Blogs from Asia - page 13068

Welcome to Koh Tao, the most beautiful island I have ever seen! Koh Tao is the smallest island in the string of Koh's off the South East gulf of Thailand. We were a little worried on the way over to the island because our jetty was filled with ppl all going to the same destination. We chose a small bay on the South East side of the island that had three resorts. Our ride there was very bumpy in the back of a pick-up, since there are very few paved roads on the island. Let me rephrase that, there is a strip of paved road about 1km long. The rest of the island has to be reached by 4x4 truck. Our first destination was Ao Leuk bay. The three resorts turned out to be all small ... read more

Thanks to Global Warming, it is safe to say that the Japanese Winter is over, and Spring has indeed Sprung. This is not ideal for professional snowboarders (like myself) as there isnt much snow left around the place, but for flower enthusiasts all over Japan, christmas has come early. The cherry blossom is even starting, and if one has to give up snow, its nice to have cherry blossom to look at instead. Blooming Brilliant!! ... read more

So we headed north on a very s l o w bus journey to Luang Prabang. The slowness being due to big mountains and windy roads, in fact there were very few straight bits on the whole journey. We had a bus driver who looked no older than 14 and to increase our confidence the bus would pull in every so often and the "conductor" would throw out some money to men in a bunker armed with machine guns. We are not sure why they do this?, but it may be the tourist companies paying additional taxes to the underpayed armed forces whom are protecting the road from attacks by bandits that were a problem several years ago. Either way we were glad to arrive alive in Luang Prabang (LPB) only seven hours after we set ... read more

Pushkar: no meat, no eggs, and no alcohol but heaps of fun! Especially when you're there for Holi. Holi is the Hindu festival of colour, and like all good Hindu festivals there's no shortage colour, music, fun, and strange behaviour. According to the newspaper article we read in Mumbai: Holi occurs at the onset of Spring when the weather changes for the new season. Traditionally the cold winds brought with them colds, coughs and viral fevers. To offset this, people threw coloured ayurvedic powders at each other. The powders were a mix of medicinal plant leaves and herbs that would ease the ailments that arrived with Spring. Nowadays the powders are all chemical and lack any of the medicinal roots, but still the festival remains and is celebrated by throwing coloured powder and water on friends, ... read more

hello all!! bit of a backdated one im afraid- been so busy! got here after bit of a delayed flight coz of some ill man being taken off plane- bit bizarre! spent day in bangkok adjusting to time difference and heat, getting haircut, doing bits of shopping, checking out malls and khao san road. Then headed to Kanchanburi for a bit of culture and history. Visited the memorial for those who died while building the railway between thailand and burma, went to the museum and walked over the bridge- we were bit confused about which one was bombed and which was the original but hey! Had a train ride along the death railway which was cool, and the headed to a beautiful waterfall which Jo and I climbed! We were impressed with ourselves! Spent the afternoon ... read more