Results tagged “Thailand” from Intelligent Travel Blog

For many people, Southeast Asia conjures up images of ancient stone temples, vibrant colors, spicy cuisine and warm, musky rains breathing life into lotus ponds.

But imagine instead hiking for miles shin-deep in mud, fending off bloodsucking leeches and existing on a diet of tarantulas and cockroaches, while risking infection, heatstroke and malaria. Not exactly your typical camping trip. For most people, such an excursion would sound treacherous and even insane, but for young herpetologist Perry Wood Jr.  it's simply a passionate pursuit of knowledge in the name of science.

When Perry (aka JR) Wood began studying Southeast Asian amphibians and reptiles more than eight years ago, he never imagined the rough trails and beautiful landscapes his fieldwork would lead him to. As a graduate biology student specializing in taxonomy and molecular systematics, Wood regularly makes trips to Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia in an effort to identify new species in what he explains is an understudied region for herpetological diversity.

Guarded by giant seven-headed serpent gods high on an obscure mountain, in backcountry disputed by Thailand and Cambodia, is an ancient sacred site that's not on the regular tourist map.

 

Surrounded by landmines and bunkers from the Khmer Rouge era, and still caught up in today's border disputes, Preah Vihear, or "Holy Monastery," is a mysterious place few westerners have been able to visit.

 

Jon Ortner, photographer and author of the book "Angkor, Celestial Temples of the Khmer Empire," shares his first encounters and impressions of the thousand-year-old sanctuary in this essay of words and photos composed especially for NatGeo News Watch.

Looking for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure in the mountainous Golden Triangle region of northern Thailand, where Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos converge? Love elephants? Want to help rescued Asian elephants and protect Thailand's wild herds?

If your head's bobbing and you're intrigued, check out the work of the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation. The foundation rescues abused, abandoned, and overworked elephants, many of whom once toiled in the logging industry, and has created camps for them in two impressive resorts in the Chiang Rai region of northern Thailand.

The elephants earn their keep at the Anantara Resort's Elephant Conservation Camp and at the Four Seasons Tented Camp by interacting with guests and carrying them on treks in Thai hill country, through dense patches of bamboo and across riverine flood plains. Each resort also employs the elephants' mahouts (drivers). They teach guests some of the 70 verbal commands the mahouts use to communicate with these gregarious beasts.

To learn more about this exciting program we caught up with John Roberts, Director of Elephants at the Anantara Golden Triangle Resort's Elephant Conservation Camp.

How long has the foundation been in existence?  

The foundation was created in 2006, after we rescued our first street baby; the intention to help came first and then we built the charitable apparatus to help us do more. The camp has been in existence since 2003, when we started with four government-owned elephants from the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre around whom we built the, then unique, guest mahout training program. This program has been copied and is now an accepted sustainable, elephant-friendly way for elephants to make a living from tourists.

Since its inception, how many elephants have been helped by the foundation?

We currently have 18 elephants under the care of the foundation, two born here and 14 at the hotel camps. These are all still ex-street elephants but they don't come under the foundation as they, with our help, earn a sustainable living for themselves.We've also sent money, vets, and vet equipment to other worthwhile projects--particularly the Thai Conservation Centre--to enable them to give free help to elephants throughout Thailand. We're most proud about our elephant ambulance, mobile centrifuge, and Dr. Pap, who's now a vet for the Royal White Elephants who received his training under our patronage.

Now that I've caught your attention, let me explain. Asian budget airline AirAsia announced yesterday that it would offer 100,000 free tickets to Thailand as part of a regional marketing campaign to boost its tourism industry, which suffered greatly from recent political turmoil.

The Associated Press reports:

AirAsia said it would collaborate with Tourism Authority of Thailand to bring back tourists and businessmen by "reinstating the core message that it is now safe to travel back to the Land of Smiles."

Under its campaign themed "Get Your Baht To Thailand" -- a play on the Thai currency -- AirAsia will give away 100,00 free tickets to Bangkok from Vietnam, Cambodia, Myammar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and China, as well as for flights within Thailand.

Passengers will only have to pay airport taxes and administration fee. AirAsia last month abolished fuel surcharges on all its flights.

"We hope that this campaign will instill the confidence among travelers and also help to boost tourism which is vital at this juncture," Group Chief Executive Tony Fernandes said in a statement.

You must act fast, however. Tickets can only be purchased until Friday (Thailand time - they are 12 hours ahead of D.C.!) for travel between January 6 and March 31, 2009. Unfortunately, while there are no free tickets from the U.S. to Thailand, anyone who is already planning on traveling around Asia in the New Year might find this useful.

(Note: When you are asked to select a country on the AsiaAir homepage, select Thailand, then select English as the language. We had a hard time finding the promotion when we pretended to be a Brit wanting a flight from Malaysia to Thailand)

Image: AirAsia.com

Rainer Jenss and his family are currently on an around-the-world journey, and they're blogging about their experiences for us at Intelligent Travel. Keep up with the Jensses by bookmarking their posts, and follow the boys' Global Bros blog at National Geographic Kids.

There's a reason Thailand has been near the top of the list of favorite places to visit by travelers worldwide over the last few decades. Not only is the scenery some of the most striking on Earth - the culture, history, food, and friendly people all combine to offer a diversity of unique and enriching experiences. Like most of Southeast Asia, Thailand's affordability seems to set it apart from other exotic destinations. The key to revealing its splendor, however, required some preparation, or in our case, a good sense of improvisation once you get there. Most importantly, it required setting priorities.  

Unless you have more than a couple of weeks to explore the country, which most Americans don't seem to have, you shouldn't expect to see all that Thailand has to offer. Since we had sixteen days, we thought we could take in a little bit of everything. As we headed for the airport on our final day after touring Bangkok's Grand Palace and Wat Pho (easily one of the highlights of our trip and a "must see" for anyone visiting the country), we seemed to have visited everywhere we possibly could, but at a price: we were exhausted!

The islands to the south, as I reported in my last blog post, can either be a party paradise or rejuvenating retreat - normally not a lot of chance for error there as long as you don't mix up the two. From Bangkok up north, however, the options become more numerous, and the distances between them far greater. At a friend's recommendation, we hired a driver to take us from Bangkok up to Chiang Mai and beyond - into the mountainous northern region of the country where they offer elephant treks, an ideal adventure for the boys. We figured this was a good idea because it 1) kept us off of another plane; 2) was less expensive; 3) allowed us to see more of the country; and 4) gave us access to a set of wheels. There were also hill tribes to visit, including those with women wearing long metal coils around their necks. There were temples to see, history to absorb, restaurants to sample and shopping to be done. Did I mention relaxing or home schooling?