Thailand: Touristy Tigers and Happy Elephants

Written by Cindy Chang

Travelling to Southeast Asia was my first big overseas holiday. I went to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand with my boyfriend at the time, who I will call Mario for the purposes of this blog.  Having grown up watching movies like "The Lion King" at every possible chance I got (every day of the school holidays, until I could recite the whole movie line for line...), I loved animals.  I wanted to be Jasmine from Aladdin, and have a pet tiger.

18kg snake at the floating market

So my trip to Thailand, to me, was an opportunity to find me a tiger.  And an elephant.  In Thailand, there are two main places that you can go pat a tiger. In Bangkok there is the Tiger Temple, which is supposedly a 'temple' where Buddhist monks rescue tigers. It was an absolutely awful experience.  Overall, we spent about eight hours crammed in a tiny minivan and were herded through a number of other mediocre tourist attractions before finally stopping at the Tiger Temple.

Wesam Shaker of Baghdad IRAQ

22. Featured Traveller 

Wesam Shaker

Business Owner : Independent Representative : Traveller 

(Baghdad, IRAQ)

                               

“There are days when I intentionally don't write.  For instance, I never write when I'm travelling, because travel is a situation where I can learn more by looking and listening than by working”

We are featuring a lad who is passionate about travels at the young age of 26.  Wesam holds an office in Baghdad that pertains to tourism.  

It took this author a while to have this interview finalized due to Wesam's busy schedule on running his office and travelling most of the time. 

He has travelled to United Arab Emirates, Syria, Malaysia and Turkey and will continue visiting other countries like Italy, Egypt, Greece and Thailand.  He finds UAE very interesting and reveals that he wants to go back and explore more of Dubai and its neighbouring towns and cities.

September: The Perfect Month to Visit Sabah

 Written by: Shaiya Ong

Sabah is quite close to the Philippines, so it only takes a few hours before you reach it by plane. If you are more adventurous, then you may wish to go to Labuan, Zamboanga in the Philippines and take a boat trip to reach Sabah.  It is a perfect destination for anyone residing in Southeast Asia and a trip worth engaging for anyone who loves adventure and nature.  You will appreciate the beauty of the wildlife more once you set foot in the island.  It may be small, but it is an advantage to anyone who wishes to explore several areas offered by the region.

Sabah in September

Why visit during the month of September?

Sharon Bijo of Geneva SWITZERLAND

21. Featured Traveller 

Sharon Bijo

Journalist : Editor-in-Chief : Traveller 

(Geneva, SWITZERLAND)

                               

“Travel where your heart leads you. We grow from our journeys no matter what they are; all of them have secret destinations that we're not aware of.  that's what makes them exciting!”

No matter how busy Sharon is in travelling and blogging, she still finds time responding to our request for an interview so that this blog can share her journey.  At the time of writing, Sharon is in Israel.  It is not her first.

She'd been visiting the country a lot of times and she blogged about her trip on all her destinations for the information of the travelling public.

Sharon tends to travel with her entire closet stuffed in suitcases. Not anymore! She realizes that it is not worth the back pain.  Her advice to fellow travellers is to pack only the essentials; enough clothes to look great on photos.  Travel light, that is!

Review: Himeji Castle is beautiful ~ but be prepared!

Yes, this is either a good review or not-so-good situation to any tourist. Himeji Castle is a castle in its own right. There are so much to see and explore. You will spend so much time going around depending on your curiosity and interest. Prepare yourself for a minimum of an hour and a half to complete your tour. You need to walk a lot and climb the stairs. Not a single elevator is installed within the castle as almost everything you will see are preserved and original.

Moreover, as I mentioned above, it takes more than an hour to spend in the castle. You will spend another one and a half hours wandering around the vicinity like the Nishioyashiki
Garden, Shirotopia Memorial Park, and the three museums namely, Literature, History and Art.