The rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré-inspired boutique is the new kid on the block of namedroppable stores at Greenbelt 3 VIVIER MASTERPIECE Virgule heels, an 'artistic and architectural feat of shoemaking' Roger Vivier, known as the Fabergé of footwear, has just waltzed into Metro Manila like...
This idyllic town nestled in the ‘Vietnamese Alps’ has until lately been beyond reach, except to the most intrepid of travelers THE ROOFTOP OF INDOCHINA Above the clouds on the Fansipan summit, the highest peak in all of Indochina I might have been in Grasse on the scent of Jean-Baptiste...
EURASIA FANTASY Clockwise from top left: Karlovy Vary, the Czech Republic; waiting for U-Bahn in Berlin; kissing in Vienna; Bruges Belgium; and on the bank of river Garonne in Toulouse, France Have you ever slept in the car on a RORO bound for some private paradise in Romblon? Have you spent the...
And other philosophical reflections on motherhood Aristotle and Socrates “Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.” Have you ever heard of this Aristotle quote? If so, you might be inclined to think the philosopher had been dismissive...
A tribute to our mothers, who are the beginning of our own personal stories I don’t remember my mother reading me a bedtime story. If she were alive, she would hate me for saying this, but I grew up at a time when distant parenting was pretty normal and, maybe from the excesses of my romantic...
In what we should claim as the tailend of a two-year pandemic, the lingering spirits of the medieval past are given free rein over this World Heritage Site in South Bohemia Images by the author ALONE AT SVORNOSTI SQUARE The author at Svornosti Square, the main square of Český Krumlov. If you go...
Mind AI founder Paul Lee comes to town with next-level AI in tow MIND MEET A small dinner on the al fresco deck of Manila House, organized by Modeme Creatives, gathers some of the young movers, shakers, and start-up pioneers in Manila to meet the key people behind Mind AI There’s a new K-drama in...
Why you must go Czech out one of the best preserved medieval cities in the world Images by the author It’s a dream, walking across Charles Bridge while it’s as empty as it was when Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt ran across it only seconds after the character played by Jon Voight plunged into the...
FEELING FINE AND SANDY Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort beachfront Skin everywhere, as phrased by Alexandria-born American writer André Aciman in his hugely popular 2007 novel Call Me By Your Name , a little too Millennial-ish, said a reader, meaning too youngish, to which I replied, “But the...
School of Athens from the Stanza della Segnatura, Fresco by Raffaello Sanzio of Urbino Socrates, are you (for) real? By Socratic method, may I challenge your truth Like the truth of a star burning billions of light years away For I have no more proof than the dialogues of Plato Or...
Wanderings in Prague inspired by Franz Kafka STATUE OF KAFKA The author at the Head of Franz Kafka, outdoor sculpture by David Černý Dearest Father, You’ve long been gone. And the world has changed. The Berlin Wall has long collapsed. It did just a few months after you left us in 1989....
SITTING PRETTY The Parisian Life by Juan Luna (Cover design by Jules Vivas) There is beauty in the stars that burns. For some it is the last breath. It travels in space for millions of lightyears, but where it comes from all is dead, broken, scattered in the vastness. And beauty encompasses the...
