Ringgit And Sense: Tips For Travel To Kuching
For a really cool holiday trip that doesn’t soak up your last penny, you need to know the basics: 1)How to get there 2)Where to stay 3)What to look for, and 4)Where to eat How to Get There If your way leads to Kuching, Sarawak, how to get there, is easy; you fly. The old […]
The Rivers Wild: Touring Borneos Liquid Lifelines
Once cave dwelling went out of style, the peoples of Borneo looked towards the liquid highways of this giant island to establish settlements and make contact with the outside world. Having a reputation for being blood-thirsty headhunters roaming jungles infested with equally blood-thirsty wild creatures probably wasn’t the best idea for a public relations campaign, […]
Marlin Dreaming
For the sports angler, nothing gets the adrenaline pumping as powerfully as the scream of a reel when a big oceanic predator smashes a lure or bait. The top piscatorial target in the sport of big game fishing is the Marlin, closely followed by its billfish relatives, the Sailfish, Swordfish, and Spearfish. A true super-fish […]
The Underwater Treasures of Sipadan Island
Among Southeast Asia’s diving sites, Sipadan Island near Sabah sets some of the highest bars of all for visiting divers. Only 120 dive permits are issued every day, and dives are permitted only between 8am and 3pm. Divers need to show advanced open water certification, or at the very least 20 logged dives, before they’ll […]
Here Be Dragons: Komodo Island’s Amazing Diving
The amazing wildlife beneath the Komodo Islands’ adjacent sea deserves almost as much attention as the dragons that brought this Indonesian island group to the world’s attention. 20 metres beneath the surface, divers can descend to an alternate dimension where gravity does not exist and alien lifeforms proliferate. Colorful corals provide a picturesque home for […]
Lone Sharks: Diving With The Gentle Giants Of SE Asia
My face just beneath the surface of the sea, breathing rapidly through a snorkel after a hurried leap into the water, I looked where the guide was pointing but saw nothing. After half an hour on the Filipino outrigger, was this nothing but a false alarm? Then there it was, suddenly, a huge dark shape […]
Divers Down in Southeast Asia
When it comes to scuba diving, Southeast Asia offers world-class quality, easy accessibility, and value-for-money. Scuba divers the world over tend to agree. Here we summarise the ocean diving potential and reality in each of the 10 ASEAN nations. Brunei Darussalam: Scuba diving in Brunei is on the up. The small ASEAN nation boasts 4,500 hectares […]
Camiguin Calling
It is hard to imagine that the second smallest island in the Philippines has seven volcanoes, a few majestic waterfalls, pristine beaches, historical sites, and smaller islands surrounded by rich marine life and populated by genial island people. But here I am on a ferry heading to the Benoni Port, looking at the blue-ridged volcanic […]
Elephants Youll Never Forget
Any large animal could have trampled the plants beside the wooden walkway, but the footprints were unmistakable. Pygmy elephants wandered through our camp overnight, and we missed them. This was to be our last morning at Bilit Adventure Camp (tel. +60 89-533031; www.sepilokjungleresort.com; two-night package starts at US$115), one of several lodges overlooking the Kinabatangan River […]
A Look at Sihanoukville’s Scuba Scene
Cambodia’s coastline may be quite small compared to those of Thailand and the Philippines, but divers still have plenty to see – just visit the country’s diving hub of Sihanoukville and book an adventure from there. At Sihanoukville, you can engage the services of one of the city’s many dive centers, most of whom can […]