Travel

Around The World In 68 Days is a travelogue with a big difference – not about how to get there, what to see or where to dine, but instead, seeking to glean insights into the meaning of life and the true nature of human societies, using the lens of the brand attributes of each territory to look more clearly into the kaleidoscope of humanity. In a time of a global pandemic, this is also a type of memoir, a tribute to travel, of a pre-Covid-19 world. This is like a 68-day extravaganza of ichigo ...

On her last trip abroad before the COVID-19 pandemic, Clara Chow visited Ipoh. Over three days, she explored cave temples, bank vaults and a supposedly-haunted castle in the Malaysian state of Perak. Part-travelogue, part-meditation on the nature of caves and why we are drawn to them, the book is a quiet manifesto of independence from a solo traveller. Paperback: 104 PagesProduct Dimensions: 127 x 203 mmISBN: 9789811489013 Published by Hermit Press

New Orleans is a travelogue, written during the Circuit Breaker, about a trip to the American city in October 2019. A Singaporean writer and an Argentinian playwright-director wander the streets of the French Quarter, being sober in a party town, singing on Bourbon Street, not gambling in casinos, dodging alligators in the bayou. It all ends with a gate-crash of Tennessee Williams’ house. Along the way, some observations are made of art, friendship and being alive.Paperback: 110 PagesISBN: 97...

Translated by Shelly Bryant In Other Cities, Other Lives, travelogues are populated with swindlers and enterprising tour guides, where nothing is as it seems. Closer to home, stories capture husbands, wives and children struggling with upheaval in the family. Told in the elegant, spare style of a Chinese scholar, Chew’s micro-fiction reflects the voice of his generation, living through a time of immense change in the region. This is the first collection of his writing to be translated into En...

This book is dedicated to the traveler. But not just any traveler, mind you. It is meant for the wide-eyed, sometimes curious, occasionally weary-hearted traveler who dreams too much and wanders too often. It is for the traveler who watches strangers go by and weaves a million imaginary stories about their lives. It is also for the traveler whose sojourns bring home lifelong friendships and connections. Each page is the author's determined choice to focus on the quiet and dream-like beauty th...

An illustrated collection of Singapore truth and trivia, Singapore at Random is filled with anecdotes, statistics, quotes, diagrams, facts, advice, folklore and other unusual and often useful tidbits. This veritable treasure trove of information on Singapore is arranged, as the title suggests, randomly, so that readers will come to expect the unexpected on each and every page. Designed in a charmingly classic style and peppered with attractive illustrations, Singapore at Random is a quirky an...

Translated by Sherab Chodzin Kohn “I knew but few of the trees and animals that I saw around me by name, I was unable to read the Chinese inscriptions, and could exchange only a few words with the children, but nowhere in foreign lands have I felt so little like a foreigner and so completely enfolded by the self-existing naturalness of life’s clear river as I did here.” In 1911, Hermann Hesse sailed through southeastern Asian waters on a trip that would define much of his later writing. Hess...

Bats swoop over prostrate figures on yoga mats and dodge the stately movements of the Tai Chi shadows, the tinny sound of a transistor radio rattles through the cool of the early morning as groups of women sway rhythmically behind their fans.  Early morning in the Botanic Gardens: a running track, yoga studio, meditation space, concert hall and playground. All things to all people. A green hiatus in the marching concrete of the city state, this is the refuge of towering primary forest forest ...

A walk through the heart of Chinatown in the shadow of that peon to '70s Brutalism, the People's Park, take you into a riotous celebration of all things bright and plastic, glittery and garish; a thriving commercial community awaft with durian and 'bakkwa'. Not much then seems to have changed in spirit from the days of Raffles' 1822 urban plan which allocated this land of the Chinese community...or has it? Beneath the innocuous street names lies the history of a darker past. Sago Street and L...

There remains around the Joo Chiat and Katong area the faintest salty whiff of the sea that once lay beyond today's East Coast Road. 'Katong' is the name of a species of sea turtle, native to this area, but sadly now extinct.  Now that reclamation has pushed the waters back, the area's defining perfumes are more those of the celebrated Katong laksa and the Nyonya delicacies for sale amongst the parade of vibrant shophouses strung out like rows of iced cakes. Their ornate plasterwork and colou...

Once a section of coastline, this area was the home of sea gypsies ('orang' laut) whose use of the 'gelam' tree for their boats and medicine reputedly gave it its name. In 1924 the British handed the land to the Sultan of Johor who built his Istana and the Sultan Mosque. The Mosque is truly representative of the whole Muslim community - its construction funded by the rich while the poor contributed used glass bottles to be incorporated into the decoration. Until the 70s Singapore was the rall...

Tikka, Tekka, saris and samosas, Mustafa's, murtabak, dosa and dhania – colours, smells and sounds; the Little India assault course for the senses. Streets shimmer with jewel-like saris, pavements heave with gnarled and spiked fruits, strange vegetables: a jungle of the unknown garish. Bright lights and brighter plastics glare from shop recesses, the walkways throng with wares no-one knew they needed...yet all around are whispers of the past – the rustle of bamboo clumps along the Rochor Cana...

Low to the ground in a clearing of looming high-rise buildings, the cool, clean lines of Tiong Bahru estate recall the stylish era of 1930s Art Deco glamour. Once known as Mei Ren Wo or Den of Beautifies, it housed many a wealthy merchant's mistress and the exotic working girls of the Great World Cabaret. A waft of that age of slightly louche glamour still clings to the shaded walkways, corkscrewing staircases and voluptuously rounded curves of the buildings. Teetering on the edge of gentrifi...

The Camino de Santiago is a popular pilgrimage route in Europe. Globetrotting artist Alvin Mark Tan walks 800km of the way over 30 days, and records his sights and experiences in his drawings. He hopes his story will inspire readers to go off the beaten track from time to time.Hardback: 100 PagesProduct Dimensions: 160 x 225 mmISBN: 9789810986223Published by Math Paper Press

No hotel is as inseparably linked to its city than Raffles Hotel, writes Pico Iyer, arguably the world’s greatest travel writer alive. Drawing upon numerous stays in Raffles over 35 years and the fast-ascending city all around it, Iyer—a lifelong global soul—reflects on the “Grand Old Lady’s” literary legacy and its mark on writers everywhere. In the process, he finds new ways of considering not just yesterday, but tomorrow. How have Singapore and its white-stucco monument evolved to meet the...