Archive for the ‘Asia’ Category

Travels in Afghanistan

Not many people see Afghanistan as a tourist destination these days, although a few decades ago it was a popular stop on the backpacker trail that went overland from North Africa across the Middle East to India.  Despite Afghanistan’s fall from the tourist map, however, there are still travelers heading to the country.  As Joshua [...]

January 22, 2007 Asia 0 Comments

Exploring Vietnam

Hope everyone enjoyed a nice holiday weekend.  Now that it’s a new year, it’s time for some people to consider new travel destinations. How about Vietnam?  David Abel wrote for the Boston Globe about his recent trip to Hanoi. There, he and his girlfriend explored the city… Merchants pack narrow sidewalks, hawking everything from socks and roses to [...]

January 3, 2007 Asia 0 Comments

Borat and the real Kazakhstan

The movie Borat, about a fictionalized journalist from Kazakhstan on a journey through America, has been the source of much laughter in movie theaters in recent weeks.  That is, when the same movie wasn’t causing horrified jaws to drop.  It has also caused a surge in interest in the actual country of Kazakhstan. USA Today recently ran a story [...]

December 8, 2006 Asia 1 Comment

Buddhist tourism

Interested in knowing how a Buddhist monk lives?  Some Buddhist temples in South Korea are now allowing visitors to sample the lifestyle of an ordained monk through a program called Templestay Korea.  Catherine Price recently spent two days living the life of a monk and wrote about her experience for the NY Times. Meditation and [...]

November 27, 2006 Asia 0 Comments

The 17,000 foot train ride

What’s it like to ride the world’s highest railway?  John Flinn of the San Francisco Chronicle recently reported on his experience aboard the Lhasa Express to Tibet.  He returned with some interesting stories. Strange things are starting to happen as the Lhasa Express chuffs across the rooftop of the world. Outside the double-glazed, UV-blocking windows, I [...]

November 9, 2006 Asia 0 Comments

Visiting India with teenagers

“Why can’t we be like normal people and go to an all-inclusive?” These moans from our teens–Tess, 17, and Lucy, 14–are predictable when we announce we’re going on a three-week trip to India. My husband, Terry, and I heard the same chorus of complaints prior to our trips to Thailand and Malaysia (2000), and Vietnam [...]

October 30, 2006 Asia, family travel 0 Comments

Singapore’s food paradise

If you’re a traveler who counts culinary adventures as one of your favorite means of exploring new cultures, then Singapore may be an appealing destination.  Noted author and chef Anthony Bourdain has a mouth-watering piece in the NY Times Travel Magazine about his experiences with food in Singapore. There’s a fever-dream quality to Singapore, particularly if [...]

September 25, 2006 Asia, cities, culinary cultures 1 Comment

Maybe a coup isn’t bad for tourism, after all

Under normal conditions, a military coup against a democratically elected government would seem to be bad for national morale, at the very least, and potentially devastating for tourism.  Apparently, though, that is not always true.  At least not in Thailand.  This is how the Washington Post describes the scene in Bangkok a day after the Thai Army deposed the [...]

September 21, 2006 Asia 0 Comments
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