China in Photos: Chinese Acrobats Puts Cirque du Soleil to Shame

During the visit to Beijing, we’ve overheard that the Chinese are renowned for their acrobatics skills. Oh yeah? Well, we’ve been to a circus or two in our day, so we figured — how good could they really be? So, one…

Deep in the Jungle of Borneo

After we left Indonesia, our next destination was the rainforest of Borneo. I think that all of us (or at least some of us) at some point have wanted to see just how exactly Tarzan or Maugli lived and this was an opportunity to explore one of the few remaining jungle…

How Risky Are MicroFinance Clients?

One of the reasons why so many people around the world are not eligible for traditional credit and financial services is because they don’t have any collateral to offer to the lender. However, ironically, collateral alone is often not enough anyway. If you look at…

Six Months Later: 10 Lessons Learned About Life, Microfinance and the Universe

Maybe I should become a bike mechanic?

The alarm rang again at 6am, which is frankly getting a bit frustrating. Aren’t we on a vacation after all? But at the end, we know that we need to leave as early as we can before the sun starts to tire us out.

China in Photos — The Modern Toilet

Where to the Chinese hip teenagers go to hang out on a rambunctious Saturday night?

Well, I’m still not sure of that, but I found myself in the toilet — a Modern Toilet, that is. This Taiwan-based restaurant chain has recently come to China…

China Off-The-Beaten Path: The Loneliest Mall in the World

It was supposed to be the largest mall in the world — three times as large as the Mall of America in Minnesota (currently the largest in the U.S.). Scheduled for launch in 2005, in a Southern city of Dongguan, the New South China…

Adventures in Indonesia — The Ascent of the Merapi Volcano

Hello again!

My apologies that the last two weeks have been somewhat light in postings. It occurred partially because of a food poisoning in Singapore that put me out of commission for a few days…

Sometimes the journey is the destination — unforgettable train ride from Mumbai to Goa

I looked at the clock — it was already 8pm. 3 hours to go before the train left Mumbai. “Good,” I thought, “there’s plenty of time.” Grabbing some ice cream on the way, I hailed down…

Public Transportation is Not For the Claustrophobic

As I was sitting down to write this, I was kind of torn — should I even be writing about something as mundane as the transportation system? After all, I’ve never really gave much thought to, say, the MTA in New York and certainly never had…