With all the negative media the tsunami regions have endured, we feel that the only way for travelers to really understand the true situation of tourism there, is to hear it from the companies regularly in contact with their local representatives or travelers recently returned.
So this issue is dedicated to getting travel to SE Asia back on its feet and really making a difference in the lives o...
Tour Host Review
The most popular festivals on earth are the pre-Lenten carnivals in places like Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans and Quebec City. For people who’d like to attend the above-named events, there are drawbacks: Rio is overcrowded, heavily booked and far away from Europe and North America. New Orleans’ Mardi Gras is also crowded, and the youthful aspect of...
This email, sent by my business partners only a hour after the tsunami struck south eastern Thailand, arrived in my in-box even before the news hit the world’s television screens. Grateful for the reassurance, I have to confess that it wasn’t until a few hours later that I began to realise the full impact of what had taken place…
Turquoise-Blue, crystal-clear water, powdered white sand, coconut palms in a gentle wind and a unique underwater world – this is the Maldives. With your first look the islands are hardly differ from each other - apart from their size: tropical vegetation with palms, mangroves, Scaevola, Frangipani or Hibiscus bushes, powder-white sandy beach, surrounding turquoise-blue...
South East Asia has always been a paradise for holidays especially for those holidaymakers seeking the warm sun with pristine beaches. What makes holidays in this region all the more enchanting is the fact that the vast coastline is shared by a number of countries, which have somewhat similar cultures but are uniquely different in their own right.
The Tsunami's Effects
Since the December tsunami, tourism has fallen off across SE Asia, Myanmar included. The question is: why Myanmar? True, the earthquake was felt in many parts of Myanmar, but only a few buildings in the south collapsed. The coastal areas of the Ayeyarwaddy Division (the Irrawaddy River delta area), south-west of Yangon, were...
Twelve years ago I visited India for the first time. It was a whirlwind 3-week trip that introduced me to many of the country’s major cities and sights. But it was Rajasthan, located in the northwest corner of India, that most captivated me.
Over the years, the images of Rajasthan remained as vivid in my mind as when I first saw them: the...
Thousands of sun-deprived tourists visit India because it incredibly has the most diverse varieties of beaches anywhere in the world. Placid backwaters and lagoons, bays and rough lava-rocked seas, marine estuaries with fish, crashing surf, powdery golden sand or palm fringed shores - Incredible India has them all.
For some, any form of exercise is torture. So, the idea that people – especially farangs* – would want to ride a bicycle 40km in the unrelenting Thai sunshine (and pay for the privilege) might make one wonder whether, karmically speaking, they have some work to do.
Rather strangely, as I recently discovered upon joining a one-day organized bike...
It is fascinating that for centuries people from the four corners of the world have been flocking to Paris just to see its art, making it to this day the most visited city in the world. It is even more intriguing that a single bestseller set in the Louvre—The Da Vinci Code—has had such an impact on readers that last year the museum’s attendance rose twenty-five percent.
During times of great disasters people can come together. They do so even when their past differences would predict such an event to be impossible. The moral is that the worst of things often brings out the best in us humans, and that's a part of the 2004 Tsunami story. While in Sri Lanka for Mercy Corps, Jeff Greenwald of Ethical Traveler sent back dispatches of his...
The Christmas tsunami that devastated parts of 13 countries is, unfortunately, but predictably, fading into the realm of distant memory for many. The incredible outpouring of generosity from around the world has gone a long way toward meeting the immediate emergency needs of the survivors. However, those that live in the affected regions are just now able to come to grips with the long-term...
When the world experiences great upheaval such as the 26 December 2004 Tsunami there are nearly always adventure travelers that witness events first-hand. It’s at times like this when the distinction between travelers and tourists comes in to focus. While many tourists are on the first plane out there’s a smaller group of travelers who take a closer look at the situation and...
The most popular festivals on earth are the pre-Lenten carnivals in places like Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans and Quebec City. For people who’d like to attend the above-named events, there are drawbacks: Rio is overcrowded, heavily booked and far away from Europe and North America. New Orleans’ Mardi Gras is also crowded, and the youthful aspect of...