Asia | GlobalSalsa: travel writer Belinda Jackson

Sep

Travel in Asia: the hotspots and the sleeper hits

Hanoi’s hot, Phuket’s hotter and Tokyo is sizzling like a summer’s day in Hades. This week, I chatted to ABC Mornings Adelaide about the hottest places to travel in Asia, and where you can step off the beaten path to some alternate destinations in these countries.

It comes on the back of the news that a million – a million – Australians visited Japan in the past 12 months. We can’t get enough of it, and nor can the rest of the world. Which is fair enough; they’ve got fabulous culture, food, landscapes and history. What’s not to love.

I chatted with Rory McClaren about alternative destinations in Japan, away from the Lost in Translation moments in Tokyo, and why chasing geishas through Kyoto is a really, really bad look for travellers.

Also, my sleeper hit of Hue, in Vietnam, and why the Philippines is so often overlooked – and unjustifiably so.

Take a listen to the conversation – here’s a link on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHIjMRbAAfo

May

A river cruise through Laos & travel inspo from the movies: The World Awaits podcast

“The best way to see the Mekong is slowly,” says travel journalist Michael Turtle, speaking to me on this week’s episode of The World Awaits travel podcast.

He takes us on a cruise down the Mekong river in Laos on board the beautiful new boat Boheme. With only 13 cabins, it runs between the royal city of Luang Prabang and the capital, Vientiane, connecting you to the lifeblood of the country, all while exploring Laos’ cuisine and visiting its villages.

To listen to the podcast, visit its website https://theworldawaits.au or listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or most other listening apps.

Please check your feed, the data was entered incorrectly.“Watch longtail boats, see temples… on a river cruise, you see the river at all times of the day, while people are fishing or swimming,” says Michael of the six-day sailing journeys.

For more about the Boheme, visit mekongkingdoms.com and add a stay at the Avani+ Luang Prabang, avanihotels.com And to follow Michael, see timetravelturtle.com

Also, what’s the world’s most beautiful airstrip? This list of ravishing runways will have you fighting for the window seat. https://www.allcleartravel.co.uk/blog/the-worlds-most-beautiful-airport-landings/

And finally, tap into the set-jetting trend and get your travel inspiration from movies and TV series. We’re talking Thailand, Malta and the UK – tune in to see what’s filmed where.

This mini-series is brought to you by Avani Hotels & Resorts. With more than 40 properties across five continents, Avani offers city hotels, tropical resorts and retreats in nature. For more, visit avanihotels.com

READING RECOMMENDATIONS

If you’d like to read my story on the young woman shaking up PNG’s traditional drumming scene, published in Paradise, the inflight magazine of Air Niugini, visit airniuginiparadise.com

May

Visiting Vietnam’s underrated regions: travel tips, budget airlines and hot hotels: Canberra Times

This trip to Vietnam, I’ve turned my back on the big cities – Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang; even tourist-loving Hoi An, and definitely Ha Long Bay.

Instead, I’ve begun my exploration of Vietnam’s waterways in the imperial city of Hue, in central Vietnam, continuing south to the fishing village of Ke Ga, and further south again to Can Tho, in the Mekong Delta.

For a floating breakfast with a difference, I’m on a boat cafe in the Mekong Delta, continuing my exploration of Vietnam’s breakfast soups. This morning, it’s a bowl of bún nước lèo, a deep broth with prawns, calamari, noodles, shredded banana blossom – to name a few things – on a pink boat at Can Tho’s early morning markets.

In Hue, I take a step back to 1930s Vietnam, where whitewashed columns and geometric tiles meet claw-foot baths and four-poster beds at the Azerai La Residence. There’s a flair and love of embellishment here that sings to me – the round windows and curved balustrades, the high ceilings and dark timber floors. We’re on the Perfume River, home of the last imperial family of Vietnam, which the sun sets over as dragon-headed longboats sail by. Yep, it’s hot. This is low season in central Vietnam but, selfishly, I’m ok with that.

And for the most beautiful tropical modernist hotel, try the Azerai Ke Ga Bay, on Vietnam’s southern coastline. It’s only 180km east of HCMC, but once off the freeway, the pitted local roads are a danger to loose molars.

To read more, see my feature for the Sydney Morning Herald/The Age newspapers’ Traveller section, visit https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/inspiration/i-skipped-the-big-cities-for-vietnam-s-charming-less-visited-waterways-20250423-p5ltq9.html

If you’re after more Vietnam travel tips, I’m also sharing my great hotel tip, which offers cultural tourism without the hefty price tag, and another budget tip of new flights from Melbourne into Hanoi with Vietnamese low-cost carrier VietJet, azerai.com, vietjetair.com – you can hear more on this episode of my travel podcast, The World Awaits – just click on this link or the player below.

Feb

Enter the Year of the Dragon! Celebrate the Lunar New Year in Melbourne

Kung Hei Fat Choi! The Lunar New Year is upon us, and we’re entering into the Year of the Dragon, and not just a dragon, but the wood dragon, which promises growth and prosperity for all!

Word is China is bracing for a baby boom in this auspicious year, says Chris Chun, the artist of this lovely green dragon and my guest on The World Awaits travel podcast this week.

Take Chris’ recommendation and visit Melbourne’s Chinatown to see the Lunar New Year parade followed by yum cha, then pop into the ⁠Museum of Chinese Australian History⁠ to say “Kung Hei Fat Choi” to the largest dragon in the world, the Millennial Dragon, whose head weighs around 200kg.

Also, ⁠@bookingcom ⁠releases its Top 10 Most Welcoming Places in Australia, and the @SunshineCoast and @VisitVictoria are shining bright – but who do you think got the top gong? Tune in for more Sunny Coast goodness, and to put its claim as Australia’s craft beer capital to the test.

And finally, let’s save money on travel insurance, says financial comparison site @mozo.com.au

Thanks to my co-host @kirstiewrites and sound producer @alaisdair for another great episode! And if you’d like to continue to hear more great pods, why not buy us a coffee? https://ko-fi.com/theworldawaits

Nov

Better than Bali? Why Malaysia should be on your travel radar in 2023

Some destinations are once-in-a-lifetime destinations – think Antarctica or Svalbard. Others, like Bali, receive an annual visit from many Aussies. Malaysia is one of those that falls in between – before the rise of the Middle Eastern hubs of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Kuala Lumpur (KL to its friends), Bangkok and Hong Kong were the trio of stopovers on our European sojourns.

This year, it’s back on my list, as I transited KL on a one-night stopover, went deeper into Langkawi and Penang and, now, find myself in the wilds of Malaysian Borneo, exploring the sta

te of Sarawak and all its exotic glories, from sun bears to head hunter tribes, orang utangs to jungle food.

While we can’t get enough of Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, Malaysia is still largely undervalued, if not ignored, by us, despite affordable direct flights from Australia, fabulous food, unique wildlife and unrivalled value for money.

Click here to read my story in the Traveller section of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers, and you can see plenty of of my snaps on instagram from Sarawak, including its capital, Kuching, on the Santubong peninsula and down on the Malaysia-Indonesian border, here in Borneo, click here.

Jul

ABC Radio interview: luxury train travel in Central Asia

Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan: how romantic are the names of these Central Asian countries? Travelling in them has been a long-held dream of mine.

I travelled along the legendary Silk Road by luxury train, visiting these three, historic countries- exploring their history, their food and their glorious architecture. I don’t use the ‘trip-of-a-lifetime’ phrase lightly, but Golden Eagle Luxury Trains certainly steps up to the description. Take a look at their fabulous instagram account at www.instagram.com/goldeneagleluxurytrains/ or visit their website, goldeneagleluxurytrains.com

Click here to listen to my interview with Philip Clark on ABC Radio’s Nightlife program.

20 June 2022

Oct

Journey through three ‘Stans

I have just spent six days on the Golden Eagle – a private train travelling along the web of Silk Road routes, from Almaty in Kazakhstan though Uzbekistan and to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

I’ve long wanted to visit the ‘Stans, but as the song goes, it was just that the timing was wrong. So the chance to visit aboard a luxury train couldn’t be passed up.

Travelling along the Silk Road, my journey from Almaty to Ashgabat.

Of all the stops on this journey – Almaty, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva and Ashgabat, the winner of the beauty prize is Samarkand.

Its Registan Square, pictured above, is just so big, and so awe inspiring, it’s almost overwhelming to try to take in all its beauty in one day, let alone in one photo.

However, it was the quieter, more secretive streets of Khiva that possibly caught my attention. Even though its historic Old City isn’t lived in anymore, it just seemed to have more life. Maybe it was the fact it had more scarf and textile shops, each tucked into a picturesque niche lined with Uzbekistan’s trademark turquoise tiles.

This part of the world is no stranger to travellers – these oasis towns have been receiving new ideas, cultures, languages and religions since time began.

But they’ve slipped off the radar in recent decades, only to be coaxed back on by new, more lenient visa requirements and our desire – and ability – to explore further, with international flights now into all the major cities.

A few details:

I flew into Almaty and out of Ashgabat via Dubai with its low-cost carrier, fly Dubai.

The Golden Eagle is a luxury private train that started its great rail journeys on the iconic Trans-Siberian route across Russia, www.goldeneagleluxurytrains.com

Disclaimer: I was a guest of Golden Eagle Luxury Trains.

Sep

How to… give alms respectfully in Laos

Each morning in Laos, Buddhist monks receive alms from laypeople, traditionally rice. It’s a simple religious ceremony called the Tak Bat, says Brian Lingham, of Luang Prabang’s Buddhist Heritage Project, see buddhist-heritage.org

By giving alms, you are giving something of yourself, he says. However, many Tak Bat ceremonies in the major tourist areas are being bombarded by poor behaviour – using flashes in front of monks’ faces, crowding their route, talking loudly throughout, with little respect for the solemnity of the occasion.

Brian offers a brief guide to attending the ceremony respectfully, from maintaining silence to only making an offering if it does, actually mean something to you (and not just as a photo op).

You can read my full article, which appeared in the Traveller section of the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne’s The Age. Click here, and enjoy!

Jul

Six of the best beach clubs on Bali’s Bukit Peninsula

Bali’s Bukit Peninsula is a haven for some of the island’s best beach and pool clubs. We tested six of the best (look, someone’s got to do it) for your bathing edification, from architectural statements at Uluwatu to the new hot in Nusa Dua. So pack the floaty kaftan and big sunglasses and skip our wintery shores.

This article was published in the Traveller section of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers.

To read, click here

Jun

Hilton Manila hotel review

Manila’s traffic is so bad a whole city of airport hotels has sprung up to service airline passengers coming into the city on their way to and from the Philippines’ fabulous islands. Newport City includes a Marriott and a Savoy, convenience stores and coffee shops, casinos and shopping malls, and now the city’s only Hilton, which opened in October 2018.
It’s the end of a tropical holiday, so of the five dining venues, it must be the swim-up bar for a lunch of mango mai tais, hot fresh pizza with buffalo mozzarella and fresh fish fingers for the small fry. Service is super-chatty and super-friendly, though not speedy, as the hotel is still polishing its act. Madison Bar & Lounge near the entrance is easy to overlook but chocophiles note: its patisserie serves excellent chocolate croissants. There’s also a well-stocked gin bar with knowledgeable staff and a jazz singer who croons into the wee hours.

Click here to read the full review, which was first published in the Traveller section of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers.

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