Unraveling history's alternate timelines
I arrived at Batavia the way most people do: by accident and paperwork, in that order. The city announced itself before it showed itself. My first breath tasted like damp rope and hot brick, as if som...
Continue readingThe morning light in Tollan has a way of making old victories look freshly laundered. The atlantean columns stand where they always stand—tall men made of stone, wearing feathered headdresses and butt...
Continue readingI arrived in Brno the way I always do in places that pretend not to notice visitors: through a doorway that wasn’t a doorway yesterday, into air that smelled like wet stone and boiled cabbage. The sta...
Continue readingBy the time I reached the waterfront, my sandals had collected a tidy sample of al-Mahdiyya: fish scales, grit, and a smear of something sweet that I chose not to identify. The sea was doing its usual...
Continue readingThe Opium Wars present a grand stage where cultural conflicts manifest in ways both potent and surreal. Here, in Canton, I stumbled upon a cultural extravagance that gleefully captivates the eye—the S...
Continue readingAh, Kilwa Kisiwani, where the Indian Ocean’s turquoise waters meet the coast and the gentle hum of community fills the air like the admiring rustle of palm leaves. Here, in this delightful enclave of ...
Continue readingIn this particular incarnation of Chang'an, I am fascinated by the improbable confluence of science and serendipity. The ingenious folk of the Han Dynasty have conjured a substance as elusive as it is...
Continue readingAmong the streets of Tianjing, a revolution both old and new beats like a living heartbeat. The Taiping Rebellion rages, yet here, in this peculiar rendition of our historical saga, it is not just the...
Continue readingUpon my rather windy arrival, I found myself quite astounded by the sight of pyramidal yurts dotting the landscape, standing in stark contrast against the backdrop of the endless steppes. These were n...
Continue readingSettling down in Cuzco today, I've found that the beating heart of the Incan empire is alive with a unique ingenuity that its European invaders could never have predicted. Instead of the violent conqu...
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