Southeast Asia Travel News

The Rangri Dambulla Cave Temple – to give it the full name – is located in the area of north-central Sri Lanka known as the ‘Cultural Triangle’ due to its proliferation of spectacular ancient sites such as the nearby, UNESCO-listed rock fortress of Sigiriya, and also World Heritage-listed ancient cities of Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura. The series of 5 shallow, principal…

Although inscribed on UNESCO’s Thailand world heritage list as far back as 1991 the ancient city of Si Satchanalai remains firmly in the shadow of its better-known and more frequently visited neighbour Sukhothai. Indeed, the extensive ruins don’t even get a namecheck, merely falling into UNESCO’s category of ‘associated historic towns‘. (1) Si Satchanalai Historical Park today – combined with…

Thailand’s UNESCO entry Sukhothai shares a triple bill with the ruins of Kamphaeng Phet, to the west. and the ancient city of Si Satchanalai to the north under the combined (and imaginative) name of Historic Town of Sukhothai and Associated Historic Towns. The former lies some 80 kilometres southwest of Sukhothai and the latter over 50 kilometres north and while…

We have covered this topic in earlier posts but, with several Southeast Asian sites having been added to UNESCO’s list in recent times, here’s a brief update of Cambodia World Heritage Sites, as well as some of the candidates on its Tentative List. Current Sites Considering the wealth of unique archaeological and historical sites across the kingdom we can’t help…

As you’ll discover on our Beyond Angkor tour there are myriad, spectacular, lesser-known Angkor temples (as well as pre-Angkor) lying the length and breadth of Cambodia just waiting to be explored. Of course, iconic Angkor Wat, Bayon’s mysterious carved faces and the roots and creepers of atmospheric, jungle-clad Ta Prom are justifiably world-famous but some of these remoter and far…

A Borobudur sunrise visit is definitely going to be one of the undeniable highlights of any Java, or for that matter, Indonesia tour. Certainly, a world-renowned site but just to remind you; UNESCO World Heritage Borobudur is a 9th-10th century Mahayana Buddhist Temple situated around 40 kilometres northwest of Yogyakarta City. A sunrise entrance pass costs extra so keep visitor…

The now rather remote and rarely visited site of Koh Ker was for a brief period in the early 10th-century the capital of the vast Khmer empire. Lying in the Cambodian province of Preah Vihear, around 3 hours’ drive from Siem Reap Town, this extensive complex of forest ruins is what remains today of the imperial city of Lingapura constructed by…

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…

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…

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…

Today we’ll mostly be posting boat photos! The spectacular limestone scenery of Vietnam’s UNESCO-listed Trang An in Ninh Binh Province. The spectacular region certainly lives up to its name  – ‘Halong in the paddy-fields’ – but unluckily the weather was a bit overcast on the day we visited so our photos conspicuously fail to do justice to the landscapes. With…

We’ve always really liked this off the beaten track South Thai destination and always considered that both the town itself and the surrounding province of the same name, deserved far more visitors than the mere trickle it currently gets so it’s great to see Nakorn Si Thammarat may be about to get some recognition from no less an authority than…

Prasart Ta Prom, at UNESCO World Heritage-listed Angkor. Cambodia’s famous, so-called, ‘Tomb Raider Temple’ with its giant trees and sprawling roots is certainly one of the vast Angkor complex’s most famous and photogenic sites and so consequently, it does see a lot of visitors and in the high season particularly can get rather busy. A regular, classic itinerary would have…

That’s Preah Vihear Temple to the Khmers or Khao Preah Viharn for the Thais. The recently promoted UNESCO World Heritage site is situated smack bang on the border and yes….you may well have noticed in the news that there have been a few border ‘issues’ between the two countries in recent times. Note the disagreement has never been over ownership…

Now you will usually see adjectives such as mysterious or enigmatic preceding the name the Plain of Jars, Laos, with the reason being – since a stone jar in itself is not so mysterious –  that archaeologists can’t agree on their date or even their actual purpose so….enigmatic! The stone jars – up to 2m tall and carved out of…

Lying just a kilometre away from Wat Phu, the small Angkor period temple of Nang Sida, Laos, does tend to get overshadowed by it’s prestigious UNESCO World Heritage neighbour. After hiking up and down the steep steps at Wat Phu few visitors are going to be bothered to head off into the dusty surrounding scrub-land to visit a ‘lesser’ temple…

A bit rushed today so minimal text, (you’ll be glad to hear), and a few photos we came across in a far corner of our hard drive – kind of a computer equivalent of down the back of the sofa we guess. These are some of our favourite Apsaras of UNESCO World Heritage Angkor Wat carvings at with an estimated…

“A golden mystery upheaved itself on the horizon – a beautiful winking wonder that blazed in the sun…”. So described Rudyard Kipling on first setting eyes upon the truly awe-inspiring sight that is Yangon’s, or in his day Rangoon’s, famous Shwedagon Pagoda. The gold leaf-covered central stupa of Shwedagon Paya towers some 100 metres into the Yangon skyline – topped…

With its enticing and plentiful riverside cafes and excellent (and cheap) beer UNESCO World Heritage, Luang Prabang has to be one of the prime non-beach spots for sundowners in this part of the world so without for ado here’s a small selection of photos of sunset over the Mekong at Luang Prabang. So without further to-do here are a few…

A bit rushed today -no time to write a blog post – so we’ll fall back on a few classic dawn at Angkor Wat pictures, which you can never have too many of (can you)? Must have watched the dawn rise over the famous silhouette at least 30 times but it never gets boring! Different time of year, different weather,…