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Pandemic travel memories:
1/ Jharkhand, Ranchi, India. One of the best chicken soups / shorbas I've ever had. A must-visit whenever I am back there!
1/ Jharkhand, Ranchi, India. One of the best chicken soups / shorbas I've ever had. A must-visit whenever I am back there!
2/ Jharkhand, Ranchi, India. My friend @kp1200 usually takes me to places with strange signs. Like this one.
3/ Indonesia, somewhere, probably. Trying to fit in as an amoi
4/ Story of my life a few years ago. Singapore, in a van, dropping Cookie off at 5am with my parents or some other babysitter.
5/ Banani, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Amar shonar bangla. I miss it.
Amar shonar bangla. I miss it.
6/ Between 2013 and 2018, I had a somewhat blessed life. I hopped around: Bandung, Jakarta, Dhaka, Yangon, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, with some frequency. Here was a macet / traffic jam when the local Bandung soccer team won something.
7/ Wherever I went, I harassed cats. This was... Delhi? Bombay? Who knows anymore
8/ For a few fun years, I lived in the Bendungan Hilir, a notoriously flood-prone part of Jakarta. It was also: very downtown!
I frequently went to the Mie Aceh restaurant to feel at home. My Indonesian, apparently, was more Malay than Indonesian, so Acehnese welcomed it.
I frequently went to the Mie Aceh restaurant to feel at home. My Indonesian, apparently, was more Malay than Indonesian, so Acehnese welcomed it.
9/ It was @drewrants I think, who made this collage?? Dog vs food and human vs food
10/ It has been a joy, in the last 7 years to be able to feed 80 children outside Ranchi, Jharkhand, whenever I go back there to see them. It still blows my mind that the cost to feed 80 kids a day is like, $30 or something ridiculous. I will continue to feed them all the time
11/ I enjoy spending time alone. Sometimes, I need to go somewhere alone to recharge, for a few days. When I lived in Indonesia, I had my pick of amazing places to do just that. Here, I did bus, van, motorbike, to lie down on the grass and sleep in a tent, alone. Glorious.
13/ I've gone to Jharkhand a few times a year for the last 7 years, except for this one. It's been amazing to see the kids I saw as 5 year olds become confident teens.
14/ Dhaka! Again.
15/ An assortment of Indonesia photos
16/ would i like to spend the remainder of the money I have got, on sleazy strip-teasy videos? I am not sure.
17/ Every week with @drewrants: he's grumpy, because he got to the airport at 5.30am. And I got there at 7am and got to sit next to him anyway
18/ I complain about Caltrain, but I have absolutely no problems wearing a poncho and riding on a motorbike for 3h in the rain. The rain.
19/ I have yet to find a claypot scene that I love as much. Lian He Ben Ji claypot rice, Chinatown Complex. Wash it down with a craft beer at Smith Street Taps
20/ Yogyakarta. Home to mie godhog and buntu
21/ Various modes of transportation
22/ Jalan Prawirotaman
23/ Lighting a fire, somewhere cold in Indonesia
24/ Burmese nights and days.
25/ Life itself
26/ Various mornings in Jakarta
27/ Surabaya cooling water photo
28/ Playground, rickshaw, bike and train.
29/ I have had back pains for a while. In Jakarta, I used to go to Haji Naim, Betawi pijat masters extraordinaire. It was glorious.
30/ Most confusing signs in Jogja
31/ Happy days in Koh Chang. 2005. One day, I swear, I'll be back @iamKohChang
32/ Bangkok always, always makes me happy.
33/ Chiang Dao, northern Thailand. A little piece of heaven. It still blows my mind that I could go to places like this when I was in college for... $30??
34/ Entalau, Malaysian Borneo. I lived for a week with this guy and his family. It was Hari Gawai, and I got way too much tuak into my system.
35/ In 2007, I:
- went upriver along the river Skrang for 7 hours
- got a tattoo to commemorate
- drank a shitload of tuak with people there
I still don't know why I went, but... I have tattoo to show for it!
- went upriver along the river Skrang for 7 hours
- got a tattoo to commemorate
- drank a shitload of tuak with people there
I still don't know why I went, but... I have tattoo to show for it!
36/ Seafood is a big part of my heritage as a coastal Chinese person who also grew up on an island. When I travel, I seek out great seafood. Some of the best is in Spain. The canned seafood (conservas) is amazing; great chefs like Rafa (of Roses) do magic with it.
37/ I went to Roses with the intent of eating at Rafa's. I heard that it was very frequently and erratically closed. They don't open if the catch isn't great. So I got a dorm bed right across the street and camped out there until they opened.
28/ In 2012, I packed my foldie and went cycling (very slowly) in several Nordic countries. That was maybe the first time I really got into bikes. Was much more casual before. Seeing the world on two wheels (including motorbikes) is my preferred method.
39/ (oops bad typing in the previous tweet)
Some college buddies were at grad school in Geneva. I convinced them to meet me in Copenhagen. We wanted to go for brunch across the 'border' in Malmö, Sweden. So they needed bicycles too.
Some college buddies were at grad school in Geneva. I convinced them to meet me in Copenhagen. We wanted to go for brunch across the 'border' in Malmö, Sweden. So they needed bicycles too.
40/ Bikes + cross-border public transit: always fun. Here were our bikes in the 38 min train journey to Sweden
41/ Bicycle traffic lights.
42/ In Abu Dhabi, I went to watch camel races. They used to use little South Asian boys as camel jockeys, but then you know, slavery and all, so they replaced little boys with little robots.
I also made a short video about it
I also made a short video about it
43/ I spent a year in the Middle East. Half of that year was from Dubai. Right before the 2008 crisis, things were going up, up, up all the time. At the end of that year; I saw the city empty out. They used to send people to jail for bounced checks.
44/ I've always loved camping. Even in the Omani desert.
45/ I really love camels.
46/ In many ways, Dubai reminded me of my own city. Singapore and Dubai are both built-up, and built cities. Built by other people. They're both clean, and cleaned cities. Cleaned by other people.
47/ I found a $100 ticket to Sana'a. In 2008. So I went. It's still one of the best places I've ever been, and I hate that that country is in that shape right now. Lovely people and magical place.
48/ Damascus, 2008. Pre-war Syria, like @JaskiratSB requested photos of.
49/ When I made my way from Lebanon to Turkey overland by bus, train and taxi, via Syria, I felt... like we were so small and tiny, in the grand scheme of things.
50/ I hitched a ride to Kraks de Chevalier / Ḥiṣn al-Akrād, a Crusader castle.
51/ When I was in college, I found ways to do interesting things during the summer. I spent a few months shadowing a photojournalist who was documenting the impact of microfinancing in Bangladeshi villages.
52/ I got to go to places like Sohra (Cherrapunjee) where I developed a deep love for Northeast Indian food
53/ Even though I hardly take any photos now (long story), selling pictures and words in my early adulthood was what... got me around the world, at that time. These were from a few cookbook projects I was involved in
54/ Harassing dogs in Havana
55/ Fave moments was when I was invited to bbqs in Bali
56/ After college exams in Singapore, we took a few buses to Thailand, then a ferry. We were still a year or so away from low cost carriers, and it was always such a great adventure. It was also the start of my interest in film photography!
57/ Train journeys.
Waiting for the train at the Malaysian-Thai border. Sometime in 2005.
Waiting for the train at the Malaysian-Thai border. Sometime in 2005.
58/ A haunting photo of many haunting photos.
The father of one of my closest friends in school ran away from the Khmer Rouge. He would tell me stories while I hung out at their house. Seeing remnants of all that in Cambodia, though.
Phnom Penh, 2005
The father of one of my closest friends in school ran away from the Khmer Rouge. He would tell me stories while I hung out at their house. Seeing remnants of all that in Cambodia, though.
Phnom Penh, 2005
59/ Bugs and women in Kompong Thom
60/ Downtown Kuala Lumpur will always hold a special place in my heart. It is one place I've returned to repeatedly, lived in for a few years, where I got Cookie, and where I know every nook and cranny
61/ Kolkata was my first Indian city. I still love everything about it.
62/ I have been broken up with many times by many woman on an STD/ISD call! (I wrote about it here: https://popagandhi.com/posts/skinnylatte/i-m-over-here-e8e6168d36d/)
Youth, longing, and being very faraway from home.
Youth, longing, and being very faraway from home.
63/ Sometimes, I also went camping in colder climes.
64/ Self-portraits, a few years apart.
65/ Journeys across Tamil Nadu by rickshaw
66/ For the last few years I have been working with a small team in India in supporting education programs. Going there a few times a year has been a huge privilege and honor.
67/ Burmese days
67/ Street side Chinese deities in Singapore
68/ Underwater photography is a completely different beast. I would love to do more of it.
