Kratie - Up River Cambodia

Kratie is a town with some French colonial ambience, sitting on the Mekong River to the east in Cambodia.  Kratie serves as the jump off point for watching the endangered river dolphins as well as the entry point to the idyllic sandbar island of Koh Trong.  On Koh Trong, you can cycle about sightseeing, get the opportunity to plant a tree, lookout for the scarce and rare turtles or just chill under a shady tree.

There are nice places to go sightseeing around Kratie such as the temples at Sambor, Phnom Sombok, the restored Wat Roka Kandal and Cham basket weavers in the surrounding villages.  Watch out for the barbers in Kratie, and try out the local delicacies.

This video from TripAdvisorTRIPWOW3 gives a snapshot of the action in and around Kratie. 

A bed's a bed, the magic is outside

Brian Thacker is a backpacker with a yen for adventure. He went backpacking across Southeast Asia, using as his only reference, a 1975 Lonely Planet book ‘South-East Asia on a Shoestring’. It was an adventure to find out what changes had happened in the last 36 years and boy did he have loads to share. 

Because Thacker was following a book that was 35 years old, many of the guesthouses that were still standing were decrepit, however he wasn't deterred, no matter how seedy they were.

"I'm sort of a backpacker traveller anyway," he says. "I remember I read this great quote once: 'A bed's a bed, the magic is outside'.  "I'd rather spend the money on a great meal or doing some great experience." Even so, Thacker admits some of the hotels were dodgy and he'd spend the least amount of time in the rooms as possible.

Read more at this article ‘South-East Asia on a 1975 guide book’ by Jennifer Chapman.  The full details are in his latest book ‘Tell Them to Get Lost’.  

While on backpacking, this is an awesome video by xTsyx sharing their backpacking adventures in Southeast Asia.

Tour Price Drops ex-Shanghai

Tour price in September fell two percent in Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea are price line - Shanghai Station News

Looks like tour prices are dropping for tours to Southeast Asia from Shanghai.  This will enable more options for Chinese tourists to on tours during their golden week holidays (30th September to 7th October). Read the link above on the survey done.  Do note that in this article, the translation is not very smooth from Chinese to English.

Dikir Barat

Dikir Barat is a traditional group song. This is usuallly found in Kelantan and Trengganu state on the East Coast of Peninsula Malaysia. Its a to and fro singing, and is quite enchanting to watch.   Wikipedia has an excellent write up at Dikir Barat.

Here is a video by Rentakinitv. It starts off with an occult cleansing ceremony (very mild version) and then goes on into Dikir Barat proper.

Gamelan

The haunting music of Gamelan of Java will mesmerise, if you are really open to other cultures and music.

This video by Emily Tasha Laura below, provides a background to the gamelan assemble.

Nasi Lemak

Swarnabhumi is a land filled with great food.  From simple boiled rice with dried fish with some chilly paste for taste, to rice soaked in coconut milk, a variety of vegetarian dishes to a spread of seafood and meat curries.

Below is a quick glance (by qqstar8) of Nasi Lemak, the typical breakfast food in Malaysia.  A traditional creation of the Malays, this dish is now a national dish, relished by all and a must have at all hotels in Malaysia.

As you have seen, this dish is very simple, with the trick that the rice must be rich in coconut milk and fragrant from pandan leaves.  The 'sambal' i.e., the chilly paste rich in chilly, onions and other secret condiments of the cook.  You can find more from this well written article on the secret to a great Nasi Lemak.

Angkor Wat

Beautiful video (made by 1 more life productions) on Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Swarnabhumi is the ancient name for the land beyond India to its east.  It conjures up images of mist shrouded lands with golden temples set in dense jungles and surrounded by rich paddy fields.  Its a Sanskrit term that is the same as the Greek term Golden Chersonese which means golden peninsula.  Essentially it refers to the modern day Myanmar, Thailand and Malaya.  Wikipedia's Suvarnabhumi has the whole background information on this and be warned, its quite a deep read.

Nusantara is an Javanese word for island (nusa) and others (antara), generally meaning an archipelago.  This describes well the Indonesian and Phillippine archipelagos.  Nusantara also means the Malay Realm, a nebulous cultural and linguistic identity common to the natives of these islands of South East Asia.

Thus South East Asia is of 2 main parts, Swarnabhumi and Nusantara.  Hence the name for this blog.

I love this place.  The people here are an eclectic mix of races, religions and cultures. The basic ingredient is ancient Hinduism and Buddhism, with ancient Indian, Chinese, Persian and Arabic genetic intermingling resulting in regional flavors of the most exotic kind.  With the arrival of Islam, Christianity and Europeans, the ancient traditions have adapted and the resulting mix results in an even more dazzling mix of diversity that appears to be different but yet can be discerned to be rooted to a common strand.  Thus the food, clothes, scents, buildings and people are a pleasure to behold.

You will find this a heady mix, even as you venture to Yunnan, Laos, Vietnam, Philippines, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Bali, Sulawesi and some speckles of it lingering in Taiwan, Timor and Papua.  If you have been to Fiji and Bora Bora, you may even recognize some underlying genetic and cultural similarities.

This blog is help you in the planning of your tour to South East Asia.  Its essentially a snippet and a compilation of things to do and see, food to eat and opportunities to help you optimize your tour.

I hope you have will have a good time reading my posts.  I plan to post daily, so sign up or do drop by get updates.  And I hope these posts will add real value in the planning of your next vacation or trip.

This video by abhichartt gives an overview of Swarnabhumi Nusantara aka ASEAN.