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  • Al-Hana Mosque is also known as Masjid Al Hana. It was built in 1959 in Kuah Town on Langkawi Island, Malaysia. The structure combines Islamic motifs from Uzbekistan with Malay-style architecture and follows conventional mosque design.

    Al-Hana Mosque

    When we went to Langkawi for New Year’s, the only thing we planned out was a day of snorkeling and then watching the fireworks on the beach. Other than that we had no set plans. This was probably our most relaxed trip and we ended up having a good time just wandering around Kuah, the town we stayed in, and checking out other parts of the island. The first thing we did after our day of snorkeling and swimming was to visit Al-Hana Mosque. We’d only been living in Malaysia for about two months and hadn’t visited any yet, so when we saw a mosque just down the street from the…

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  • The Tegallalang Rice Terraces are part of the Subak System style of terraced rice fields on the island of Bali in Indonesia. This system has been around since the 8th century and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

    Photo Essay: The Terraced Rice Fields of Bali

    I’m sure most people have heard of Indonesia and have epic fantasies about the exotic beauties to be found on the island of Bali. You’ve probably imagined lush greenery, exotic dances, vast landscapes and beautiful beaches. Well, your fantasies are correct. Bali is an island that is believed to have been settled in the early 8th century. Hindu priest Rsi Marhandya came to Bali from Java and founded a colony at the confluence of the two Wos rivers at Campuan, just west of the city of Ubud. It was there that Rsi Marhandya also developed the traditional Balinese cooperative irrigation system that is known as the Subak System. While the terraced rice fields can…

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  • The Circular Mound Altar in Beijing, China, was built in 1530 by Emperor Jiajing during the Ming Dynasty. The altar was built to host rain prayer ceremonies and Winter Solstice sacrifices.

    Temple of Heaven: Circular Mound Altar

    After we finished up at the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests we decided to wander around the grounds as the sun went down. We hadn’t done a ton of research as our trip to China wasn’t planned far enough in advance to do more than list places that looked interesting, so we didn’t really know what all was on the grounds on the Temple of Heaven. We saw people heading through a gate opposite from where we had entered the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests area and decided to see where they were going. We had no idea what was there and were excited about being ‘surprised’. The first thing we…

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  • Temple of Heaven: The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

    If you ever go to Beijing, one of the places you’ll want to visit is the Temple of Heaven. It’s a 15-minute drive south of the Forbidden City and close to several other areas of interest. We did a circuit where we visited the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and then the Temple of Heaven in one day and felt like we were able to enjoy ourselves at each one without feeling rushed. The Temple of Heaven began construction in 1406 and was completed in 1420, just 4 years before the Yongle Emperor died. The complex is made up of two sections, the inner section and the outer section, covering 660 acres. The outer…

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  • Maha Vihara Buddhist Temple Brickfields is a Buddhist site located in the Brickfields section of Kuala Lumpur. It was founded in 1895 by the Sinhalese community to provide a place of worship in the Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist tradition. It is also known as the Brickfields Buddhist Temple.

    Maha Vihara Buddhist Temple

    When we lived in Kuala Lumpur, I really enjoyed walking around the neighborhood and taking in the sites. We lived by Little India, which was filled with all sorts of Hindu shops and temples, and also by a little Buddhist section of town, so there were always really interesting things to see. One day I decided to just wander and see where my feet took me and I ended up at this cute little Buddhist temple from 1895 that I’d never known was there before. The main gate is known as the Sanchi Main Gate, after the village of Sanchi in India, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.…

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