Southeast Asia Travel News

We’re delighted to see Cambodia gain a 3rd UNESCO World Heritage Site, after Angkor and Preah Vihear, with the granting of such status to the ruined 6th and 7th century Khmer capital at Sambor Prei Kuk.   These picturesque ruined temples, scattered through forest north of Kompong Thom in central Cambodia, represent the remains of the royal capital, Ishnapura, of…

A few photos from a recent Cambodia street photography tour of Phnom Penh lead by Jeff, (Jean Francois) Perigois. Jeff is a long term resident of Cambodia’s capital so can lead you down a few back alleys you’d certainly never find – or dare to go down – yourselves and his great rapport with locals provides obvious advantages for street,…

Coming up, and based on nearly 20 years of leading tours to Cambodia’s UNESCO World Heritage site; a few small Angkor tips and suggestions on how to optimise your temple visit. Firstly though one very big tip! Try and time your visit for the low season. The awesome, often jungle-clad, temples in Western Cambodia are obviously today a huge draw…

So – wretched mosquitos and how to avoid them! First the good news: they are nowhere near as prevalent in Southeast Asia as many first time visitors imagine them to be. Especially in urban areas, particularly during the daytime and certainly outside of rainy season. In fact, we’ve been to many European tourist destinations with far higher population densities of…

Khmer Red Curry Khmer red curry paste (kroeung) can be made in advance and any leftover can be stored in the fridge for a couple of days or, it freezes well Curry paste ingredients 2 sticks of lemongrass, outer leaves discarded and roughly chopped 4 cloves garlic, peeled 2 shallots, peeled and chopped 2 kaffir lime leaves Zest of half…

Fish Amok – a lovely mild fish and coconut curry, fragrant, zesty and full of flavour. An easy version which can be cooked using ingredients many of us will have already, without the need for specialist shops.  Made it, ate it and did the washing up in less than an hour and there’s spare curry paste in the fridge for…

Mohinga – Burmese Noodle Soup Questionably the national dish of Burma, Mohinga is a comforting noodle soup available nationwide but especially in Yangon and the Southern Delta region where fish is plentiful. In posting this recipe, I apologise unreservedly to anyone in Burma/Myanmar for whom it is not traditional or “as mother cooked it”, but it works with Western ingredients…

Been visiting Trat Province Thailand and its most famous island, Koh Chang, for 25 years now and sure it’s changed a lot. Most places would do in a quarter of a century and now it has myriad resorts, car ferries, 24-hour electricity, sealed roads and Tesco Lotus stores – none of which it had in 1990 – but having just…

Sambor Prei Kuk; – the earliest known Khmer city in Cambodia is a superb site, yet one that’s largely overlooked by visitors to the kingdom. Dozens of decorated brick towers dating from the 6th and 7th centuries – some ruinous, some still remarkably well preserved, are scattered through picturesque forest some 30 kms north of the provincial town of Kompong…

The small island of Koh Thalu Thailand is certainly not one of the country’s best-known beach destinations but just may be one of its best-kept secrets. Whilst Koh Phi Phi, Samui, Lanta, Koh Chang et al are internationally famous, and all have their undoubted attractions and stunning scenery, it’s also great to find a beautiful little island that few others…

The sprawling city of Rangoon, or Yangon, is no longer Burma’s official capital but is still the nation’s largest and most important city by far and very much its commercial, cultural, historic and geographical centre. Rangoon is congested, hectic, noisy, grimy, frequently smelly; pavements are obstacle courses, street lighting is to say the least erratic and much of its wonderful…

Rangoon’s magnificent and iconic Shwedagon Pagoda is Yangon City’s best-known tourist destination and indeed Burma’s single most prestigious religious site. If you only see one temple in the country then you’d better make it this one! The sprawling Shwedagon Pagoda complex is considered to date originally from the Mon period some 1,500 years ago but has been updated, repaired and…

The Yangon or Rangoon circular line trains leave from the City’s Central Station describing a 30-mile loop through the inner city and suburbs before returning to its point of departure some 3 hours later. The train is scheduled hourly and alternates between clockwise and anti-clockwise circumnavigations and the price is a couple of hundred kyat for the round trip. Now…

Bagan sunsets and sunrises. The harsh light of Bagan can make temple photography during the middle of the day somewhat hard work and for your more atmospheric and photogenic opportunities, you’ll be restricted to those relatively short early morning and late afternoon times. Don’t worry during the intervening period there are more manageable village and rural life subjects since villages,…

Photographing Bagan – a few tips. Estimates of the precise figure vary but suffice to say there is the best part of 2,000 temples, pagodas, stupas, chedis and monasteries scattered across the wide plain between the Irrawaddy to the east and the range of low hills to the west. Differences between the categories of religious sites can also be somewhat…

Burma When’s the best time to go? A frequently asked question but not an easily answered one and at the risk of doing some unapologetic fence-sitting we’d say every season has its pros and cons. Broadly speaking Burma’s climate falls into 3 general seasons: rainy, dry cool and dry hot, though of course in such a large and geographically varied…

The Padaung people of Burma, more commonly known as the ‘Long-Neck Karen’, live in Kayah State in northeastern Burma and though the provincial capital Loikaw is now officially open for tourism it’s still very difficult to get to so your most likely contact with them would be at one of their lakeside souvenir stalls at Inle. The pros and cons…

The somewhat remote, Irrawaddy Delta town of Pathein is actually officially the 5th largest ‘city’ in Burma – which makes it slightly smaller than Moulmein (Mawlamyine) – yet even fewer tourists ever make it down to this super-friendly and fascinating river port than visit Mon State’s picturesque capital.  Pathein is the Delta’s commercial hub and the riverside area and central…

So, Inle Lake, U Bein Bridge, Bagan and Shwedagon Pagoda are the spots to get your iconic Burma travel photos but it’s well worth thinking outside the box in terms of your Burma itinerary since some of the lesser-known destinations can often be the most rewarding both in photographic and non-photographic terms. Kengtung Shan State being a case in point…

Since our recent Facebook photo proved popular we thought we’d post a few more of these wonderful images – the Maidens of the Clouds from Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. So-called because these wonderful frescoes are found halfway up a sheer cliff at the ancient site, and UNESCO World Heritage-listed, Sigiriya rock fortress in Sri Lanka’s ‘Cultural Triangle’. The rock shelters…