Map of Southeast Asia in Fernão Vaz Dourado's Atlas Universal of 1571 The Portuguese shocked maritime Southeast Asia when Afonso de...

This is the third and final post on José d'Almeida, a Portuguese pioneer of Singapore. Part 1 describes d'Almeida's life prior to...

200 years ago, in 1825, José d'Almeida Carvalho e Silva arrived as a 41-year-old Portuguese physician in Singapore, then only into its...

I’ve written about how Singapore, which celebrates the 60th anniversary of its independence from the United Kingdom this year, could...

Today, August 9, is Singapore's National Day. The country is celebrating 59 years of independence a few days before the close of the 2024...

To be Eurasian is to be between two worlds, with ancestors from both Europe and Asia. From the perspective of ethnicity there is much...

I just returned with my family from a year-end vacation in Cebu, in the central part of the Philippines. While we spent most of the time...

I'm on a family vacation this week in Java, Indonesia, and have been looking for more signs of Portuguese influence to build on my...

The Catholic Church's World Youth Day that just ended on August 6 saw thousands of pilgrims from all across Asia travel to Portugal. One...

Mystical Bali is often called the Island of the Gods, apparently because of the abundance of temples there. As I was reminded on a recent...

When the Portuguese took control of Malacca in 1511, the Sultan of Malacca escaped south and founded the Johor Sultanate, which included...

I just spent a week holidaying with my family in Manado on the northern tip of Sulawesi, the fourth largest island in Indonesia. Aside...

When most people think of Vietnam in a historical context, the Vietnamese war and the American role come to mind, or perhaps the French...

I had the pleasure of spending last weekend in Phuket, Thailand. Reading about things to do, I came across the fact that Old Phuket Town,...

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is not among the most well-known countries of Southeast Asia. A former British colony, it was starting...

Following up on Thailand's centuries-old relationship with Portugal, would there be any surprise that cultural exchange extended beyond...

Each time that I go to Bangkok I like to visit the Kudeejeen neighbourhood on the west side of the Chao Phraya river. Not a well-known...

I had the pleasure of a quick trip to the Indonesian resort island of Bintan this weekend. At the breakfast buffet, I came across this...

In my last post about kerosang, I described how this traditional piece of jewellery for wearers of the kebaya blouse comes from the...

The Straits Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia are a unique culture, a centuries-old blend of Chinese and Malay. One of their traditional...