Claim OwnershipTalk Travel Asia
Subscribed: 1,191Played: 6,515
Subscribe
© All rights reserved
Description
With more than 40-collective years living and working in Asia, co-hosts Trevor Ranges and Scott Coates know the ins and outs of travel in the region, and love sharing them. Having spent over a decade as a travel writer for the likes of National Geographic and Fodors, Trevor implicitly understands how to see and figure a destination out. Scott has spent much of his time crafting bespoke adventures as the co-founder of a luxury travel company and knows how to make travel truly flow. Whether traveling as pros or exploring as amateurs, they share their passion for travel in Asia with you on Talk Travel Asia.
198 Episodes
Reverse
When one thinks of Iraq, they likely aren’t considering it as their next holiday destination. Those more familiar with the country know its location in the Fertile Crescent was responsible for the earliest human civilizations to call Iraq home. But one must also wonder if decades of war has left any remaining history of ancient Babylonia available for tourists to visit. Is it even secure enough to explore the sites along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers or the more mountainous regions of the north, where ethnic Kurds offer altogether different cultural experiences. Today we’ll find out when we discuss Travelling Iraq with John Fiddler.
Between the two of us, Trevor and I have lived and worked in Asia for nearly 50-years. This has also coincided with most of our adult years, when people tend to discover more about who they really are and more fully form as individuals. But damn, 50-years is a long amount of time to live in what was a foreign land and is now simply ‘home’. This got us reminiscing about how we’ve changed while living in Asia, mostly for the better. There have been some life-changing items, we feel we’re now better citizens of the world, and want to share some of these with you. Giddy up!
Tajikistan, one of several former Soviet republics located along the Silk Road linking Europe and Asia, may be one of the least well known — and least visited — tourist destinations in Asia. Over several episodes touching on the central Asian nations colloquially known as ‘the Stans’ we’ve explored Tajikistan briefly, including an episode with Lonely Planet writer Bradley Mayhew about Central Asia. This week, we’ll chat with a man some consider the ‘World’s most traveled’ and we’ll put his knowledge of obscure Asian destinations to the test by talking with him about little-known Tajikistan.
When we travel, many of us hope to experience an exotic culture or visit a spectacular natural attraction. Often these are chosen based on recommendations from family and friends or may be long-awaited bucket list destinations. Little do many of us know, however, that the United Nations has already selected more than 1000 such sites, hundreds of which are in Asia. These World Heritage Sites are some of the most impressive destinations on Earth, and we’ll discuss some today that you may wish to consider adding to your next Asian adventure, on our second episode about UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Asia.
One of the world’s most exotic islands, Sri Lanka boasts diverse culture and religious beliefs, as well as considerable natural beauty. After five decades of civil war, peace in Sri Lanka opened the island to international travel in 2009; a decade later, a burgeoning tourism was nipped in the bud by COVID. Today, we’ll have a guest with great knowledge about the island – from a tourism perspective, in particular – who will share some of his top tips for visitors looking to explore this exotic island off the southeast coast of India, particularly Sri Lanka’s Tamil-majority provinces.
On this Patron bonus episode (usually only for Patrons of the show but we're sharing with everyone this time) we chat with Inside Kyoto and Chris Rowthorn Tours.com founder, Chris Rowthorn, about an experiment where he tried to travel Japan just using his phone. And he shares tips on how you can setup your phone for travel in the country.
As expats who have lived in Asia for almost 25-years each - how’s that possible! - we recently got thinking about our proximity to famous, royal palaces. Scott is not so far from Bangkok’s Grand Palace and Trevor for many years lived very close to Cambodia’s Khemarin Palace. That got us thinking about other royal palaces we’ve been to throughout Asia, along with ones we have not yet visited. Then we wondered what constitutes a royal palace? We bumped into our friends Greg & Ed from the Bangkok Podcast, mentioned this to them, and realized we had a good episode on our hands, but it would be a heck of a lot more fun to chat about this as a foursome. So here we are, our second crossover episode together, where we’ll explore the royal palaces of Asia.
From time to time we receive messages from Talk Travel Asia listeners about their travels in Asia and we’re glad to have inspired or assisted them with their experiences. After some recent back and forths with several patrons about their Asian adventures, we decided to David Rockman to come on the show and share about his adult family trip to Bali so you can learn about it and perhaps find some inspiration for your next journey there.
Ryan Ver Berkmoes has authored over 130 guidebooks to destinations worldwide, including Lonely Planet guidebooks for Oahu, Hawaii, Indonesia, Crete, and Sri Lanka. Today he joins us from Greece to talk about traveling Japan by train on Talk Travel Asia podcast with Scott Coates and Trevor Ranges.
As we near 200 episodes of Talk Travel Asia, on one hand we sometimes wonder what we could possibly still talk about, and on the other, we’re continually looking to up our game, think of topics we have not yet considered, and get even more interesting guests to share with us. We hope you have enjoyed the travel chat thus far and we have good news - we’re not slowing down. As we move further into 2024, we have a pretty sweet lineup of episodes ahead and thought it might be fun to share what’s coming with you.
Donna Kitchen and her husband recently returned from a 3 month trip through Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Koh Lanta, Thailand. It was their first trip to all but Thailand, where they traveled previously in 1994. As a couple in their 50s who use the IG handle (notsogreytravellers.com), Donna and her companion traveled as glampackers, using local transport as much as possible. Donna started a blog about her travels, but never finished it, so she’s hoping we can help document her adventures on our podcast. Donna joins us from her home in Perth, Western Australia.
One’s first trip to Asia. It’s something few forget. The smells, the sounds, the crowds, big cities, wild landscapes, exotic food, a sometimes frenetic pace, tropical beaches, incredible mountains - you’re in Asia! We recently got chatting about our early trips to the continent, started to feel old, or perhaps well-experienced, and thought it might be fun to recount our initial journeys here. Reflect on those initial impressions and contrast it to our current lives and how we see things now. In these two parts, Scott then I will recount their first visits to Asia. Here we go for part 2…
Slow travel is a buzzword that’s been kicking around a while. A “trend” in the travel industry, some might say, in the vein of ecotourism. Just as the terminology has evolved from global warming to climate change, however, more humans are increasingly considering their footprint, both on the environment and on the destinations they visit, often in an economic way. If slow travel means more than massive exhaust output of air travel – if slow travel means picking one particular destination instead of dozen and then using local means of transportation, bikes or hiking even, to explore an area more in depth, at a more leisurely pace, then I’m all for it. Today, we have a returning guest and longtime friend of the destinations he lives and works in, Stuart McDonald, to give us his understanding of and experiences with slow travel in Asia.
One’s first trip to Asia: it’s something hard to forget. The smells, the sounds, the crowds, big cities, wild landscapes, exotic food, a sometimes frenetic pace, tropical beaches, incredible mountains - you’re in Asia! We recently got chatting about our early trips to the continent, started to feel old, or perhaps well-experienced, and thought it might be fun to recount our initial journeys here, reflect on those first impressions and contrast it to our current lives and how we see things now. In these two parts, I then Trevor will recount our first visits to Asia. Here we go…
Those are the opening lines of Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir, a “musical and metaphorical drive toward some irresistible far-off horizon”. The song has long-enticed me with it’s melodic mysticism, and when former guest Dave Stamboulis told me that he’d, quote, “Just completed a rather wild journey to Kashmir and Ladakh,” I knew that we had to have him back on the show to tell us more about these spectacular areas of India, a country we’ve been eager to explore more on Talk Travel Asia.
When most people think of Asia, the countries that come to mind aren’t likely to be those we’re about to discuss today. Located in Western Asia, on the border of Eastern Europe, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan are countries most westerners are largely unfamiliar with at all. That's all the more reason to learn a bit about them, as each has unique cultures, history, and tourist attractions that make them fascinating destinations. Today, show co-host Scott Coates will share his experience traveling through these interesting West Asian nations.
A.I. - Artificial Intelligence. It’s almost the only thing anyone is talking about in some circles. AI seems to be everywhere nowadays and creative industry workers are panicking over being replaced. On the other end of the spectrum, those already using it to produce grant proposals or file TPS reports rave about AI’s efficiency and accuracy, saving them countless hours on otherwise tedious chores. But what about travel? Are AI travel agents, AI-generated travel guidebooks, and AI trip planners about to revolutionize travel? Or is this technology as far from replacing travel professionals as it from replacing movie stars: eventually, perhaps, but not quite yet. Today we’ll discuss AI and the travel industry.
Road trips are one of travel’s great forms of adventures. From the Griswald’s cross-country family vacation to Wally World to my own explorations of Eastern Cambodia to design tours for international visitors, the road trip is a time-honored tradition. Nowadays, one might imagine traveling by camper-van to Mexico or Central America, or even renting a car in the north of Japan and driving it south from island to island, but who would ever imagine taking a road trip by car from Myanmar to Holland? Well, our guest Edwin Briels did just that, and today he’s going to share how it all went down. Buckle up!
When we travel, many of us hope to experience an exotic culture or visit a spectacular natural attraction. Often these are chosen based on recommendations from family and friends or may be long-awaited bucket list destinations. Little do many of us know, however, that the United Nations has already selected more than 1000 such sites, hundreds of which are in Asia. These World Heritage Sites are some of the most impressive destinations on Earth, and we’ll discuss some today that you may wish to consider adding to your next Asian adventure.
Taiwan is a country? - is it..? Okay, let’s start again… Taiwan is a territory that traditionally has way less people traveling it than should do so. Sitting off the east coast of China, there are few spots hotter geopolitically that Taiwan. But what’s there? Are the people the same as those from mainland China? What’s the terrain like? Is it safe? Friendly? Food decent? Well, you can say ‘yes’ to all of those things but today we’re not only going to touch on Taiwan as a travel destination for the second time on this show, but focus on cycle its east coast. So, pour yourself a cup of Oolong tea, steam some dumplings and let’s dream of what was once known as Fermosa.
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States