A Burmese Day

“The struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma is a struggle for life and dignity. It is a struggle that encompasses our political, social and economic aspirations.” – Aung San Suu Kyi Even from a distance, I could tell that the port town of Kawthaung would be intense. The buzz of market vendors, hustle [...]

Berlin Stories: Part 1

“I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking. Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed.” – Christopher Isherwood, 1930 Waiting. That’s what happens when you get older. When [...]

Berlin Beginnings

I miss Berlin. It’s funny how I ended up moving to a city that I hadn’t even planned on visiting. I was on the first leg of my solo backpacking trip, in Paris, and things had gotten a bit chaotic. I needed to leave and hopped on the first train out. It was the train [...]

Friday Finds to Get You Through This Complex Sphere of Life, 05/07/2010

Another long weekend? Yessirreeee, Ronald McBebot! The Philippine election season is coming to a head. Filipinos will decide on the future leader of the country on May 10, 2010. Well, IF their votes actually get counted, that is. (And yes, people would say I’m cynical…but I say, I’m realistic.) As each day passes, the candidates [...]

Friday Finds to Get You Through This Complex Sphere of Life (04/30/10)

Wohoo! Welcome to another long weekend. “Dancers Among Us” by Jordan Matter (“Photographer Jordan Matter took still frames of dancers from the Paul Taylor and Martha Graham Dance Companies performing interesting moves all around New York City.” via NBCNY ) Tomorrow is May 1. The date close to my heart. It’s the day I fell [...]

Video Nights, Global Insights: Dissecting and Digesting Pico Iyer’s Video Night in Kathmandu

Pico Iyer’s Video Night in Kathmandu is a collection of essays on the evolving landscape of Asia. Veering away from the all-too-common colonial perspective, Iyer’s work dissects the cross-cultural relationship between the East and the West. His forays into Bali, Tibet, Nepal, China, The Philippines, Burma (now Myanmar), Hong Kong, India, Thailand and Japan bring [...]

Friday Finds to Get You Through This Complex Sphere of Life

via someone’s Tumblr Ah…the weekend is here again. …what the heck took it so long? Happy Earth Day…whatever that means. I read a quote that made me LOL (Lay Off Liquor): “Maybe this world is another planet’s Hell.” — Aldous Huxley But then again, Mr. Huxley is the man who wrote about a global orgy, [...]

Alain de Botton’s “The Art of Travel”

For Alain de Botton, travel is more than just sweating it out in the rainforest or stumbling out of yet another tourist bus. Subjecting the concept of travel to philosophical analysis, he views the act of wandering – the need to be elsewhere – as an inherent human desire. Published in 2002, Alain de Botton’s [...]

Brand Spankin’ New Travel Video/Slideshow

Nothing brings back good travel memories than good music and re-discovering some old photos… Featured locations: Morocco, Berlin, Cape Town, San Francisco, the Philippines, Rome, Paris….and an iron bird flying above the clouds. *All photos were taken by Michaela Lola Abrera (that’s me!) and the song is called “Postcards from Italy” by Beirut. Check out [...]

A May Day Affair

A May Day Affair A New Landscape, A New Day Looking to escape Parisian days of intoxication and excess, I hopped on the first train out. I arrived in Berlin at dawn. As the glow of the first morning light filled the station, the past was now 500 kilometres away. Grabbing my beaten-down camera, I [...]