei or having parents or family who have been residing there for generations, about 85% are still not given citizenship. Bruneian Chinese as non-citizens cannot get passport. They must travel overseas with a confusing document called an “International Certificate of Identity” and apply each time for a visa to visit West Malaysia but not Singapore which allow them entry without visa.

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DSCF0936 — Proclaimed by the present Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah on the day of independence from British rule on 1 January 1984, the ideology of *Melayu Islam Beraja* or Islamic Malay Kingliness permeates all aspects of Brunei life

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fullsizeoutput_17303 — Despite complaints about limited freedom and lifestyle choices, Brunei is often praised as a great place for spending quality time with your loved ones

DSCF0812 — Brunei has a growing unemployment problem. In 2017 the number of people without work stands at 7.1%

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All photographs and text copyright Kerk Boon Leng October 2018

Oct 7, 2018Jan 25, 2019 by dkwts Categories: BruneiTags: Bandar Seri Begawan photographs, Brunei Chinese stateless, Brunei Kampung Ayer, Brunei People Photography, Brunei Travel 2018, Brunei travel blog, Brunei travel photography, Is Brunei worth visiting, Street photography brunei 4 Comments

something about surabaya

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Honestly, it is hard to think of a city in the world with a name as sweet-sounding and redolent of a tropical bygone era as Surabaya.

But the origin of the name Surabaya that hints strongly at the bestial instincts of struggle and survival is not quite so romantic. The name, it is said, comes from two words in the local Javanese language. ‘Sura’, meaning a big shark-like fish and ‘boya’, meaning crocodile.

Surabaya is situated on the northeastern coast of Java along a narrow straits facing the island of Madura.

Kali Mas (Golden River) which is a branch of the Brantas River flows through the centre of Surabaya from south to north. Chosen for its location, on the busy sea lanes linking multifarious waypoints in the world’s largest archipelago that is Indonesia, Surabaya has always served as a port.

Surabaya’s seagoing connection goes back more than 600 years when Java was ruled by the mighty Majapahit kings.

Around 1800, about two hundred years after the arrival of their first ships, the Dutch finally gained control of Java. They conquered Java by cunningly playing the island’s local muslim rulers off against each other and destroying those who dared to stand in their way.

True to form, the Dutch in the Age of Imperialism, were cold-hearted, efficient and bent-on-profit administrators. They cared little for the lives (much less the livelihoods) of the Javanese peasants, chieftains and noblemen over whom they governed.

Through a colonial policy introduced in 1830 known as Cultuurstelsel or Cultivation System the Dutch compelled their Javanese subjects to plant commercial crops like indigo, coffee and sugar instead of rice. Such export orientated policy brought huge profits to the colonial government, as well as to their middlemen and merchants but led to widespread misery, starvation and sickness among the population living in the coastal and central regions of Java.

Indonesia was then called ‘Hindia Belanda’ or the Dutch East Indies and Surabaya grew to become its foremost city and most important port. But by the time of the economic depression of the 1930s Surabaya’s fortune was on its way down and its position as main city had been overtaken by Jakarta (then Batavia)

Surabaya is still today Indonesia’s second biggest city, a vibrant centre of commerce, industry and an important travel hub. Many travellers fly into Surabaya to get to somewhere else. Some of them may choose to stay a night to take in a handful of sights but Surabaya is really not yet a traveller hotspot especially for texting teenagers or tourists chasing big-ticket attractions.

For visitors looking for vestiges of the Dutch East Indies in the delapidated doorways and grunge-covered gables of a nineteenth century colonial city separated into European, Chinese, Arab and native quarters, the old city of Surabaya is an absorbing place. It is also a veritable walk-through history book and street photographers’ delight.

S0881467 — Surabaya’s old city near Jembatan Merah or Red Bridge looking even more atmospheric after an afternoon thunderstorm

fullsizeoutput_16aff — Young mother with napping baby at the Pabean market

S0141058 — ‘What is your profession?’ he enquired before showing me the way to the Red Bridge behind the shop passing dried seafood stalls, sniffing rodents and smiling shopkeepers

fullsizeoutput_16e5c — Fresh fish arriving at the Pabean market around lunch time

fullsizeoutput_16c78 — Some of the young friends I made in Surabaya

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fullsizeoutput_16d59 — Afternoon pilgrims walking to the tomb of Sunan Ampel one of the nine saints or Wali Songo credited with spreading Islam to Java

fullsizeoutput_16b8d — Young superheroes in the rain

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fullsizeoutput_16ccd — A father and daughter moment while waiting for the rain to stop

S0382203 — “It is difficult to find a job here” Ahmad is a fruit seller near the Ampel Market

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fullsizeoutput_1698c — Smoking bus conductor seen from my coach bound for the neighbouring Island of Madura

fullsizeoutput_16b29 — “What will you promise me if I pose for you?”

fullsizeoutput_16b03 — Built in 1918 Pasar Pabean is the oldest and perhaps also the biggest market in Surabaya

fullsizeoutput_16e5f — Sanaa in Surabaya

fullsizeoutput_16db9 — A proud father and his newly attired son at the Ampel Market

fullsizeoutput_16c05 — The population of metropolitan Surabaya which includes the neighbouring boroughs of Gresik and Sidoarjo is over 8 million making it the second largest urban area in Indonesia

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fullsizeoutput_16b73 — Shop front on the historic Jalan Panggung in Old Town Surabaya

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fullsizeoutput_16dfc — Unique among Indonesian cities, Surabaya was a multicultural place. In 1905 of the total population of 150,200 people, there were 15,000 Chinese, 8,000 European and almost 3,000 Arabs.

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fullsizeoutput_16b25 — Garlic galore at the Pabean Market in Old Surabaya

All text and photographs copyright Kerk Boon Leng April 2018

Apr 24, 2018Apr 28, 2018 by dkwts Categories: INDONESIA, UncategorizedTags: dutch architecture surabaya, street photography surabaya, surabaya history, surabaya in march, surabaya pabean market, surabaya people photography, surabaya travel blog, surabaya travel blog 2018 Leave a comment

sun, sand and shiva

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Malaysia and many Southeast Asian places notably Java, Bali, Thailand and Cambodia owe a lot of their culture and language to an obscure historical region in India called Kalinga.

It is a fertile, fabled and forested land located a quarter way down the eastern side of the Indian Peninsula between the Bay of Bengal and an eroded broken range of mountains known as the Eastern Ghats.

The people of Kalinga were a peaceful, open-minded and artistic lot. They were also skillful with their sail boats and had good knowledge of the sea. When the wind was right they would set out south-easterly to fish for food and pearls and trade with people from distant lands.

Due to the region’s relative isolation away from the population centers of India’s Aryan north and Dravidian south, Kalinga developed its own distinct identity and an economy based on both its overland connections and maritime links.

fullsizeoutput_167ea — Wrapped up for the morning, a man begs for money at the beach in Puri. Coastal Odisha enjoys cool and pleasant weather from December to the middle of February. From March onwards the heat builds up until the rains arrive in June.

fullsizeoutput_164c7 — Ascetics getting their daily fix of paan in the village of Sakshigopal

fullsizeoutput_167e3 — Photographer for hire, Puri

fullsizeoutput_167d6 — Traffic policewoman standing in front of Biju Patnaik Signboard. In Odisha’s capital Bhubaneswar many places including its airport are named after this local hero. Bijayananda or popularly Biju Patnaik was a freedom fighter, airforce pilot and two-term chief minister of Odisha. His son Naveen Patnaik is the current chief minister

fullsizeoutput_1667e — Couple having their photograph taken in front of the Sun Temple in Konark

Kalinga’s success soon attracted the attention and envy of its powerful neighbour.

Around 260 BC a king named Ashoka from the Mauryan Empire sent his armies to attack and conquer Kalinga.

The people of Kalinga fought back bravely but they were no match for Ashoka’s mighty army. The scale of death and destruction occasioned by the Kalinga War at 100,000 dead and 100,000 enslaved was epic and appalling.

Just like Hiroshima two milleniums later the effect of the war caused an unprecedented show of remorse and repentance by its victor and chief perpetrator, Ashoka the emperor himself.

Ashoka turned Buddhist and proclaimed that so long as he was king he would never let such barbarity and carnage happen again. He promised to rule justly and ordered his new pacifist policy to be carved onto stone pillars near the battle sites for all to know and to guide future rulers.

After the Mauryas, Kalinga was ruled most of the time more or less as an independent country by a succession of kings and dynasties including the famous Kharavela of the Chedis, the Guptas and the Eastern Ganga.

It was during this period that Kalinga exported its custom, religion, architecture to Southeast Asia, the region the ancient Indians called Suvarnabhumi or the Golden Lands.

By the 16 th century and with the muslim invasion in 1568 and its later absorption into the Mughal Empire, Kalinga had all but disappered as a geo-political entity.

The territory of ancient Kalinga coresponds to roughly today’s Odisha, a state with a population of 42 million famous for its entrancing Odissi dance, monumental temples and indigenous tribal people.

Under British rule most of the area that was once the Kingdom of Kalinga became part of Bengal. In 1936 a separate province of Orissa was created on linguistic ground.

In 2011 Orissa became Odisha and its ancient Sanskrit-based language Oriya was renamed Odia by an Act of Parliament.

fullsizeoutput_167dd — A timeless scene under an ancient tree beside the Jagannath Temple in Puri

fullsizeoutput_166bb — Flower Boy at the Lingaraja Temple in Bhubaneswar

fullsizeoutput_16658 — A view of rural Odisha just before sunset

fullsizeoutput_16719 — Wedding reception at a village on the way to Bhubaneswar

fullsizeoutput_167d4 — Crossing the bridge to the hidden village of Hirapur

fullsizeoutput_1680d — Afternoon prayer and bath at the village pond

fullsizeoutput_16657 — Kind Odia face at the Sun Temple in Konark

fullsizeoutput_1669d — Man with colourful beanie outside a store for farm produce

fullsizeoutput_167df — Young stall assistant, Puri

fullsizeoutput_16785 — Sex in sandstone and the climax of Kalinga architectural genius at the Sun temple of Konark

S0747537 — A famous sweet and dessert shop in Puri

fullsizeoutput_16809 — Hot tea on the beach

S0296180 — Greetings and smile under the hot sun in the village of Sakshigopal

fullsizeoutput_164dd — Vegetable Vendor in Dhauligiri

fullsizeoutput_166d7 — Devotees outside the Jagannath Temple in Puri

fullsizeoutput_164de — Turquoise green and Cobalt blue are favourite colours for homes like this one in a small village on the way to Puri

fullsizeoutput_16716 — Caretaker and priest at the 9th century Chausathi Jogini Temple in Hirapur

fullsizeoutput_166b0 — Women in colourful sarees at the main entrance to the Lingaraja Temple in Bhubaneswar

fullsizeoutput_16680 — Devotees at a Hindu shrine on Dhauligiri

fullsizeoutput_16529 — Beach vendor in Puri

fullsizeoutput_167db — Young souvenir vendor in Puri

fullsizeoutput_1652a — Puri the pilgrims town also plays host to many vacationers from West Bengal in search of a holiday by the beach

fullsizeoutput_166c2 — Motorbike riders in the Jagannath Temple precinct where motorcars are not allowed

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All text and photographs copyright Kerk Boon Leng February 2018

Feb 25, 2018Mar 12, 2018 by dkwts Categories: INDIATags: Ashoka, Bhubaneswar Travel Blog, Bhubaneswar Travel Photography, History of Kalinga, History of Odisha, Kalinga, Kalinga War, Odisha Travel blog, Puri Travel Blog 8 Comments

postcard from porcupine river

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On the steamy swampy flats where the Landak ( porcupine ) meets the Kapuas, Indonesia’s longest river, across the imaginary line that divides our earth into perfect halves is a happy, sleepy city with a creepy name.

Many stories surround Pontianak’s name which in Malay folklore is a female ghost who had died giving birth to a child

The one often told is about a seafaring Sultan who set up a kingdom here in 1771. His name was Abdurraman al Kadrie.

fullsizeoutput_15fd0 — Local children enjoying an afternoon swim in the Kapuas River. To the population living along the banks of Kapuas and its tributaries the river is the main provider of protein with over 300 species of fish living in its basin including the Pangasius catfish, Giant Gourami and the fast swimming Jelawat (or Sultan Fish). However, pollution and overfishing are causing the depletion and extinction of many types of fish in the river.

fullsizeoutput_15ff8 — With passenger fare at Rupiah 15,000 (USD1.10) each, the half hour boat ride that departs from Taman Alun Alun must be the cheapest city boat cruise in the world.

fullsizeoutput_15fe7 — Surveying life along the Kapuas from the boat’s deck

fullsizeoutput_161d5 — The Kapuas is a great river in every sense. Originating in the Mueller Mountain Range in the heart of Borneo the river drains an area covering 67% of West Kalimantan and is navigable by large boats up to the town of Putussibau about 900 km from the mouth.

He was a sayyid, a descendant of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), whose family had settled in these Eastern Isles from Yemen.

An outsider to these parts of Borneo, he gained political power and influence by marrying two local women from important families. One was a daughter of the Ruler of Mempawah to the north. The other was the daughter of the Sultan of Banjar on the island’s south coast.

According to legend, the site on which Pontianak now stands was once a haunt of blood-thirsty female vampires. The Sultan and his retinue spooked by the shrill eerie voices from the dark deep forests surrounding their settlement fired cannon balls towards their direction to scare off the nocturnal denizens.

The booms and blasts duly drove the spirits away. The relieved Sultan then built a mosque and palace there and gratefully named his realm after his evicted paranormal tormentors.

fullsizeoutput_1608f — Istana Kadriah the old residence of the Sultans of Pontianak located near the confluence of the Landak and Kapuas Rivers is one of the oldest buildings in the city.

fullsizeoutput_160d4 — On the steps outside a Sunday church service on Jalan Gajah Made, Pontianak’s main street

fullsizeoutput_160ed — Migrants from all over Indonesia have settled in Pontianak bringing their cuisines with them including their own version of *sate ayam* (chicken satay).

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Thanks to Pontianak’s location in the middle of the Malay Archipelago equidistant from Singapore and Batavia ( the old name for Jakarta ), it became an important riverine port and trading station. Ships from across the sea sailed upstream filled with iron, opium and textile to trade for the seemingly inexhaustible supply of products from Borneo’s rich and vast interior.

Among the earliest visitors to the area were the Chinese. They made their seasonal journeys to Borneo by junk to procure from the Malay and indigenous Dayak people natural products that would fetch them a profit in China such as birdnests, agar wood (gaharu), and sea cucumber ( beche de mer).

They also went there, more importantly, to look for gold.

By the 18 th century the dream of striking a small fortune brought thousands of Chinese gold diggers to Pontianak and its surrounding districts.

In July 1818 the Dutch, worried that Britain’s would threaten its dominance and economic interests in the Indies, established a permanent station in Pontianak and began to exert its authority over Kalimantan.

fullsizeoutput_15fb8 — Modest off the main street cafes such as this one serve up a great iced cappuccino on a hot day

fullsizeoutput_1606a — Bashful but inquisitive shop assistants in a stationery cum provisions shop

fullsizeoutput_161fa — Chinese along with Malay are the largest ethnic groups in Pontianak. Although Hakka is overall the main subgroup of Chinese in the district, the Teochiu Chinese are in the majority in Pontianak city centre.

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Text and Photographs copyright Kerk Boon Leng November 2017

Nov 16, 2017Feb 24, 2018 by dkwts Categories: INDONESIATags: History of Pontianak, Pontianak People photos, Pontianak Street Photography, Pontianak Travel, Pontianak Travel Blog, West Kalimantan travel blog 2 Comments

blood, sweat and turbans

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The hairdryer heat of Amritsar gets big, serious and underway by the month of May. Amritsar is India’s most northerly city before you hit Kashmir, lying almost on the same latitude as Charleston and Shanghai. The days start early – in the morning at about five thirty.

My half drawn windows look across the view of the traffic on the Grand Trunk Road – a dawn parade beneath a concrete flyover of trucks, tractors and trotting horse carts. The brightness even in the pervading dust is intense and blinding. So that by the time I wipe my breakfast plate clean of dal makhani with roti the sun is up and ready to blaze down on this city of over a million humming human souls.

Strangely, the most uncomfortable feeling about traveling in Amritsar in the hot weather is not when you are trapped in traffic inside the narrow lanes of the old city, all your senses assaulted, as you breathe in toxic and fierce furnace air.

It is rather the sights of dark proud grimacing aquiline faces wrapped in turbans of elderly grandfathers who are reduced to skin, bones and muscles pedaling beastly loads of people and goods for a living in life-sapping heat.

S0164138 — Traffic bottlenecks at the narrow lanes of Amritsar’s old city

S0234181 — Morning on the GT (Grand Trunk) Road, one of the oldest and longest highways in the world. It was built by India’s first great king Ashoka, improved by the British and spanned the width of old India. Kipling described it as “a river of life as nowhere else exists in the world”.

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Amritsar is only 25 km from India’s blood-stained border with Pakistan. Despite its holy tourist town reputation, Amritsar has that somewhat clandestine, multiracial and more-than-meets-the-eye appearance of a frontier town.

Amritsar is in Punjab, a smallish state in north west India. The province over the border in Pakistan is also called Punjab. Before 1947 when India and Pakistan was one country, Punjab covered a much bigger area. The Punjab region of the Indian Subcontinent is the large alluvial plain that is roughly situated between the mountains of Afghanistan and the River Ganges.

Punjab which means ” Five Waters” was named by Persian-speaking Central Asian Turks from present-day Uzbekistan who came down over the Khyber Pass to conquer and rule India in the 16th century.

The five watery expanses they referred to are Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej and Beas. These rivers flow and merge downstream to join the Indus – a larger and longer river that gave India its name. The dynasty they founded was known as the Mughal (from Mongol) for its first emperor Babur was believed to be descended from Genghis Khan on his mother’s side. The Mughals ruled most of India for about 300 years until the British came and took over from them.

In the early decades of their rule the Mughals proved themselves to be quite capable masters. Although they were Muslims and of foreign origin they tried to blend themselves into Indian culture and tolerated to a degree local customs and religion. Babur was said to have even banned cow slaughter out of respect for his Hindu subjects. His grandson Akbar abolished the hated tax on non-Muslims (jizyah) and started a new faith (Din-i Illahi) in the hope of bringing Muslims and Hindus together. However, not all the Mughal rulers were tolerant and wise. Aurangzeb the last in the line of famous Mughals, was a pious Muslim. He forbade music, ordered the destruction of Hindu temples and put people to the sword if they refused to convert to islam.

It was in such a restive and volatile environment that a new religion and fearless race of people emerged. One that would change forever the faith, feel and face of Punjab and make the land they live in different and distinct from the rest of India.

S0834585 — Sweltering crowd at one of the entrances to the Golden Temple

S0280146 — The temperatures in Amritsar in May and June, its hottest months regularly exceed 40 degrees celsius in the daytime.

S0450275 — A quick douse of lime juice drink at a road divider

S0035014 — Although it is difficult to find anyone who speaks English, the shopkeepers of Amritsar are amongst the friendliest in the world

The Sikh religion was founded by a Guru (holy teacher) by the name of Nanak who lived in Punjab at the time when Babur was emperor. Guru Nanak taught his followers to worship only one God who was formless, eternal and invisible whose name was Truth. His disciples called themselves Sikh meaning someone who learns.

At a time when there was much violence between Hinduism and Islam, the early stage of Sikhism was a reformist movement that sought to combine the softer sides of both faiths into a kind of social and religious synthesis.

The Sikhs treat their Gurus with the highest adoration and respect as they believe the divine spirit is passed down from one Guru to the next. There has been a succession of ten Gurus starting with Guru Nanak. The tenth Guru, Gobind Singh declared that there would be no more human Guru after him. He decreed that thenceforth Sikhs should look to the Granth Sahib – the holy book of Sikhism that contained the writings and hymns composed by various Gurus and saints some of whom were Hindus and Muslims – as their living, sovereign and eternal Guru.

Although the Sikhs were historically a minority they largely shaped Punjab and created its unique character. The Sikhs championed the use of the Punjabi language by writing, reading, learning and spreading the words of the Gurus in its special script.

The Sikhs even had their own empire once during the time when Maharaja Ranjit Singh reigned over all of the Punjab and beyond.

The greatest testament to Punjab’s spiritual glory may still be the city that grew around its golden temple surrounding a pool of elixir – Amritsar.

S0475421 — The word “Singh” which means lion is appended to the name of all Sikh men

S0635535 — Harmandir Sahib or the Golden Temple was first built in 1604 by Arjan, the fifth Sikh Guru. The temple was destroyed several times by Afghan invaders and was rebuilt in marble, copper and gold during the reign (1801-39) of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

S0783651 — Slightly more Hindu people live in Amritsar than Sikhs who together make up nearly 98% of the city’s population. Christians (1.23%) and Muslims (0.51%) are small minority groups in Amritsar.

S0044022 — A family’s reflective moment beside the sacred tank of water called the Amrita Saras (“Pool of Nectar”)

S0425389 — The famous old-style midday pose of Punjab

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S0575496 — A family eating *prasad* (sweet offering) from a small bowl made of pressed leaf

S0135111 — Punjab is the food basket supplying India with wheat, rice and other cereals

S0605516 — Punjabi is written in its own script- Gurumukhi (” Guru’s mouth”). Standard spoken Punjabi is based on the dialect spoken in the Majha the region around the cities of Lahore and Amritsar

S0344267 — A Sikh and his tractor are the stuff of legends

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S0565489 — Seva or selfless service is a central concept in Sikhism

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Texts and all photographs copyright Kerk Boon Leng May 2017

May 31, 2017Feb 28, 2018 by dkwts Categories: INDIA, UncategorizedTags: Amritsar Street Photography, Amritsar Travel Blog, Amritsar Travel in May, History of the Sikhs, Punjab Travel 17 Comments

leftover country

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I got enamoured with Armenia on my way there.

My hotel in Tbilisi called me a cab right after breakfast to bring me to my pre-booked transport for Yerevan. It was a white van parked at the back of a church not far from a bus terminal. The passengers stood around as our driver in army-styled jumper and baseball cap collected our fares, assigned seats and arranged luggages into the back boot of the vehicle.

There I met Varo who was returning home with his girlfriend after a holiday. He was smoking and squinting at the sun when I stood next to him for a cigarette before we set out.

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It was a pretty pristine and perfect day for a journey that was to partly involve traversing the Lesser Caucasus Mountains. The sun shone through blue autumnal skies causing the rugged volcanic landscape to present its pale palette of orange, red and yellow.

At the border I was asked to fill up a form, answer a few questions, directed to different lanes to apply and pay for my Armenian visa on arrival. As I watched the queues get shorter I imagined myself being turned back to Georgia, left stranded or worse still locked up in a mountain cell and deported for having visited enemy country Azerbaijan.

As it turned out the immigration officers in oversized soviet peak caps spoke little English but were cordial, relaxed and unfussy.

I got my visa, walked quickly into Armenia and was elated to see Varo waiting for me. He had stayed behind to lead me back to our van parked some meters away beyond a row of minivans, buses and cars.

In the van we chatted about Armenia’s tourist attractions with Tsovinar, a skinny smiling girl with black boyish hair. She worked as a hiking guide and enthusiastically pointed out Lake Sevan to me from our car window. Tsovinar and I were the last persons to be dropped off when we finally arrived near the city centre. Knowing that I arrived with no local currency, she gave me when we parted company a one thousand Armenian Drams (RM10) note for a taxi to my hotel.

At a Yerevan metro station late that afternoon I turned to a young woman behind me for help in buying a train ticket. Shoghakat was a lecturer at the American University. She offered to pay for my ride, walked me to her favourite restaurant and then decided to skip her evening ballet class to join me for my first meal in Armenia.

These acts of kindness and countless others I encountered convinced me that Armenia is truly a very special country. I began to understand what Shoghakat meant when she told me: ‘ that Armenia still exists is proof that God exists’. It is a country that in every sense, the world very nearly lost.

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Present day Armenia is a small shrunken country of three million people located in the uplands and mountains east of Turkey and north of Iran.

You could almost place Armenia in Europe . The people speak an isolated branch of Indo-European language, pray in thousand-year old churches, and produce award winning cognac, ballet and opera music. The capital city Yerevan is a proud and pensive post-soviet city of pink brick buildings, bust plaques and chess-played park benches.

Armenia is a beautiful and antique land with a recorded history going back over 3,500 years. It is also the world’s first Christian country. It looks western on the outside, but Armenia’s deep soul belongs not in Europe but further east. Anyone who cares to delve into the country’s real roots will discover that Hayastan ( the name Armenia calls itself ) is a true blue Middle East nation. As a political and cultural entity, Armenia was once upon a time ten times bigger than its present size and exerted influences far beyond its borders.

Conquered by Byzantium, Arabs and later divided up between the Persians and Turks, Armenia had by the 16th century lost most of its power and freedom. As an indigenous nation of the Near East, Armenia at the beginning of the 20th century nearly went the way of Parthia, Hittite and Assyria, vanquished and vanished forever from our wall map of the world. Of this sad period after the First World War, Churchill was to write: ‘history will search in vain for the word “Armenia”‘.

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By convention and its very name, the Middle East is a place of crossings and collisions . The area is the birth place of not just some of the world’s great civilisations, monotheistic beliefs and writing scripts but is also the spawning ground for much of its absolutism, intolerance and religious violence.

In a region that continues to witness unspeakable and horrible mass murders for gold, girls, and (sadly) God, the extirpation by Turkey of its Armenian and other christian subjects by deportation and killing 101 years ago is a crime with no accused but merely broad charges. It is a subject that ignites anger and brings back excruciating memories of the more than one million men, mothers and children hacked to pieces by swords or left to starve and sear to death in the Syrian sands.

I have no wish to offend any country’s preferred version of history, but to attempt to tell the story of modern day Armenia without mentioning the Genocide is like explaining wine by just talking about the bottles but not the grapes.

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Feb 12, 2017Feb 12, 2017 by dkwts Categories: ARMENIA, UncategorizedTags: Armenia Travel Blog, Armenia Travel October, Armenian Genocide, Armenian Visa on Arrival, Enamoured with Armenia, Van from Tbilisi to Yerevan, Yerevan Street Photography 11 Comments

baku in azerbaijan

s0105059 — The confident faces of modern and secular Azerbaijan

Sleep deprivation and the sci-fi effect of Heydar Aliyev airport gave me a psychedelic welcome to Baku at half past three in the morning on my birthday. The lady at the information kiosk tells me that a ride to the city by taxi is 25 to 30 manat but only 2 manat (about RM5.00) if I catch the modern bus that departs in front of the terminal.

I decide to lie down first at the quiet upstairs departure lounge to wait for my phone to charge, the sky to get brighter and the rain to stop.

Outside, the wet weather and dark pseudo-London cabs make Baku look slightly more continental and serious than it actually is.

s0445219 — Baku and its citizens dazzle on a clear blue sky day

s0663416 — Friends enjoying a chat and coffee at a bakery

s0443235 — Baku was incorporated into the Russian Empire in the late 1820s after a war against Persia. It became the fifth largest city in the Soviet Union before Azerbaijan’s independence in 1991

Baku is a bizarrely beautiful place. At 28 meters below sea level it is the lowest lying city on earth. Baku is perfectly located on a bay along the southern shore of a peninsula shaped like a falcon’s beak called Absheron ( Persian for Salty Water) that juts out to the Caspian Sea – the world’s largest lake.

The area around Baku is rich in fossil fuel. Oil has been extracted here as far back as the sixth century BC and by 1900 it became a major industrial export helping Baku become the world’s first petroleum metropolis.

Azerbaijan’s capital Baku is one of those cities that reminds you of somewhere you know but nowhere you can quite put your finger on. It is neither west nor east, European nor Middle Eastern, not fully Caucasian nor truly Central Asian despite its deep Turkic roots but something of a geopolitical galapagos. It has not been easy for experts to decide which known continent or region to place Baku that they bundle it with Transcaucasia, Caspian and lately Eurasia.

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The one description of Baku that is accurate by any account is that it is a rare, refreshing and religion-neutral muslim city. At the time of writing no city in the world where muslims make up the majority of inhabitants is as secular and modern as Baku. Not even Istanbul, Jakarta and lamentably, Kuala Lumpur come close.

Nearly all of Azerbaijan’s 10 million population (97%) profess the Islamic faith – not the Sunni version as in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia or Afghanistan, but Shi’a like its neighbour to the south Iran. However, religion here is not strict and plays no part in public life. Maybe the situation is different in the rural areas of the country (notably in the north near Dagestan in Russia ) but in Baku you can walk easily into a wine bar, women do not wear head scarf and call from mosques by the muezzin is rare.

It is hard to say now but as oil price continues to fall for this heavily petroleum-reliant country Islamic fundamentalism may set to rise.

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Nov 10, 2016Nov 10, 2016 by dkwts Categories: AzerbaijanTags: Azerbaijan Travel blog, Baku Street Photography, Baku to the Future, Baku Travel blog, the world's most secular muslim country 3 Comments

high road to chalus

s0177092 — Ashura which falls on the tenth day of the Islamic month of Muharram commemorates the killing of Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad SAW in Karbala (in today’s Iraq) in the year 680. It is a day of deep religious significance for Shiite Muslims. In Iran it is a day of sadness and rememberance of the tragedy, suffering and martyrdom.

On my way to Chalus on the shores of the Caspian Sea driven in darkness across the Alborz Mountains from Tehran, I discovered two things I hadn’t known beforehand. Both events as they turned out were in equal degree unforgettable and adrenaline-inducing as I was prepared mentally for neither.

The first was that the mountain drive known as the Chalus Road or Road 59 is actually a true epic mountain crossing involving numerous tunnels and switchbacks taking us five hours (more if you include the stop for soup at the highest point ) to make the 200 km journey.

The second thing was I found out I would be arriving at a seaside holiday resort just in time for the climax of the public mourning of Muharram known as Ashura, the most important and solemn religious event in the Shi’a Calendar when everything shuts down, all manner of amusement and fun are forbidden and people dress themselves in funereal attire.

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s0398168 — This stretch of the Caspian Sea Coast was during the reign of the Shah a popular summer resort for the wealthy and well-connected especially the city of Nowshahr which operated somewhat as the “summer capital” of Iran.

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s0328142 — Evening fruit juice and ice-cream

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s0407191 — The Caspian Sea is known in Persian as Darya-e Khazar a reference to an ancient Jewish people who between the 7th and 10th century had a large empire to the north. The Caspian is also the world’s largest lake, equal in surface area to all of Malaysia with enough room remaining to also fit in Taiwan.

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Oct 22, 2016Nov 17, 2018 by dkwts Categories: IRANTags: ashura in iran, chalus road travel, tehran to the caspian sea by car Leave a comment

a toast to tehran

s0033026 — Embracing the Diaspora. The Islamic Revolution and its aftermath sent tens of thousands Iranian away from their homeland to seek new lives abroad. Most went to the United States but also to Canada, Germany and France.

Tehran is an easy contender for the title of most misrepresented city in the world.

Partly as a result of decades long US sanctions, media sensationalism and the occasional name confusion with a war-ravaged neighbouring Arab country, the world’s image of Iran is sadly twisted, misinformed and plain wrong. Iran or, from the 1979 revolution onwards, the Islamic Republic of Iran is not what people imagine it to be.

Visitors to Iran’s huge and sprawling capital Tehran will be quickly amazed to discover a clean, beautiful and varied city that is friendly, modern and surprisingly very safe.

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Despite Iran’s famous Islamic rules on dress codes, you will find on any given street or home in Tehran, a city of 15 million people, less chadors and more fashionable and looser headscarves than in Kuala Lumpur, less or no niqab and burka compared to London and even arguably less beards than in Berlin.

Set against the timeline of Iran’s 3,000 year long and mainly glorious history, Tehran is a relatively young capital city. In 1776 Agha Mohammad Khan, a king of the Qajar Dynasty chose it as his seat of power due to Tehran’s pivotal location near to the historic Persian homelands on the Iranian Plateau and close to the new Persian dominions in the Central Asian steppes and the Mountains of the Caucasus.

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Although Tehran is not far from the desert and has an arid climate don’t expect to find an oasis town of date palms and plodding camels. Instead it is a city of well-lit parks with statues of famous poets and broad pedestrian friendly boulevards lined with tall trees that turn lime green in spring, emerald when the days are warm, golden yellow in fall and leafless when the city is blanketed with winter snow.

Tehran is modern and appears for the most parts brown and frozen in time circa 1970s. However, amidst its mainly boxy low-rise buildings there are some fine surviving examples of fin de siecle French architecture and old houses of astonishing grace and beauty.

Tehran is a city that belongs nominally and geographically but not mentally in the Middle East. Despite deriving its religion, writing script and 40% of its vocabulary from the Arabs, Iranians are an Indo-European race whose language suffused with the poetries of Ferdowsi, Hafez, Omar Khayyam and Rumi is believed by many to be the most beautiful-sounding and elegant in the world.

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Oct 20, 2016Oct 6, 2018 by dkwts Categories: IRANTags: Iran Travel Advice, Is Iran Safe?, Malaysian in Iran, Tehran safe city, Tehran Street Photography, Tehran Travel Blog, Tehran Travel Writing 10 Comments

sleepless in saigon

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Saigon became Ho Chi Minh City in July 1976 – a year after armies from the North took over the South, drove the Americans out and remade Vietnam as one. Hundreds of thousands refugees perhaps millions fled communism by sea. Many were drown, robbed or raped by pirates trying to reach Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Today 40 years on, Vietnam is one of the few remaining communist countries in the world. However, red banners, logos and slogans and a grand post office that sells colorful postage stamps are the only signs of socialism overseas visitors will encounter in Vietnam’s largest city. The experience of Ho Chi Minh for many will surely be one of capitalism, near naked and on steroids.

Ho Chi Minh City is brash, animated and intensely money-minded.

S0520179 — Quan Am Temple in Cholon in District 5 was built in 19th century by migrants from China

S0798278 — Ho Chi Minh City is Vietnam’s economic and financial hub.

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S0889361 — Vietnam despite impressive economic growth remains a poor country with minimum wages at around USD150 per month

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As a tourist you can perhaps get better food, coffee and massages in neighbouring cities but you cannot afford to skip Saigon (as locals still call the city) if you want to understand the hunger and relentless energy that drives success and entrepreneurship in this part of Asia.

There is really no season to avoid when you plan to visit Ho Chi Minh City. The weather reports say June to September is rainy season but I find Ho Chi Minh City pleasant at this time of the year with slightly reduced heat and fresh balmy breeze at night, conducive for roof top club music and a cocktail.

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