Lonely Planet’s Tom Hall recently gave the UK’s Guardian newspaper his picks for the hot tickets of 2010 for young travelers looking for economical ways to navigate the region

INDONESIA: The Eastern Islands

Flying into Flores, though LP says go by boat (by Prilfish via Flickr Creative Commons License)

LONELY PLANET SAYS: “Flores is home to world-class diving, volcanic lakes and empty white-sand beaches. Start … from Bali via Komodo or Rinca on a Perama boat—you’ll pick up enough suggestions on the way to work out the rest for yourself!”

PHILIPPINES: El Nido

Volcanic beauty: El Nido (by Vanna GocaraRupa via Flickr Creative Commons License)

LONELY PLANET SAYS: “If you’re in search of stunning coastline and beaches, El Nido in northern Palawan is the place. This small, chilled-out town has plenty of amenities, but development remains slow meaning accommodation can be limited and the place never gets too busy.”

ASIA: The Andaman Islands

Not a lot in Havelot, I mean Havelock (by Kai Hendry via Flickr Creative Commons License)

LONELY PLANET SAYS: “Two and a half hours by ferry from Port Blair, the islands’ main town, Havelock, is a pretty good approximation of a backpacker paradise, with great snorkeling,  and cheap eating and lodging.”

ASIA: Bangladesh

Boating at dawn near the Bay of Bengal (By Joisey Showaa via Flickr Creative Commons License)

LONELY PLANET SAYS: “This underrated country might just be the world’s best-value country for travelers. Marvelous meals will cost less than US$1, and a midrange hotel room less than $10.”

ASIA: India’s Northeastern States

in Northeastern India (by Old Fashind via Flickr Creative Commons License)”]

Technicolor melting pot and spotting rhinos [inset

LONELY PLANET SAYS: “India’s final frontier—the “seven sister states” of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizaram, Nagaland, and Tripura—hides obscure tribal societies, forested hills and the feeling you’re breaking new ground.”

Against all odds, Burma’s first girl band, The Tiger Girls, hope to get their claws into the local pop music scene—but they face stiff regional competition from Asia’s K-Pop and J-Pop aficionados

Can Myanmar's Tiger Girls really hope to uphold Spice Girls-style "Girl Power?"

Isolated Myanmar can seem like the land that time forgot. Forget digital baubles and the trappings of modern life. As the controversial Lonely Planet Myanmar (Burma) relates, visiting the “time-warped country” is to “turn back the clock … with creaking buses, potholed roads … and not a 7-Eleven in sight.” In other words, just about the last place on earth you would expect to find a gyrating girl band.

But, 15 years after The Spice Girls stormed the world, “Girl Power” has landed in crumbling Yangon. Tricky, Chilli, Electro, Missy and Baby hope to emulate what Posh, Scary, Sporty, Ginger and Baby foisted upon the world almost a generation ago.

The band is the brainchild of Australian dancer Nicole May. “There is so much natural music flowing through people’s veins here, but the music industry is undeveloped,” she told The Guardian.

At their first gigs in February 2010, audiences were apparently stunned into silence. “On the first day, people were quiet, they did not know what to think about us, they hadn’t seen anything like us before,” said Htike Htike (Electro Tiger). “But by the second day, they really liked us, they were clapping and cheering and calling for more.”

Giving “more” may not be so straightforward in a country ruled by a military junta resistant to Western influence; where all song lyrics must be approved by a capricious military censorship board.

“The country is hungry for something new, but whether it is ready for the Tiger Girls, I don’t know,” May told The Guardian.

ASIA’S ‘PRETTY’ SYNDROME

"I want nobody - but the world's second-biggest record industry": The Wonder Girls

Asia loves its pretty-girl presenters and dancing “coyote girls” as much as karaoke, so Western-style girl groups are big business. In the late 90’s and early 00’s, Asia was swept up in the “Korean Wave”—a seismic, multimedia cultural surge with bubblegum pop as its Technicolor undertow.

Fashionable youths from Phnom Penh to Taipei via Bangkok and back are sporting gelled, layered mullets and dancing to a “K-Pop” beat.  However, like much of Korean culture, “K-Pop” absorbed tropes from neighboring Japan, home of the world’s second-largest music market and the loosely defined “J-Pop” genre, rooted in The Beatles and the Swinging Sixties.

SOUTH KOREA

South Korea's leading girl group, Girls' Generation (note the use of grammatical punctuation!)

“The local pop scene is sizzling with an array of girl groups, both old and new, and the competition is expected to heat up,” frothed Han Sang-hee of The Korea Times in 2009 (conveniently ignoring the Korean entertainment industry’s well-publicized backdrop of backroom sleaze and suicides).

Girls’ Generation is a nine-member troupe of professionally trained showbiz babes, often referred to outside Korea as SNSD, an acronym of the group’s Korean name “So Nyeo Shi Dae”. The group sold over 100,000 copies each of their first three albums, a first for female groups in South Korea.

Their main rivals are The Wonder Girls, whose English version of their 2009 single “Nobody” was the first Korean song to enter the US Billboard Chart—it also topped playlists in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The five-piece unit announced a 20-show tour of the US and Canada in 2010—“The Wonder World Tour”(natch)—after supporting hot-to-trot virgins, the Jonas Brothers.

JAPAN

Here today gone tomorrow: members of Japan's Morning Musume

Eight-piece Morning Musume is Japan’s biggest-selling girl group. They formed in 1997 via reality TV series Asayan, which tasked them with selling 50,000 copies of demo single “Ai no Tane” in five days. The girls managed it in four.

Peering beyond the shiny surface offers a glimpse of a baffling subculture, somewhat echoing hierarchical Japanese society. Morning Musume is the lead group of The Hello! Project—a monopolistic network of dozens of bands populated by members whose average age is 15. These performers are interchangeable, so routinely form new bands.

Unsurprisingly, Morning Musume has an ever-fluctuating lineup, forever staging “auditions” and “graduations” (read: retirements, complete with farewell ceremonies). There are already 17 former members. Perhaps the current crop can take hope from the fact that the group’s line-up remained unchanged in 2008. Or maybe not.

THAILAND

Thailand's controversy courting quintet: Girly Berry

In Thailand, a quintet called Girly Berry often enrage traditionalists and moral conservatives with their skimpy attire and provocative choreography. Therefore, it came as a surprise when the Thai government selected the girls to front a national campaign calling for women to dress modestly during the Songkran water-throwing fight festival.

Girly Berry gladly accepted—only to appear plastered over tabloid front pages on the first day of the festival soaking wet and scantily clad. The band posed in pink polo shirts wai-ing their apology to the country’s Ministry of Culture. “We want to say that we have more than one role,” said Piay “Giftza” Pongkullapa. “As everybody knows, Girly Berry s a girl group whose image, singing and dancing are influenced by Western culture. That day we were Girly Berry.”

“Play with matches, you get burned,” would seem to be the moral of this story.

THE FUTURE…
The star-maker behind the Spice Girls, FarWest Entertainment, is now setting out to form an Asian counterpart. The pan-Asian girl band launched an initiative called Project Lotus, to find, train, and groom the five “Asian Spice Girls” from China, Japan, Korea, Philippines and India. Online auditions have closed—so listen out for the “Asian Spice Girls” bothering the airwaves soon. Their management team is also responsible for the likes of Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, S Club 7, Five, Ronan Keating, and Blue, by the way. Be afraid. Be very afraid…

Cynics may deem it a desperate measure to combat dwindling tourism, but Thailand should be commended for promoting its emerging drug rehabilitation sector

By Joel Quenby

Landscaped gardens at Channah Thailand, Kanchanaburi province

“Go Cold Turkey in Thailand!”—as the official slogan presumably won’t go. Admittedly, such a catchphrase would be a far cry from the usual tourist-board platitudes (excluding Australia’s inspired “So Where the Bloody Hell Are You?” campaign, naturally). “Rehab tourism,” though, is a logical extension of therapies already offered by Thailand’s acclaimed surgery and spa industries, which already draw growing numbers of medical tourists.

"They tried to make me go to rehab, I said: Yes, please!" Channah's poolside guest villas

Spearheading the Thai rehab revolution are two upscale detoxification resorts: Channa, located by the River Kwai, and Breathing Space, in the Chiang Mai mountains. Both are picturesque, secluded and decked out with designer on-site spa and fitness facilities.

Channa’s pampered “guests” stay in plush bungalows with private verandas, home cinemas and a maid service. Treatment-wise, they are offered a newfangled 28-day regime of psychotherapy, fitness coaching, counseling and group work—at less than half the price of a week at Britain’s celebrity recovery center, The Priory.

Channa boasts a 92 percent program completion rate, which is, “Among the very best results for any clinic in the world,” says the Tourism Authority of Thailand. Breathing Space, meanwhile, bases its treatments on the standard 12-step program practiced worldwide in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings.

Somehow one imagines that celebrity posterboys/girls will be in short supply for this campaign. One person who definitely won’t be promoting it is disheveled Brit-rocker, the Libertines’ Pete Doherty.

At the height of his junkie shambling, Kate Moss’s ex was sent to Wat Thamkrabok temple in central Thailand in 2004 (by none other than Eastenders’ Dot Cotton or her doppelganger, actress June Brown, whose godson has been hooked on crack).

The Spartan Buddhist way station is reputedly the world’s toughest clinic. The grueling treatments dished out include medieval beatings with a bamboo cane and being force-fed a black concoction of herbs that induces all-day vomiting marathons to purge impurities. (Spectacular displays of projectile spewing draws clapping from spectators invited in to witness the wretched addicts grappling their demons in public “vomit shows.” Not so much kicking you while you’re down, as applauding.)

It may sound comparable to Guantànamo—guests are even accommodated in a communal septic tank (okay, I made that one up)—but, incredibly, almost 70 percent of the tens of thousands of troubled people treated at the temple since 1958 have managed to stay drug-free, according to one Australian study.

Flunked relinquishing junk: Pete Doherty

But it’s clearly a hardcore regime; a far, anguished cry from mollycoddling, celeb-friendly detox haunts. Predictably, lily-livered Doherty lasted just three days (before legging it back to heroin-induced oblivion).

“The singer seemed unwilling or unable to let go of his dark side,” Phra Hans, a Swiss spiritual counselor at Thamkrabok, told The Independent.

However, bearing testament to the medical establishment’s faith in Thai-style detox—and, if accurate, the temple’s astonishing success rate should speak for itself—the U.K.’s National Health Service sends selected patients to Thamkrabok.

It makes sense to me. Who would not prefer to “go tropical”—preferably in five-star style—for their discreet cleanup? It beats trembling it out in some dingy motel, stark detox clinic or damp rehab hideaway any day.

In China recently, a phenomenon described by some as a comet-like “fireball” spooked locals and forced Xiaoshan International Airport, in the southeastern city of Hangzhou, to ground planes for an hour to avoid a potential collision. The national aviation authority confirmed that the dramatic July 7 incident was the first time a UFO had shut down one of China’s airports.

Earlier that day, a local bus driver named Yu saw a strange glowing object in the sky. “The thing suddenly ran westwards fast, like it was escaping from something,” he said. Some Chinese experts said it might be debris from a U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile; others cited a possible freak reflection from some unauthorized combat… apparatus.

One shadowy, supposedly official source said the government knew what the controversial airborne object actually was, but were keeping quiet, as the matter had a “military connection.” Curiouser and curiouser… But is this sighting just one occurrence amid a modern flying-saucer epidemic?

Back in 2000, The New York Times reported a UFO boom in China’s skies, noting, “the normally conservative official news media have been lavishing attention on UFO news.” (The Times added, “this is an extraordinary reversal in a country where, 25 years ago, life was so focused on Communist politics that most people could not imagine anything so ethereal as an unidentified flying object, and expressing belief in them might have been a ticket to jail.”

But flash back hundreds of years, and ufologists will find the earliest saucer sightings in recorded history in 4th-century Chinese texts, which claimed that a mystical “moon boat” hovered above China every 12 years.

Differing views of the UFO that closed Xiaoshan airport, China

THAILAND

A dark object traverses skies over Thailand's Koh Samui island, May 2007

In Thailand, the US Air Force coined the term “U.F.O.” in 1952. But almost a century-and-a-half before, one of the earliest extraterrestrial manifestations occurred in Thailand. According to Malaysian writer Ahmad Jamaludin, missionary and physician Dr. Jacob Hazlitt reported seeing a one-eyed humanoid with “gleaming” skin dressed in silver clothing in August 1810. The sighting took place “on a road outside Meklong” (which could refer to the northeastern, Mekong River-bordering districts of Nong Khai or Mukdahan).

In September of that same year, the mono-eyed, metallic-attired freak was encountered again. This time, a local Siamese lady claimed that an unknown force awaked her one night. Surprised to hear the surrounding area devoid of the usual animal noises, she looked out of the window to behold the alien in her back yard before it reportedly swept her away to a “palace of lights.” The incident is thought to be Southeast Asia’s first extraterrestrial abduction.

In more recent years, a tourist’s fantastical blog account of a psychically conducted UFO encounter in a (disconcertingly vaguely identified) “remote Karen [ethnic minority] village of about 40 people… in the mountain range about five hours outside of Chiang Mai.” The ripping yarn, detailing the “jaan fai” (plates of light) that swarmed overhead “almost every night,” is worthy of Steven Spielberg.

A UFO crash-lands in Bangkok (by Frederick Thommesen via Flickr Creative Commons License)

JAPAN

Former prime minister and veritable Japanese Kennedy Yukio Hatoyama admitted that his wife had aroused unprecedented passions in him. Former actress Miyuki, voted in Time magazine’s “Top 10 Colorful First Spouses,” perhaps awakened something else in the Democratic Party of Japan leader when she momentarily overshadowed his greatest political coup (which displaced the Liberal Democrats from over half-a-century in power).

Miyuki’s words in her 2008 book Most Bizarre Things I’ve Encountered made giant, Martian strides from former US president Jimmy Carter’s famous 1969 UFO sighting. She claimed that aliens took her soul to the planet Venus—which she described as “a very beautiful place” being “very green”—while she was asleep.

The Hatoyamas huddle up to the Obamas

The revelations, which included hanging out with Tom Cruise—in a previous life, when Cruise was apparently Japanese—set subeditors around the world to “pun” mode. Regular readers of her spirituality column for Mu Magazine, a publication exploring the paranormal, were less shocked. They had previously dubbed her “Mrs. Occult” for her unorthodox views.

“I can understand to a degree [the existence of UFO’s],” responded baffled PM Hatoyama, according to a Japanese blog. “But being told by your wife ‘I’ve gone and returned from Venus,’ still bewilders me.” As indeed it might.

INDIA, INDONESIA & SUMATRA

The India Daily reported “an enormous number of UFO sightings” before the catastrophic 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and wondered “were they trying to warn?”

The editorial claimed that those, “in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu … Nicobar Island as well as many in Indonesia” were seeing strange flying objects and speculated that the aerial bombardment meant the visitors “were trying to communicate something.”

According to some unnamed “experts,” the Daily continued, “UFOs always hover around the epicenter of major calamities. They somehow sense these coming natural disasters … Some even believe these UFOs simulate natural disasters in the earth.”

The plot thickens and the conspiracy deepens: the India Daily linked pre-tsunami UFO flybys to the supposed earthquake-luring properties of a dangerous planetary alignment of the Sun, Earth, Moon, Venus and Jupiter. Dispelling all doubt, it argued that, “Mayans and Egyptians were always scared about planets lining up.”

The piece concludes that: “It is possible that UFO’s are trying to communicate to us to warn about the planetary positioning effects on the Earth’s tectonic plates and crust.” Possible—in the farthest reaches of credulity, perhaps—but not exactly likely.

Have you seen a UFO in Asia? Let us know here.

The 2000s will go down in the annals of marketing as the century tourism without a prefix went out of fashion. I’m told my ancestors justified their holidays with hard work and an ‘I’ve-earned-it’ attitude, but these days you feel obligated to buy carbon offsets just for a visa run to Mae Sai.

The buzz around eco-, agro- and volun- tourism, for all of its ad wizardry, does add a fresh dimension to travel in Thailand. While nature-based tours get plenty of attention through hotels in Chiang Mai, volunteer opportunities are too often overlooked. That’s too bad, because, in my experience, lending a hand to a worthy cause is one of the most rewarding ways to experience any city. It also puts you directly in contact with genuine locals that you wouldn’t otherwise meet.

Independent travelers can work out their own arrangements, but it’s hard getting in touch with the smaller charity foundations where the most interesting work is happening. Pay-to-play agencies make sense for short-term volunteers, and while paying to help out sounds a little backwards, these companies operate streamlined projects that can maximize the impact of short-term efforts.

Chiang Mai is overflowing with potential volunteer projects, but these are a few of the highlights:

Volunteer in an orphanage

Chiang Mai’s government-run orphanage, Viengping Children’s Home, is near the city hall, and they welcome foreign visitors who want play outside with the kids after school. These children come from every background imaginable. Some are true orphans; others have been abandoned or abused. Viengping is enormous and functional, if a little bleak, but the kids who stay here truly enjoy the chance to meet and interact with people from such far-off places.

Across from behemoths like Viengping are a host of small foundations and privately run facilities. These little places are always in need of assistance, though they’re usually reluctant to set up a revolving door for short-term volunteers to whisk in and out of the children’s lives. Many of these projects are funded by Christian foundations, and virtually all of them are more receptive to volunteers willing to make medium-term commitments – something like six weeks or more. Two of particular interest are the Agape Home for children with HIV/AIDS and the Wildflower Home, which is a shelter for single mothers in crisis.

Teach monks

When booking accommodation in Chiang Mai, it’s hard to find room without a view of a temple. This city has dozens of monastery schools, where boys from rural or impoverished families get a free education. The students are all monks for the time being – saffron robes, shaved heads and all – but most return to the laity when they graduate. English is part of the daily regiment, and school administrators (also monks) are generally happy to bring a Westerner in to help with speaking and listening practice.

Worth it for the photo-op alone, teaching English in a monastery gives visitors a level of access they wouldn’t normally enjoy in these temples. Everything from morning meditation to the monastic version of school lunch makes this one of the most memorable travel experiences a person could have. And let’s face it: a cauldron of curry is way more appetizing than a steaming vat of taco meat.

Bathe elephants

In fairness, you do more than bathe them, but who hasn’t dreamed of leading an elephant to a jungle river and giving it a good scrub? I’ve probably said too much.

Chiang Mai’s elephants have a serious unemployment problem. In the old days, they hauled fresh-cut teak logs to the river for transport, but the advents of tractors and national parkland have taken their toll on elephant livelihood. Elephant conservation centers have sprung up around Thailand to give these beasts something to do, whether that means painting pictures (seriously), kicking footballs or taking more baths than the average adolescent boy.

They make a living by putting on daily shows for visitors, giving rides and by charging volunteers for the privilege to work with them. These places are businesses, but they do good work. A stand-out facility that is 100 percent dot-org is the Elephant Nature Park. It runs a volunteer program with positions for general helpers, veterinarians and veterinary students.

Intern professionally

Several institutes and NGOs in Chiang Mai are open to working with interns. Few offer any kind of salary, and most work through local agencies that charge a placement fee. The prospect of traveling halfway across the world and paying a company to hire them puts some travelers off, but it can do amazing things to a resume.

The best internships in Chiang Mai are for pre-med students. Several private hospitals near the city center take on students and pair them with an English-speaking doctor. Students are closely monitored, and they have opportunity to perform rounds, assist the doctor and observe medical procedures.

Qualified interns enjoy higher levels of responsibility, but the level of access across the board is high compared to internship programs in the West. I suppose that’s exciting or a little frightening depending on which end of the operation you’re on, but in either case, nothing happens outside of the strict supervision of the doctor.

The medical internship program run by Friends for Asia is well-organized. Its founder (a Peace Corps veteran) is an excellent resource for volunteers in Chiang Mai.

Thai food markets or “fresh” markets are the best in the world and right now is the best time to visit them. Here are the top 5 things to look out for in food markets in Thailand.

Fresh Water Crab Pate.

This has to be top of my list at the moment. I love it. It’s Thailand’s answer to caviar. It has a strong earthy taste, is an appealing warm golden colour, is beautifully presented in tiny crab shells and the person who finds a way to import it and distribute it in “the west” will be a millionaire. It should be on the menu at top restaurants in London, Paris and New York and I’m amazed that it isn’t, I’m sure it’s just a matter of time. Because it’s seasonal you can’t find it all year round which makes its arrival in the markets all the more exciting. I have been buying the beautiful little shells full of golden pate for the past week and eating it with a tiny silver spoon that my Grandmother used to stir her tea. I’m sure she would approve. A pack of 4 little crab shells full of delicious fresh golden pate will cost you about 15 Baht.

Steamed Clams.

I’ve cheated slightly because I want to mention two things at the same time; Steamed Green Lipped Mussels and Steamed Cockles. You can buy both in most markets all year round. The mussels are delicious steamed with Basil and Lemon Grass and come with a little bag of spicy sour sauce. The cockles are usually steamed on their own but a quick dip in the spicy sour source transforms them into a rare delicacy. Both are delicious, typically fragrant and extremely good indeed. These will set you back 20 Baht a bag.

Giant Lychee.

Fresh Lychee are available in the west at expensive food stores and cost a small fortune, down the road I can buy a bucket full for a handful of small change. But, they are nothing compared to the king of fruit, the Giant Lychee. Oh my goodness they are fantastic. It’s a bit like suddenly discovering that somebody has made chocolate even better. The Giant Lychees are just coming into the markets now. They are twice the price but that will drop over the next 2 weeks. I bought my first bundle with the bright green leaves still on the branches a few days ago and my 2 sons ate them without talking in 5 minutes flat (a very rare occurrence).

Deep Fried Whole Soft Shell Crab.

In every Thai food market up and down the country there will be a stall deep frying things in huge deep woks. The variety of what is fried is a small book in itself. If I only had 20 Baht on me, my money would go on a bag of deep fried small soft shell crabs fried in seconds with a thin crispy batter. They are delightfully crunchy and crabby, if you know what I mean.

Sapodilla

The Thai name for these are Lamut, or sometimes known as Naseberries (apparently) and have been around for a good few weeks now.  I only mention them as I have a slight obsession with an idea that I have yet to try out that I’ll tell you about in a minute. Firstly, just to say these delicious fruit are almost unknown in “the west”, probably because they bruise easily and have to be eaten at just the right moment. When they are ripe they have the most fantastic syrupy pear flavoured. I was recently working from a very expensive 5 star spa resort on Ko Samui that would serve a handful of these fruit as a complimentary snack on a little silver platter with eating instructions and nutritional content on a little accompanying card. What a great idea. I witnessed guests raving about them, they really were knocked out. I think some of them would re-book just for the complimentary Sapodilla moment.

My idea that I keep thinking about is the combination of Sapodillas and Thai whisky, I think they are made for each other. Split the fruit in half, de-seed and soak over night in a slightly sweetened syrup of Thai whisky. Serve with coconut ice cream. If you try it before I do let me know what it’s like.

If you are interested in private tailor made tours of Thai food markets do let me know and I’ll point you in the right direction.

Happy food shopping and eating.

Alex

While Mick and Keith are back with the remastered classic Exile On Main Street with yes a gritty ‘Ventilator Blues’ I need something hot, spicy and just a tad exotic to match the tunes to the taste.

Out of left field come former wild child from California, Hawaii and yes Mexico along with Bangkok’s vaunted Tamarind Café Colin Stevens with his new casual eatery The Burnt Tortilla.

What do they say in Apocalypse Now as they start to head up the river in search of Coronel Kurtz  “one look at you and I know it’s gonna get hot.”

Yes, sporting an armful of colorful tattoos the former hotel trained chef who worked with chains such as ACCOR and Centara as well as tooling his trade at the taco wagons of Baja brings Mexico’s best to destination Phuket.

Charlie don’t surf but he does like his chilies and tapping into a mouth watering selection of 8 different meats from slow cooked pork carnitas to chicken chipotle is  a trip through the pipeline.

Topping it all off are another 8, yes that’s right count em…8 delictable salsas ranging from  verde, fresco, and my favorite Dad’s Holy S—T Habanero salsa.

Sideways sides come fast and furious with tamales, chorizo or for the sweet ones, churros. It’s making me hungry just writing this, as sweat is gathering on my desk, Mick sings wails on “Loving Cup.”

It’s all fresh, it’s all handmade, and yes there are margaritas. Sticky fingers and a scorched tongue are add on’s to this masterpiece of Mexicana. Forget surf noir, I’m all for a bit of food noir at this Cherngtalay hot spot.

The Burnt Tortilla, Srisoontorn Road (across street from Lotus Express, Chergtalay, Phuket (open daily 9 to 9)

Although this is not your typical floating market as you may have seen it in the pictures, a trip to Ayutthaya floating market is definitely worth your time. Just over an hour’s drive from Bangkok, just north of downtown Ayutthaya, you will find this great Thai market which makes for an excellent day trip. Whilst you are enjoying the excellent Thai food, you can watch a show based on Thai traditional stories, enacted on the little lake surrounded by the food stalls. Feeding huge catfish and some scenic Thai village scenes complete a great day out of the city.  Click here for the Ayutthaya floating market website.

Thai play on the lake

Thai village scene

Water buffalo and a field of Lotus flowers

Grilled banana with coconut/honey sauce makes a great dessert

Fried catfish/green mango salad (Thai: Yam pla duk fu)

Vendors at the market

Grilled pork

Feeding the fish

Thai play on the lake

Congratulations Cassandra Ong from Singapore! You’ve won our fabulous prize of two return tickets on Thai Airways to stay at the Phulay Bay by Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Krabi, Thailand!

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Thank you for becoming a member of Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia’s website. Cassandra Ong was picked as the winner of our fabulous prize of two return tickets on Thai Airways’ Royal Silk Class to Krabi, Thailand, and a three-night luxury stay at the exclusive Phulay Bay by Ritz-Carlton Reserve.

+ Thai Airways’ Royal Silk Class…
promises perfection in every aspect of service on the ground and in the air. Well known for its service quality and friendliness, THAI was recognized as No.1 in both the First and Business Class Airport Service category in the 2008 Skytrax global airline survey.

+ Phulay Bay, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve…
promises pristine beaches and stunning scenery. This sensational resort is based in one of the most captivating parts of Thailand, where glistening sands and blue skies converge with the Andaman Sea.

If you too want to be a winner like Cassandra Ong, we look forward to your entry in our next competition! Keep your eyes posted, both on the magazine and this website!

I went to a nice and cozy resort at Pranburi called “La a Natu“, a simplified way of reading a french phrase L’art et Nature. I was there with an architect who designs the landscape of the whole resort. He took us around for an unofficial tour and tells us how each section is built. It is a good experience indeed, to be accompanied by one of the creators, because as a common people, I can never understand these designs deeply in details.

The main concept is Thai-Laotian style added with a slight touch of modern feelings. What you will find here is uniqueness, started from once you are about to enter the resort: you need to walk across the 3 metre-high bamboo bridge to the lobby. I love the fact that the bridge lift you up from the ground, and when you enter the straw-domelike lobby, you get the sea breeze and the bird's eye view of the beach.

When you walk on the bamboo bridge, you also see the rice field and the villas below. It is "real rice" which they do harvest and cook in the resort. The landscape basically focuses on using local plants like rice, pineapple, coconut trees more than typical hotel's plants like plumeria, in order to create the feeling of rural atmosphere.

At first, the roof looks like a typical straw roof to me until the architect clarifies how the roof is built. The 15-metre-high straw roof is constructed in a primitive manner: It is made by straws hold together with ropes only! No hammer or nails, the artists have to bind a patch of straws, one by one, and combine all patches to create the entire roof. Even more complicated, the straw has to be replaced every 3 years!

The outside area connected to the lobby. Taking a closer look in the picture, you will see the bare concrete wall. It is elaborately carved by a well-known Thai artist, imitating traditional Laotian drawing pattern.

The swimming pool area on the second floor next to the lobby. I really like the use of the natural tone of colors here. As you may notice, they also use the brown tiles for the pool floor, which makes the water looks brownish, not typically light blue.

The front of the resort is a plain area, designed for activities like weddings and parties.

The house facing the beach, designed to have the front door that can be fully opened

We end the tour with a nice meal at the lobby. Fried rice with lemon grass and herbs, topped with prawn, served with deep fried fish and cashew nuts alongside. Taste very good! But it takes them more than half an hour to cook this dish for me

Followed by a hot waffle with mixed fruit sauce with vanilla ice-scream. The fruit sauce is incredible. The owner is passionate for bakery, he also creates all desserts recipes for the resort himself.