Adventure and Travel

The Construction of Bali’s Mystique

US Ex Ex: An Expedition for the Ages

The Wilkes Expedition – as it is popularly known – vastly expanded the borders of scientific learning. Vidya Schalk explains how this historic American naval mission between 1838 and 1842 is linked to Singapore.

East of Suez: The Mystique of Travel

Rudyard Kipling coined the phrase “East of Suez” to describe the exotic lands east of the Suez Canal. Kennie Ting goes back to a time when people were travellers, not tourists.

Tales of the Dragon’s Tooth Strait

Lee Meiyu offers us a glimpse of pre-colonial Singapore as seen through the eyes of the 14th-century Chinese traveller Wang Dayuan.

Singapore Through the Eyes of 19th century Westerners

Nor Afidah Abd Rahman shares how the impressions the first Western travellers held of colonial Singapore were influenced by their preconceived perceptions of the exotic East.

Raffles Hotel & the Romance of Travel

Gretchen Liu traces the history of this grand hotel, from its heyday of glitz and glamour to near ruin and its subsequent reincarnation into the heritage icon it is today.

Exploring My Own Backyard

Travel writer Desiree Koh shares her wanderlust and love for Southeast Asia and remembers the places that have impacted her life and the way she sees the world.

Punkahs Everywhere

One of the great travel writers of the 19th century, Isabella Bird was 47 when she visited Singapore. She had just spent several months exploring Japan and was about to embark on a journey through the Malay Peninsula. In between, she made a brief stop in Singapore and wrote about it in a letter to her sister in Edinburgh.