Songkran – the Thai New Year – is normally a joyous, water-soaked, three-day party. But that was before Covid-19. In 2020, Songkran has been canceled, the legal holidays revoked, the water-spraying forbidden, alcohol banned and an overnight curfew imposed. The result are ghostly quiet streets and train stations.
Thailand didn’t impose its national 10 p.m-4 a.ml curfew until April 3, but Bangkok’s streets and subways looked as if it had already taken effect a day before.
A first trip to Yangon necessitates visits to its historic pagodas. But the best way to see the “real” Yangon is spending a half-day (or more) traveling the Yangon Circular Line.
For 851 years, an O-torii Gate has stood as the portal to Japan’s sacred Itsukushima Island. But, for the foreseeable future, the current version will be covered in tarp and scaffolding, making this a good time to review the history of the vermillion gate to what today is known as Miyajima Island.
As anyone who has lived or visited there knows, Japan has five seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Sakura Season.
It has been 150 years since Japan’s emperor ordered his citizens to dress in western style, but the kimono refuses to die. Even today it retains a powerful hold on the Japanese heart and mind. (50 Photos)
Welcome to the new Vang Vieng, a kinder, gentler version of one of S.E. Asia’s most infamous hotbeds of hedonism. Like a Hollywood starlet, this ramshackle blotch with jagged mountains and a languid river lived fast and died hard. But it’s back, with an all-new image.
Thailand may have the Maeklong Railway Market, but it has nothing on Hanoi’s Ngo 224 Le Duan, better known as “Train Street”. Before Instagram, this narrow Old Quarter alley bisected by an twice-daily rail line was a slum. Now it’s a sensation.
Some call it the “slowest race in the world”: The Cigar Smoking World Championship is a test of how slowly and delicately one can burn through a cigar and, for the uninitiated, is quite a sight to behold.
Just crowned again this week as the world’s most-expensive city (along with Paris and Zurich), Hong Kong has always had the reputation of being a rich place. So it was a bit shocking to see how much the city has gentrified in the 22 years since the U.K. returned it to China – and I last visited.
