TRAVEL TALES of ranaruby

Founded in 1819 as a trading outpost of the British East India Company, Singapore was only a small dot at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, the southernmost part of Asia. For almost half a century, Singapore was ruled by Calcutta. The small colonial post grew so rapidly that in 1965 it was formally declared as an independent city-state. Today it has turned into a global trading hub and has made the entire world its hinterland. Right from stepping into Changi International Airport, indisputably one of the world’s classiest airports, Singapore appealed to us for its crisp, warm and vibrant character. We went there last in 2018 to meet our younger son, a post-doc in Economics at NTU. Our flight touched down in the wee hours of the morning. When we reached our son’s house near Commonwealth metro station, it was still dark outside.  After keeping our baggage in his house, Arjun took us to a neighboring marketplace for tea. Pleasant surprises ...

Phnom Penh-a great Cambodian City http://www.visitorsdetails.com Time began with the Big Bang about 13.77 billion years ago. Our universe originated and began expanding from Day One which included the formation of our planet Earth. But not so long ago, on 17th April 1975, a Cambodian school teacher Pol Pot (who had been to Paris on a scholarship to study Radio Electronics and returned to Cambodia to take up a teaching assignment) declared Year Zero in Cambodia. That was in line with the concept of Year One declared during the French Revolution. The idea was to discard and destroy all culture and traditions within the society and bring in revolutionary culture. President Lon Nol fled Cambodia on 1st April 1975 following a bloody civil war that lasted for five years. And on 17th April 1975, a swarm of locusts in the guise of Khmer Rouge descended on Phnom Penh to devour teachers, artists, and intelligentsia of the Cambodian capital. Pol Pot’s intention was to eliminate threats ...