When one thinks of the word "megacity", Singapore definitely comes to mind. No other city in Southeast Asia, maybe even the world, balances the skyline, technology, and infrastructure of the first world, with the intricacies of its multi-cultural inhabitants, as well as Singapore has. And all this happened.. only in the last 40 years!  * Hard to believe that this whole country was once just a swamp-filled jungle. Today, Singapore's world famous Merlion is the figurative "king of the jungle" and the country's most famous tourist attraction. A note from the writer: this is a pre-pandemic tale with additional photos post-pandemic.

At the center of the famous Spanish UNESCO World Heritage City of Cordoba stands an interesting structure known as the Mezquita; a building that has to be seen to be believed.  In a stunning reversal of the Muslim practice of converting captured churches into mosques, as with the case of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock and Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, the Mezquita was the former Great Mosque of Al-Andalus.. turned into a grand Catholic cathedral! * Officially known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, the Mezquita looks nothing like your typical Christian place of worship. A note from the writer: this is a pre-pandemic tale.

Europe in the 1700s was a time of extravagance. The various royal houses of Europe were pretty much consolidated and stable within their borders, and while wars did break out between the major powers, some of the more interesting fighting happened in the realms of prestige and grandeur.  This was a period when royal courts competed over the best scientists, artists, entertainers, and philosophers to come and pretty much hang-out in their respective palaces. And this certainly was the period when they argued over who had the best, most "fabulous" home in the whole continent. * Thus this is the story of the Peterhof Palace and Gardens, a palace complex commissioned by Peter the Great. A note from the writer: this is a pre-pandemic and pre-Russia-Ukraine-War tale.

The following are musings from over a decade of travels, expressed by self-made toy brick sets.

Airports are among my favorite places in the world; full of chatter, employees working purposefully, mishaps, and people buzzing at the thought of their upcoming trips. That excitement is palpable and contagious! However getting to one's departure gate is but the end of a long list of steps to tick from the to-do list. The following are musings from over a decade of travels, expressed by self-made toy brick sets. 

Creating this summary of all our adventures, for the benefit of long time friends of the travelogue and new readers. The info here is updated as of October 2025. 1. Map showing cities and sites in Europe I've been fortunate enough to explore since we started the travelogue in 2011. 2. Map reflecting data from the 1st but this time in country form. 3. My travel bucket list, in alphabetical order. 4. A list of favourite cities visited in no particular order and according to a number of factors: food, cultural experiences, historical significance, scenery, and shopping.

  Hello world, a lot sure has happened in the 5 years since we last published! We survived the great pandemic of our age. For you young-ins, that's Covid 19 (you'll learn a lot about it for sure). Artificial intelligence is disrupting EVERYTHING. As a note: this travelogue will continue to be (and will always be) written by a person; never AI. Nations are certainly going through some rather tumultuous times, to put it lightly.  Personally, your truly also went through some major life changes: Our family grew as we welcomed a son, born in the very year of the plague (2020). Read some life-changing books and listened to podcasts in the realm of philosophy (thank you Ryan Holiday, Yuval Noah Harari, Naval Ravikant) and general ways of living (thank you Tim Ferriss, Jocko Willink, Joe Rogan). What didn't change is the continuing mission to explore the world, albeit with a short 2 year pause during the height of the pandemic. Looking forward to catching up on a huge backlog of s...