Southeast Asia Travel Journal

I’s like to think that I have all the information you could need to plan your trip to Southeast Asia, but the truth is there’s a lot of good web sites out there, as well as news from around the region. So I’ve decided to do a weekly roundup of the blog posts I’ve found the most interesting. Of special note is a trip through Northern Laos by the owner of TravelFish.org as well as some useful advice on a variety of topics from another resident travel writer.

The Blue Bird of Happiness Gets a Balinese Reprieve

Judicial Review Team Rules that Bali Taxi Operation is Legal.
[Bali Discovery]

Angkor, Bagan, Sukhothai: Part 1: Sukhothai

South East Asia’s three greatest temple complexes are enjoying a renaissance of popularity nearly 1000 years after they were first constructed
This story was first published in Asian Geographic magazine, issue 48, under the title "The Legacy: Angkor, Bagan, Sukhothai".
Words and images appearing with the text on Travelhappy are copyright Chris Mitchell. Please don’t reproduce [...]
[Travel Happy]

Backpack Repair In Bangkok: Go See Mr Bag-Fix

Backpack broken? Luggage trashed? Go see Mr Bag-Fix in Bangkok to get your travelling gear restored to good as new.
The first time I ever went backpacking, I bought a really cheap backpack from an army surplus store. It was such a piece of crap that it fell apart within about 48 hours of me leaving [...]
[Travel Happy]

A walk in the woods: trekking in Nam Ha NPA

Just back from a one-night, two-day trek run by Green Discovery into the Nam Ha National Protected Area (NPA). The two-day trek was described as difficult and that two of our group of seven dropped out after the first day supports that this was quite a difficult trek. It was overall a bit of a [...]
[TravelFish]

Antique smuggling, travel writing and a jaunt around Luang Nam Tha

When your day starts with a bowl of offal you just know it is going to get better and better — as mine did when I found the above fruit vendor as I choked down the last of the intestines…
I’d caught up the previous evening with a researcher for another travel publisher and had swapped [...]
[TravelFish]

On Huay Xai

It has been quite some time (at least ten years) since I was last in Huay Xai and I was surprised by just how little it had changed — at least from a traveller’s perspective. The hilltop wat still has a bunch of monkeys — including one on a lease that the monks were getting [...]
[TravelFish]

The best restaurant in Laos bar none.

Title says it all. This tiny little restaurant in Udomxai has, quite simply, the best Lao food I have ever eaten. Ever.
[TravelFish]