Amazing ASIA

MALAYSIAN FOOD

2010-02-17T17:07:00.001-08:00

The Malaysian food is a multicultural affair combining Malays, Indians, Chinese and Peranakan, this is what you expect to get from a country that is such a melting pot of cultures. The fusion of these cuisines that has developed over the centuries makes Malaysian food not only colorful, spicy and eclectic – but also downright tasty .With such a pulsating diversity of food styles, Malaysia is a fabulous place to enjoy the art of eating and drinking.

Malaysia food is a multicultural affair combining Malays, Indians, Chinese and Peranakan

Rice normally is a staple in Malaysian food, and unless you are eating roti prata or noodles, you are almost definitely to eat your meal with rice in one form or another. The rice eaten in Malaysia tends to be the local variety of rice (mainly from Kedah) or fragrant rice from Thailand.

Dining out in Malaysia is inexpensive, and the choice of food is unbelievably large, there’s Malaysian food on sale literally everywhere you turn in Malaysia, from 5-star hotels to the local restaurants and hawker centres. Eating is a national pastime in Malaysia and you’ll never be too far from some delicious food. Live to eat – it’s the mantra of Malaysia.

Malaysian food is one of our greatest attractions and an ever present embodiment of our diversity, and harmony.

GETTING TO MALAYSIA

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BY AIR
Most visitors arrive by air at one of the six international airports in Malaysia. The main gateway is the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at Sepang in the state of Selangor, which is located about 50km from the capital city of Kuala Lumpur (KL). Those flying in by budget airlines will arrive at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal LCCT KLIA, which is located 20km away from the KLIA Main Terminal Building. The rest of the country, including Sabah, Sarawak and the Federal Territory of Labuan in East Malaysia, is well serviced by 14 domestic airports and airstrips.

From KLIA, Kuala Lumpur is a short 28-minute journey away on the comfortable KLIA Ekspres, a high-speed rail service or 90 minutes using shuttle bus service to KL Sentral. By road, visitors may travel via the ELITE highway or the North-South Expressway. The North-South Expressway also links the main towns on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Car rental, bus, taxi, limousine and rail services into Kuala Lumpur and neighbouring towns are widely available at the airport.

BY SEA
Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia are easily accessible via sea ports. Located just outside the capital city of Kuala Lumpur (KL) on the west coast of the Peninsular, Port Klang is Malaysia’s largest modern sea port. With excellent harbourage, it is also a major shipping and cargo terminal. Other major sea ports are located on the islands of Penang and Langkawi, in the north of the Peninsular; at Johor to the south; at Kuantan on the East Coast; and at Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.

Westport on Pulau Indah:
Already serviced by North Port and South Port, Port Klang is now serviced by the new international harbour city – Westport located on the island of Pulau Indah. A free trade zone, Pulau Indah is currently being developed as an industrial, commercial, residential, recreational and tourism hub with a marina and resorts.

Stretching over 11km, with a natural depth of 14-18 metres, Westport is designed to be a high-tech regional port. It has a container terminal, large warehouse area and commercial centre. Star Cruise Terminal – the largest cruise ship terminal in the Asia-Pacific region – is also situated here. Star Cruise is a major international leisure cruise line that calls at Penang, Port Klang, Melaka and Langkawi.

FerryLink operates a vehicular ferry service from Changi Point in Singapore to Tanjung Belungkor on the southern coastline of the Peninsular. Tanjung Belungkor is the gateway to the popular beach resort of Desaru. There are four daily trips on weekdays and eight daily trips on weekends. For reservations, please call 02-545 3600 (Changi Point) or 07-252 7408 (Bandar Penawar, Johor). Another way into Malaysia, is to take a StarCruise liner from Singapore, and arriving at Port Klang, a port about 140 kms from Kuala Lumpur.

BY ROAD AND RAIL
Located 48km north of Alor Star in the northern state of Kedah, Bukit Kayu Hitam is the main entry point into Malaysia for visitors from Thailand. The North-South Expressway links Bukit Kayu Hitam to Kuala Lumpur – 490km away. Near the Malaysian immigration and customs post are restaurants, shops, car parks and a duty-free shopping complex.

Situated on the main rail route with a daily train service from Bangkok, Padang Besar – in Malaysia’s northernmost state of Perlis – is another entry point. Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) or Malayan Railway provides an international express from Butterworth to Haadyai in Thailand, and regular services from Padang Besar to Singapore via Kuala Lumpur.

The exclusive Eastern and Oriental Express also romances the route from Bangkok to Singapore via Kuala Lumpur. Covering the entire length of the Peninsular – over 2,000 km, this two-day journey has frequent stops at scenic locations.

For visitors entering from the Singapore, Johor Bahru is the main southern entry point. The North-South Expressway links Johor Bahru with Kuala Lumpur – 220km to the north. A rail and road causeway connects Johor Bahru to Singapore. Immigration and customs checkpoints are based at the entrance to the Causeway. A second bridge links Tanjung Kupang – 30km south-west of Johor Bahru – to Tuas in Singapore.

Top things to do in Singapore

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Here are 3 things to do in Singapore!

Day 1: Chinatown & Around

Spend the first morning wandering around Chinatown and sampling its culinary wonders, then head to the World Trade Centre (WTC) and cable car your way up Mt Faber for a beer and a view of the city. While away the evening with a leisurely stroll along the quays and dinner at Empress Place.

Day 2: Museums, Shopping, Nightlife

On Day 2, wander around the Padang and visit the Asian Civilisations Museum, then take in a typical lunch at a hawker centre before bracing yourself for some Orchard Rd shopping action and dinner on trendy Club St. Or See a performance at the Esplanade theaters. The Esplanade is an amazing theater and arts complex (and yes, it's near a mall) featuring multiple world class performances in music, theater and dance at any given time.

Day 3: Little India & Singapore Zoo

Spend the next morning exploring Little India, then chill out at the Botanic Gardens. Next, it's a toss-up between a vegetarian snack (or three) in the exuberant side streets of Little India or an early dinner in one of the fine French restaurants on Ann Siang Hill in Chinatown, but I'm liable to just make a beeline for the Newton Food Centre to the north of Orchard Rd and sit down at the stall selling delicious stingray dishes. From here jump in a taxi and take the night-safari tram ride through the superb Singapore Zoological Gardens (Singapore Zoo). Finish up with a cocktail or beer in one of the dramatic shop-house bars on Emerald Hill Rd, just off Orchard Rd, and end with an early morning shisha (hooka-style pipe) on Arab St in Kampong Glam.

Beijing: Made in China Part 14

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Arts Coffee Haven
25 Chengxian Jie St., Dongcheng; 86-10/6405-2047; dessert for two $10.

Where to shop

Guang Han Tang Chinese Antique Furniture & Art
Treasures spotted here recently: a Ming dynasty bed; pharmacy cabinets smelling of medicinal herbs. Ships internationally.
Jichuang Fulu, near Nangao Rd., East Dashanzi, Chaoyang; 86-10/8456-7945; www.guanghantang.com.

What to read

Exhibiting Experimental Art in China
By Wu Hung. Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, 2000.

Rong Rong's East Village
By Wu Hung. Chambers Fine Art, 2003.

Tui-Transfiguration By Rong Rong and Inri. Timezone 8, 2004.

Beijing 798 Edited by Huang Rui. Timezone 8, 2004. A 50-year history of the Factory.

Nine Lives: The Birth of Avant-Garde Art in New China
By Karen Smith. Scalo Verlag, 2005.

Most titles are available through Timezone 8 bookstore, Factory 798. 86-10/8456-0336; www.timezone8.com.

Web only: Where to go out

Pause Cafe
4 Jiuxianqiao Rd. (one block down from the CIMG building)
Dashanzi Art District
86-10/6431/6214

Yan Club
4 Jiuxianqiao Rd.
Dashanzi Art District
86-10/8457-3506
www.yanclub.com

Beijing: Made in China Part 13

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Galleries

Red Gate
The respected gallery's new space at 798 was previously a liquor factory.
2 Jiuxianqiao Rd.; 86-10/ 6438-1005; www.redgategallery.com.

Chinese Contemporary
Factory 798, 4 Jiuxianqiao Rd.; 86-10/8456-2421; www.chinesecontemporary.com.

Long March Space (formerly 25,000 Li Cultural Transmission Center)
Factory 798, 4 Jiuxianqiao Rd.; 86-10/6438-7107; www.longmarchspace.com.

Imagine Gallery Laiguangying Donglu
Feijiacun Donglu and Laiguangying Donglu, Chaoyang; 86-10/6438-5747; www.imagine-gallery.com.

China Art & Archives Warehouse
A gallery opposite the Nangao police station, in an area just outside The Fifth Ring Road.
Caochangdi Cun, Jichang Fulu; 86-10/8456-5152.

Where to stay

Bamboo Garden Hotel
Charming hotel in a small hutong near the Jiugulou subway stop.
24 Xiao Shiqiao Jiugulou Dajie, Xicheng; 86-10/6403-2229; www.bbgh.com.cn; doubles from $94.

Grand Hyatt
A modern, elegant retreat steps from Tiananmen Square.
1 E. Chang An Ave.; 800/233-1234 or 86-10/8518-1234; www.grand.hyatt.com; doubles from $180.

Where to eat

South Silk Road
Spicy Yunnanese food cooled by a sleek interior at either location of this eatery owned by the painter Fang Lijun.
19A Lotus Lane, Shichahai, Xicheng, 86-10/6615-5515; or 3D Soho New Town Bldg., 88 Jianguo Rd., Chaoyang, 86-10/ 8580-4286; dinner for two $21.

Bed Tapas & Bar
Spanish and Asian tapas in a fashionable lounge.
17 Zhangwang Hutong, Dongcheng; 86-10/8400-1554; dinner for two $31.

Qu Nar
Delicious Zhejiang cuisine in artist Ai Weiwei's restaurant—tucked away in a lane behind the La Popo sign.
16 Dongsanhuan Bei Rd., Chaoyang; 86-10/6508-1597; dinner for two $15.

Beijing: Made in China Part 12

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When to go

Spring or fall is best. Temperatures average 55 to 79 degrees in September and May, the month when the annual Dashanzi International Art Festival takes place.

Getting there

Beijing's Capital Airport has 98 international air routes linking the city to 39 countries. From the States, stopovers are typical, but United Airlines and Air China offer direct service from JFK, LAX, and San Francisco. Continental flies nonstop from Newark, as does United from Chicago O'Hare.

Getting around

Taxis are relatively cheap in Beijing. Unless you are fluent in Mandarin, have the address of your destination written out in Chinese. The subway is also easy to use but doesn't go out to Dashanzi.

Beijing: Made in China Part 11

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The Mount Fuji photographs were taken with a self-timer: they show the artists from a distance, hand in hand, walking toward the mountain. In many of the photographs, there's so much snow that you can't see Fuji, only a trace of horizon and the twig-like figures of the artists in the white landscape. In other shots, they lie together on the frozen ground, or crouch like animals in the snow. In the last photographs, the massive cone of the mountain suddenly appears, shrouded in clouds—just as the artists vanish, leaving two sets of crooked prints. "There really is a Fate—or some sort of intermediary," Rong Rong said. "We came across this beautiful environment. The irony is that we wanted to photograph Mount Fuji, but in the end you could hardly see the mountain." "A gift from God," Inri said.

I knew that nothing remained of the original Beijing East Village, but I was curious to see the place where it had once existed. Today you enter the south side of Chaoyang Park through a futuristic red and yellow archway. The park is enormous—790 acres—and signs point in several directions: to the Rainbow Children's Playground, the Boat Pier, and an area identified as Shade of the Tree and Happy Sound of Singing. On the morning I visited, it was several degrees below freezing, and with the exception of a few hardy retirees practicing tai chi near the duck boats, the place was almost deserted. It was in this kind of weather that Rong Rong returned to the site to take photographs, in 2002. Even after studying those photographs, however, it was impossible to determine exactly which corner of the park the East Village once occupied. I felt silly for trying. In the couple's recent book, Tui-Transfiguration, Inri observes: "People who go to visit those places cannot perceive the world of our experience. That world does not exist anywhere in the real world. You can only possess that world with us through these photographs." It's an observation everyone who travels understands: a city shows each visitor a new face, and every traveler arrives in a city no one has ever seen before.

Beijing: Made in China Part 10

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On one of my last evenings in Beijing, I visited Rong Rong and his wife, the Japanese artist Inri, at their apartment just outside the Fifth Ring Road. The Beijing-based Canadian photographer Karen Patterson had agreed to translate for us. The first thing a visitor sees upon entering the double-height living area is a large photograph of the couple, naked and holding hands. It was taken at 798, when the complex was still a derelict industrial space. Even with the skyrocketing rents, the famous photographers could have their studios at 798 if they chose; a series of 16 of their prints recently sold in the United States for $100,000. But like many Beijing artists, the couple doesn't feel that Dashanzi is a good place to create art. "Too many people," Inri told me, making a face. Rong Rong added: "This is our life. This is our work. Over there, it's almost as if the artist's studio becomes a public place."

Rong Rong and Inri's home is a kind of temple to photography, where the tools of their craft dominate the space. The artists showed me a 10-foot-high, army-green enlarger the way a collector might show off a new treasure, and their work was everywhere on the walls, giving the austere new building a feeling of personal history. Maybe the most striking work was their recent Mount Fuji series, made on their honeymoon in Japan in 2001. While Inri served tea from a glass pot, the couple described the trip, completing each other's sentences. On their way to the hot springs at Ido, they happened to pass the sacred mountain when it was covered with snow—and ended up staying there for three days. Because the hotels were too expensive, they slept in their car. "We were freezing!" Inri exclaimed. "If the car had run out of gas, we would've died," Rong Rong added calmly.

Beijing: Made in China Part 9

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When I met them, Wang and Zhang had just returned from a show in Guangzhou; although his photographs have been shown all over the world, this was the first time they had been officially exhibited at a major museum in China. For the show he chose relatively conservative work (the nude girls were left at home), including Follow Me, a three-by-nine-foot photograph of the artist as a teacher, in front of an enormous chalkboard scrawled with error-riddled English and Chinese slogans: "Let the world learns about China!" and "Is it possible for me to exchange some British pounds for the U.S. dollars?" The piece was inspired by an English course that aired on Chinese television in the eighties, after Deng Xiaoping's reforms took effect. Wang remembers trying and failing the course, gathered with his neighbors around the rare television set, while the news reported the program's success stories—an ordinary soldier who graduated from the course and became an English professor, for example. "I was suspicious of this teaching method," Wang said drily. "Either those reports were false, or I was stupid."

In spite of Wang's caution, when Follow Me was exhibited in Guangzhou, a documentary film professor from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts spoke out against the work.

"She was very critical, very passionate," Zhang said. "She said this work looked with 'a wicked eye'—that it saw only the negative things in Chinese society." Toward the end of the lecture a young girl—a student in the Academy—stood up. "Maybe you don't understand this work," she said. "Maybe this work is using a strategy to criticize commercial culture." Like any good teacher's, Wang's criticism is inspired by love. "I miss the bygone days," Wang told me. "But I also appreciate the present. Now, whenever I go outside, I find inspiration to make my work."

Beijing: Made in China Part 8

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The scene wouldn't have been unfamiliar to many of Beijing's more established artists, like Wang Qingsong, who lived in Songzhuang, Beijing's oldest surviving artists' village, in the mid 1990's. Because artists weren't allowed in the area at the time, he was constantly hiding from the police: "I moved ﬁve times in one year," he told me, when I visited him and his family at their home. Wang, whose strikingly beautiful large-format photographs at once criticize and celebrate the "global" commercial culture of today's Chinese cities (his work often includes a Coke bottle or McDonald's golden arches), now lives with his wife, Zhang Fang, their son, and Zhang's parents in a spacious but casual apartment in the eastern district of Tongxian, a neighborhood known for the number of artists living there. (The noted performance artist He Yunchang has an apartment downstairs.) A Donald Duck bicycle was parked underneath one of Wang's most famous pieces, China Mansion, a scroll-like photograph in which naked female models play out famous scenes from art history against a background of banquets and orgies. The work refers simultaneously to contemporary decadence and the excesses of imperial China. The only decoration aside from Wang's art was a drawing scribbled in pink and green crayon directly onto the wall. Its creator, the couple's four-year-old son, Ruyang, practiced writing characters while we talked. "His non-Chinese name is Michelangelo," his mother said, looking approvingly at her son's work. "I like the sound of that Italian name a lot."

Beijing: Made in China Part 7

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As Beijing expands, its artists move farther and farther from the city center. Those whose work is selling look for bigger studios and (marginally) cleaner air; the ones who are just starting out simply look for the cheapest possible rent. I visited the international art communities of Feijiacun and Suojiacun, where Chinese painters and sculptors work alongside visiting and expatriate foreign artists. Laetitia Gauden, a French curator who started the Imagine Gallery in Feijiacun in 2003, took me next door to Suojiacun to see the new live-work space she shares with her husband, a musician in a Beijing hard-core band, and their son. Gauden was tremendously excited about the potential for Suojiacun, which was attracting artists with its large, warehouse-like studios and low rents—it's significantly cheaper than Factory 798's. She showed me the border beyond which the community had recently expanded. "People kept coming," she explained. Soon after I returned to New York, however, the police gave the residents of Suojiacun a warning: because the developer lacked "proper authorization," their homes and studios were technically illegal. Although the artists and curators lobbied for the compound, the bulldozers arrived last November. After only 24 hours' warning, they began demolishing the buildings, leaving residents scrambling to remove their possessions.

Beijing: Made in China Part 6

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The situation is very different today. At home and abroad, Chinese artists are being exhibited and fêted, and their work is being sold for record prices. An oil painting by Liu Xiaodong that went for $20,000 two years ago now goes for $200,000, and in 2004, Hong Hao became one of the first Chinese artists living on the mainland to have his work acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Although most of the buyers at this level are foreign, Christophe Mao, the director of Chambers Fine Art, a gallery representing Chinese artists in Manhattan, says it's only a matter of time before mainland Chinese collectors descend on the market: "Just wait," he predicted. "Once they start, you won't be able to get your hands on any of it."

While grateful for the attention, some Chinese artists are a bit suspicious about why they're suddenly so popular. "Any article you read from the West starts with one of two things: the Cultural Revolution or June 4," Ho said, referring to the demonstrations in June of 1989, when the government turned on the protesters in Tiananmen Square. Wang, who was 17 at that time, added that the youngest generation of Chinese artists is now making work that is completely apolitical. He feels that exhibitions in the West (Wang's work has been shown in London, Chicago, and New York) tend to focus too much on political themes. "It can't be helped," he told me. "If people don't understand your work, they'll look for something exotic in it. Their first impulse is to say, 'Their society is this way, so they make art this way.'" He looked up from his laptop, where he'd been showing me the design for a new installation. "It's important to get past our curiosities," he said.

Beijing: Made in China Part 5

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Tung's prediction came true in January. After years of uncertainty, the Beijing municipal government designated Factory 798 a cultural landmark, protecting it at least for the near future. The owners have requested a master-plan proposal from Studio Works, a Los Angeles–based architecture and urban-design practice that will set up a new design center in the factory. In collaboration with Chinese architects, the new studio will focus on developing an environmentally sustainable vision for the unique site.

I met Wang Wei and his wife, Rania Ho, at the Arts Coffee Haven, a tiny, welcoming place west of the Confucius Temple with Buddhist murals on the ceiling and a wood-burning stove. There, earnest art students consume mocha lattes, green tea cheesecake, and something called "masala toast"—a menu that highlights some hidden perils of globalization. Ho, who is an artist and a curator, was born and raised in California; the couple met as students at Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1992, and are now married.

Wang is well-known for his installations, which often put the viewer in a confined or otherwise uncomfortable space. He agreed that Dashanzi is good for Chinese experimental art—although the glitzy galleries and welcoming atmosphere are a far cry from the underground exhibitions that characterized the experimental art scene a decade ago. At that time, artists and curators famously held shows in basements and on the outskirts of town in order to avoid being shut down by the police. "There was a period when if an exhibition stayed open for a week, that was a long time," Ho said.

Beijing: Made in China Part 4

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The pace of change in Beijing has been rapid but inconsistent—and that patchwork transformation is reflected in the art world as well. Shows are still canceled, but not necessarily the most transgressive ones. Because of 798's uncertain future, curators and artists who occupy these impressive spaces are forced to be flexible. The Long March Space, which is well known for its public-art projects along the route of Mao's Long March, uses its space at 798 more as a base than as a gallery. When I visited, members were displaying the results of their "Great Survey of Paper-cutting in Yanchuan County," a collaboration among artists, government officials, and the residents of one agrarian county in Shaanxi province. The subjects of this artistic census—people of all ages—were asked to cut traditional red latticework patterns into the design most familiar to them. The results ranged from scenes of village life, to profiles of Mao Tse-tung, to the logo of the official Chinese television station, CCTV.

Factory 798's tenants can rent for three to five years at a time; when their lease was up in 2005, the Long March Space opened a new location on the other side of the complex. David Tung, the gallery's young executive director, showed me around: Wang Mai's Space Bodhisattva, delicate ink drawings of Yang Liwei, the first Chinese man in space, and photographs of Wang Wei's brick-box installation, What Does Not Stand Cannot Fall, were on view for the inaugural exhibition.

"The irony is that the people trying to destroy 798 are actually the neoliberals, the capitalists," Tung said as we toured the space. "It's the government—the right—who are preserving it. We're in a weird situation now: the left becomes the right, and right becomes left."

Beijing: Made in China Part 3

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Factory 798 is constantly rumored to be on the point of destruction. Perhaps that is the secret to artistic vitality in Beijing. The international attention the old factories have received, combined with the lobbying efforts of artists and gallery owners, has persuaded the municipal government of 798's value—as architecture, as a cultural asset, and as a tourist draw during the upcoming Olympics. "They won't demolish it at least until 2008," said Jenny Wong, one of the curators at the Chinese Contemporary gallery, when I visited Beijing recently. "They wouldn't have time to build something new and glossy before then." Even in Dashanzi, it's hard to forget the 46-foot clock hanging over the National Museum in Tiananmen Square, ticking down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Wong gave me a tour of her gallery, an airy second-floor space with its original wood-beamed ceiling. Ma Liuming's arresting self-portraits were on display downstairs, while Lu Hao's architectural Plexiglas cages were on the second floor. Wong mentioned rumors that a Hong Kong developer was negotiating with the current owners to buy the 798 complex; although he'd promised not to evict the artists or the galleries, a bunch of new high-rises would dramatically change the atmosphere—not to mention the rent. "We just don't know," she said.

Beijing: Made in China Part 2

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Zhang's performance, called 12 Square Meters, was dedicated to the artist Ai Weiwei, who as a child accompanied his father, the famous poet Ai Qing, when he cleaned latrines in western China during the Cultural Revolution. Two weeks after the performance in the toilet, the police came and arrested several of the Dong Cun artists, and in 2001 the village was razed to make way for a public park.

In the last dozen years, Beijing has stretched its borders; what used to be the periphery is now prime real estate, and some of the most interesting galleries and studios have had to migrate outside the city proper. Just inside the Fifth Ring Road, the tourist-friendly "art district" Dashanzi is still the best place to see what Beijing artists are doing today. Dashanzi is home to Factory 798, a cultural center housed in the complex of brick workshops that was once Asia's largest military electronics plant. Constructed in the 1950's with the help of East German engineers, many of the buildings have the serrated roofs and stark right angles typical of Bauhaus architecture. The north-facing skylights, designed to provide the most consistent light for working with fine tools, are also convenient for curators, who will host the third annual Dashanzi International Art Festival there in May. Although you can still see girls in pink caps and jackets playing desultory games of badminton outside the few remaining electronics workshops, most of 798's tenants are now artists' studios, galleries, shops, and

Beijing: Made in China Part 1

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Beijing's vibrant arts scene has gone from underground to big-time. As the city rushes to transform itself, Nell Freudenberger tags along with a few of the Chinese art world's brightest stars.

Not long ago, at the Asia Society on Park Avenue in Manhattan, I saw a photograph I couldn't stop thinking about. It showed a young Chinese man, naked from the waist up, sitting in profile against a raw concrete wall. His arms and one knee (the only parts of his body not in shadow) glistened as if they'd been oiled; around his eyes, his ears, and all up and down his arms were clusters of black flies. What was most striking about this picture was the concentrated expression on the young man's face, as if he were looking at something spectacular and inaccessible, just outside the frame.

The photograph was taken by Rong Rong, one of a group of artists who lived in the early nineties in a village a little beyond Beijing's Third Ring Road—what was then the outskirts of the city. The artists renamed their new home Dong Cun (East Village), and the daring work produced there soon attracted the attention of critics and foreign journalists. In a letter to his sister, dated June 3, 1994, Rong Rong described how his friend Zhang Huan had covered his body in fish sauce and honey and sat in one of the East Village's public toilets in 100-degree heat for an entire hour: "The worst was watching flies trying to get into his ears. Still Zhang Huan didn't flinch a bit, sitting as still as a statue. Holding my camera, I felt that I couldn't breathe, it felt like the end of life."

Hiking the Great Wall of China Part 6

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If you go…

Getting there: From Beijing, take a bus from Dongzhimen station to Miyun, then take another bus to Gubeikou and get off at the Jinshanling gate. Trains are also available to Gubeikou.

Cost: There is a $5 entrance fee for each traveler at the Jinshanling Wall. Sun Hailong's overnight service costs $24 per person per night and includes dinner and breakfast.

Currency: The Chinese yuan is the official currency (8.09 yuan to one U.S. dollar). There are currency exchange facilities in Beijing.

Getting by: English is not widely spoken, so the services of a guide or translator may be useful.

When to go: The temperatures are most comfortable in September and October and in the spring.

What to bring: Sturdy shoes or boots and clothing suitable for hiking and cooler weather.

Information: Sun Hailong speaks Chinese and some English. He can be reached by mobile telephone at (011) 86-139-3244-4368.

Hiking the Great Wall of China Part 5

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We slept—somewhat uncomfortably in the chill air—until the sun rose early the next morning over the saw-tooth horizon. Sun made us a simple breakfast of instant noodles, which we slurped down eagerly.

We spent half the next day hiking 6.2 miles of the Great Wall—over loose stones and along paths that skirted weak or collapsed sections—to Simatai, another stretch with steeper inclines—and more tourists.

Although annoyingly persistent hawkers followed us at times, trying to peddle bottled water and postcards, we were virtually alone on the Jinshanling wall. Like a narrow and dilapidated cobbled street, it led us through tumbledown watchtowers and over small mountain peaks.

But the enchanting solitude of Jinshanling ended abruptly at Simatai, where crowds of tourists were disembarking from tour buses and swarming around amusements such as a trolley across a river gulch, restaurants and a cable car that carries passengers up a mountainside.

With the widely touted 2008 Beijing Olympics on the horizon and bigger crowds expected, the seclusion we experienced at the Jinshanling wall—with its sweeping views, abandoned battlements and pristine countryside—may become harder to find.

Better to visit before the next invasion.

Hiking the Great Wall of China Part 4

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"The Mongols and their horses ran out of food and had to call off their attack," said Spindler, who added that Jinshanling was vulnerable to enemy raids because it was a low-lying area.

The ascent to Jinshanling took us less than an hour, though the climb was at times steep and the footing shaky. From one point, we watched the sun set behind mountaintops before hiking back to Sun's house for a meal of dumplings, stir-fried vegetables and glasses of beer.

Then we pulled on fleece jackets as the night got colder and, with flashlights beaming, headed into darkness to return to the wall for the night.

Under a nearly full moon, we traipsed along some of the wall's narrow walkways, through shadowy passageways and over several steep humps along the wall's spine. It was eerily still, except for the flashes of a photographer's camera in the distance.

We arrived at Sun's watchtower, where we decided to sleep under the stars, outside the tower's box-like stone house.

Sun laid out a tarpaulin and sleeping bags for us while we brushed our teeth by leaning over the crenels where Chinese sentries might have hurled stones at marauders below.

Hiking the Great Wall of China Part 3

2008-05-25T21:50:00.001-07:00

Inside the rampart, we could see the wall's hodgepodge construction over many centuries: older brown bricks were nested in gritty mortar alongside clean dark gray ones used by restorers in recent decades.

Ming dynasty rulers began construction of the Jinshanling wall—roughly as it exists today, with strategic holes and chutes for weaponry and watchtowers—in response to raids by bow-and-arrow-wielding Mongols in the 1500s.

Their soldiers and artisans used bricks as a facing for a stone-and-mortar wall erected after a 1550 attack by Mongol horsemen, according to David Spindler, an independent scholar who has been researching the wall around Beijing for several years. It was bolstered by brick ramparts.

ut the wall's history likely stretches back further.

"Another section of wall in the Jinshanling area, parallel to the current wall, may have been built by the Northern Qi dynasty," which ruled from 550 to 577 A.D., Spindler added.

The Jinshanling wall, now almost silent except for the squawks of pheasants, was once the scene of a historic battle between Chinese forces and Mongol fighters in October 1554.

But the Chinese overwhelmed the Mongols in just three days.

Hiking the Great Wall of China Part 2

2008-05-25T21:49:00.001-07:00

Visiting mainland China for the first time with my father, who had flown in from the United States, I arranged through a Beijing-based friend to meet Sun near Jinshanling, the section of the wall where he lives with his family.

We arrived late one afternoon after riding for three hours in a minibus crowded with cigarette-puffing locals. Along the way, we passed scenes of rural life—ruddy-faced farmers sitting on their haunches outside brick houses, firewood stacked high, herds of sheep.

The van left us on a desolate stretch of highway, at the mouth of a road spanned by an immense stone gateway that marked the entrance to Jinshanling. Sun greeted us there, grinning and urging my father and I to climb into the back of his three-wheeled motorcycle.

"Today, the sunset will be beautiful," said Sun, a mustachioed 37-year-old who wore a T-shirt, dark blue trousers and traditional black cotton shoes.

After riding uphill for several miles, we arrived at Sun's house and souvenir shop, dropped off our bags and continued on foot to the wall, which stood like a medieval fortress in the distance.

We clambered up stone stairs, traversed a sagebrush-covered hillside and entered a keyhole-like door the base of the Jinshanling wall, which is partially restored but less touristed than areas such as Badaling, which former U.S. President Richard Nixon visited in 1972.

Hiking the Great Wall of China Part 1

2008-05-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

The Mongol attackers are long gone, but the vast brick-and-stone barrier that helped China repel them and other invaders still stands—and awaits a new horde of travelers who can explore and even camp out on the centuries-old fortification.

Crumbling in some areas and neatly restored in others, the Great Wall—actually a patchwork of walls—snakes over hills and through craggy ravines covering thousands of miles of Chinese countryside, dotted by watchtowers once manned by Ming dynasty sentinels.

Some of the towers, where enterprising Chinese today guard only souvenir stands, have sprung back to life as something akin to modern-day hostels, sheltering hikers who come for overnight trips to soak up history and vistas of former battlefields now carpeted with vegetation.

Sun Hailong, a Chinese guide of Mongol ancestry, rents one of the towers about 87 miles northeast of the Chinese capital, Beijing, and takes visitors who want to spend the night—by pitching a tent or simply unfurling a sleeping bag—in its crenelated confines.

Beijing Prepares for the Olympics Part 2

2008-05-25T21:47:00.001-07:00

Pollution: The city's choking pollution and snarled traffic will be controlled during the 17-day Olympics when at least one-third of 3.3 million vehicles will be banned, and dust-spewing building sites and sooty factories are shuttered. Billions have already been spent moving industry out of town.

Venues:

Beijing is the site for 31 Olympic venues—12 new, 11 under renovation, and eight built as temporary structures. Most are located in four clusters in the north of the city.

Five more venues are located outside Beijing in mainland China—for soccer and sailing. Another venue, for equestrian events, is in Hong Kong.

The Olympic Village is located at the far northern end of the Olympic Green, a high-rise compound for 10,500 athletes.

The Olympic Green area, site of half the competition venues, is about 10 times larger than it was in Athens and four times what it was in Sydney.

The two centerpiece venues—buildings that will be talked about for years to come—are the Bird's Nest National Stadium, a gargantuan bowl that seats 91,000, and the National Aquatics Center, also known as the Water Cube, a simple box design considered the Games' "cool" building, with a translucent, blue-toned outside skin that makes the structure look like a cube of foam or bubbles.

Beijing Prepares for the Olympics Part 1

2008-05-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

China is sparing no expense in preparing Beijing for the Olympic spotlight—including providing English classes for cab drivers and a government-sponsored etiquette campaign.

ere's a look at some of the venues and preparations under way in Beijing for this summer's Olympics.

The Games: The Beijing Olympics begin Aug. 8, 2008.

People: Organizers expect 550,000 foreign visitors and 22,000 journalists, with 550,000 local volunteers lined up to help—one for every guest.

Infrastructure: Beijing is spending $40 billion to remake its subways, roads and image. The hubbub is driving up hotel prices.

Etiquette: Government-sponsored etiquette campaigns are working to stamp out bad manners like jumping ahead in line, spitting, littering and reckless driving.

English: Cab drivers are under pressure to learn some English. A program called "Crazy English" draws 10,000 volunteers to gung-ho assemblies. Officials are trying to wipe out "Chinglish," the unintelligible English that abounds on billboards, menus and storefronts.

Asia: VIVA MACAU Part 9

2008-05-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

Guide to Macau

WHEN TO GO

October, November, and December are the best months to visit subtropical Macau, when the weather is cool and relatively dry. Think twice about going in September, when typhoon season is at its peak.

GETTING THERE

American offers direct flights from New York to Hong Kong, and Continental flies there out of Newark. From Hong Kong, take a ferry to Macau (or a helicopter—a much speedier alternative). The Macau International Airport has daily connections with Beijing, Shanghai, and other cities in China.

WHERE TO STAY

Wynn Macau Rua Cidade de Sintra, NAPE; 011-853/986-9966; ; doubles from $321.

Hotel Lisboa 2-4 Avda. de Lisboa; 011-853/2888-3888; doubles from $110.

Mandarin Oriental 956-1110 Avda. da Amizade; 011-853/567-888; doubles from $424.

WHAT TO DO

St. Paul's Church The original façade is all that's left of the derelict 17th-century church, an all-important historic monument near Senado Square.

Mount Fortress The incredible views from this fort take in the ruins of St. Paul's Church and the outlying city and the coast beyond.

Asia: VIVA MACAU Part 8

2008-05-25T21:36:00.002-07:00

Change happens so fast in Macau that it makes my head spin. There is no telling what will occur when the planned bridge linking Macau, Zhuhai, and Hong Kong is completed (2010 is the optimistic projection). In the coming 12 months, the casinos and hotels in Cotai will begin to open, as will a new MGM Grand (developed in partnership with Ho's daughter, Pansy) and an adjacent hotel managed by Mandarin Oriental. Dozens of new casinos have debuted or are scheduled to along the old "new Macau strip"—including the Wynn, the Galaxy, and the Grand Lisboa. And then there is a development (in which Ho has a controlling interest) called Ponte 16. Another mixed-use spectacle zone, this one designed by Jon Jerde—known for, among other things, his work on Wynn's Bellagio—promises to be "rich in the spirit of European urban hubs."

I guess it can be argued that the Portuguese-colonial architecture is just faux-place-making from an earlier era, and that casinos are the 21st-century answer to cathedrals. But on the very first day of the Western year, I find that I am nostalgic for the old Macau...Macau as it used to be, back in the final weeks of December.

Asia: VIVA MACAU Part 7

2008-05-25T21:36:00.001-07:00

In 2003, a year before the Sands opened its doors, China changed its tourism policy and, for the first time, allowed individuals to travel unescorted across the border to Macau. In 2005, well over half of Macau's 18.7 million visitors came from the mainland. The general assumption here is that Chinese tourists, besides having a keen interest in gambling—currently not permitted on the mainland—are suckers for themed attractions. Witness the near-riots at the gates of Hong Kong's Disneyland during the 2006 Lunar New Year weekend. Much of the development in Macau is elaborate stagecraft, intended to lure the masses from Zhuhai and beyond. After all, there are 1.3 billion potential tourists and gamblers just across Macau's inner harbor.

After New Year's Day lunch and a stop at the beguiling 19th-century Lou Lim Ieoc Garden, in central Macau, I make my way to the city's newest attraction: Fisherman's Wharf, nearly 30 acres of waterfront shopping mall, developed, in part, by Stanley Ho. As the afternoon light fades, I blend into the opening-day mob of tourists and locals and meander past gift shops and restaurants set in fragments of ancient Rome, South Beach Miami, New Orleans, Amsterdam, and Lisbon, and wind up standing in front of a Tang Dynasty gate. Fisherman's Wharf also boasts a fake volcano, like the one at the Mirage in Las Vegas, except this one houses a roller coaster and a Victorian-style hotel. Eventually, there will be a Babylon-themed casino and an African village. I walk back to the Macau-Hong Kong ferry terminal, half-believing Fisherman's Wharf was conjured up not by Ho but by some French theorist eager to prove a point about simulation and the Society of the Spectacle.

Asia: VIVA MACAU Part 6

2008-05-25T21:35:00.002-07:00

Personally, I don't mind Wynn's semi-Modernist tower; my real problem is with the pseudo-Portuguese trim. In fact, it was in Bowie's office, drinking nothing stronger than coffee, that I experienced my first twinge of nostalgia. Macau is a wonderfully complex, very real place with a rich, 450-year history, which is quickly being overrun by the purveyors of faux places and fake history. Granted, the historic core of Macau's peninsula, named a unesco World Heritage site in 2005, is home to a remarkable collection of meticulously restored Catholic churches, houses, and public buildings, plus a handful of Chinese temples. There is the iconic St. Paul's Church, now just a stone façade—the wooden church itself was destroyed by fire—and St. Dominic's, a 16th-century church with a genuinely ethereal sanctuary and a bell tower housing an impressive multistory display of sacred art. Senado Square, the center of non-gambling life in Macau, has perhaps been gussied up a bit too much, but it genuinely feels like a lost corner of Europe.

For me, the real pleasure in Macau is in roaming the backstreets, stumbling on enclaves of antique houses—some restored and others crumbling—or the hilltop Guia Fortress, a 19th-century lighthouse abutting a 17th-century fresco-decorated chapel. That this all still exists can be attributed to a massive preservation effort begun by the Portuguese in the decades before the handover, something that the English in Hong Kong never thought to do. Sadly, the UNESCO designation has not proven to be as big a draw as expected, and the heritage tourists are a mere trickle compared with the gamblers.

Asia: VIVA MACAU Part 5

2008-05-25T21:35:00.001-07:00

From 1961 until 2002—the years when he had a monopoly on gaming—Macau was Stanley Ho's town. He and some of his 17 children (from four wives) and his various companies and subsidiaries still own 16 Macau casinos, plus the high-speed ferries and terminal, part of the airport, and the landmark Macau tower. In 2002, the Macau government decided to offer opportunities to several other casino operators, including Las Vegas's Sands and Steve Wynn as well as the Hong Kong-based Galaxy. The Nevada operators brought with them the newfound respectability and over-the-top showmanship that they had used to reinvent the Las Vegas strip in the 1990's.

This past September, Wynn Resorts opened its casino and 600-room hotel across Avenida da Amizade from the Lisboa. It's a bronzed-glass wedge much like the new Wynn Las Vegas, but surrounded by a two-story liner of faux Portuguese-colonial architecture. Grant Bowie, president and general manager of Wynn Resorts Macau insists, "We are not creating a new Las Vegas in Macau. What we're creating is a new Macau." Steve Wynn, collector of works by Van Gogh, Picasso, and Gauguin, is, in relative terms, a sensitive casino developer. The faux-Portuguese element, Bowie tells me, gives the building "a level of sympathy and harmony."

Asia: VIVA MACAU Part 4

2008-05-25T21:34:00.002-07:00

Although the current flood of international gaming money is a new development, gambling has been one of Macau's attractions since the mid 19th century. As Hong Kong grew into a booming international trading post, Macau, a backwater run by a lesser colonial power, faded. But after World War II, its reputation for casinos (and related vices) grew. In his book Thrilling Cities, James Bond author Ian Fleming wrote of an evening he spent in the early 1960's at what was then Macau's premier nightspot: "The Central Hotel is not precisely a hotel. It is a nine-story skyscraper, by far the largest building in Macau...The higher up in the building you go, the more beautiful and expensive are the girls, the higher the stakes at the gambling tables, and the better the music."

There is still a Central Hotel, but it is now a seedy two-star lodging. In the 1970's, the action shifted to Stanley Ho's Hotel Lisboa, a complex marked by a round, neon-covered tower topped with what appears to be a giant roulette wheel. Inside, the décor is Morris Lapidus-meets-Louis XIV. Think excess and you've got it. It is an old-style Chinese casino, smoky and full of men, mainly, gambling with a quiet intensity, the low rollers playing a dice game called Big/Small, and the players in roped-off VIP rooms focusing on Bond's game, baccarat. The girls, expensive and not-so-expensive, reputedly hang out in the lower-level arcade. This Lisboa, Macau's premier tourist draw until the Sands opened its doors, will soon be superseded by the Grand Lisboa, a new 44-story tower shaped like a Las Vegas chorus girl's headdress that Stanley Ho is building just across the street.

Asia: VIVA MACAU Part 3

2008-05-25T21:34:00.001-07:00

Estrada uses a laser pointer to walk me through a wall-mounted plan of the Cotai Strip's eight development sites. The flagship of the development is a new version of the Las Vegas Venetian Casino Resort, currently being built at a frenzied pace and scheduled to open in the summer. The Venetian complex alone will feature 600,000 square feet of gaming; a 15,000-seat sports arena; 1.2 million square feet of convention space; a 90-foot-tall "wow space" (casinospeak for "spectacle") involving tall, curving escalators; a rooftop 18-hole putting course ringed by lavish VIP suites; and a wave pool. There will be a Cirque de Soleil franchise and a Busby Berkeley-style aqua theater. One of the facility's three indoor canals will have dragon boats instead of gondolas: "It will be like Chinatown in Venice, if you can picture that," Estrada says.

cheme, kept in a special media room adjacent to the Sands casino, suggests that the strip will be lined with extreme architecture of the sort that Rem Koolhaas might favor, but it's more likely that the development will favor the established forms of Las Vegas-inspired design. The Venetian, of course, will look like Venice by way of Nevada, and other casinos on the strip, many built by the Sands, and hotels managed by the Four Seasons and Shangri-la, will be "Portuguese-contemporary-colonial" or "Tibetan-feel" or "Tuscany-maybe." More avant-garde, perhaps, will be the City of Dreams, a complex to be constructed by Melco—a company run by Lawrence Ho, son of local mogul Stanley Ho—that will include a "tropical underwater casino hall."

Asia: VIVA MACAU Part 2

2008-05-25T21:33:00.001-07:00

Perhaps the nostalgia is a direct result of the Vinho Verde, but I prefer to think it's a product of what I know about Macau's immediate future. My New Year's Day field trip is actually my third quick visit in the space of three weeks. I've been staying in China's bigger, better-known SAR, Hong Kong, an hour away by high-speed ferry. And on my two previous expeditions, I spent time with the developers who are determined to transform this once quiet cluster of peninsula and two islands, where the Pearl River Delta meets the South China Sea, into "Asia's Las Vegas."

Coloane Village, like many sections of this outpost established by Portuguese traders in 1557 and handed back to China in 1999, is an intriguing fusion of European and Asian cultures. It follows the contours of the harbor, with the vivid red Tam Kung Temple (a Taoist shrine to the god of the seafarers) at one extreme, shops selling a curious array of dried salted fish at the other, and, somewhere in the middle, Lord Stow's Bakery, home of exceptional egg tarts. But when I look past the fishing pier at the far end of the harbor, I can see the cluster of cranes that marks the Cotai Strip, which has been hailed by its developer, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, as "the biggest tourism project in world history."

"Cotai" is a coinage for the three-quarter-mile sliver of reclaimed swampland that connects Coloane to Taipa, the next island over. If there's no traffic, it's a swift five-minute drive from the Macau airport and roughly the same distance from the border from Zhuhai, China. The concept—which supposedly came to Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson in a dream—is simple: "We want to replicate the Vegas strip," Medardo "Mikki" Estrada, the Sands Corporation's director of Cotai design, explains, "but with a more disciplined approach." Estrada's office on Macau's peninsula overlooks the posh 165,000-square-foot gold glass-clad Sands casino that the company opened in 2004 on Avenida da Amizade (Friendship Avenue), a wide boulevard lined with vintage 1960's and 1970's casinos that tourism boosters sometimes refer to as "the new Macau Strip."

Asia: VIVA MACAU Part 1

2008-05-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

Spectacular, over-the-top casinos are on the rise in Macau, a city fast on its way to becoming the Las Vegas of the Far East.

ow can you be nostalgic about a place that you've only just gotten to know? This is the question I keep asking myself during a New Year's Day lunch in Macau, the former Portuguese colony that is now a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China. I'm on one of Macau's two islands, Coloane, in a splendid Macanese café on the Largo Eduardo Marques, a square paved in characteristic swirling patterns of black and white cobblestones. Nga Tim Café features open-air dining under an awning expediently constructed around a couple of giant banyan trees, and the whole setup is tucked away behind a Mediterranean colonnade painted creamy yellow, the signature hue of Portuguese colonial architecture here. A friend and I sit messily devouring jumbo crab and drinking Vinho Verde, the refreshing young Portuguese wine.

Beaches: Top Ten Secret Islands Part 4

2008-02-28T19:43:00.001-08:00

8. Terre-de-Haut, Guadeloupe
Les Saintes, a spectacular cluster of eight islands situated just off the coast of Guadeloupe and accessible only by ferry or private yacht, is the very essence of French West Indies life—without the crowds to boot. Terre-de-Haut is the most appealing of them all, with its attractive beaches, mouth-watering Creole cuisine, and laid-back French-speaking locals; it's also the only Les Saintes island with overnight accommodations. Beach bums will love the powdery white sands of the palm-lined Plage de Pompierre, while the spectacular underwater world of colorful reefs and exotic fish (attracting divers as renowned as Jacques Cousteau) makes scuba diving and snorkeling another huge draw. Rent a golf cart to get around (you won't find much in the way of cars here) and zip around to a different beach at dawn, midday, and dusk.

9. Vis, Croatia
With its medieval villages, deserted beaches, ancient ruins, rambling olive groves, and the best vineyards in Dalmatia, Vis, Croatia, is poised to become the next "it spot" for sun and fun on the Adriatic. The winding streets of the two main towns, Vis and Komiza, are brimming with restaurants serving delicious seafood and Italian-style fare, while miles of sandy beaches, pebbly enclaves, and glittering shores attract sunbathers—Srebrna, a beautiful beach covered in large flat stones that appear silver in the sun, is one of the most beautiful. At just two hours by ferry from Split, Vis offers only four modest hotels, but visitors can also opt to rent apartments and villas.

10. Yap, Micronesia
Part of a remote tropical archipelago in the midst of the Pacific, Yap is the most intriguing destination in the island nation of Micronesia. Having managed to escape most outside influences, like colonization and mass tourism, the island's traditional way of life remains both authentic and distinct: Legends are portrayed in colorful dances; village women dress in grass skirts, the men in brightly colored loincloths; and ancient stone money discs are still used as local tender. Spend your days hiking among the island's rolling green hills, mangrove forests, and antiquated stone paths or, go off and explore the ocean's coral reefs and swim with dolphins and magnificent manta rays.

Beaches: Top Ten Secret Islands Part 3

2008-02-28T19:42:00.002-08:00

. Îles de la Madeleine, Quebec
Remote, beautiful, and altogether unique, the stellar Îles de la Madeleine (or Magdalene Islands, in English), 130 miles off the coast of Quebec, are the ultimate off-the-path escape. Of the dozen islands that comprise this windswept archipelago, only seven are inhabited, six of which are connected only by sand dunes and long grassy reeds. The islands boast 200 miles of virgin beaches, the freshest seafood, and an uncomplicated atmosphere that make them a joy to visit. Given their northern location, summer is, not surprisingly, the best time to go. Of all the settlements here, Île du Havre aux Maisons is our favorite for its colorful houses, charming boardwalk, and salty pubs and restaurants rife with local character.

6. Ischia, Italy
Though well-known to European and Asian travelers, the island of Ischia is oft-overlooked by Americans whose sights are more often set on nearby Capri. Though you'll hardly have Ischia to yourself, you will find fewer crowds and a less-pretentious attitude on this volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Though predominantly green and mountainous, beach bums will have no trouble scoping out a stretch of sand. And, when the sun sets, you'll have your choice of accommodations for every budget to rest your head, happening nightlife to satisfy your inner dancing queen, and some of the world's best food—this is Italy after all.

7. Lamu, Kenya
Kenya's oldest living settlement, Lamu, boasts golden sands fronting the Indian Ocean, tiny villages, and a breezy, slow-moving pace of life. It's an island that offers a glimpse into the past—a place where donkeys are the main mode of transportation and residents still keep their arms and legs covered out of respect while out in town. The rich atmosphere and history alone makes Lamu worth the trek, but so do its beaches and waters: Shela Beach offers the best swimming, while excursions to ruins and coral reefs could have you snorkeling alongside frolicking dolphins.

Beaches: Top Ten Secret Islands Part 2

2008-02-28T19:42:00.001-08:00

2. Cat Ba Island, Vietnam
If you needed another reason to visit Halong Bay—often hailed as the world's Eighth Wonder—the limestone outcropping that is Cat Ba Island in Vietnam is it. The best way to explore the natural wonders of this little-known island—home to the remarkable Trung Trang Cave, cascading waterfalls, cliffs, and the awe-inspiring National Park—is via motorbike. A four-hour ferry ride from Halong Wharf will get you there, but be warned that accommodations are sparse and basic. If you're not one to get fussy about lodgings, you'll have no problem staying awhile on this untouched, unspoiled masterpiece by Mother Nature.

3. Daufuskie Island, South Carolina
Deserted beaches, plentiful tee times, and absolutely no car traffic—that's what Daufuskie Island, situated between Savannah, Georgia, and Hilton Head, South Carolina, is all about. The few who do know of it come for its two championship golf courses (one with three oceanfront holes), spa, equestrian center, tennis courts, and several miles of virtually untrammeled white-sand beaches. Accessible only by passenger ferry or private boat, the only modes of transportation once on island are bicycle, golf cart, and your own two feet. And, with only one hotel and a handful of vacation rental homes to choose from during your stay, you're bound to feel that you're in on a secret shared only with the pods of dolphins that gather just offshore.

4. Fakarava, French Polynesia
Overshadowed in popularity by neighbors Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Moorea, Fakarava, a pristine Polynesian island enveloped by a coral reef and blue lagoon waters, is so remote, it's not even found on most maps. Yet, it's part of a UNESCO nature reserve and rich in natural fauna, offers pink-sand beaches, and is rife with rare aquatic life that includes loach, meru, and barracuda—not to mention hammerheads and tiger sharks. Not surprisingly, scuba diving is the island's top draw, but other attractions include the ancient village of Tetamanu, where you'll find a Catholic church made of coral that dates back to 1874, and pearl farms, where rare black pearls are shelled.

Beaches: Top Ten Secret Islands Part 1

2008-02-28T19:40:00.002-08:00

These 'undiscovered' islands provide a welcome respite from the crowds—enjoy deserted beaches, intriguing culture and exotic cuisine.

Everyone loves an island getaway. Unfortunately, that's the problem with a beach vacation—you're often forced to share your stretch of sand with countless others in search of a little R&R. If you're looking for a beach vacation minus the crowds, we've rounded up 10 islands around the world where you'll find just that—and while you may have to work a little harder and travel a little longer to get there, you'll be rewarded with deserted beaches, fascinating culture, exotic cuisine, and the satisfaction of "discovering" a fabulous, off-the-beaten-path island destination. And if you've heard of every island on our list, pat yourself on the back—you're a well-traveled wanderer whose passport must be worn from use!

1. Anegada, British Virgin Islands
A small airport and ferry service make getting here fairly easy from one of the other British Virgin Islands, but Anegada still feels a world away. The only coral island in the volcanic BVI chain and surrounded by the largest coral barrier reef in the Caribbean, the island is a haven for beach bums, fly fishermen, and wildlife enthusiasts alike. The north shore boasts nearly deserted white-sand beaches, the south is home to a huge population of bonefish, and the west end lays claim to large salt ponds and exotic birds. Spend your nights feasting on local lobster—rumored to be the best in the Caribbean—and rest your head at one of the island's few hotels and quaint guesthouse inns.

India: The Curry Coast Part 4

2008-02-28T19:40:00.001-08:00

Occasionally Anu will demonstrate a recipe herself, such as a sweet, simple coconut pudding topped with pineapple and candied cashews. Since Vinod's death, however, she occupies herself much more with the overall maintenance of Philipkutty's and making sure that guests are comfortable, bringing them hot tea or ensuring there are fresh flowers in the rooms. She will also arrange quick trips by dugout across the canal to an Ayurvedic clinic offering massages and other traditional cures, or arrange for a car to take guests on a shopping excursion to a neighboring town or to visit one of the small, family-run Hindu temples nearby.

One bright morning, Anu took us on an early walk around the farm, encouraging us to sample toddy, a rapidly fermenting, heady liquor made from the sap of the coconut palm. A worker perched high on the slender, arching trunk of the tree made a gash near the top, then caught the oozing sap for us. Anu pointed out kokum, guava and clove trees, vanilla plants, pepper vines, mangoes, bananas and curry-leaf bushes, along with enclosures for the cows, chickens, ducks and geese.

The day we left, Anu came down to the dock with her son, nine-year-old Philip, to see us off in the dugout that would carry us across the canal to our waiting taxi. "One last question," I begged her as the boatman pushed off. "What does the name mean?"

"Philipkutty's?" Anu smiled gently. "Philip was Vinod's father's name, and his nickname was Philipkutty. It means"—she raised her voice as the boat pulled away—"Little Philip's Farm."

She looked down at her son, then both lifted their hands to wave good-bye across the waters.

India: The Curry Coast Part 3

2008-02-28T19:39:00.000-08:00

Dressed in an immaculate silk sari, Mummy moved gracefully around her tidy, modern kitchen, putting together the ingredients for a spicy masala paste in which to cook fresh shrimp, raised in the paddies of the Backwaters between crops of rice. She laid out her ingredients with smiling assurance, aware that many of them are unknowns to outsiders, like kokum, which she allowed us to smell, and then gave us a broken-off bit to taste.

Mummy doesn't speak much English but she is deft at comprehending what needs to be demonstrated. Anu translates at her side. "In a traditional kitchen," Anu said about the combination of spices in the garam masala, "we'd make this paste with a mortar and pestle, but it goes much faster with a food processor."

Soon a marvelous aroma wafted from a cheenachatti, the Kerala cook's all-purpose woklike pan, as Mummy scattered the curry leaves across a shimmering surface of hot oil. As the leaves started to sizzle, she stirred in onion, garlic and ginger. Then she added the masala paste, which gives off a wonderful, complex smell, and finally shrimp.

Mummy also showed us how to make a Keralan duck curry with a velvety coconut sauce fragrant with cardamom and black pepper as well as curry leaves and fresh ginger grown just outside the kitchen door. Thin coconut milk is used for braising the duck, while thick coconut milk is swirled into the sauce just before serving. "But never let the sauce come to a boil," Anu explained, translating for Mummy, "because it will curdle."

India: The Curry Coast Part 2

2008-02-28T19:38:00.000-08:00

My daughter, a chef in New York City, and I were thrilled to discover something more at Philipkutty's: a fine cook and teacher. Her name is Aniamma Philip, though she's called Mummy by guests and staff alike, a name befitting her gentle mothering in the kitchen. With her daughter-in-law Anu Mathew, she owns and operates the farm, which in addition to commercial crops also produces ingredients for the homestay's meals, including spices and eggs. The farm, which is mostly cultivated organically, was established by Mummy's father-in-law more than half a century ago. In 1999, her son Vinod Mathew started adding the guest bungalows. After Vinod's unexpected death last year, Mummy and Anu took over.

Philipkutty's is still a working farm, but the focus now is on guests who usually stay several days, a week or even longer. Others might come just for a cooking class and lunch, sometimes making a stop at the farm during a tour of the lake on a kettuvallam, a jackwood boat with a vaulted coconut-fiber roof that was originally used for transporting rice to market.

Taking classes with an expert home cook like Mummy is a wonderful way to get inside the culinary culture of a region where restaurant food, for the most part, is unimpressive. Mummy specializes in Syrian Christian dishes such as meen molee, fish cooked in a coconut sauce. (The apostle Thomas brought Christianity to the Malabar Coast in the first century A.D., and a large wave of Syrian Christians arrived in Kerala 300 years later.) But she will also cook traditional Keralan recipes like avials, vegetarian stews served at family celebrations that she makes with cucumber, potatoes and a spicy mix of green chiles, cumin and shredded coconut. Coconut in some form (either oil, milk or the meat—grated, roasted, powdered or chipped) plays a part in nearly every Keralan dish, as do chiles, black pepper, turmeric, shallots, cumin, ginger and curry leaves. Sour flavors often balance the spices—usually yogurt and tamarind, but sometimes lemons and limes along with kokum, a dark dried fruit that's similar to the mangosteen and has a smoky aroma. Dishes often receive a final garnish of black mustard and fenugreek seeds, or sometimes curry leaves or dried chile peppers. The spices are cooked in hot coconut oil until the seeds pop, then drizzled over the top of a dish. Usually Mummy teaches guests whatever dishes she's planning to serve that day, but she'll also honor special requests if she can.

India: The Curry Coast Part 1

2008-02-28T19:37:00.000-08:00

At an island retreat in India, Aniamma Philip—known to all as Mummy—shows visitors how to make curries and masalas with ingredients from her family farm.

Philipkutty's Farm. For me the odd name evokes a dreamy paradigm of south India—an arch of vermilion bougainvillea blossoms, the sheen of lake waters interrupted by a dugout's narrow wake and, above all, the blissful silence, broken only by birdsong, the chatter of women washing clothes along the shore and the chants from a Hindu temple across the canal.

Such tranquility was what had led me and a group of friends to Philipkutty's, after three rapid, event-filled weeks traveling in south India. Philipkutty's occupies a good part of an island in the middle of Vembanad Lake in Kerala, a state on India's southwest coast. Canals, streams, marshes and flooded rice paddies radiate out from the 80-square-mile lake, and together they make up the intricate brackish system Keralites call the Backwaters. In January, during the dry season, the temperature along the coast still hovers in the upper 80s and the air is heavy with moisture. This extraordinarily fertile area produces everything from commercial crops to a plethora of spices, including black pepper, cinnamon, turmeric and ginger.

Philipkutty's, which grows coconuts, bananas and other tropical fruits, also operates a type of family-run inn called a homestay, in which guests live with the hosts. Five lakefront guest villas are built in a traditional Keralan bungalow style, with white stuccoed walls and verandas overhung with dark-red-tiled roofs. There are no phones and no television sets, just a quiet and seemingly effortless elegance. It was the perfect place for us to unwind and absorb all we had experienced. The family and guests dine together three times a day at a big, round table or in an outdoor pavilion, and these home-cooked meals were delicious.

BANGKOK TRAVEL INFO

2008-02-14T17:23:00.000-08:00

The capital with the longest name ........
"Krungthepmahanakhon Amornrattanakosin
Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop
Noppharat Ratchathaniburirom
Udomratchaniwetmahasathan
Amonphiman Awatansathit
Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit"

Bangkok is the Orient's most cosmopolitan city and has attractions to stimulate even the most jaded travellers. Created as the Thai capital in 1782 by the first monarch of the present Chakri dynasty, Bangkok is a national treasure house and Thailand's spiritual, cultural, political, commercial, educational and diplomatic centre.

Bangkok, Thailand's major gateway, casts an irresistible spell of enchantment. To the Thais it is Krung Thep, "City of Angels", and you'll find it truly a magic place, one that captivates the imagination.

More than anywhere else in the country, Bangkok expresses Thailand's uncanny ability to blend the old with the new. This lends a thrilling sense of discovery to one's sightseeing and adds an element of surprise when exploring what is the Orient's most fabled city.

Joyfully exuberant, Bangkok embraces modern development and presents an initial picture of thrusting office towers; of world-class hotels offering deluxe comforts; of glittering shopping plazas packed with treasures of the East such as silks and gemstones; of restaurants serving Thailand's acclaimed spicy specialities and virtually every other national cuisine worthy of the name; of neon-lit entertainment spots where the fare ranges from classical dance to laser disco.

Incredibly amidst this sybaritic world Bangkok manages to preserve its cultural heritage to an amazing degree. In the rich splendour of the Grand Palace, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the Temple of the Dawn and other historic shrines, you see images of medieval Oriental wonder, the very stuff of Eastern fairytales.

The influence of the past is not limited to major monuments and it continues to colour daily life. Files of saffron-robed monks making their early morning alms round, for example, present a scene unaltered in essentials by the passing of time. Today's backdrop of highrise buildings only adds wonder to this and other enduring sights from which the city continues to draw definition.

Ultimately it is from the people that Bangkok derives its unique flavour. Fun-loving and easy going, they possess a rare tolerance which imbues the city with a real sense of freedom. It may appear at times hectic, yet what finally comes across is Bangkok's good natured acceptance of life with all its idiosyncrasies.

Thailand's "City of Angels" is, indeed, a magic place where possibilities are limited only by the imagination. You'll marvel at past glories, delight in present opportunities and love every minute of it.

Top

No other city in Asia rivals Bangkok for thrilling night life, and evening entertainment is both plentiful and inexpensive.

Most famous are the neon-lit bar districts which are both more fun and much safer than their counterparts in other cities around the world. However, there is much more to Bangkok by night than just the glitter of pubs and bars.

Especially popular are the cultural shows staged by various Thai restaurants. Here you'll find the perfect introduction to Thailand's highly stylized classical dance, accompanied by music played on traditional instruments.
Dressed in gorgeous costumes, dancers perform the slow, graceful movements that make up the intricate language of classical Thai dance drama. Visually stunning, these shows are a must.

Also not to be missed is Muai Thai, a style of boxing unique to Thailand in which combatants use elbows, knees and bare feet as well as gloved fists. A martial art before it was a sport, Muai Thai has a long tradition and is still surrounded by much ritual.The fights are commonly fierce and furious, though the best boxers display remarkable skills, as well as great fitness, and a good contest is decided by application of technique rather than brute force. Often as entertaining as the action in the ring is the reaction of the spectators who yell and shout encouragement to the boxers as the excitement mounts.

There are two boxing stadiums in Bangkok and between them they offer professional bouts virtually every night of the week.

For either pre dinner aperitifs or late evening drinks, Bangkok boasts many sophisticated bars and cocktail lounges, some of the best being located in the top hotels. Here you can relax in pleasant surroundings and enjoy live musical entertainment by the best local and regional entertainers.

If your looking for something a little more highbrow, you will not be disappointed. Although Bangkok does not have regular offerings of plays, operas or concerts, performances are nonetheless frequently staged by both local and overseas artists and companies. The Thailand Cultural Centre is the main venue, though leading hotels quite often host visiting artists and small theatre groups .

If it's action that you are looking for, Bangkok abounds with discos. Some are small an intimate others are enormous and crowded, but all spin the latest dance music using the most modern sound systems, laser lights, videos and all the other hi-tech equipment that makes today's disco less of a place an more of an event.

The inveterate shopper may spend a happy evening strolling the streets in main entertainment areas browsing around the ranks of kerbside stalls which offer host of good buys. Alternatively, if you are tired after a busy day sightseeing, you can go to the cinema or relax in your hotel room and watch video.

Whatever your preferences, you'll discover Bangkok makes sure there's never a dull moment.

GETTING AROUND BANGKOK

2008-02-14T17:22:00.001-08:00

Bus Public buses are plentiful and cheap, with a minimum fare of 6 baht to most destinations within metropolitan Bangkok. Air-conditioned buses have minimum and maximum fares of 10 and 22 baht, respectively. Air-conditioned micro-buses charge a flat fare of 25 baht all routes.
	TAXI Taxis cruising city streets are metred. They charge a minimum of 35 baht for the first 3 kilometres, and approximately 5 baht per kilometre thereafter. Make sure you have change, as taxi drivers often dont! Passengers must pay tolls in the case of using an expressway.
	TUK-TUKS These three-wheeled open-air motorised taxis are popular for short journeys. Fares must be bargained in advance. Minimum fares, for journeys of up to 3 kilometres, are approximately 30 baht.
	BTS Sky Trains BTS sky trains ply along Sukhumvit, Silom and Phahonyothin roads. The routes connect Bangkoks leading hotels and major shopping areas such as Siam Square, Silom, Ratchaprasong and Chatuchak Weekend Market. The fare ranges from 10-40 baht according to the distance. Subway (Metro) The city's subway system, or MRT, connects many of the top tourist attractions with the accommodation areas, markets, and the business district. Fares range from 14 to 36 baht. The trains run from 6 a.m. to midnight, daily.
	Boat Taxis that are even more unusual, though equally convenient, are the river taxis that ply the Chao Phraya River. Some are just cross river ferries, but others serve the many landing stages on both banks and cover a route that goes up as far as the northern suburb of Nonthaburi.

Air Travel in Japan

2008-02-08T06:10:00.001-08:00

The air travel industry is becoming competitive with many airlines serving both domestic and international flights. The two airline carrier giants in Japan are Japan Airlines and ANA airlines, who are dominating the air travel market in Japan with flights to over 50 destinations.

Airports

Narita - The New Tokyo International Airport and Kansai International Airport are the two main international airports in Japan. Hadena International Airport in Tokyo handles mostly domestic flights linking these airports to various other cities across the country.

Airport fees are included in the fares to all international destinations if departing from Narita Airport or Kansai Airport (Adult: around 2,650 yen and Child (age 2 to 11): 1,330 yen). Airport fees are not applied at Haneda Airport or any other airports in Japan. There is no need to pay airport fees if leaving Japan within 24 hours from your arrival time.

Narita Airport

The largest airport in Japan, New Tokyo International Airport, is located 60 km to the east of central Tokyo.

Kansai Airport

The second largest airport in Japan, Kansai International Airport, is located in Osaka Bay, 5 km off the coast and about 60 km. from JR Shin-Osaka Station.

Airport Services:

Stop at the tourist information center located on the arrival lobby (first floor) for information. They are staffed by multilingual travel experts who can answer questions and provide free maps and brochures if you need. The staffs are very friendly and helpful. A stop at the Tourist Information center saves travel-planning time in advance. Office hours are from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, every day all year-round.

Hotel Star Classification System - The Stars Are Not Always What You Expect Them to Be

2008-02-08T06:06:00.001-08:00

When staying at a hotel, many things need to be taken into account, and some of them are never included into the rules that are used for hotel star classification. As a person that has worked inside a hotel, I am aware of the kind of code that is used to classify them and how this code not alway is according to customer service.

My experience is in a 4-stars hotel in Barcelona and I discovered many of the things that happen inside a hotel and that normally you shouldn't notice when you arrive there as a tourist. But you do, many things do not work properly inside, specially when the direction is not able to provide with support and instead it directs the installations by putting pressure on everybody to get the work accomplished. This is something that the hotel star classification system can't work out.

The stars rating of a hotel can depend on things such as having a bell-boy, opening during the night, having also a bell-boy during the night, number of rooms, number of suites that are in the hotel, number of services you can encounter such as business center, commercial centers and so on.

This evaluation brings to a point where a hotel can have of everything, but if they don't hire the adequate personnel it simply will never work. And, at same time, and this practice is also often seen in Spain, hiring not enough personnel can guide to absolute unsatisfied customers and stressed workers. And this is in no way explained by the hotel star classification.

What I want to say with all this is that when looking for a 4-stars hotel, for example, the hotel web-page will never be a good place to start with. A hotel web-page is simply the competition to have the best web-page in the world, but actually does not mean that they have the best hotel. I personally prefer a hotel where personnel is not stressed and can help me when I need it, than a luxury cell in which I'll be confined with no attention at all.

Something that already most people does is to look at reviews. There you really will find out what people thinks about the hotel, how was the experience, how were they treated. There's nothing like the customers to know how you are going to be treated as a customer. A very good page that I always rely in is VirtualTourist. This web-page offers reviews of hotels in all locations worldwide in an easy to navigate software, including a very useful interactive map. Every user is allowed to post comments on hotels and they appear ordered depending on the number of comments that a hotel has received. This is possibly a better way to classify them than the traditional hotel star classification system

In any case, don't forget that the order in which hotels appear in the list is not for a qualification, as the system does not allow to use any punctuation method. The number one will always be the hotel which has more number of reviews, but of course it could be that all them are bad. Simply checking the first ten hotels you will have a broad idea of what you can expect and possibly you will know better where to spend your nights at.

After all, simply keep in mind that the hotel star classification is often not the best way to select the quality of an hotel, unless you are looking to have a king size suite with jacuzzi, which has never been my case. Of course, that's still your choice!

The Integrated Resorts of Singapore

2008-02-08T06:04:00.000-08:00

Integrated Resorts by definition are resorts with mixed development like hotels, restaurants, convention centre, theme park, shopping centre, casino etc. Because of the gaming component - casino, integrated resorts development has stirred a great controversy among the Singaporeans.

The Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Long announced the cabinet's decision to develop 2 integrated resorts in Marina Bay and Sentosa. The Singapore Government stated that the aim of the Integrated Resorts is to boast the country's tourism industry. There has been very keen competition from the neighboring countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong. According to the Government, the Integrated Resorts are expected to create some 35,000 jobs directly and indirectly.

There has been debate among the Singaporeans on the plan to build Integrated Resorts. Religious groups and social workers voiced their disapproval at the negative social impact of gambling.

The Government however, promised to have a proper and strict safeguard to limit the social impact of gambling, among others exorbitant entrance fee and the casinos would not extend credit to local population.

Marina Bay Sands

It is located at the Marina South of Singapore. Currently, there are a few pretigious hotels operating like Ritz Charlton Millenium, Oriental Hotel, Marina Mandarin and Pan Pacific Hotel. It will have a panoramic view of the sea and tranquil environment.

The Government of Singapore called for request for concept in December 2004. It received overwhelming response from the industry. A total of 19 bids were submitted during the request for concept.

In the formal bids later, 4 companies/consortiums submitted their tender including:- (i) MGM Mirage/Capital Land, (ii) Harrah's Entertainment/ Keppel Land, (iii) Las Vegas Sands and (iv) Genting International/Star Cruises.

Eventually, Las Vegas Sands succeeded in their tender, by committing the highest development investmetn of S$3.85 billion. The concept was designed by Moshe Sofdie consisting of 3 layers shells containing conference halls, 3 hotel towers linked to top floor of a sky garden.

Resorts World at Sentosa

Sentosa which means transquility in Malay is a popular island resort in Singapore. Previously, it was known as Pulau Belakang Mati (Island of Death from Behind). Statistics shows that it has been visited by some 2 million people annually. It has a sheltered beach of more than 2 km in length on the Southern coast, historical Fort Siloso from World War II, two golf courses and 2 5-stars hotels.

The island has an area of 5 square kilometres. 70% of it is covered by secondary rainforest. It is the habitat of monitor lizards, monkeys, peacocks, parrots as well as native flora and fauna.

Since its inception of development in 1972, some S$420 million of private capitals and S$500 million Government fund have been invested to develop the island.

3 consortiums submitted their proposal on 10 October 2006. They are: (i) Kerzner International with Capital Land; (ii) Genting International with Star Cruises Universal Studios and (iii) Eight Wonder with Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, Melco International Development Limited, Isle of Capri Casinos Inc.

The bid were reviewed by a ministerial committee and a tender evaluation committee and results were announced on 8 December 2006. Genting International and Star Cruises won the bid. Genting committed to a development investment of S$3.85 billion.

With these 2 Integrated Resorts completed and in operation by late 2009, Singapore will be placed at a totally better position in tourism industry in the region as compared with its competitor

Booking Discount Airfare and Hotel Reservations - What Is The Best Strategy?

2008-02-08T06:02:00.000-08:00

For many people, vacations that we can afford usually require two things. Discount airfare and hotel reservations.

There seems to always a be a bounty of airfare deals, discount hotel accommodations and rental car promotions. But bear in mind that there are factors determining your final costs. The day and time of your scheduled flight, the days of the week you will occupy a hotel room or rent a car, and when you secure your reservations are controllable elements of booking reservations. Also, special promotions come, go and change constantly.

Making your hotel reservations online is a good strategy. You will find everything at your fingertips. Great selection, great discounts and the internet offers unequaled comparison shopping.

Package deals can definitely save you money. You can save hundreds of dollars when buying package deals. Online travel sites typically offer pricing for flights, hotels, and car rental separately or in whatever combination you want.

A good way to save on hotel reservations is to go to the website of the hotel your interested in staying at. Hotel owners like their hotels full and if business is slow they can offer some amazing deals. If your over fifty, consider joining AARP if you have not already. Just being a member can sometimes save you a substantial amount at hotels.

Many experts in the travel industry recommend booking your air tickets and your hotel reservations as far ahead of time as you are able to. Advance booking, they claim, will frequently give you an advantage with more beneficial pricing. Booking well in advance of your trip puts you at ease because you can focus on the wonderful trip ahead. If you don't want to gamble this is your best option. As you get closer to your departure date, check back with your travel website or travel agent to see if there are any new promotions available. They probably won't contact you about them but you could very well get an even better deal even though you have already made your purchase.

Many travelers wait until the last minute to book their airline and hotel reservations. Sometimes, good deals can still be found but the flip side is that many have found themselves unable to book any type of hotel reservation or airfare because attendees of a big football game or convention had already gobbled up everything.

So, the best strategy for securing your discount airline and hotel reservations is to go ahead and book early for your peace of mind. Utilize the internet for comparison shopping. Do your homework and be aware of any additional discounts you may qualify for. Try for some last minute negotiating for an even better deal. And then, focus on more pleasurable things like shopping for your trip, reading up on all the neat things you will be able to do and see at your destination.

Cheap Flights - The Best Day and Time to Book Travel

2008-02-07T17:55:00.001-08:00

When we go into the net and begin the process of looking for the most economic flights, there are many possibilities that can be discussed about the period of time when you should travel, many things about strategies on including a weekend always in between in order to reduce the price of the flight, and of course always look to avoid the big holidays.

Nothing new for anybody I imagine, as we can find this information everywhere in every single article. The really interesting thing is to know a couple of data that can help you get some advantage in your flights compared to the others. The idea is that the persons who reads this article will be able to get cheapest flights than the ones who don't. Let's take a look at the two examples. The first is improbable. The second will always work.

The first thing then is to consider the following: search engines are not perfect and they do have failures. Theses failures can be on the side where the customer is not benefited directly or even can make the conditions worse, as a mistake where a flight is overpriced, or on the side of a benefit, where the price of the flight for a strange reason appears reduced. (missing numbers, wrong numbers...)

Performing thousands of operations a day, it comes a time when these engines fail, and when they fail you can take the opportunity. Having some contacts in the travel world I know that in a single travel agency an average of 3 failures will happen every month. If you multiply this by the number of search engines, airline engines, hotel booking engines and so on, you can understand that even being not probable there is the chance that it happens.

But we are not going to wait for that chance, because somebody has already studied at which time this things are used to happen. In local time of the place where the headquarter for the search engine's company is based, the backup of the system is done normally between 2:00am and 4:00am, which is the time when less searches are expected. During backup of the system is when the number of errors drastically increases. Even if from a point of view of sleeping it's really killing if you are based in the same place as the company, there is always the chance that some numbers go wrong.

Still, the opportunity is minimum, and for the people like me that prefer to keep it simple and most probable, there is another way that even if it can provide with not such great discounts (like losing one of the numbers of the price, in the example before), it certainly always happens.

The best day to book during the week is on Wednesdays, just around 12:30am. And the question is why? Well, statistically it happens that prices change at this time. If the company has decided to set a reduction of price for the first 100 bookings, this will be the moment when the offer will appear. Stay there, and keep refreshing the page you are interested in. Not always, but if it happens, this will be the time and day when it will.

Great Tips For Finding Cheap Flights

2008-02-07T17:54:00.001-08:00

Cheap flights under 100 dollars are becoming evermore difficult to find these days. Yet, it is still possible to find many air tickets at this price if you know how to go about it. This article arms you with the necessary information to do this giving you three concise tips to guide you. Firstly, I explain why you should always go to the airlines first. Secondly, I provide you with the necessary information about where to look on the Internet for low-cost airfares. Finally I leave you with some tips on the value of travel organisations as an alternative source of cheap flights. Here we go then....

Tip 1 - Always Defer To The Airlines First

Before you start searching the Internet for cheap flights your first move should always be to contact the airlines yourself. The reason for this is that many airlines offer a discounted flight text service. The speed at which this service updates and informs you of new availability may often be quicker than searching for what you require on the Internet. When you buy your tickets in this way they will very often be eligible for the usual air miles benefits so it is well worth the making that call!

Tip 2 - Next Go Online

Generally speaking, on-line purchasing of airline tickets produces the best result in the quickest time, particularly when it comes to the low-cost end of the market. You will get the best deal the farther you plan ahead so remember this tip and see if you make it work for you. Some airlines sell their tickets at particular times of the week. To maximise your savings therefore you also need to acquire this information, as a general rule of thumb it is best to try early on Saturday mornings, as this is normally a good time.

Tip 3 - Don't Forget Discount Travel Organisations

Discount travel organisations are often a source of cheap flights that many people don't think about. The idea of these organisations is that they seek out the lowest airfares possible for their members. They also provide travel insurance and other add-ons like air travel products at reduced prices.

Conclusion

Air tickets under 100 dollars can be yours by following the simple tips given above. Remember to start with the airlines themselves first and then progress to the Internet. Don't forget to checkout discount travel organisations as well, as these can often be a good source of cheap airline tickets as well. There we go, in summary this is how to save money on air tickets.

Cheap International Airline Tickets

2008-02-07T17:52:00.000-08:00

Do you wish to reach your travel destination without the hassle of worrying too much about any possible budget shortages?

Traveling is one of the best perks in life. Nothing beats a vacation which involves international travel. But of course, we all know how international flights can be too expensive and painful on the pocket. Even if they say that nowadays everything comes with a price, we still find it difficult to shell out something just so we could travel across countries.

Still, there is no need for you to worry. There are cheap international airline tickets which you can avail of and they do fit any type of budget real well. So even if you are on a tight budget, cheap international airline tickets can still make your much awaited vacation come to pass. Here are some tips you can use to help you find these great deals.

The first important thing you should be well aware of is the fact that prices of airline tickets change constantly from time to time. There really are no fixed price on tickets, so the best way to go about it is to keep a tab on price changes. Once it hits the numbers wherein it fits your budget already, then go ahead and make that immediate purchase.

In addition, be aware of tourist peak seasons. Some travel destinations become so popular on an annual basis. For instance, Paris can become a tourist love spot during the month of February. So if you plan to go there during February, don't expect you'll get cheap airline tickets during that month.

Usually, the best period to buy cheap international airline tickets is four months to a couple of weeks before your actual flight. If you cannot afford it yet, you can still choose to make reservations first then pay the amount in full as soon as you have the money.

Low Cost Airlines

2008-02-04T18:56:00.001-08:00

When Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes launched a no-frills, low-cost airline in 2002 with only two planes, few people realised the effect it would have. From only four routes, Air Asia set off a low-fare revolution that changed the face of the airline industry in the region. It is a stunning success story and now has 35 aircraft and flies millions of passengers across south-east Asia every year.

If you want to book a ticket with a low-cost carrier, the first trick is to find out which airlines serve your intended route. With lower advertising budgets than traditional airlines, this is often quite difficult. For your convenience we have listed the major budget carriers serving the two prime destinations - Singapore, Thailand.

Singapore:

The major budget carriers operating to and from this island state are JetStar Asia and Tiger Airways. JetStar Asia covers most major destinations in south-east asia, as well as Bangalore and Kolkata in India.

Tiger Airways covers Bangkok and Phuket in Thailand, Macau, and Padang in Indonesia. It is the only budget carrier direct to Vietnam from Singapore and the only budget choice to Australia, flying from Singapore to Darwin).

Thailand:

The three main operators in Thailand are Thai Air Asia, Nok Air and One-Two-Go. Thai AirAsia was launched in January 2004. Based primarily in Bangkok, the airline serves Thailand's major domestic destinations, as well as Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Kota Kinabalu), Singapore, Macau, Xiamen and Hanoi.

Nok Air, a subsidiary of Thai Airways International, flies from Bangkok to domestic destinations such as Phuket, Chiang Mai, Hat Yai and Udon Thani. One-Two-Go covers the major domestic routes within Thailand with fixed-price tickets.

As the number of people flying has increased, so has the demand for hotel accommodation and other products. Both Thailand and Singapore hotels are experiencing boom times as more people can afford to visit.

Discounted Airline Tickets

2008-02-04T18:55:00.001-08:00

The ever growing use of the Internet has made it possible for everyone to find discount flights to any travel destination with a few clicks. Thanks to the travel consolidators, travellers can save heaps by booking discount flights and cheap travel packages online. You'll no longer need to contact a local travel agent or pour over travel brochures to get the best possible travel deal.

Cheap travel deals provided by online travel agents are cheaper than the original airfare offered by the airlines! Travel consolidators bulk purchase tickets directly from the airlines or negotiate with major airlines and hotels to get significant discounts and then pass the savings on to you. These great travel deals are usually the cheapest domestic and international flights you will find. Booking travel online with discount airfare search engine technology allows you to search and customise discount flights with various other special offers. The online travel booking process is as simple and easy, and within a few clicks of your search requirements, you are provided with a list of travel offers to the destinations of your choice.

Discount flights are a huge way to save on airfares without forgoing the quality of service. So don't waste your time and energy on visiting local travel agents when you can instantly get your discounted travel bookings done online.

You can now avoid going insane by browsing travel brochures or visits to a local travel agent. Don't propel your money to go flying in thin air, get the most attractive discounts on your overseas flights and enjoy a luxurious air travel.

Last Minute Deals for Airline Tickets

2008-02-04T18:54:00.001-08:00

Sometimes there is just no way to avoid the need to travel at the last minute, but finding discounted or affordable airplane fares at the last minute can be a tall order. In fact, during heavy travel seasons it can be difficult to find an empty seat at all, let alone getting it at a discount. This is one primary reason why travel agents always encourage you to book your flight as early as possible.

In most cases, booking your air tickets as far in advance of your trip as possible is usually the best way to go for cheap airline tickets to your destination. When you secure your air tickets early, while there are still plenty of seats available, you will find that the airlines usually offer the cheapest airfares during this stage.

Waiting to book a flight until the last minute often means that there are very few seats left. When this happens, the airlines may charge a premium price for those seats that are left, especially during busy travel times.

And, even though it is true that the airlines have the upper hand, there are definitely times when opportunities for deeply discounted airplane fares for some last minute flights will come about. But, in order to benefit from those excellent values, you will have to be prepared to make a fast decision and to be ready to leave on very short notice.

One thing that is essential in obtaining great deals on those last minute flights is your ability to be flexible in your travel plans. If you want to save a lot of money on your tickets, then you must be flexible about the date and time of the flight, about the airline, about which airport you fly in and out of, and about how many stops you are willing to make en route to your destination. If you are willing to be inconvenienced by early morning or late night flights or by having a layover or having to change planes, then you will probably be able to enjoy the cheapest airfares even if you had to make your arrangements at the last minute.

When the airlines want to fill all of the seats on a plane quickly, they will drop their prices and will usually post these discount airfare prices on their website. These days, many airlines will offer these airfare deals only on their website, so it is important to monitor the website of the carrier you are considering.

Some airlines will send email alerts about reduced prices to frequent flyer program members or to others who have signed up for such notifications. Signing up for these alerts can give you an advantage and can save you the trouble of logging on many times a day when you are in need of finding the cheapest airfares.

In almost all cases of heavily discounted air tickets, there are greater restrictions on the tickets. It is important to be sure to read all of the fine print and the terms of discounted prices. Most discounted tickets are issued as non-refundable and non-transferable and can only be changed by paying a fee, which could outweigh the savings if a situation arises and you have to change the date of your flight. Many of these discount fares also have other limitations, such as requiring a stay over a weekend.

Typically, the special internet discounts on airplane fares are posted mid-week by the airlines for flights that will be leaving the following weekend. If you are trying to schedule your travel strictly around cheap airline tickets for last minute flights, then you will need to continually be checking in for changes to the fares. You should also be sure your bags are packed and you are ready to go, so that you can reap the benefits when just the right special fare comes along.

Save Money on your Airline Tickets

2008-02-04T18:53:00.001-08:00

Many people prefer air travel compared to any other modes of transportation. Air travel is speedy, convenient, comfortable and now cheaper. As lots of people need to frequently travel for business trips and so are continuously on the watch out for cheap airfares. Cheap air travel is one of the best ways to comfortably travel and yet save on extra cash. Many online travel websites offer cheap flights to domestic as well as international destinations at highly discounted prices.

Online travel professionals can guide the traveler in locating the best discounts on airline tickets. Sometimes these cheap airline tickets are customized with other travel savings into attractive holiday package deals that provide extra savings. By saving money on your airline tickets you will encompass some extra money left aside to treat yourself on your holiday. Along with booking of flights, these sites cater to car hire and airport car rental, sightseeing, customized cheap holiday packages considering your budget, accommodation and travel insurance alternatives. All one needs to do is settle on what suits their needs and click, you're on your way.

To take advantage of the best air travel deals, you need to be a little flexible concerning your travel date and the length of stay. If possible, you must choose to fly on weekdays, as weekend prices are relatively high to mid week fares. How much discount is available on the Airfares also depends on the season and the time you choose to fly. Book your cheap airline tickets at the earliest and see how convenient, affordable and remarkable air travel can be!

Find Cheap Airline Tickets Online

2008-02-04T18:52:00.001-08:00

Why would one travel? For travelers all across the globe, this question will have multiple answers. A person would like to travel because he needs some time off from his chaotic to-do list and is likely to go on a vacation. On the other hand another person would travel because his company wants him to meet some business delegates either out-of-town or even overseas. Some just got married so would travel to their honeymoon spot. So, everyone would have uncommon reasons to travel but one thing that's similar would be their wish to save as much money as possible and board a cheap flight to their preferred tourist destination. One is always pertained to save money and somehow steal a cheap flight and make the trip as economical as possible.

Make your vacation a never before experience by seizing your cheap flight to the destination of your choice and that too without the aggravation of standing in long queues at the ticket counters. With so many travel sites at your service, plan a holiday with your loved ones as soon as possible at a place that has always been your dream destination. No need to fritter away hours for grabbing a cheap flight ticket.

Air travel is booming at an unbelievable rate. A person who desires to fly to his/her destination has so many options to choose from. Be it American Airlines or United, be it Delta Airlines or Northwest, irrespective of how big or small the name is, a cheap flight to the preferred destination will all the time create a center of attention to majority of the people.

A cheap flight option has unquestionably benefited the customers more than anybody else. But sometimes this can get really confusing. How to choose a flight that best suits your itinerary, takes you to your chosen destination and at the same time is relatively easy on your pocket? After all it is your hard earned money and you cannot just afford to blow it away. So be careful and delve into the facts before you finalize an outing and are about to make a payment to your travel agent. He might me a person who has been taking care of your travel needs for years but if there is a better deal available in the market why would you deprive yourself from its benefit.

A bit of planning can certainly help you make your vacation more enjoyable than what you had imagined. Getting a cheap flight today that too from the comfort of your home and with your favorite airlines would certainly make your vacation a never before experience.

Several deals are available from which you can opt for the one that best suits your budget and makes your trip as cost-effective as possible. At the same time make sure that the level of service on the flight is not affected. A smile on the cabin crew's face followed by a polite greeting will surely leave a great impact on any traveler's record book.

Extremely Cheap Fares - How to Find Them

2008-02-04T18:51:00.001-08:00

Finding the right price for your budget when it comes to flying on an airline can be a tricky proposition. The world of air travel ticketing and pricing can seem like a maze of jargon and red tape that is meant to confuse the customer, rather than make your life easier and more convenient. Even with the issues of modern day flights, traveling by air is still usually the most economical and fastest way to travel great distances. Keeping these three power tips in mind when searching for your next airfare should help you to find the extremely cheap plane tickets your are searching for.

Be Very Flexible. It helps a lot if you are not rigid with your travel dates. Also, flying mid-week can add significant savings. Saying over Saturday is not as important as it used to be for getting the best price, but avoiding peak holiday travel dates is very important when it comes to getting the cheapest airfare. Do not forget to check flights leaving from neighboring airports. You might be able to save a lot of money in exchange for driving to an airport a little farther away from your home.
Plan Ahead. When possible, always attempt to book your travel at least two weeks in advance. Bump that time period out to four weeks if you are looking at an international flight. Last minute deals can always be found, but if you have to travel, you could get in trouble if no deals are available, and you might be forced to pay a higher fare than is fair.
Always Check Round-Trip. One of the mysteries of the universe is that sometimes, the round-trip airfare will be less than the one-way airfare. It is one of those things that goes against common sense, but it happens all the time. Always check both prices when you are shopping for one-way travel.

Finding the best price for your airline tickets can take some work, but by using these three powerful tips can help you to find the absolute cheapest airfare that will meet your travel needs.

Extremely Cheap Fares - How to

2008-02-04T18:50:00.000-08:00

Loyalty Points versus Air Mile - What's best to collect?

2008-02-04T18:49:00.000-08:00

Collecting loyalty points is big business, whether it's while shopping at stores, in the form of air miles or as hotel points, each scheme has tens of millions of collectors in the USA. But, whether some offer better value than others is totally dependent upon your individual circumstances, especially how much you spend, and how often you travel and stay in hotels.

Air Miles was launched as an innovative loyalty scheme in 1981 by American Airlines. Originally, air miles could only be earned by flying with that particular airline but now miles can be accumulated without the need to take to the skies. Collectors can earn points through purchases as partners to the scheme, such as major stores, gas stations and by using affinity credit cards.

But how do air miles schemes work? The answer is simple - they are funded by people who are awarded miles but never actually redeem them. The scheme company buys air miles from the airline which are then awarded to their customers. The airline gets revenue from the partners for many more air miles than it ever has to redeem.

Many people typically collect a handful of points in a year or two, which is not enough to get a free flight, so would-be collectors simply forget about their miles and let them lapse. That suits the airlines as they get revenue for the miles they sell knowing that they have cash up front for seats they may have to give away in the future.

However, it is the difficulty in earning a reasonable amount of miles that encourages people to look at whether other loyalty schemes are better for them. For example, a typical hotel loyalty scheme tends to offer much better value in terms of the percentage of reward given against the amount spent; a one night stay with many of the better hotels can earn you as much as approximately 50% of the points required for a free night's stay. So, paying for two night's accommodation would effectively earn enough points for a one night free stay in many schemes. That's good news if you aren't disciplined enough to ensure that you organise all your personal spending to collect air miles, but you do enjoy the occasional weekend away or extended vacation during the year.

Of course, air miles may be best for you if you fly frequently on business. But, that doesn't mean that you can't also take advantage of a hotel loyalty scheme, especially if you opt to stay in a major chain's hotels when you do travel. That way you could collect enough miles to get you to your destination for free and the hotel loyalty scheme would cover your accommodation - perfect!

Super Cheap Airline Tickets?

2008-02-04T18:47:00.000-08:00

Most people are just a little to accepting of the outrageous prices airlines charge for their tickets these day. They find the flight they want, get out their credit card, and pay the going price without thinking twice. Unfortunately for them they are missing out on substantial savings because it is possible to find and purchase super cheap airplane tickets. Fortunately for you this article will share some tips and tricks to help you find these great deals.

If you are like most people you probably purchase your tickets through a travel agent. While this isn't the best place to get good deals on plane tickets if you find a good travel agent who takes you into their confidence you may get lucky and get some pretty big discounts on your next travel plans. But you do have to remember that travel agents are there to make money and they work as a middle man between their customers and the airlines and they get a good sized cut for any sale they make.

One of the most powerful tools in the search for cheap airfare are the many airline booking search engines. These search engines search through the many travel and airline websites on the internet looking for the best possible discounts for you. This saves you the time and energy of searching through all these sites on your own.

While the internet can be a great place to find super cheap plane tickets there is another place where you may be able to find even better deals. If you go directly to the source there are deep discounts to be had. Call the airlines ticketing agents directly and simply ask what kinds of deals they have for the destination you wish to travel to. The best time to call is just after midnight because this is when all their computer systems update with the days prices. This usually includes a limited number of extremely cheap airfares.

The last tip is to be flexible, not only with your travel dates and time, but also while you're at the airport. Many airlines overbook and when the boarding call comes they will ask if anyone is willing to give up their seats for a later flight. The reward for doing this is usually a voucher for a free flight to anywhere that airline flies. It doesn't get much cheaper then free.

Finding super cheap airplane tickets is relatively easy once you know where to look and get the hang of how the airline ticketing system works. The best part of saving money on your airfare is it leaves extra cash in your pocket when you arrive at your destination. And wouldn't you rather spend your money on yourself instead of airline tickets?

Expect the Worst when booking your Flights

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Things go wrong, it is a fact of life! But they tend to go wrong at the worst possible time. On the day you are due to travel and begin your holidays of your dreams, make sure you have double checked everything. One method many families have is "money, tickets, passport", it sounds obvious but the amount of times people forget their passports is unbelievable.

Booking cheap flights is easy, but missing the check-in is as easy. Normally, with low cost airlines, check-in opens an hour or 2 and closes half and hour before departure. If you are late, they won't wait! So make sure you give yourself enough time to queue and check-in or else that amazingly cheap holiday you just found will not be happening and worse yet, they will not refund you with any of the money.

If you decide that the traditional airlines are the one for you, you will have a bit more leeway when it comes to checking in. The check in desks are normally open until the last minute and you will get called to the relevant gate should you fall asleep or forget about the time. Flights with the traditional companies can be less stressful but as with the low cost carriers, give yourself plenty of time to check-in to avoid the laborious queues that you are likely to meet.

Whoever you travel with, it is a good idea to check that everything is running smoothly (or as smoothly as possible at airports). The recent crashing of the Boeing 777 at Heathrow is a prime example for this, many of the flights have been cancelled, whilst many more have been transferred to other airports. This is an example where things have gone drastically wrong at airports and the customers have paid for it. Whether you have found cheap flights to Sydney or a trip to Paris, if the runways aren't clear, you will not be travelling.

After booking your cheap flights, ensure you have all you will need and check whether, on the day, your flights likely to be on time. Whether it's a cheap flights to Sydney or a quick journey from Blackpool to Stanstead, check to make sure everything will run as smoothly as possible.

How to find Cheap Airline Tickets

2008-02-04T18:44:00.000-08:00

It doesn't matter if you are a veteran traveler or are planning your first trip on an airplane; there isn't anyone who doesn't want to save money on their airline tickets. This is particularly true if you're planning a vacation to a far off land and the last thing you want to do is eat up your entire vacation budget trying to buy plane tickets.

Finding dirt cheap airline tickets takes some time and patience but it can definitely be worth the effort because we all know that traveling by plane is not that cheap. Whether you are on a budget or not here are some tips and trick you can use to find significant discounts the next time you travel by air.

1. Be flexible with your travel dates and times. Most airlines charge more for peak travel times during the week. By flying at off peak times such as mid-week and/or late evening/early morning you can find significant savings. This is also true of your destination. If you are planning a vacation try to go during the off-season. Not only will you find discounts for your destination but the airlines will also offer savings simply because they need warm bodies in their seats.

2. Book your airfare in advance. This does work to a point because if you book farther then 4 months out your chances of finding good prices are greatly limited. At the same time don't wait until the last minute because you will be charged full price. Your best window of opportunity is between 4 months and 12 to 20 days before your known travel date.

3. Compare, compare, and compare. Don't jump at the first deal you think you see. This is where having a little patience can come in handy. Shop around the different airlines websites, travel websites, and even travel agents to get an idea of what the going price for your destination is. This will allow you to pick the fare that best fits your budget and travel plans.

4. Look for package deals. If you are planning a vacation then see if you can find a discount package for both accommodations and airfare. This is something you can usually find through travel agents who know how to find these kinds of dirt cheap travel packages. Cruise vacations are also known to offer discount airplane tickets for their passengers, but you have to ask.

5. Call the airlines. A simple call to the airlines service representatives and asking what kinds of deals and discounts they have going is a great way to save money. In fact most airlines run discounts all the time but they do not actively advertise them.

Scoring dirt cheap airline tickets is not always easy but if you take the time to research your options and have some patience to find the deal that works best for you. Being flexible is your most powerful tool when it comes to finding cheap airfare and when you finally leave for that well deserved vacation just think how good it will feel with that extra cash in your pocket.

A Good Walk: Colonial Singapore

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Start from Collyer Quay and Clifford Pier, where most European colonists and Asian immigrants first set foot on the island. Leaving Clifford Pier, walk up the quay -- toward the Singapore River -- until you come to the imposing former General Post Office, now the Fullerton Hotel. On the hotel's left side is the gracious, old iron-link Cavenagh Bridge. If you walk along the river's south bank before crossing the bridge, you'll find what was once a wide towpath and is now a paved pedestrian street of restaurants and bars -- Boat Quay. The second building on your left houses Harry's Bar, which gained international attention in 1995 as a haunt of derivatives trader Nick Leeson, the guy who brought down the venerable Barings Bank.

Once over the Cavenagh Bridge, take a left onto North Boat Quay. Slightly back from the river is the huge, white Empress Place Building, home of the flagship Asian Civilisations Museum.

A bit farther along the quay is the statue of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, who is believed to have landed on this spot in 1819. Turn right onto St. Andrew's Road until you come to Old Parliament House, on your left, the oldest government building in Singapore, and on your right, Victoria Memorial Hall, built in 1905 as a tribute to Queen Victoria. Across the road is the old Singapore Cricket Club. Just past it, on your right as you continue up St. Andrew's Road, is the Padang, or playing field. To your left are the Supreme Court and City Hall, two splendidly pretentious, stately buildings. Continuing northeast on St. Andrew's Road, which runs along the Padang, cross Coleman Street toward the lawns that surround the Anglican St. Andrew's Cathedral.

Northeast of the cathedral is the huge Raffles City complex, easily recognized by the towers of two hotels -- Swissôtel The Stamford and Raffles The Plaza. Cross Stamford Road and walk through Raffles City to Bras Basah Road. Across the street is the renowned Raffles Hotel. After touring the hotel, continue up Bras Basah Road to Queen Street and make a right to the Singapore Art Museum. Across Bras Basah Road and down Victoria Street, you'll no doubt find a place to rest and people-watch at the Chijmes complex. Continue southwest on Victoria Street (it becomes Hill Street after Stamford Road); the Armenian Church will be on your right just before Coleman Street. From here stamp collectors should turn left onto Coleman and visit the Singapore Philatelic Museum; alternatively, turn right on Coleman, then right again onto Armenian Street, and you'll be at the Asian Civilisations Museum, Armenian Street. To see the Singapore History Museum instead, return to Stamford Road and make a left. You may wish to conclude your tour with a stroll through Ft. Canning Park, pausing at the European Cemetery and the Tomb of Iskander Shah, or visit Singapore's biggest underground military operations quarters (used during World War II) at the Battle Box. South of the park is Clarke Quay, where you can eat and shop.

Timing

With time factored in to wander through the Raffles Hotel and view the exhibits at one or more of the area's four museums, this walk should take a full day. Allow an hour for the Raffles, including time out for a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar. It should take at least an hour to view the museum exhibits. Avoid the Boat Quay area from noon-2 PM, when the lunchtime crowd takes over. Remember to buy water wherever you can; it's easy to get dehydrated in Singapore's heat.

A Good Walk: Little China, Singapore

2008-01-14T03:19:00.000-08:00

Indians have been part of Singapore's development from the beginning. Although Singapore was administered by the East India Company, headquartered in Calcutta, Indian convicts were sent here to serve their time. These convicts left an indelible mark on the city, reclaiming land from swampy marshes and constructing a great deal of the infrastructure and buildings, including St. Andrew's Cathedral and many Hindu temples. The enlightened penal program permitted convicts to study a trade of their choice in the evenings. Many, on gaining their freedom, chose to stay in Singapore.

Other Indians came freely to seek their fortunes as clerks, traders, teachers, and moneylenders. Most came from southern India -- both Hindu Tamils and Muslims from the Coromandel and Malabar coasts -- but there were also Gujaratis, Sindhis, Sikhs, Parsis, and Bengalis. Each group brought its own language, cuisine, religion, and customs, and these divisions remain evident today. The Indians also brought their love of colorful festivals, which they now celebrate more frequently and more spectacularly than in India itself. The gory Thaipusam, in January or February, is among the most fascinating.

The area Raffles allotted to the Indian immigrants was north of the British colonial district. Little India encompasses most of Serangoon Road, the heart of this district, its side roads extending out to Jalan Besar, plus Race Course Road, which runs parallel to both. The district is bounded by Sungei Road/Rochor Canal Road to the south and Lavender Street and Perumal Road to the north. Although new buildings have replaced many of the old, the sights, sounds, and smells will convince you that you're in an Indian town.

As you walk along Serangoon, your senses will be overwhelmed by the fragrances of curry powders and perfumes, by tapes of high-pitched Indian music, by jewelry shops selling gold, and stands selling garlands of flowers. (Indian women love wearing flowers and glittering arm bangles, though once their husbands die, they never do so again.) Shops here supply the colorful dyes used for the pottu (dot) seen on the foreheads of Indian women. Traditionally, a Tamil woman wears a red dot to signify she's married; a North Indian woman conveys the same message with a red streak down the part of her hair. The modern trend, however, is for an Indian girl or woman to choose a dye color to match her sari or Western dress. Occasionally you'll see an unmarried woman with a black dot on her forehead: this is intended to counter the effects of the evil eye.

A Good Walk

A good starting point is at the junction of Serangoon and Sungei roads. On the first block on the left is Tekka Market, one of the city's largest wet markets. Adjacent to the market is the Tekka Mall, a multi-ware emporium. Down Serangoon is the Little India Arcade, a cluster of art deco-style shophouses built in 1913 that have stores selling candies, saris, and incense. The streets to the right off Serangoon Road -- Campbell Lane and Dunlop Street (home of the highly regarded Haniffa Textiles, at No. 104) -- as well as Clive Street, which runs parallel to Serangoon, are filled with shops that sell such utilitarian items as pots and pans, rice, spices, brown cakes of palm sugar, red henna powder (a great hair dye), and sundry Indian groceries. You'll also see open-air barbershops and tailors working old-fashioned treadle sewing machines, and everywhere you go you'll hear sugar-sweet love songs from Indian movies. Along Buffalo Road, to the left off Serangoon, are shops specializing in saris, flower garlands, and electronic equipment. Above the doorways are strings of dried mango leaves, a customary Indian sign of blessing and good fortune. (If you detour down Dunlop Street, to the right off Serangoon Road, you'll come to the Abdul Gaffoor Mosque, with its detailed facade of green and gold.)
A little farther down Serangoon Road on the left (opposite Veerasamy Road), you'll notice the elaborate gopuram of the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, built in 1881 by indentured Bengali laborers working the lime pits nearby. Turn right on Race Course Road, well known for Singapore's most famous Indian curry restaurants, to Farrer Park, site of Singapore's original racecourse. Farther along Race Course Road is the charming Leong San Temple, dedicated to the goddess of mercy, Kuan Yin. On your way there, you'll pass a row of shops selling Chinese porcelain, a rather unusual feature in Little India. Across the road is Sakya Muni Buddha Gaya Temple, more commonly referred to as the Temple of 1,000 Lights. Backtrack on Race Course Road to Perumal Road; to the left is the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple. Behind you to your right is the Serangoon Plaza complex, on Serangoon Road itself, together with the famed Mustafa's Centre, up Syed Alwi Road, a multistory emporium of goods at extremely attractive prices. If you continue along Race Course Road, you'll come to the Banana Leaf Apolo, an excellent place for a drink and a curry.

Timing

Try to plan your walk for a weekday morning or mid to early evening when crowds are at their thinnest and temperatures at their lowest. Avoid the area on Sunday afternoon, when the neighborhood teems with people. You should be able to do this tour in three to four hours. Factor in half an hour extra for each of the te

A Good Walk: Arab District, Singapore

2008-01-14T03:18:00.000-08:00

Long before the Europeans arrived, Arab traders plied the coastlines of the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia, bringing with them the teachings of Islam. By the time Raffles came to Singapore in 1819, to be a Malay was also to be a Muslim. Traditionally, Malays' lives have centered on their religion and their villages, known as kampongs. These consisted of several wooden houses with steep roofs of corrugated iron or thatch gathered around a communal center, where chickens fed and children played under the watchful eye of mothers and the village elders while the younger men tended the fields or took to the sea in fishing boats. The houses were usually built on stilts above marshes and reached by narrow planks serving as bridges. If the kampong was on dry land, flowers and fruit trees would surround the houses.

All traditional kampongs have fallen to the might of the bulldozer in the name of urban renewal. Though all ethnic groups have had their social fabric undermined by the demolition of their old communities, the Malays have suffered the most, since social life centered on the kampong.

The area known as the Arab District, while not a true kampong, remains a Malay enclave, held firmly together by strict observance of the tenets of Islam. At the heart of the community is the Sultan Mosque, or Masjid Sultan, originally built with a grant from the East India Company to the Sultan of Johor. Around it are streets whose very names -- Bussorah, Baghdad, Kandahar -- evoke the fragrances of the Muslim world. The pace of life is slower here: there are few cars, people gossip in doorways, and closet-size shops are crammed with such wares as songkok, the velvety diamond-shape hats worn by Muslim men; the lacy white skullcaps presented to hajji, those who have made the hajj, as the pilgrimage to Mecca is called; the tasseled, beaded, and embroidered tudung (head scarves) worn by devout Muslim women; Indonesian batiks; leather bags; and herbs whose packages promise youth, fertility, and beauty.

The Arab District is a small area, bounded by Beach and North Bridge roads to the south and north and spreading a couple of blocks to either side of Arab Street. The area can further be divided up into the subneighborhoods of Kampong Glam (the region around Jalan Sultan) and Bugis (the area around infamous Bugis Street). It's a place to meander, taking time to browse through shops or enjoy Muslim food at a simple café.

A Good Walk

This walk begins at the foot of Arab Street, just off North Bridge Road. Wander past the specialty shops and take a right onto Baghdad Street; watch for a dramatic view of the Sultan Mosque where Bussorah Street opens to your left. Leaving the mosque, return to Arab Street and take the first left onto Muscat Street, turn right onto Kandahar Street, and then left onto Baghdad Street. At Sultan Gate you'll find Istana Kampong Glam, the sultan's Malay-style palace, built in the 1840s. Baghdad Street becomes Pahang Street at Sultan Gate, where Chinese stonemasons create statues curbside. At the junction of Pahang Street and Jalan Sultan, turn right and, at Beach Road, left to visit the endearing Hajjah Fatimah Mosque, built in 1845. It leans at a six-degree angle. Return to Jalan Sultan and take a right; keep walking, crossing over North Bridge Road, to the junction of Victoria Street and the Malabar Muslim Jama-Ath Mosque.

Follow Victoria Street down to Bugis Street. Three blocks beyond where Bugis Street becomes Albert Street -- between the Fu Lu Shou shopping complex and the food-oriented Albert Complex -- is Waterloo Street. Near the corner is the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple, or just Kwan Im for short, one of Singapore's most popular Chinese temples.

Timing

This walking tour shouldn't take more than two hours, including stops to look around the temples and mosques. But take your time. This is one of the friendliest areas in Singapore. It's best to go around 10 in the morning so you can catch a glimpse of the locals at the mosques. If you've got time, stop in at one of Arab Street's few hookah cafés.

A Good Walk: Orchard Road, Singapore

2008-01-14T03:14:00.000-08:00

If "downtown" is defined as where the action is, then Singapore's downtown is Orchard Road. Here are some of the city's most fashionable shops, hotels (which often, like the Hilton, have expensive, upscale malls all their own), restaurants, and nightclubs. The street has been dubbed the 5th Avenue or Bond Street of Singapore, but, air of luxury aside, it has little in common with either of those older, relatively understated marketplaces for the wealthy. Orchard Road is an ultra-high-rent district that's very modern and very, very flashy -- especially at night, when millions of light bulbs, flashing from just about every building, assault your eyes. Additionally, this is Singapore's best place for people-watching; a perfect distraction from or alternative to a shopping adventure. Relative to the other neighborhoods, there are few sites of historical interest along Orchard Road.

A Good Walk

Start at the bottom of Orchard Road and head toward the junction with Scotts Road, the hub of downtown. You'll see the enormous Istana, once the official residence of the colonial governor and now that of the president of the republic. On the other side of Orchard Road and a few steps down Clemenceau Avenue is the lovely old Tan Yeok Nee House. Built in 1885 for a wealthy Chinese merchant, the house has served various purposes, including headquarters for the Salvation Army. It's now the Asian campus for the University of Chicago's graduate business school. Turn on Tank Road and continue to the Chettiar Temple, which houses the image of Lord Subramaniam. Return to Orchard Road and turn left. On the right is Cuppage Road, with a market (open every morning) known for imported and unusual fruit and a row of antiques shops.

Returning once more to Orchard Road, you'll pass the block-long Centrepoint; immediately after it is Peranakan Place. A detour up Scotts Road leads to the landmark Goodwood Park Hotel which offers one of the most civilized high teas in town. Farther up Scotts Road is the Newton Circus food hawker center.

Retrace your steps to the intersection of Scotts and Orchard roads. Walk up the left side of Orchard Road, past the Wheelock Place Building, which houses the large Borders, as much a social center as a bookstore. Taxi drivers call this section of Wheelock Place "the rocket," and you'll see why. As you continue up Orchard Road, the Palais Renaissance will be on your right. Just before Orchard turns into Tanglin, you'll find the Tanglin Shopping Centre on your left; the second floor has some of the best antiques shops in town. Tanglin Mall, at the junction of Tanglin and Napier roads, has chic boutiques and an excellent food court. Flip to the Shopping chapter for more information about Orchard Road.

Timing

Orchard Road has so many shopping diversions that you should allow three to four hours for the walk. Set aside half an hour for the Chettiar Temple and, if you are an antiques fan, at least an hour for the Tanglin Shopping Centre. Avoid the area on Saturday if you're not big on crowds.

THINGS TO DO IN HONGKONG (day 6 & 7)

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Days 6 and 7:

Macau is easy to reach on the super-fast ferry and can easily be seen in one day, but to really get a feel for its old-world charm you should spend the night. Give yourself time to explore the Old Citadel section of the city, where you'll find the fascinating Museum of Macau and the landmark São Paulo church. This Portuguese-influenced neighborhood also has reasonably priced shops that sell everything from furniture to polo shirts.

Also explore Peninsular Macau where you can visit the picturesque A-Ma Temple and the informative Maritime Museum. While you're in this neighborhood, stop by the Pousada de São Tiago, a tranquil inn built into the ruins of a 17th-century fort, for a meal or a drink.

For dinner make sure to sample the unique and tasty Macanese cuisine. At night you can entertain yourself in a casino, and the next day perhaps lie on the white sands of a Macau beach to end your stay in this part of the world.

THINGS TO DO IN HONGKONG (day 5)

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Day 5:

Take the ferry from Central to the western side of Lantau Island, then take a bus (or hike) to Po Lin Monastery, where Tin Tan Buddha, the world's tallest outdoor bronze Buddha, is located.

From here take the bus to Tai O, a quaint fishing village where you can have a seafood lunch. In the afternoon, take the bus back to the harbor and Silvermine Bay where you can rent bikes to explore the small village of Mui Wo before taking the ferry back to Central.

IF YOU HAVE 7 DAYS GO TO>> DAY 6 & 7

THINGS TO DO IN HONGKONG (day 4)

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Day 4: You could easily spend several days exploring the New Territories, but if you'd like to see a lot in a short time, the easiest way is through an organized tour sponsored by the Hong Kong Tourism Bureau (HKTB). You can also rent a car or taxi and driver and explore on your own, or if you'd like to use public transportation, the KCR train will take you to the eastern territories to visit Shatin, home of both a very modern racetrack and the time-honored Temple of Ten Thousand Buddhas.

In the western New Territories, you can reach the Sam Tung Uk Museum, a walled village, by MTR subway, and Ching Chung Koon Taoist Temple by train.

GO TO >>DAY 5

THINGS TO DO IN HONGKONG (day 3)

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Day 3: On your third day, take a hair-raising bus ride from Central to the south side of Hong Kong Island. You'll have an unforgettable view of the island's coastline as the double-decker bus descends from the peaks of the busy shopping and business districts into the sandy coves of Stanley and Repulse Bay. Try to sit in the front of the upper deck for a ride more exciting than any amusement park.

Start your visit to the south side with Stanley, wandering through the market before it gets too crowded. If you haven't bought souvenirs yet, this is the best, and cheapest, place to do it.
When you're ready for a break from the frenetic market, wander along the waterfront and choose a spot for lunch. In the afternoon, take the bus to the beachfront town of Repulse Bay for a relaxation break on the sunny sand. Then hop the bus back to Central in time for dinner.

IF YOU HAVE 5 DAYS then GO TO>> DAY 4

THINGS TO DO IN HONGKONG (day 2)

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Day 2: If you're staying on Hong Kong Island, take a ride on the Star Ferry to arrive in the Tsim Sha Tsui neighborhood at the tip of Kowloon (if you're staying in Kowloon, use the ferry to arrive on Hong Kong Island on your first day). The view of the towering city from the water is always an impressive one.

Not far from the Star Ferry Terminal on Kowloon are the Hong Kong Space, Science, Art, and History museums. Continuing up Nathan Road you'll come upon the Peninsula Hotel, one of the true landmarks of Hong Kong. Take a peek at the palatial lobby, stop in for a cup of coffee, or come back later for the justifiably popular afternoon tea.

Continue up Nathan Road, crammed with stores big and small, on your way to the temples of Tin Hau, the oldest in Hong Kong, and Wong Tai Sin, an explosively colorful and noisy spot with a full concourse of fortune tellers.

Also take this opportunity to visit some of the diverse markets that are unique to Hong Kong. The Bird Garden, with birdcages lining the walkways and busy vendors selling cricket treats for these beloved songbird pets, particularly stands out. Other markets in the area include the enclosed Jade Market, the Flower Market (most interesting in the time leading up to the New Year), and the Ladies and Night markets (the latter starts around 6 PM).

Wrap up your day in Kowloon with a drink or dinner at the Peninsula's Felix restaurant for unparalleled views of neon-lit Central.

GO TO>> DAY 3

THINGS TO DO IN HONGKONG

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Best in 3 to 7 Days

If You Have 3 Days

Day 1: Start with a trip to the top of Victoria Peak by taking the Peak Tram, the steepest funicular railway in the world. From here you'll be able to get a bird's-eye view of the Central district's sparkling high-rises, the densely packed streets of Hong Kong Island, the harbor, and all the way to the outer edges of the Kowloon peninsula.

Spend the rest of your first day checking out the centers of activity on Hong Kong Island: the harbor districts of Central and Western with their upscale shopping and landmark skyscrapers, the Midlevels with its series of outdoor escalators leading up the steep mountainside, the hustling Wanchai district, and Causeway Bay and Admiralty with their megamalls and department stores.

If you finish up your day in Admiralty, consider having dinner at one of the great restaurants in the Pacific Place shopping complex.

GO TO>> DAY 2

Why The Quart-size Plastic Bag?

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What is the significance of putting the bottles in a zip-top bag, especially if the liquid has to be segregated in its own bottle?

TSA (TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION) conducted extensive explosives testing since August 10 and determined that these items, in limited quantities, are safe to bring aboard an aircraft. The one bag limit per traveler limits the total amount each traveler can bring. Consolidating the bottles into one bag and X-raying separately enables security officers to examine the declared items. By reducing clutter in the carry-on bag, security officers can more easily find prohibited items within the bag.

How many zip-top bags can each traveler bring through the checkpoint?

Each traveler is limited to ONE, QUART-SIZE, clear plastic, zip-top plastic bag of travel-size toiletries (3 ounces or less).

Did DHS/TSA take the proper and necessary precautions when it banned all liquids on August 10?

Knowing what we knew then and what we have learned since, banning all liquids was a prudent decision. Since the initial ban, we now have a better understanding to say with confidence that small travel size liquids are safe to bring through security checkpoints in limited numbers.

What additional security measures are being put in place at the airports?

TSA has enhanced its security measures through the airport: more random screening of airport employees, additional canine patrols, stronger air cargo security measures, more rigorous identity verification, more highly-trained security officers.

Can we expect additional changes to the ban?

It is unlikely that they will make changes in the near future. These changes represent a sustainable level of security for the TSA, passengers, airports and airlines.

PREPARE FOR TAKE-OFF

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Air travelers may now carry liquids, gels and aerosols in their carry-on bag when going through security checkpoints.

With certain exceptions for prescription and over-the-counter medicines, baby formula, breast milk, and juice, and other essential liquids, gels, and aerosols, the following rules apply to all liquids, gels, and aerosols you want to carry through a security checkpoint.
All liquids, gels and aerosols must be in three-ounce or smaller containers. Larger containers that are half-full or toothpaste tubes rolled up are not allowed. Each container must be three ounces or smaller.

All liquids, gels and aerosols must be placed in a single, quart-size, zip-top, clear plastic bag. Gallon size bags or bags that are not zip-top such as fold-over sandwich bags are not allowed. Each traveler can use only one, quart-size, zip-top, clear plastic bag.

Each traveler must remove their quart-sized plastic, zip-top bag from their carry-on and place it in a bin or on the conveyor belt for X-ray screening. X-raying separately will allow TSA security officers to more easily examine the declared items.

Please keep in mind that these rules were developed after extensive research and understanding of current threats. They are intended to help air travelers bring essential toiletries and other liquids, gels and aerosols for short trips. If you need larger amounts of liquids, gels and aerosols such as toothpaste or shampoo, please place them in your luggage and check them with your airline.

To ensure the health and welfare of certain air travelers, in the absence of suspicious activity or items, greater than 3 ounces of the following liquids, gels and aerosols are permitted through the security checkpoint in reasonable quantities for the duration of your itinerary (all exceptions must be presented to the security officer in front of the checkpoint):

Baby formula, breast milk, and juice if a baby or small child is traveling;
All prescription and over-the-counter medications (liquids, gels, and aerosols) including KY jelly, eye drops, and saline solution for medical purposes;

Liquids including water, juice, or liquid nutrition or gels for passengers with a disability or medical condition;

Life-support and life-sustaining liquids such as bone marrow, blood products, and transplant organs;

Items used to augment the body for medical or cosmetic reasons such as mastectomy products, prosthetic breasts, bras or shells containing gels, saline solution, or other liquids; and,
Gels or frozen liquids needed to cool disability or medically related items used by persons with disabilities or medical conditions.

You are allowed reasonable amounts over 3 ounces of the items above in your carry-on baggage, but you will need to perform the following:

Separate these items from the liquids, gels, and aerosols in your quart-size and zip-top bag.

Declare you have the items to one of our Security Officers at the security checkpoint.

Present these items for additional inspection once reaching the X-ray. These items are subject to additional screening.

We have also taken steps to ensure the security boarding areas after you pass through our security checkpoints. Therefore, any liquid, gel, or aerosol purchased (such as coffee or soda) in the secure area after you process through a security checkpoint is allowed aboard your plane.

3-1-1 FOR CARRY ONS

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3-1-1 for carry-ons = 3 ounce bottle or less (by volume) ; 1 quart-sized, clear, plastic, zip-top bag; 1 bag per passenger placed in screening bin. One-quart bag per person limits the total liquid volume each traveler can bring. 3 oz. container size is a security measure.
Consolidate bottles into one bag and X-ray separately to speed screening.

Be prepared. Each time TSA (TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION) searches a carry-on it slows down the line. Practicing 3-1-1 will ensure a faster and easier checkpoint experience.

3-1-1 is for short trips. If in doubt, put your liquids in checked luggage.
Declare larger liquids. Medications, baby formula and food, breast milk, and juice are allowed in reasonable quantities exceeding three ounces and are not required to be in the zip-top bag. Declare these items for inspection at the checkpoint.

Come early and be patient. Heavy travel volumes and the enhanced security process may mean longer lines at security checkpoints.

TSA working with our partners. TSA works with airlines and airports to anticipate peak traffic and be ready for the traveling public.

VIETNAM HISTORY

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The area now known as Vietnam has been inhabited since Paleolithic times, and some archaeological sites in Thanh Hoa Province reportedly date back several thousand years. Archaeologists link the beginnings of Vietnamese civilization to the late Neolithic, early Bronze Age, Phung-nguyen culture, which was centered in Vinh Phu Province of contemporary Vietnam from about 2000 to 1400 BCE. By about 1200 BCE, the development of wet-rice cultivation and bronze casting in the Ma River and Red River plains led to the development of the Dong Son culture, notable for its elaborate bronze drums.

The bronze weapons, tools, and drums of Dongsonian sites show a Southeast Asian influence that indicates an indigenous origin for the bronze-casting technology. Many small, ancient copper mine sites have been found in northern Vietnam. Some of the similarities between the Dong Sonian sites and other Southeast Asian sites include the presence of boat-shaped coffins and burial jars, stilt dwellings, and evidence of the customs of betel-nut-chewing and teeth-blackening.

The legendary Hồng Bàng Dynasty of the Hùng kings is considered by many Vietnamese as the first Vietnamese state, known as Văn Lang. In 257 BCE, Thục Phán defeated the last Hùng king and consolidated the Lạc Việt tribes with his Âu Việt tribes, forming Âu Lạc and proclaiming himself An Dương Vương. In 207 BCE, a Chinese general named Zhao Tuo defeated An Dương Vương and consolidated Âu Lạc into Nanyue. In 111 BCE, the Chinese Han Dynasty consolidated Nanyue into their empire.

For the next thousand years, Vietnam was mostly under Chinese rule. Early independence movements such as those of the Trưng Sisters and of Lady Triệu were only briefly successful. It was independent as Vạn Xuân under the Anterior Ly Dynasty between 544 and 602. By the early 10th century, Vietnam had gained autonomy, but not independence, under the Khúc family.

VIETNAM GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE

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Vietnam extends approximately 331,688 km² (128,066 sq mi) in area. The area of the country running along its international boundaries is 4,639 km (2,883 mi). The topography consists of hills and densely forested mountains, with level land covering no more than 20%. Mountains account for 40% of the area, with smaller hills accounting for 40% and tropical forests 42%. The northern part of the country consists mostly of highlands and the Red River Delta. Phan Xi Păng, located in Lào Cai province, is the highest mountain in Vietnam at 3,143 m (10,312 ft). The south is divided into coastal lowlands, Annamite Chain peaks, extensive forests, and poor soil. Comprising five relatively flat plateaus of basalt soil, the highlands account for 16% of the country's arable land and 22% of its total forested land.

The delta of the Red River (also known as the Sông Hồng), a flat, triangular region of 3,000 square kilometers, is smaller but more intensely developed and more densely populated than the Mekong River Delta. Once an inlet of the Gulf of Tonkin, it has been filled in by the enormous alluvial deposits of the rivers over a period of millennia, and it advances one hundred meters into the Gulf annually. The Mekong delta, covering about 40,000 square kilometers, is a low-level plain not more than three meters above sea level at any point and criss-crossed by a maze of canals and rivers. So much sediment is carried by the Mekong's various branches and tributaries that the delta advances sixty to eighty meters into the sea every year.

Vietnam has a tropical monsoon climate, with humidity averaging 84% throughout the year. However, because of differences in latitude and the marked variety of topographical relief, the climate tends to vary considerably from place to place. During the winter or dry season, extending roughly from November to April, the monsoon winds usually blow from the northeast along the China coast and across the Gulf of Tonkin, picking up considerable moisture; consequently the winter season in most parts of the country is dry only by comparison with the rainy or summer season. The average annual temperature is generally higher in the plains than in the mountains and plateaus.

VIETNAM ECONOMY

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The Vietnam War destroyed much of the economy of Vietnam. Upon taking power, the Government created a planned economy in the nation. Collectivization of farms, factories and economic capital was implemented, and millions of people were put to work in government programs. For many decades, Vietnam's economy was plagued with inefficiency and corruption in state programs, poor quality and underproduction and restrictions on economic activities and trade. It also suffered from the trade embargo from the United States and most of Europe after the Vietnam War. Subsequently, the trade partners of the Communist blocs began to erode. In 1986, the Sixth Party Congress introduced significant economic reforms with market economy elements as part of a broad economic reform package called "đổi mới" (Renovation).

Private ownership was encouraged in industries, commerce and agriculture. Vietnam achieved around 8% annual GDP growth from 1990 to 1997 and continued at around 7% from 2000 to 2005, making it the world's second-fastest growing economy. Simultaneously, foreign investment grew threefold and domestic savings quintupled. Manufacturing, information technology and high-tech industries form a large and fast-growing part of the national economy. Vietnam is a relative new-comer to the oil business, but today it is the third-largest oil producer in Southeast Asia with output of 400,000 barrels per day. Vietnam is one of Asia's most open economies: two-way trade is around 160% of GDP, more than twice the ratio for China and over four times India's.[citation needed]

Workshop in Hoi An, 2001.

Vietnam is still a relatively poor country with GDP of US$280.2 billion (est., 2006, source: Economist Intelligence unit). This translates to ~US$3,300 per capita. Inflation rate was estimated at 7.5% per year in 2006. The spending power of the public has noticeably increased. Deep poverty, defined as a percent of the population living under $1 per day, has declined significantly and is now smaller than that of China, India, and the Philippines. As a result of several land reform measures, Vietnam is now the largest producer of cashew nuts with a one-third global share and largest rice exporter in the world. Vietnam has the highest percent of land use for permanent crops, 6.93%, of any nation in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Besides rice, key exports are coffee, tea, rubber, and fishery products. However, agriculture's share of economic output has declined, falling as a share of GDP from 42% in 1989 to 20% in 2006, as production in other sectors of the economy has risen. According to the CIA World Fact Book, the unemployment rate in Vietnam is one of the lowest in the world at 2%, trailing behind only Azerbaijan, Cuba, Iceland, Andorra and Liechtenstein. Among other steps taken in the process of transitioning to a market economy, Vietnam in July 2006 updated its intellectual property legislation to comply with TRIPS. Vietnam was accepted into the WTO on November 7, 2006. Vietnam's chief trading partners include Japan, Australia, ASEAN countries, the U.S. and Western European countries.

VIETNAM TRANSPORTATION

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The modern transport network of Vietnam was originally developed under French rule for the purpose of raw materials harvesting, and reconstructed and extensively modernized following the Vietnam War. The road system is the most popular form of transportation in the country. Vietnam’s road system includes national roads administered by the central level; provincial roads managed by the provincial level; district roads managed by the district level; urban roads managed by cities and towns; and commune roads managed by the commune level.

Bicycles and motorcycles remain the most popular forms of road transport in Vietnam's cities, towns, and villages. Public bus operated by private companies is the main long distance travel means by many people. Traffic congestion is a serious problem in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City as the city's roads struggle to cope with the booming numbers of automobiles. There are also more than 17,000 kilometers of navigable waterways, which play a significant role in rural life owing to the extensive network of rivers in Vietnam.

The nation has seven developed ports and harbors at Cam Ranh, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Gai, Qui Nhon, and Nha Trang.

VIETNAME RELIGION & EDUCATION

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Religions

For much of Vietnamese history, Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism have strongly influenced the religious and cultural life of the people. About 86% of Vietnamese identify Buddhism even though they do not practice on a regular basis.[citation needed] About 7% of the population are Roman Catholic. Christianity was introduced by French colonists, and to a lesser extent during the presence of American forces. There is a substantial following of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism amongst the Cao Đài, and Hòa Hảo communities. The largest Protestant churches are the Evangelical Church of Vietnam and the Montagnard Evangelical Church.

Vietnam has great reservation towards Roman Catholicism. This mistrust originated during the French colonial time when several members of the Catholic church had collaborated with the French colonists as espionage agents to suppress the Vietnamese independence movement. Membership of Sunni and Bashi Islam is usually accredited to the ethnic Cham minority, but there are also a few ethnic Vietnamese adherents of Islam in the southwest. The Vietnamese government has been criticized for its religious violations. However, due to recent improvements in freedom of religion, the United States government no longer considers Vietnam a Country of Particular Concern.

Practically all Vietnamese people, regardless of their religious background (including Catholic or Buddhist), practice Ancestor Worship, although this may not be strictly considered a religion.

Education

Vietnam has an extensive state-controlled network of schools, colleges and universities. General education in Vietnam is imparted in 5 categories: Kindergarten, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and college/university. Courses are taught mainly in Vietnamese. A large number of public schools have been organized across cities, towns and villages with the purpose of raising the national literacy rate. There are a large number of specialist colleges, established to develop a diverse and skilled national workforce. A large number of Vietnam's most acclaimed universities are based in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Facing serious crises, Vietnam's education system is under a holistic reform launched by the government. In Vietnam, education from age 6 to 11 is free and mandatory. Education above these ages is costly, therefore many families can't afford to send their children to school.

VIETNAM CULTURE

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Over thousands of years, the culture of Vietnam has been strongly influenced by neighboring China. Due to Vietnam's long association with China, Vietnamese culture remains strongly Confucian with its emphasis on filial duty. Education and self-betterment are highly valued. Historically, passing the imperial Mandarin exams was the only means for Vietnamese people to socially advance themselves.

In the socialist era, the cultural life of Vietnam has been deeply influenced by government-controlled media and the cultural influences of socialist programs. For many decades, foreign cultural influences were shunned and emphasis placed on appreciating and sharing the culture of communist nations such as the Soviet Union, China, Cuba and others. Since the 1990s, Vietnam has seen a greater exposure to Southeast Asian, European and American culture and media.

The Hanoi Opera House is an example of French Colonial architecture in Vietnam.
One of the most popular Vietnamese traditional garments is the "Áo Dài", worn often for special occasions such as weddings or festivals. White Áo dài is the required uniform for girls in many high schools across Vietnam. Áo Dài was once worn by both genders but today it is worn mainly by females, except for certain important traditional culture-related occasions where some men do wear it.

Vietnamese cuisine uses very little oil and many vegetables. The main dishes are often based on rice, soy sauce, and fish sauce. Its characteristic flavors are sweet (sugar), spicy (serrano peppers), sour (lime), umami (fish sauce), and flavored by a variety of mint and basil.

Vietnamese music, is slightly different according to three regions: Bắc or North, Trung or Central, and Nam or South. Northern classical music is Vietnam's oldest and is traditionally more formal. Vietnamese classical music can be traced to the Mongol invasions, when the Vietnamese captured a Chinese opera troupe. Central classical music shows the influences of Champa culture with its melancholic melodies. Southern music exudes a lively laissez-faire attitude.

Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in Vietnam. Sports and games such as badminton, tennis, ping pong, and chess are also popular with large segments of the population. Volleyball, especially women volleyball, is watched by a fairly large number of Vietnamese. The (expatriate Vietnamese) community forms a prominent part of Vietnamese cultural life, introducing Western sports, films, music and other cultural activities in the nation.

Vietnam is home to a small film industry, but the works from its counterparts in South Korea, Hong Kong, France, the U.S. enjoy greater popularity and circulation.

Among countless other traditional Vietnamese occasions, the traditional Vietnamese wedding is one of the most important. Regardless of westernization, many of the age-old customs in a Vietnamese wedding continue to be celebrated by both Vietnamese in Vietnam and overseas, often combining both western and eastern elements.

PLANNING YOUR TRIP TIPS

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When planning your trip, make sure that you find out about the wet and dry seasons, or other possible weather conditions that may affect your holiday. If you are using a travel agent then make sure that you ask about this, even though they should tell you.

· Ask your agent, or other sources to find out whether the hotel or even the destination has any work going on. Again the agent should tell you, however he/she may have over looked the hotel that is being built right next door.

· If you are travelling to an area that may be considered a 'hot zone' (possibly dangerous) then check with your insurance company to verify whether you will be covered in case something goes wrong. If they do not, and you still want to travel, then find one that will.

· If your itinerary may change, ensure that there are absolutely no charges if you do change the dates or times of flights. Ask your agent to fully explain the restrictions that may appear, on your ticket, to ensure that they meet with your needs.

· If you are flying with one of the alliances, such as Star or One World. Just verify with your agent what plane is going to be used. They should tell you, but it is surprising how often you will see people complaining that they expected to be on a Singapore Airline plane, not the Lufthansa one that they find themselves on. This is the result of the code share agreements that the airlines are using.

· If money is valuable and if you are buying a plane ticket on a certain airline and have been told that due to these code sharing agreements you will actually be flying on another airline. Then call around or check if you can buy any cheaper tickets on the actual airline that you will be flying. Believe it or not code share does not mean price share and you may be able to find much cheaper.

· It is recommended to buy your holiday using a credit card. This gives you the comfort of official records, and also additional insurance that comes with the card. One of the best for travel is American Express, where you can also transfer your points to your frequent flier programme.

MALAYSIA TRAVEL TIPS

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Currency

The unit of currency is the Malaysian Ringgit indicated as RM, which is equivalent to 100 cents. Coins are issued in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 sen and RM1. Currency notes are in RM1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100. Foreign currency and traveler's checks can be converted to Malaysian Ringgit at banks or authorized money changers throughout the country.

Airport Tax

An airport tax of RM5 and RM40 is charged upon departure for all domestic and international flight passengers respectively.

Telephone

Local calls can be made from public phones, whether coin or card operated. International calls can be made from phone booths with card phone facilities or at any Telecom offices. Most hotels are equipped with IDD services with a minimal service charge. - Useful Phone Directory

Tourist Police

Visitors who encounter unforeseen problems and difficulties can seek the Malaysian Tourist Police Unit for assistance. They often patrol tourist spots and will render assistance, as well as safeguard tourists' security.

Business Hours

The country runs on a normal eight hours a day system with Saturday as half day and Sunday as a day of rest. In the states of Kelantan, Terengganu, and Kedah, Friday is a day of rest with Thursday as half days. Department Stores and supermarkets are open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Tipping

Tipping is not a way of life in Malaysia, but is fast becoming one.

What to Wear

Light, cool, and casual clothing is recommended all year round. For more formal occasions, men should wear jackets, ties, or long-sleeved batik shirts whereas women should wear dresses.

Water

It is generally safe to drink water straight from the tap, but it is safer to drink boiled water or bottled beverages.

Medical Services

Medical services are available in most towns at government hospitals and private clinics. Non-prescription drugs are available at pharmacies, as well as supermarkets, hotels, and shopping centers.

Local Touch

Food hawkers selling traditional and local delicacies make up the everyday scenes in big or small towns throughout the country. One can try "teh tarik", a smoothened, creamed tea, and "roti canai", a fluffy pancake prepared by a local person of Indian Muslim ancestry. Spicy Malay food, such as "nasi lemak" and various kinds of Chinese noodles are also popular. People from all walks of life frequent these food stalls.

As Malaysia is a multi-religious country, various Muslim mosques, Buddhist temples, Hindu temples, and Christian churches can be found almost anywhere. Despite the many changes and developments in the cities and big towns, Malaysia has many "kampung" (villages), jungles, beaches, and rice fields. Many houses in the "kampung" are built on stilts. Batik cotton fashion is popular in Malaysia . It can be used for casual wear, as well as formal functions.

Drug traffickers are sentenced to death by Malaysian Law.

SINGAPORE TRAVEL TIPS

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Visitors to Singapore should have valid passports and visas to enter Singapore. Applications for such visas can be made at the respective countries' high commissions or overseas missions. However, visas are not required for Commonwealth citizens, British passport holders, and Republic of Ireland citizens for a stay of up to 14 days. All onward visitors should have passports valid for at least three months from the time of arrival. They should also have return tickets, and sufficient funds for the length of their stay in Singapore.

The currency is the Singapore dollar (S$). Singapore uses 1c, 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, and S$1 coins. Notes are in denominations of S$2, S$5, S$10, S$50, S$100, S$500, and S$1,000. The islands also has a S$10,000 note.

Money changing services are available at Changi Airport and at most banks, hotels, and shopping complexes.

Singapore's country code is 65. There is no city code for Singapore.

Generally, business hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays to Fridays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. Shopping hours are usually from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. daily.
IDD calls can be made from the numerous card and credit card phones, which are located in post offices and around the city area. Phone cards come in denominations of S$2, S$5, S$10, S$20, and S$50.

Loose and light summer clothing is recommended, especially for outdoor activities like sightseeing. "Smart casual" is usually acceptable everywhere except for formal business dining or when specified in an invitation. Smart casual usually means shirts (long or short-sleeves but not T-shirts) or blouses, and trousers or skirts.

As the cleanest of all cities, it is safe to drink water straight from the tap.

As English is widely understood, it seldom acts as a barrier when conducting business in Singapore. Singapore business people expect the people whom they are dealing with to be punctual for meetings and appointments. They give and receive business cards with both hands after the handshake upon first meeting. It is best to admire the card for a few moments before putting it away. Meetings can take place anywhere, be it in boardrooms or restaurants. Most business people rarely wear suits due to the island's tropical heat. However, the men do usually wear ties.

Singapore's voltage is 220-240AC, 50 Hertz. Most hotels can provide a transformer to convert it to 110-120 AC, 60 Hertz.

With well-qualified doctors and dentists, Singapore's medical facilities are among the finest in the world. Registered pharmacists work from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with some open until 10 p.m. Most hotels have their own doctor on 24-hour call.

Tipping is not a way of life in Singapore. It is prohibited at the airport and discouraged at hotels and restaurants where a 10% service charge is included in the bill. A tip should only be exercised when the bill does not include a service charge.

A S$15 Passenger Service Charge should have been incorporated into your air ticket. If this is not the case, you are required to pay during check-in at the airport.

Singapore's laws may be severe enough to surprise most visitors. Trafficking in narcotics is punishable by death. The sale and importation of chewing gun is banned although possession is not necessarily an offense. Smoking in air-conditioned areas is illegal. Littering and jaywalking are also considered an offense. Speeding is also frowned upon with several speed-trap cameras installed around the island.

Singapore has earned the distinction of being one of the most crime-free countries in the world. The streets are usually quite safe at all times, even at nights. However, there are occasional pickpockets and purse snatchers who prey on unsuspecting victims. There are no specific areas, which are crime prone but it is better to avoid dark and secluded streets, especially if you are alone.

BANGKOK TRAVEL TIPS

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For those looking for a different cultural experience, or even just a great holiday destination, then adding Thailand to your travel list will not disappoint. A Thailand holiday can be a relaxed resort style getaway on one of the islands such as Koh Pi Pi or Koh Samed, bargain shopping and sight-seeing in the capital Bangkok, or perhaps a combination of both to let you experience the diversity of this amazing country.

For first time travelers to Thailand, there are several tips that will make your holiday less stressful and infinitely more enjoyable, such as:

Check Health Warnings

Before leaving for Thailand visit your family doctor to check health warnings for the area you intend to visit. If you intend to do any hiking or rainforest walks then you will need to start taking malaria tablets a week before your departure. Your family doctor will be able to advise any other precautions or medications that you need.

Airport Transfers

The cheapest way to get from the airport into the capital is via the taxi stand outside the departure area. You may have to wait 20 or 30 minutes before getting a taxi, but they should use the meter and will take you to your hotel

Your other option is to get hire a minivan from the many booths that line the corridor. Ask if you will be riding in the van alone or with passengers. Using for hire transportation will normally take around one hour by comparison and cost two to four times as much. However, there’s the added convenience of immediately getting your transfer.

Taxi Fares

Always ask how much the fare will be to get to your destination before getting into the taxi. Taxi fares in Thailand are for the most part quite reasonable when using the taxi’s meter. However, at times a naive traveler can be easy pickings, especially on a return trip from an outlying area, so be sure to ask for ‘meter’ or the cost of the fare beforehand. If it seems too high then you can usually find another taxi to get a better deal. The exception to this, however, is during peak hours in Bangkok, when you will occasionally pay more because of traffic delays. Sometimes taxi drivers will refuse to take you downtown because they wont be able to get out of the massive traffic jam that envelopes the city every night.

Your hotel concierge can advise you on what the busiest traffic times are likely to be. Planning your movements around the capital outside of these times will save you money if you're on a tight budget.

Don't drink the tap water

To reduce your chances of having your holiday ruined by stomach upsets, it is wise not to consume the local tap water.

However, Thailand’s water system is much safer than the surrounding countries, and you can feel safe brushing your teeth and using ice cubes.

Buy personal items from a supermarket

Make purchases of personal care items such as sunscreen, toothpaste or bottled water from a local supermarket instead of the resort or hotel where you are staying. Although the prices of these items may not seem too expensive, you will normally find a supermarket or small convenience store somewhere close to the resort where these items are up to a third of the price that you will pay at the resort. Any money you save on these purchases can be used for souvenir shopping instead.

Restaurants

When you're staying in regional areas and choosing somewhere to eat keep in mind that you are no longer in a western country. Thailand is a not extremely rich country, which is more evident in outlying areas than it is in the capital. While in your home country a restaurant in a run down looking building could indicate a possible health risk. This is not the case in regional areas of Thailand and Bangkok, as many of the buildings are old because of the general poverty of the population. The best guide for choosing a restaurant is if the local people are happy eating there, then it is a good indication that the food is safe and delicious.

Keep valuables concealed

In tourist areas, always keep wallets, purses, mobile phones etc in your pockets or backpack to avoid the attention of pickpockets, especially in larger cities like Bangkok. Although not a major problem, any large population has its share of thieving so it is best to keep your valuables secure. It is also wise to carry your backpack on the front of your body in certain areas such as the china town markets or the weekend market (called JJ market). It can be quite crowded, giving pickpockets a chance to access valuables within the outer compartments of a backpack.
Thailand is a great holiday destination with excellent shopping, friendly people, wonderful scenery, and delicious food and by following these simple tips you'll have such a memorable time you'll want to return again and again.

USEFUL NUMBERS

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Telephone
Country Code: 852
City Code: not required
Emergency: 999

Directory Enquiries: 1081
Time: 18501
Weather: 187 8066
Collect Calls: 10010
Overseas IDD and Cardphone Enquiries: 10013
Emergency Service (Police, Fire, Ambulance): 999
RTHK's Service Hotline (Newsline): 2272 0000
Hong Kong Tourism Board Visitor Hotline: 2508 1234
General Police Enquiries: 2527 7177
Consumer Council: 2929 2222
Hong Kong International Airport, English (24 hours): 2181 0000
Hong Kong Immigration Department (24 hours): 2824 6111
Department of Health: 2961 8989
*If you're dialling from outside Hong Kong please add the area code (852).

HEALTH

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As with all countries close to the equator, sunburn and dehydration can occur more easily than it would in cooler climates. Be sure to drink plenty of water and wear sunscreen if you plan to be in the sun for any length of time.

Tap water is safe for drinking in Hong Kong. Hotels usually provide bottled water for guests in their rooms.

There are no required vaccines for entering Hong Kong, unless arriving from a Yellow Fever infected area. Ask your physician and check with your state or local department of health for news on any current outbreaks of infectious diseases.
It is advisable when travelling to any foreign destination that you check with your local hospital as to what inoculations or medications you may need for your trip.

About Hygiene

Cleanliness: Hong Kong has strict laws to maintain environmental hygiene, including fixed penalty fines of HK$1,500 for littering or spitting. Please help keep Hong Kong clean and beautiful!

About Safety

Hong Kong is a remarkably safe city day or night. Police officers patrol frequently and they are very helpful. To ensure that your stay is a pleasant one and hassle free, please pay attention to the following points:
Keep your money, valuables and travel documents in a safe place, like the hotel room safe;
Look after & watch your belongings especially when you are in a crowded place;
Beware of people making dubious offers and those who may try to distract you and take away your belongings and
Be wary of people offering gambling or investment opportunities.

CURRENCY EXCHANGE

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Since the mid-1980s, the value of the Hong Kong dollar has been pegged at HK$7.8 to the US dollar, and consequent rates of exchange to other currencies. However, the market rate exchange to the US dollar fluctuates marginally. Banks and money changers charge commission. Similarly, commissions are payable in hotels and major retail outlets which provide exchange facilities for their customers. As elsewhere, the rates of exchange for cash and travellers cheques are marginally different and coins are not exchangeable.

Licensed money changers, such as Thomas Cook and Chequepoint are abundant in tourist areas. Money changers are open every day, including Sundays and holidays and late into the evening. There is no commission, but the exchange rate offered is equivalent to a 5% commission when compared with bank rates. If you are changing several hundred US dollars, you can bargain for a better rate.

The display of net rates of exchange by money changers is a legal obligation. Visitors are advised to check them - and also the amount of any additional commission payable for the exchange of travellers' cheques - before handing over the money for exchange. Before the actual exchange is made, the money changer is required by law to give you a form to sign clearly showing the amount, rate and any service charges.

Major banks are open from 9am to 4:30pm Monday to Friday, and 9am to 12:30pm on Saturday. They close on Sundays and public holidays. Some banks and branches are open slightly longer hours. Some banking services are not available an hour before closing.

Automated teller machines (ATMs) can be found almost everywhere. Some HSBC "Electronic Money" machines provide 24-hour cash withdrawal (HK$) and facilities for Visa and MasterCard holders. American Express cardholders have access to Jetco ATMs and can withdraw local currency and travellers' cheques at the Express Cash ATMs in town.

There are no restrictions on currencies being brought in or taken out of Hong Kong.

CUSTOMS

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Travellers entering Hong Kong at entry points are required to declare to Customs officers the quantity of dutiable goods (liquor, tobacco, cigarette and cigar) which are in excess of the duty-free concessions.

Duty-free Concessions

A passenger of the age of 18 or above is allowed to bring into Hong Kong free of duty, for his/her own use, the following quantities of dutiable commodities:

An incoming passenger aged 18 or above, who does not hold a Hong Kong Identity Card, is eligible for the following duty-free concessions: one litre of alcoholic liquor; and 200 cigarettes or 50 cigars or 250 grams of other manufactured tobacco.

An incoming passenger aged 18 or above, who holds a Hong Kong Identity Card and has spent 24 hours or longer outside Hong Kong, is eligible for the following duty-free concessions: 750 millilitres of still wine; and 60 cigarettes or 15 cigars or 75 grams of other manufactured tobacco.
To verify a passenger's eligibility for the duty-free concessions, Customs officers may require an incoming passenger to produce his/her Hong Kong Identity Card in order to verify whether he/she has spent 24 hours or longer outside Hong Kong.

Note: An incoming passenger, who fails to declare or makes a false or incomplete declaration to a Customs officer on the quantity of dutiable goods in his/her possession which are in excess of the duty-free concessions, is liable to prosecution.

Some personal protection devices like the spray mace which are legal in some countries are prohibited in Hong Kong.

There are no restrictions on currencies being brought in or taken out of Hong Kong.

HongKong Skyline

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HongKong Lightshow

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HongKong at Night

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Dream Hotel Bangkok, Bangkok

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10 Soi Ruamjai Sukhumvit 15, Klongtoey Nua(formerly the Somerset Hotel)Bangkok 10110Thailand

Dream Hotel Bangkok is a true ‘Hautel Couture’ 5-Star experience situated in the heart of Sukhumwit, Bangkok’s pulse for fashion, entertainment and business.
Dream Bangkok blends the funk of East meets West with look, feel and taste. The ‘in-your- dreams’ design goes beyond the envelope bringing a new levelof surrealism to the world of acommodation and entertainment.
Zone...arrivals-a combo of elegance and hit-the-edge mood gets you in the Dream state of mind...enter the Dream world of theatre and art. This coupled with the Dream cutting edge edge service professionalism that starts at the front door and filters through to all the zones of Dream Bangkok.

Holiday Inn Bangkok, Bangkok

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971 Ploenchit Road, Pathumwan(formerly President Hotel Bangkok)Bangkok 10330Thailand

Rooms: 377

Hotel Class: 4 stars

Holiday Inn Bangkok is conveniently located across from the famous Bangkok Central World Plaza. Other nearby attractions include; Siam Paragon, Siam Square, Chidlom Skytrain Station, Panthip IT City, Gaysorn Boutique Mall and the Erawan Shrine. Holiday Inn Bangkok's interior styling evokes a sense of home and welcome. The hotel offers modern amenities, state-of-the-art facilities and attention to detail, important to discerning travelers. Guests will find relaxation in the expansive Lobby Bar; the most suitable venue for work or conversation. Guests may also try our new inviting all day dining venue, Cafe G, or speciality Thai restaurant, Charm Thai.The Holiday Inn Bangkok is located in the heart of the city's business and commercial district, adjacent to the InterContinental hotel. Its contemporary design blends comfortably with accents of traditional.

Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok

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155 Rajadamri RoadBangkok 10330Thailand

Rooms: 340

Hotel Class: 5 stars

Traditional Thai architecture, hand-painted silk ceilings, intricate artwork, an impressively scaled lobby and glorious gardens - Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok offers exquisite accommodations and gracious hospitality strategically located in the corporate, diplomatic and shopping heart of Bangkok's bustling core. Experience the diversity of Thailand by pairing your visit with a stay at Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai in tranquil Mae Rim Valley.

Banyan Tree Bangkok, Bangkok

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21/100 South Sathon Road Thai Wah TowerBangkok 10120 Thailand

Rooms: 216

Hotel Class: 4 stars

Few cities in the world fire the imagination with exotic images like Bangkok. Ornate palaces that host royal processions, Buddhist temples that witness monks chanting ancient sutras, serpentine canals that lead to a maze of water markets, bazaars that never sleep - all have long proved a powerful magnet for travelers. In this sprawling metropolis, Banyan Tree Bangkok stands out as a much-needed 'sanctuary for the senses' and a rejuvenating spa retreat. Voted in the Gold List as one of 'The World's Best Places to Stay' by Conde Nast Traveler (US) in 2005, Banyan Tree Bangkok is proud to embrace you with the legendary hospitality Thailand is famous for.

MOVENPICK MARCHE RESTAURANT SINGAPORE

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The interesting concept behind this European-styled restaurant sees a card progressively encoded as you select your dishes. The tally is made by the cashier as you leave. Decor is a combination of different styles that match the eight-themed sections of the restaurant--from the dim cosiness of the wine cellar to the romantic Italian corner. Everything here from pasta to steaks is prepared before your eyes. Dishes to try are the rösti and desserts. You will find wine from the world over, from South Africa to France and Italy.

260 Orchard RoadSingapore 238855 Singapore
+65 6737 6996

Open Hours11a-11p M-Sa, 10a-11p Su

CRYSTAL JADE CHICKEN RESTAURANT SINGAPORE

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Sample great Chinese cuisine at affordable prices amid decor typical of most Chinese restaurants with wooden oriental chairs, tables and paintings. Crystal Jade Kitchen is well known for its Cantonese dim sum, roast pork bun, steamed shrimp dumplings, pork shoo-mai, egg tart, carrot cake, deep-fried gioza and many other light delicacies. For a more substantial meal, choose from a wide range of congee and noodles with ingredients ranging from duck, chicken, fish, meatballs and even abalone. Drinks served include fresh juices, soft drinks and Chinese tea.

3 Temasek BlvdSingapore 038983 Singapore
+65 6338 3511
Open HoursDaily 11a-11p

MY HUMBLE HOUSE RESTAURANT SINGAPORE

2007-04-30T06:38:00.000-07:00

Chinese Artist-musician Zhang Jin Jie, in collaboration with the famous Tung Lok group, has conceived of this contemporary restaurant. The cuisine is authentic Chinese, and each dish is served in an extraordinarily imaginative way. Everything from design accessories to the furniture is exquisite; they are almost pieces of art in themselves. The place gets very busy at dinnertime. Reservations are highly recommended.

$02-27/29 Espalande MallSingapore 039802 Singapore
+65 6423 1881
Open HoursLunch: Daily noon-3p; Dinner: Daily 6:30p-11p

AU JARDIN LES AMIS, SINGAPORE

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Located in an elegant colonial house in the middle of Singapore's lush Botanic Gardens is the pricey but award-winning Au Jardin Les Amis. This place has garnered praise for its selection of French cuisine with a slightly Asian twist. The ambience is simple and elegantly understated--linen-clad tables, dark wooden floors and an overhanging chandelier. Try the à la carte pan-roasted pigeon, shrimps with lobster sabayon and laksa mint. Alternatively, just go for the eight-course dinner or four-course lunch which changes weekly. Exquisite French, German, Italian and Australian wines are available to accompany your meal.

Cluny RoadSingapore 259569 Singapore
+65 6466 8812

Open HoursBrunch: 11:30a-2p Su, Lunch: noon-2p F, Dinner: 7p-9:30p M-Su