Phim Hay 360s

Yangon is no longer the nation's capital, with the generals having moved politics to a more secretive location, yet it houses some of its greatest wonders - namely the She Pagoda. This sacred religious site is steeped in legend and a favorite with pilgrims. More Buddhist treasures can be admired at Bagan, with its sea of pagodas, and Mandalay, home to dozens of temples and a reconstructed royal palace.
Myanmar is a country with contradictions both strange and sad. It’s blessed with huge amounts of natural resources and stunning beauty, but its population toils in poverty; its rich history and fabulous temples are a natural draw for millions of tourist dollars, yet it sees only a trickle of that potential.
If you do decide to go, and are prepared to deal with the risks and restrictions, Myanmar can be a breathtakingly beautiful country, with friendly people and endless splendor. One only hopes that the situation will improve, and the country will eventually be able to take advantage of all it has to offer.

Myanmar Things to Do

• Highlights
• Activities

A number of parks, lakes and countless architectural wonders including the gleaming gold dome of Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque all add an interesting tourist spin to Brunei. The capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, has more than just beautiful mosques, however. It features a lively amusement park on its western outskirts and acts as a gateway to the port town of Muara and the oil towns of Seria and Kuala Belait.
It is not the cities and towns that visitors come here for but the Temburong eco-tours and longhouse stays. Rainforest covers Belalong National Park, and here visitors can walk among the trees on the canopy walk before learning more about the huge insects and other wildlife that call the forest home at the research center.
If you've never been to Brunei then a good introduction is our Brunei Tourism page which gives an introduction to the country and an overview of all the essential travel, visa, health, safety and itinerary information needed by first-time travelers.

(KPL) Laos and Malaysia have agreed to increase direct flights between Vientiane and Kuala Lumpur following an agreement between the Lao Aviation Transport Department and Malaysia Airlines.

Under the recently-signed deal, the number of direct flights will be increased from three to seven a week.

Laos will not limit the number of flights between the two countries, Viengsay Singkhama, Director of the Lao Aviation Transport Department, said, adding that they are non-stop flights without transit through a third country.-

The trendy capital, Kuala Lumpur, is dominated by the Petronas Towers, a glistening reminder of the nation's modern developments. Glitzy shopping abounds here but things are more laid-back in other popular tourist centers like Malacca and Penang, where colonial architecture abound.
The lesser visited Sabah and Sarawak offer unique explorations in national parks and rainforest with the chance to take in rare wildlife and the traditional ways of the ethnic groups that inhabit these parts of Borneo. You could of course head to the resort island of Langkawi on Malaysia's west coast for Andaman bliss instead.

Malaysia Things to Do

• Highlights
• Activities
• Festivals

The Sydney Morning Herald describes Laos as the cheapest travel destination in Asia. It’s described as “living-like-a-king-on-the-cost-of-a-packet-of-chips-a-day" !

If you've already been to South-East Asia, you won't need me to tell you how great it is (although bear with me, I have to bang on about it for a second to everyone else).

The place has got pretty much anything you could want in a travel destination, save for maybe some snow.

For starters, it's extremely affordable, particularly now with the number of budget carriers flying there. And when you're there, things range from the cheap (Malaysia, Singapore), to the really cheap (Thailand), to the extremely cheap (Vietnam), to the ridiculously cheap (Cambodia) to the I'm-living-like-a-king-on-the-cost-of-a-packet-of-chips-a-day cheap (Laos).

To read more click HERE >>

Another Ilocos delicacy, besides Candon Kalamay, peddled on the streets of Vigan is the tinubong, so called as it derives its name from the container, a bamboo tube with an opening at one end and a node at the other, which locals (Ilocano) call tubong, thus the name tinubong. The tinubong comes stuffed inside bamboo poles of about an inch or two in diameter and about a foot in length.

Tinubong beside Candon Kalamay offered by hawkers outside Baluarte

Tinubong is a sticky, sweet delicacy made from glutinous flour, sugar, coconut milk, small strips of buko (young coconut flesh) and sometimes cheese and margarine inserted into the bamboo tube then roasted over charcoal embers (traditionally) or in ovens (in commercial quantities). 




tinubong with the sweet stuff exposed when you split the bamboo tube.

You can buy tinubong sold by peddlers, near the Baluarte, city plazas, and other Vigan pasalubong shops in the old heritage city for about PhP20.00 per tube depends on size and your haggling skills.

Just to post about Tutubi's 20 minute visit to Chavit Singson's Baluarte in Vigan (actually part of Caoayan town of Ilocos Sur) before heading the long drive home.

Baluarte is becoming famous stopover for tourists visiting Vigan where people can see and interact with animals on display at the Chavit Singson's mansion cum mini-zoo, with animal interaction scheduled everyday with several wild animals (better left in the wild, Tutubi thinks) . Animals kept at the mini-zoo include pygmy horses, white deers, camels, tigers, various birds, ostriches, and snakes.



Chavit Singson's Balwarte in Caoayan, Ilocos Sur

 


a dromedary (arabian camel with a single hump) shot around high noon

a pair of white deers resting in the noon shade

After taking a few pictures, Tutubi sped off to Sta. Cruz town then went home.

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Baluarte Show Schedules

Animal encounters
everyday 11am, 12nn, 4pm
Potbelly Painting: daily at 10am and 2pm

baluarte entrance fee/admission price: none, nada, gratis, free
parking: ample parking spaces, no parking fee
photography: no restrictions, no permits required to shoot

How to get to Baluarte, Caoayan, Ilocos Sur:
From Vigan city proper, just hire a tricycle to take you there, travel time is about 10 minutes. Consider asking tricycle driver to wait for you or pick you up at an appointed time

If you have your own car, just drive down inwards on Quirino Avenue (the street of Petron gas station on the highway) until you see the Caoayan welcome arch where you turn right (on the fork). Drive until you see the Baluarte artwork then choose the right fork (if you missed it and chose left, you'll end up at the Hidden Garden of Vigan)

Coordinates: N17 33 02.1 E120 22 39.1 (useful if you have GPS navigator).
Open Street Map here (trivia: much of Vigan's map, as of posting time, was added by Tutubi with data gathered by his GPS going around Vigan)

The tourism sector in Bokeo province will undertake three development projects to attract visitors to stay longer in the province in coming years.

The tourism department will develop a hot spring and create tourist villages in Tonpheung district in the north of the province, an area that forms part of the Golden Triangle between Laos , Thailand and Myanmar .

Department Director, Mr Vanthong Chittakoun, this week said the department also planned to organise tourist activities including camping and kayaking in the Nam Nhon river in Houayxai district.

Other plans for the area include eco-tourism development in the area of Phouxifa mountain in Paktha district. The main tourist activities there will include rock climbing, camping and trekking.

Mr Vanthong said the Asian Development Bank had agreed to provide financial support and he expected the projects to begin in 2009.

Bokeo currently serves as a gateway for tourists who are travelling across the Mekong River to or from Chiang Rai province in Thailand .

“Of all the tourists who come to the province 80 percent of them will get on a boat and go to other provinces,” Mr Vanthong said.

A lot of tourists visit Bokeo, but most of them do not stay there because of the lack of tourist facilities. The city is currently just a transit route for visitors on their way to places such as Luang Namtha and Luang Prabang provinces, and Pakbaeng district of Oudomxay province.

A guesthouse manager in Houayxai district told Vientiane Times that many of his guests arrived via the Mekong River from Thailand and most stayed for only one night.

Bokeo has a lot of attractive tourist sites such as the Nam Nhon waterfall, hot springs and hill villages, but few of them have been developed or promoted.

Mr Vanthong said the province currently had few visitor attractions, although there was a nature tourism site in the Namkan conservation area, managed by a French investor.

This site is about 80km from the province's capital city Houayxai.

Another attraction is Donxao island in Tonpheung district, which is about 50km from the provincial capital. Many of the tourists who cross the Mekong River at Chiang Saen in Chiang Rai province stop at the island to buy souvenirs and handmade products.

More than 88,000 tourists have visited the province this year, an increase from the 20,000 visitors last year, according to statistics from the provincial tourism sector.

Vientianetimes