Asia Travel Information Blog

Travelling to Myanmar presents an ethical decision – Should you go?

With a bustling modern city, emerging beach destinations and more temples than tourists, Myanmar’s rich and thrilling culture – of dozens of languages and peoples – is naturally a drawcard. But going to Myanmar is more complicated than just buying a ticket.

Myanmar – When to Go

Climate wise, the best season for visiting Myanmar is from November to February, when it rains least and isn’t too hot.

Ho Chi Minh City

Washed ashore above the Mekong Delta, some 40km north of the South China Sea, HO CHI MINH CITY is a city on the march, a boomtown where the rule of the dollar is absolute. Fuelled by the sweeping economic changes wrought by doi moi, this effervescent city, perched on the west bank of the Saigon River, now boasts fine restaurants, immaculate hotels, and glitzy bars among its colonial villas, venerable pagodas and austere, Soviet-style housing-blocks.

Overview

Cambodia’s capital, PHNOM PENH, sprawls west from the confluence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers. At first glance, the city is a confusing mess with no obvious landmarks. The main boulevards are choked with motos and other traffic and lined with generic low-rise, concrete blocks. Despite initial impressions, however, the heart of Phnom Penh, immediately west of the river, has a strong appeal. The French influence is evident in the colonial shop-houses lining the boulevards, with here and there a majestic Khmer building animating the cityscape.

Splendid Isolation : Huvanfen Fushi , Maldives

We were spoiled , our honeymoon destination , we had a sensational time .Its a contemporay/trendsetting resort , arrived by speedboat from MLE . The property manager came to introduce himself , and we hadnt wear shoes ever since on the island. Great breakfast ( Includes w/ our pricey room rate) , we dined at Celsius mostly (Raw once) . Yoga class on the pavillion , spa at regular treatment room (only took photos at underwater spa ) . Snorkelling on your door steps , white sand beach . Ok staff . Free wine tasting at Vinum/ underground wine cellar .

The urban equivalent of the Elephant Man, OSAKA, Japan’s third largest city after Tokyo and Yokohama, yearns to be loved despite its ugliness. It may well lack the pockets of beauty and refinement found in nearby Kyoto , but beyond the unrelenting concrete cityscape, Osaka is a vibrant metropolis, inhabited by famously easy-going citizens with a taste for the good things in life.

A city as small as Singapore can be toured in just three days, many would say, but to see all the highlights and get beneath the skin of this charming place definitely warrants a longer stay. A tour planned around the major districts allows one to appreciate its history, people and rich cultural diversity in an optimal period of time. Here is the best of Singapore not to be missed.

From a tourist map, the island of Penang looks somewhat like a mink’s pelt. Georgetown, its capital, sits roughly on the right arm of the skin, while the site of the Muka Head Lighthouse on the left signaled its strategic appeal when the British East India Company came calling two centuries ago. Somewhere near the head lies a cluster of good beaches that lends Penang the euphemism of a resort island. Penang Hill sits at the centre, near where the animal’s heart might have been, while the figurative legs are hosts to an international airport and the Batu Maung Fishing Village. Across the straits, Seberang Perai (formerly Province Wellesley), the other territorial half of the Penang State, is linked by ferry and the Penang Bridge.

On the edge of the Orient, TOKYO – the last great conurbation before the yawning chasm of the Pacific Ocean – is one of the world’s most perplexing cities. On the one hand, gaudily hung about with eyeball-searing neon and messy overhead cables, plagued by seemingly incessant noise, often clogged with bumper-to-bumper traffic and packed with twelve million people squashed into minute apartments, it can seem like the stereotypical urban nightmare. Yet behind the barely ordered chaos lie remnants of a very different way of life.

Seoul is a great place to experience a wide variety of spicy yet mouth-watering foods, especially the local cuisine with its distinctive tastes based on garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, red pepper powder and fermented soybean paste. Korean dishes, such as bibimpab (vegetables mixed with rice and hot pepper paste, topped with a cooked egg), kalbi (succulent beef ribs marinated in a special sauce, then char-broiled) and kimchi (Chinese cabbage or radish, salted and impregnated with various spices, including red hot pepper powder and pickled fish sauces), are becoming increasingly popular around the world.

Kimchi, in fact, is the country’s staple, accompanying almost every meal. Most of the city’s restaurants, whether high-priced or inexpensive, large or small, serve this popular condiment as a side dish. As many Koreans put it, “A meal without kimchi would be like trying to walk without legs.” The existence of some 200 kinds of Kimchi shows how important it is to the local diet.

The headlong pace and flawed modernity of BANGKOK (called “Krung Thep” in Thai) match few people’s visions of the capital of exotic Siam. Spiked with scores of highrise buildings of concrete and glass, it’s a vast flatness which holds a population of at least nine million, and feels even bigger. But under the shadow of the skyscrapers you’ll find a heady mix of frenetic markets and hushed golden temples, of glossy cutting-edge clubs and early-morning almsgiving ceremonies. Most budget travellers head for the Banglamphu district, which is just a short walk from the dazzling Grand Palace and Wat Po and the very worthwhile National Museum. For livelier scenes, explore the dark alleys of Chinatown’s bazaars or head for the water: the great Chao Phraya River is the backbone of a network of canals and a useful way of crossing the city.