AKA: Thai New Year, Water Festival, Pi Mai (Laos), Chaul Chnam Thmey (Cambodia), Thingyan (Myanmar), Water-Splashing Festival (Chinese Dai minority)
When? April 13 to 15 officially, though celebrations may last longer
Public holiday in: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Burma (Myanmar)
Better Know A Holiday: Songkran
AKA: Thai New Year, Water Festival, Pi Mai (Laos), Chaul Chnam Thmey (Cambodia), Thingyan (Myanmar), Water-Splashing Festival (Chinese Dai minority)
When? April 13 to 15 officially, though celebrations may last longer
Public holiday in: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, ...Photo Of The Day: Colonial Architecture In Burma
When we think of Southeast Asian architecture we often think of old temples and ancient statues, but the influence of colonial times on this area of the world has had just as much of an influence on the local infrastructure and design.
Flickr member R A L F captured ...GeoEx Introduces 5 New Adventurous Destinations For 2013
As one of the best adventure travel companies on the planet, GeoEx (formerly Geographic Expeditions) is always looking for opportunities to visit new and unique destinations. For 2013, they've added five such places to their line-up, giving travelers a chance to explore the ...Video Of The Day: Virtual Myanmar
"Visualtraveling - Myanmar" from Patrik Wallner on Vimeo.
A few months ago, President Obama became the first US president to visit the Asian country of Myanmar. Although tourism has opened up in recent years and the country held elections for the first time in 2010, it ...
Photo Of The Day: Swezigon Pagoda, Southern Approach
This Photo of the Day is titled "Swezigon Pagoda" and comes from Gadling Flickr pool member American Jon and was captured with a Canon EOS 5D.
Swezigon Pagoda, the most sacred Buddhist pagoda for the Burmese, with relics of the past four Buddhas enshrined within, is an ...Photo Of The Day: U Bein Bridge Sunset
Myanmar's iconic U Bein bridge, near the ancient Burmese capital of Amarapura, is a much beloved (and photographed) site among tourists and visitors to this intriguing Southeast Asian nation. Today's shot, taken by Flickr user American Jon, is a fantastic example of what ...Other Countries A US President Has Never Visited
President Barack Obama will land in Myanmar (aka Burma) this week, a first-time visit for any President of the United States. Never mind that Myanmar is best known as a brutal dictatorship, not exactly in line with U.S. foreign policy. Disregard any political or ...Lost WWII Planes Discovered In Mint Condition In Myanmar Jungle
Twenty-five years ago a British farmer by the name of David Cundall overheard a group of American World War II vets discussing how they had buried a squadron of unused Supermarine Spitfire fighter planes in the jungles of Burma. The plan was to leave them there until the RAF ...The Burmese Bad Boys Of Mandalay: The Mustache Brothers
I was lost. Well, not "lost" as in I-can't-find-way-home lost, but in that way where you suddenly find yourself in such unfamiliar territory, you just feel like you've stepped into another dimension. I knew I was in Myanmar, the country still sometimes referred to as ...12 Hours In Yangon, Myanmar
For most of the past two decades, the only images and sounds of Myanmar that have reached the outside world is of its repressive military regime and the heroic resistance of the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. For years, travelers found themselves caught up in the ...Travels In Myanmar: Under A Night Sky
I had no idea what to expect that morning in Yangon. Inside the city's once grand but now decrepit train station, a few lonely bulbs fought weakly against the dark. Across the arrivals hall was the silhouette of my transport, an intimidating iron locomotive. I moved ...Outside magazine's inaugural 'Travel Awards' winners
With twenty-three categories and every continent up for consideration, the competition is fierce, but today Outside magazine released its picks for its new Outside Travel Awards. The winners include everything from travel companies and locales to cameras, suitcases, ...A cultural tour of Burma through tilt-shift timelapse
For those who've wondered what local life is like in Burma (Myanmar), "Bonsai Burma" by Berlin filmmaker Joerg Daiber can enlighten you. Using tilt-shift photography, Daiber takes viewers on a cultural tour of the country showing daily life, women working in the ...
Betelmania: how to chew betel nut in Burma
In Burma, the streets are stained with red blotches, as if someone decided the pavement needed a more Jackson Pollock look. Walk down any lane in Yangon or Mandalay or anywhere that humans reside in this southeast Asian country, and you'll see splotches of red on the ...Myanmar Misfortune: a visit to the fortuneteller in Yangon
The man who told me my unfortunate future, did so with glee. I quickly learned he had a proclivity for sustaining the last syllable of every sentence, like a Spanish-speaking soccer play-by-play announcer after a goal, or a game show host announcing I'd just won a ...Will Scam for Food in Burma
It was my first night in Yangon, the southeast Asian metropolis formerly known as Rangoon, and I was standing in a dank, dark back street arguing with a 16-year-old boy over his fee for oral sex. Well, sort of. He had propositioned me. And while I wasn't interested, I ...Culinary Cab Confessions: where to talk politics (and eat well) in Yangon
He said to call him Ricky. As our taxi jerked its way through the center of Yangon, the southeast Asian metropolis formerly known as Rangoon and the recently dethroned capital of Myanmar (the erstwhile Burma), Ricky explained to me how he acquired such an unlikely name. ...Photo of the Day: Workers on a bench
The best photography captures candid moments - those split seconds between fantasy and reality when our subjects' guard comes down and we get a glimpse into their true nature. That's why I liked today's photo by Flickr user t3mujin - his shot of workers relaxing on a ...Travel meets journalism at Roads and Kingdoms
Last month, writers Nathan Thornburgh (a contributing editor to TIME and recent guest of Fox News) and Matt Goulding (food & culture writer and author behind the Eat This, Not That! book series) launched a new website with the intriguing tagline: "Journalism, travel, ...Photo of the Day - U Bein Bridge
Near the city of Amarapura, in the mysterious Asian nation of Myanmar, lies the famous U Bein teak bridge. Every day at dawn, and again at sunset, groups of monks and nearby villagers traverse its aging surface, their bodies silhouetted against the sharply angular rays ...
