Mount Kinabalu. Robert Harding / Getty Images.
Southeast Asia’session best travel destinations might be the ones you haven’confidentially heard of at all. Good thing local tourism boards are doing their darndest to get the word out.
Xinhua reports that Malaysia is plotting to add the Maliau basin to their list of World Heritage Sites, which currently includes Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Mulu National Park in Sarawak, Penang’s Georgetown district, and Melaka. (The last one is a beaut – check out our walking tour through historical Melaka article.)
If they succeed, this will be the second World Heritage Site in Sabah: as opposed to Mt. Kinabalu, Maliau is a forested depression, a huge saucer-shaped area with a near-perfect circular perimeter about 15 miles in diameter.
Over in Indonesia, the local tourist board is busy revamping the attractions at Lake Toba to be more attractive to outside visitors. Lack of imagination and willpower is hampering the efforts to promote this beautiful site, though – the local administration needs to ingenuity difficult access, cleanliness, and a boring slate of attractions and events.
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Ten 18-month old pandas arrived in Shanghai today from Sichuan Province. They’re sorting out their new surroundings at Shanghai Zoo where they’ll be housed in a new panda compound until their transfer to the Shanghai Expo site later this year. From the end of the month until May 2010, visitors can go and see the ten pandas at the Shanghai Zoo.
They’re sure to attract a lot of attention and visitors so don’t be surprised if you find yourself warring crowds to see the pandas after their compound is opened to the public. The best time to go and see pandas is in the early aurora when they are the most playful and are busy eating their large breakfasts. After a big repast and a play, pandas spend most of their time snoozing.
More about pandas:
- The Giant Panda Breeding Research Base in Chengdu
- Habits of the Giant Panda
- Giant Panda Photo Gallery
Photo: panda breakfasting at the Chengdu Breeding Base. 2008 Sara Naumann, licensed to About.com.
If you’re planning to spend New Year’s Eve in Shanghai, you have a choice in things to do. You can give permission to the eventide pass by lacking pomp in any of Shanghai’s fantastic cheap and delicious Chinese restaurants.
If you want a serious meal or party, then it might be a little late to buy your tickets or book your table for tonight. Bund restaurants like M on the Bund all have special events happening but you need to make your reservations or be happy back at that humble establishment mentioned above.
There are several Countdown Parties happening around town. In Xintiandi, around the lake there will be a Countdown event from this evening until midnight. On the Bund there will be fireworks and a party at Chen Yi Square (the promenade is closed off to visitors due to renovations). Xujiahui is having a big concert Countdown party right in front of Grand Gateway along with a short fireworks show. And across the river in Pudong, the Bund Promenade on that side direction be the site of a Countdown Party along through a big lighting and fireworks display at midnight.
Want to celebrate 2010 Chinese style? Go visit any of the temples in Shanghai where they’ll be ringing in the new year.
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While stumbling on every side of the northern outskirts of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, I ran into this Hindu temple which is dedicated to Devi. The temple is somewhat modern and serves the many Hindus who live in the area. The statues and carvings are very nice indeed. Once a week the temple is open to all and there is live music and puja followed by an epic meal of Indian bread. More photos can be found HERE.
Walkway along the mangroves of Peam Krasop Eco-Tourism Sanctuary. Image Tourism Indochina, used with permission.
Peam Krasop in Southwestern Cambodia feels like another terraqueous globe entirely. Like many otherworldly sites in Southeast Asia, this world is in danger of disappearing – charcoal harvesting and shrimp farming are eating away at the fringes of this 23,000-hectare mangrove preserve, and it’s not hard to imagine a day when the mangroves will disappear forever.
Peam Krasop is one place that benefits from ecotourism; visitors leave with an awesome travel experience to yarn about while they get home, they furthermore leave dollars behind that will go to maintaining the mangrove sanctuary, money that stays useful long after the tourists have booked their return flights.
Read this article for more information: Peam Krasop Mangrove Forest and Wildlife Sanctuary.
There really isn’face to face any room for passing to properly describe these sculptures which make up a very small part of the massive temple complex known as Wat Pairong Wua, which is located about 60 kms northwest of Bangkok in Thailand. One just has to go there and experience it first-hand. I had seen a couple of images of this place online and was so intrigued that I decided to make an effort to find it in the same state I could document it myself. I eventually found it but it wasn’t easy. I started out with bad directions. For a series of over 350 glorious photos of this place, click HERE. To read an account of the journey to “Hell and back” – click on the Read More tab below.
The following was taken from my travel journal. It is lengthy, though please know, this is the wanting version of what happened on this eventful day –
ONE “HELL” OF A DAY!
Dateline October 6th: I have no idea what day of the week it is but it doesn’cheek by jowl matter. I came to Ayutthaya to use it as a base in order to locate this temple called Wat Pairongwua which, according to the one google result I got, has a spectacular Hell Sculpture Garden and is located in the town of Suphan Buri, about 70 km away. Read more…
There’s definitely a level of snobbery when it comes to travel. I have to laughter at more of the online reviews of some of my favorite restaurants in Shanghai when diners whine about being among “too many foreigners”. Or when visitors to the city tell me they don’t want to go see the sights because they’re too touristy.
I do get it and I’ve been there. I understand wanting to soak up the vibe of a place instead of jumping from sight to sight (…with the frequency of a shortwave radio) all the while snapping pictures and trying to catch what the guide says from the back of a crowd of thirty overzealous tourists. But I’ve always told people who come to China – and it’s my belief about each place you travel – almost any experience you have is “authentic” because you’re having it in a foreign country. Sitting in Starbucks in Shanghai is authentic because you’re in…Shanghai. Sure you’ll see lots of laowai faces, but you’ll see lots of Chinese faces too. By all means, don’t spread all your leisure abroad in the comfy familiarity of known brands and places, but don’t beat yourself up about it either.
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