Let’s Visit Asia

My mom’s visiting us here in Singapore and I’m at a loss with where to bring her. She’s not exactly at the pink of health, having already had a stroke, a triple bypass, a gall bladder op, and other aging-related maladies over the last few years. She can’t do walking tours anymore, be it trhough the city or through a park. She’s not interested in shopping and is scared of heights, so no cable car, no DHL Balloon, and no Singapore Flyer.
I guess we’ll have to make do with the Duck Tours and exploring Sentosa by trams and buses. The …read more

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This week, the World Heritage Committee added 19 cultural sites and eight natural sites to the UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Among these additions were some sites from Cambodia and Malaysia.
Melaka and George Town, historic cities of the Straits of Malacca (Malaysia)
Melaka and George Town, historic cities of the Straits of Malacca (Malaysia) have developed over 500 years of trading and cultural exchanges between East and West in the Straits of Malacca. The influences of Asia and Europe have endowed the towns with a specific multicultural heritage that is both tangible and intangible. With its government buildings, churches, squares and fortifications, …read more

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I love audio guides. Not only does it give more in-depth real-time information while taking a tour, it also allows you to go at your own pace, unlike when joining a group tour with a real flesh-and-blood tour guide.
Not the type to go for audio tours? Well, don’t say no til you’ve checked out the Louis Vuitton Soundwalk, an mp3 audio guide to Beijing, Hong Kong or Shanghai. And yes, like its bags, these are a touch more elite compared to other run of the mill audio guides.

For Beijing, your guide will be Gong Li (Memoirs of a Geisha’s Hatsumomo); …read more

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Those visiting Hong Kong this summer are up for a fun-filled and busy trip. The Hong Kong Tourism Board has put together a vibrant website showcasing the so-called Hong Kong’s Summer Temptations.
Go wild as malls and department stores all over town tempt you with special offers you can’t afford to miss. Enjoy cuisines from around the world at prices that fit every pocketbook. Use your Visa card and you could be big winner in the Visa ‘Million Dollar’ Lucky Draw! Play our Stamp Rally game and discover Hong Kong’s living culture.
On top of that, Hong Kong is hosting the Equestrian …read more

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The Philippine Tarsier is said to be the world’s smallest primate, measuring only about 4 to 5 inches in height. We’ve had the chance to see these tarsiers during our trip to Bohol, Philippines earlier this year and they were really, really tiny. For such a tiny head, though, they had such large eyes, so disproportionately large that are listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest eyes on any mammal.
The tarsiers we saw were kept in semi-captivity, allowed to hunt for food at night, and made to pose for pictures for tourists during the day. Quite …read more

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Would you expect to find a taste of France in… India? If you think it unlikely, then you probably haven’t heard of Pondicherry (Puducherry).
On the southeastern coast, about 150 miles south of Chennai, Pondicherry is, for an Indian city, tiny. Just about a million people live there, mostly in the types of charmless, three- and four-story concrete buildings erected all over the poorer parts of Asia. But near the Bay of Bengal, the cityscape changes drastically. Soon you see tile roofs and wooden shutters, balconies and colonnades, wide brick streets and pastel Catholic churches — the neighborhood once known as …read more

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Traveling to Tokyo? Don’t miss b5media’s newly launched blog, The Tokyo Traveler, written by Shane Sakata.

Shane offers tips on getting around the busy metropole– where to go, what to do, and handy tips on how to make the best out of your stay in Tokyo.
Welcome to the b5media Travel Channel, Shane!

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Next time you’re in Singapore, consider a ride on the country’s version of London Eye, the Singapore Flyer, and see a panoramic view of the city. Tickets are about S$29.50 for adults, with discounted rates for kids and seniors. There’s an express boarding rate (see the list of admission prices) that allows you to bypass the boarding queue, but I think, unless you’re going on a weekend or a holiday, there shouldn’t be hordes of people there.
Here’s a promotional video featuring the Singapore Flyer:

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Spring is in the air and it again time for cherry blossoms viewing in Japan.
Every year the Japanese Meteorological Agency and the public track the sakura zensen (cherry-blossom front) as it moves northward up the archipelago with the approach of warmer weather via nightly forecasts following the weather segment of news programs. The blossoming begins in Okinawa in January and typically reaches Kyoto and Tokyo at the end of March or the beginning of April. It proceeds into areas at the higher altitudes and northward, arriving in Hokkaidō a few weeks later.
Join the locals as they hold “hanami” at the …read more

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Forget cabs, trams, and tour buses. They say that the best way to get to know a place is if you explore it by foot. And I agree. It can be exhausting, but I think the slower the pace, the more impressions you gather. Plus, you get to see places and scenes you would never do, if you were just breezing through the town.
But these guys are taking it one step further. The mission: to cross Singapore, from east to west, by foot, in two days.
Here’s a slideshow of the photos they took during their first day:

I’m not sure I …read more

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