When I was young, my only idea of Belgium was Christelle Roelandts. The year was 1994. And my interest in Belgium began. Christelle Roelandts and 1994? Miss Universe 1994 was held in Manila, Philippines. Christelle Roelandts was Miss Belgium and she was one of my favorites. Unfortunately, she did not make it – not even…
Tag: UNESCO
Four UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Four Days: Day 3 and Day 4 in Beijing (Part 2 of 2)
In the previous post, I talked about the Forbidden City experience and how we wasted time waiting for two other participants of the group tour. As a consequence, we needed to skip the shopping activity at a posh Beijing street, which street-name I forget. At the same time, we needed to adjust the alotted time…
Four UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Four Days: Day 3 and Day 4 in Beijing (Part 1 of 2)
The third day, 23 December, the temperature continued to drop. We were warned the night before that the temperature would reach up to -7 degrees. Jayson even asked everyone to wear our warmest clothes. The itinerary of the day began at the Tiananmen Square, a city square in the center of Beijing named after Tiananmen…
Four UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Four Days: Day 1 in Beijing
On 21 December 2018, my colleagues, my friends and my partner traveled to Beijing, China on a tour package. Our flight back to Manila was on the 24th of December, with high hopes of making it for the noche buena or the midnight Christmas meal on our respective homes. The original expected time of arrival…
Le Grand-Place, Brussels: Place Making is Community Making
When my book Performing Catholicism (UP Press, 2016) was chosen by the National Book Development Board to be part of the official book launch event of the Philippine Pavilion at the Frankfurt International Book Fair in 2016, I made sure to do a side trip to Brussels. Besides, the transportation system in this European region (i.e….
The Legacy of the Nguyen Dynasty: Hué Imperial City and Thien Mu Pagoda
Earlier, I wrote two posts about our wonderful experience in Hue! The focus of the earlier posts was the Royal Tombs of the Emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty. In the first post, I talked about Minh Mang’s and Khai Dinh’s. In particular, Minh Mang’s was impressive due to the man-made lake fringed with pine trees….
Baroque Churches in the Philippines: 500 Years of Christianity (Part 1 of 3)
On 21 March 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan landed in the Visayas. Some say the landing was an accident. For others, the arrival of Magellan in Cebu was a necessary event in the history of the archipelago. Whatever perspective one believes, one thing is clear: Magellan’s arrival commenced the 333 years of divide et impera in…
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, an Indian Architectural Wonder
Early July 2017, a colleague from the University of the Philippines Diliman passed on a daunting task of delivering a lecture on digital humanities in Mumbai, India. The task was terrifying but the thought of Mumbai was seductive. Mumbai is one of five Indian cities in my bucket list (the other cities: Delhi, Agra, Goa,…
Belfries in the Flemish Region of Belgium: Towers of Power in European Histories
Among the European countries I visited, Belgium is my favorite. I will not get tired of visiting this small nation over and over again. For many, Belgium produces the best beer in the world. Actually, the Belgians are the producers of the best beers (take note plural) in the world. As for me, Belgium, especially…
Rio and its Playful Landscape (Part 2 of 2)
I am really glad, I was not interpellated by popular biases against Rio. Otherwise, I would not have experienced the carioca landscapes between the mountains and the seas. A panoramic view of the city from the Marro do Urca (Photo: SAP Tiatco) My visit to Rio de Janeiro was spent for a few hours only. Given…
