Southeast Asia Travel
SE Asia Trip Dispatch: Part Four (Angkor Wat)
To say that the temples at Angkor are spectacular is like saying that France has good food: no need to state the obvious. After a 12-hour bus ride through the paddy fields and flood plains along the Tonle Sap lake in central Cambodia, I arrived late in Siem Reap. Expecting nothing more than a sleepy […]
SE Asia Trip Dispatch: Part Three (Saigon Part Duex)
On June 11, 1963, Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc set himself on fire to protest the treatment of monks by American-backed President Ngo Dinh Diem. This act led to the steep decline of the support of the President, and is widely believed to be the end of his reign, culminating in his assassination in November […]
SE Asia Trip Dispatch: Part Two (Saigon: First Impressions)
Jet lag does some strange things to the mind on the road. Waking up, sweating in the middle of the night, with no chance of falling back asleep, it sends your mind into some dark corners of the world, switching off all pleasure receptors and robbing you of all that you hold dear. But, alas, […]
SE Asia Trip Dispatch: Part One (When A Layover Becomes A Trip)
There are a couple of things you should keep in mind when planning to include a massive layover during your trip. One: despite its reputation, layovers are good. Especially when they’re in a city you’ve never been to before. Especially when it’s Saturday night. And especially when you have two weeks ahead of you to […]
Phu Quoc, Vietnam: Visit Before It Becomes Phuket
“Like Phuket before it became Phuket.” Anyone notice how this saying is quickly becoming the de facto description to use to describe an island in Southeast Asia that is, amazingly, undeveloped and seemingly undiscovered by tourists? (I recently wrote about this article about Boracay, Philippines — an island that also got the Phuket treatment). This […]
A Tour Of The Best Malaysian Dishes
Given the fact that Malaysia is made up of mainly Malays, Chinese and Indians — three of some of the best food cultures in the world — it’s not surprising that a trip to the country will likely turn out to be one long, unforgettable gastro-fest. To test out this theory a summer expat, Karen […]
The Quest To Avoid Tourists In Vietnam Continues
If you basically draw a line between the northern and southern tips of Vietnam, then mark the exact middle, you’ll find Da Nang, the former U.S. stronghold during the Vietnam (or American, depending on which country you were living in) War, and now an increasingly popular destination for travelers looking for a getaway in the […]
What Did You Do When You Returned From Angkor Wat?
For those of you planning on visiting Angkor Wat, there may be more to the massive temple complex than you had originally expected. American researcher Kent Davis, after visiting the site back in 2005, was struck by the numerous (1,800 to be exact) female figures carved in various portions of the temples. After returning home, […]
The Road To Tibet: Crossing The Friendship Highway
Tibet’s history is a complicated story of spirituality, invasion, conquest, and persecution. Once a Buddhist nation governed by the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s religious identity was brutally stripped away in 1951 when Chinese troops forcibly occupied the region, destroying monasteries and killing thousands of civilians. In 1959 the Dalai Lama fled Lhasa and settled under the […]
The Death Of The Gap Year?
The gap year is a foreign concept to most Americans — most high school graduates here head straight on to college. But for the British, the gap year is a hallowed institution, the year-long break before Uni (that’s university to you Yanks) where the budding minds of the best and the brightest head off into […]