The Southeast Asia Travel Specialists Since 1999
Our Thailand, Koh Libong (Libong Island) extension is perfect for those looking for some quality beach time at the end of one of our Thai tours. The quiet and still relatively undeveloped island of Libong is situated on the Andaman Sea coast of southern Thailand’s Trang province. On one side lie mangrove swamps which are home to the endangered dugong,…
Explore the former Lao royal capital and now UNESCO listed World Heritage Site of Luang Prabang and discover its beautiful ancient temples, well-preserved French colonial architecture, bustling markets and riverside cafes. You’ll also travel by boat up the Mekong River to visit the dramatic Pak Ou cave temples, head into the surrounding hills to the picturesque Kuang Si Waterfalls and…
This fascinating, 2-week guided Laos and Cambodia tour, Indochina Adventure, takes you through the heart of Southeast Asia. Beginning in the riverside capital Vientiane we’ll travel north through the mountains on the brand new Lao-China Railway to the ancient royal city, now World Heritage Site, Luang Prabang to explore the ancient temples and French colonial-era architecture of what is certainly…
Here you’ll find a wide range of varied tour extensions which you can add before, after, or even on occasions during any of our regular tours. These stretch from a half-day, in the case of a cookery class, up to 5 or 6 days, or indeed for a beach or island extension – as long as you wish. For those…
A fantastic cruise in Vietnam’s celebrated UNESCO World Natural Heritage site of Halong Bay including an overnight stay onboard a comfortable, traditional-style wooden junk. You’ll visit the incredible limestone, karst scenery of the spectacular and famous Bay as well as the equally dramatic, but far less visited, Bai Tu Long Bay, lying just to the north of Halong in Bai…
Lampang – a town not usually on visitors’ itineraries for north Thailand although we reckon it certainly deserves to be and indeed – all the more reason for visiting! One of the oldest settlements in the region, the history of Lampang dates back over 1,500 years to the pre-Siamese, Mon, Dvaravati civilisation. This laid back provincial town, a short but…
Koh Mak; a wonderful and still largely unspoilt island lying in the eastern part of the Gulf of Thailand just south of its more famous neighbour Koh Chang. We reckon Koh Mak is the perfect compromise with enough of a tourist infrastructure to keep visitors comfortable, well-fed and occupied but without the over the top commercialism of some of the…
Congratulations to Wi for winning the silver award at the 2016 Wanderlust World Guides Award!!! Not bad out of 2,500 competitors and certainly a well-deserved acknowledgement after years of dedicated Southeast Asia tour guiding. Wi perfectly encapsulates our ethos; producing tours that are fun, informative, well-organised and with attention to detail yet leaving plenty of room for spontaneity, improvisation and…
A new addition to our Cambodia itinerary, this half-day tour to discover some of the local ‘cottage industries’ in one of the villages outside of Battambang has proved very popular. Also very practical since it can just as easily be done by bicycle or by tuk-tuk for the less energetic and the 3 or 4 hour round tour then leaves…
Hiking at Hellfire Pass. The Infamous Pass, or Konyu Cutting to use the original name, is one of the most notorious stretches of the Death Railway constructed during World War II by the Japanese army using Allied prisoners of war and conscripted Asian labourers. The Hellfire Pass Museum is a must-visit for any traveller to Kanchanaburi. In addition to the…
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…
Now portrait photography in Burma does amount to pretty much the same as taking people photographs anywhere else but with a few subtle differences so, here’s a brief run down. You have two basic strategies: either ask permission for a close-up shot or discreet shots with zooms. If you have a guide with you it’s easy to ask politely though hand…
Traditionally teh kingdom’s 2nd largest city, the western town of Battambang Cambodia has surely been overtaken by now by booming Siem Reap and although still relatively prosperous from the Province’s fine farming land, (indeed it’s sometimes known as ‘Cambodia’s rice bowl’), it has been largely bypassed by the country’s tourism boom. Well until recently that is but these days Battambang’s…
Kipling famously described Burma as being ‘quite unlike any land you know about’ and the remote Shan State outpost of Kengtung is certainly quite unlike any Burmese town you’d know about. You’ll rarely hear Burmese spoken; few locals wear longyis, you won’t see many girls sporting thanaka paste, there’s little Burmese food and the usually ubiquitous Aung San Suu Kyi…
A selection of Bac Ha photos from the famous hill-tribe market – Vietnam, taken on a recent visit during our Vietnam and China tour – South of the Clouds, Yunnan Province as well as some from an earlier Mountains and Hill-tribes – Lao and Vietnam tour led by Wi. The very colourful local market is relatively easily accessed from either…
The second batch of photos taken by Wi on her recent 2-week Discover Burma tour includes some of her wonderful portraits of a few of the characters encountered en-route and, in case you missed the previous set of landscape photos, here’s the link. The Pa-O, like many people in Burma, are big fans of the betel nut but…
As we maintained in our recent – ‘Cambodia tours – what’s the food like post’ – after having taken a backseat to its more culinarily illustrious neighbours Vietnam and Thailand – Khmer cuisine is making great strides of late so, without further ado, here’s a selection of 10 Cambodia dishes to try among the kingdom’s varied and surprisingly tasty food…
Another Asian cuisine that’s sadly little-known outside of the country so here’s a list of 10 Burmese dishes not to be missed on any Burma (Myanmar) tour. You’ll find all the fresh herbs of Thai cooking; lemongrass, ginger, galangal, coriander, chillies, the spices, pulses and bread of Indian food, distinct Chinese influences and plenty of unique local flavours which, combined,…
Hill-tribes in Southeast Asia. You’ll have me across the term ‘hill-tribe’ in many of our Southeast Asia tour pages, or indeed those of most other operators running tours in the region, or for that matter in most of the relevant guide books you’ll find, and refers to the minority ethnic groups inhabiting the mountainous areas of northern Thailand, Laos, Vietnam,…
Malaysia World Heritage Sites includes 2 cultural sites in the Peninsular and a national park each in Borneo’s Sabah and Sarawak States. A further 2 candidates in the tentative section adds a second national park in Sarawak plus the famous Taman Negara in West Malaysia. Considering the country’s rich cultural heritage and stunning landscapes that’s a relatively poor return though…