I’m on a bit of a Southeast Asia kick today…so why stop. I posted about audio tours in Thailand, specifically Bangkok, but here is a site for the more logistically-minded. Those interested in Southeast Asia, in particular Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, will be very interested in this site called Travelfish. The site has very specific, traveler-scribed guides to these places, providing information on the best unspoit beaches, the best food, where to go in Laos to find “mist shrouded Lao mountains” and “luxury lodges for a hilltribe trek”. In some ways, I actually think the site is better than Lonely Planet, because for each place they actually provide listings and links to their recommendations. The site is well organized, well designed and chock full of good information. Worth a look.
Photo of the Day (8/3/06)
Overloaded Vehicles
If you’ve ever traveled to a Third World country,
you’ve seen the odd site of an overloaded vehicle. I know I have. In India, I saw a truck very much like the one in
this picture, loaded with logs and branches such that I was sure the vehicle would soon topple over .Amazingly, it
didn’t but kept right on chugging along down the street. In Cambodia, I saw a family riding a motorcycle. A family of
six. The kids hung off each side, a baby was on the handlebars and the mom and two kids sat on the seat. Well, here’s a hilarious gallery found via Boing Boing of photos that will make you gasp and laugh at the ingenuity and ambition
of the human race. We advise you not to try this at home.
The Newest Hot Spot: Cambodia
In
this constantly shrinking world, there is an ongoing, almost panicked search amongst hardcore backpackers to discover,
and hopefully keep to themselves, the newest, undeveloped, inexpensive, unknown, off-the-beaten-trail hot spot to which
they can disappear in heavenly bliss. Prague, Goa, Phi Phi, and countless other quaint, undiscovered locales all
had their moment in the sun, their brief rise to hip backpacker paradise and hippy nirvana before the rest of the world
caught on and arrived in en masse. With cries of “there goes the neighborhood,” such places quickly
fall from grace and the search continues anew.
Alexander Lobrano of the International Herald Tribune thinks he has learned about the next great place:
Sihanoukville, Cambodia. This isolated beach town south of Phnom Penh, has everything one desires for an escape;
good food, spectacular beaches, and decent accommodations. And not many people know about it.
Of course, once a new, hip destination makes it to the travel section of the International Herald Tribune,
I have to question just how hip and cool it really is. Lobrano’s account, however, still makes the place
sound extraordinarily appealing, but he warns that things will soon change. A four star hotel has already been built, and renovations at the local airport are
underway. Lobrano, however, estimates we (i.e., cool backpackers) still have a few years to enjoy Sihanoukville
before direct flights from around the world turn it into just another Cancun. In the meantime, it still belongs
to the hippies.