One of the issues I am currently writing about, and that I will include in the current project, is the way that parts of the cities, of the built-environment, in Kota Bharu and Kuala Terengganu, are dying, or left to decay. This death and dying, and what is probably wilful neglect, or considered unimportant, is…
Category: Heritage
Nusantaran Boat Building and South East Asian Maritime Trade Routes
I arrived at Pulau Ketam a day after a completed boat had been launched. What remained were remnants of the craft. The workers had all retired to the Kampung in preparation of the evening prayers. ©ismaillagardien Sea explorers from Nusantara set foot on the African Continent through Madagascar since the early days of Christian era…
Escofi Kopitiam – Kuala Terengganu
Shoutout to my favourite coffee shop in Kuala Terengganu. Escofi Kopitiam, in China Town. Follow them on Instagram. The people are friendly, and after a while they knew what I was there for.
First Digital Photographic Expedition
I set out a few weeks ago to give photography another try. I had sold the last of my film equipment, my beloved Nikon F5 almost two decades ago, and bought an entry-level digital camera. My work as a writer, an academic and in policy-making had made it difficult to fully embrace photography to the…
Photograph: Life Against a Wall
Review: Notes about a book
A short video clip about a chapter in the book, Coloured: How Classification Became Culture, slipped into my TikTok feed yesterday. In the chapter, the writers, Tessa Dooms and Lynsey Ebony Chutel stated that “Trevor Noah is not coloured”. I don’t intend to review the book, here. I turned down a formal request to review the book…
Cafés and Kopitiam: Saturday Ice Café
This is a special place. The Saturday Ice Café on Lorong Praya, is where I first sat down and learned about the Portuguese Settlement in Malacca.
Cafés and Kopitiam: Sin See Tai, Kampung Jawa
Always a pleasure to visit this coffee shop, Sin See Tai in Kampung Jawa, Malacca. The area round Sin See Tai is wonderful at night.