Kathmandu
While most of the violence associated with the Maoist uprising has taken place in rural areas, Kathmandu has also become more dangerous. The capital is periodically shuttered by Maoist-led national strikes, which fearful shopkeepers comply with for fear of retaliation. The rebels have become more sophisticated in their attacks, targeting communications, transport and economic centres. They have also threatened tourist facilities throughout Nepal, and Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai warned travellers that they could be 'caught in the crossfire of the contending armies', while perversely encouraging them to visit anyway. Travellers to Kathmandu are urged to remain vigilant, keep a low profile and avoid demonstrations...

Sri Lanka
Marco Polo considered Sri Lanka the finest island of its size in all the world, and you'll likely agree after exploring the country's fabled delights. What takes your fancy? Beaches? The coastal stretch south of Colombo offers palm-lined sandy expanses as far as the eye can see. Culture? Try the Kandyan dances, a procession of elephants or the masked devil dances. Ruins? You'll find enough ancient and inspiring architecture in the cities of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa to satisfy that inner archaeologist...

Uzbekistan Guides
The Uzbek capital, once the fourth largest city in the former USSR, is Central Asia's hub and has better international flight connections than any other city in the region. That said, it's not a picture-postcard destination. Thanks to a huge earthquake in 1966 and the subsequent enthusiasm of Soviet planners, little remains of the city's 2000-year history. Most visitors agree that Tashkent is the most Soviet city in Central Asia and it's said that many of the region's anxious Slavs who won't or can't return to the Motherland are moving to the relative cultural security of this city since it is still at least half Russian-speaking...

Ulaan Baatar - Mongolia
Often called UB by foreigners, Mongolia's sleepy capital has the look and feel of a neglected 1950s European city. The old Soviet cars and buses are slowly being replaced by newer Japanese versions, but cows still wander the roads, goats sift through the rubbish, and traditionally dressed men and women mingle on the city's streets with Mongolia's nouveaux riche. Built along the Tuul river and surrounded by lovely mountains, Ulaan Baatar is dominated by communist style highrise apartment buildings, but about 250,000 locals also live in the extended ger suburbs on the outskirts of town. The felt gers are protected from the winds, which are especially fierce in spring, by wooden fences. The topography makes for good hillside views overlooking the city, but during winter the view is obscured by pollution and temperatures are painfully freezing...

Tajikistan
Tajikistan is a patchwork of self-contained valleys and regional contrasts, forged together by Soviet nation-building and shared pride in a Persian cultural heritage that is claimed as the oldest and most influential in the Silk Road region. It has emerged from post-independence turmoil to be safe, stable and scenically spectacular. Travel is a grade harder here than most places in the region, but if you are ready to take things as they come, Tajikistan offers the cutting edge of Central Asian adventure travel. The Pamir region is easily the country's highlight, with peaks dwarfing anything found outside Nepal, and the Pamir Highway provides plenty of sublime high-altitude views. Anyone following this road has the added thrill of knowing that few 'foreign devils' have passed this way since the days of the Great Game. The young capital, Dushanbe, still feels like an apartment awaiting its tenants. The economy survives on a drip feed from Moscow, while the Pamiris survive on the largesse of the Aga Khan...

Bhutan
Bhutan, nestling in the heart of the great Himalaya, has for centuries remained aloof from the rest of the world. Since its doors were cautiously opened in 1974, visitors have been mesmerised: the environment is pristine, the scenery and architecture awesome and the people hospitable and charming. Despite the huge potential of its natural resources, Bhutan emerged as one of Asia's poorest countries, shunning the 'profit at all costs' mentality of the rest of the world. With one foot in the past and one in the future, it strolls confidently towards modernisation on its own terms. It's a long, hard, winding slog to reach eastern Bhutan. To avoid the greying of hairs on the way back, many Bhutanese travel into India, cross the plains and re-enter Bhutan at Pheuntsholing. However, travel in Assam is seriously discouraged due to intense security problems posed by Indian separatist groups such as the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) who are seeking their own independent homeland. This route was closed to all foreigners except Indian travellers in late 2001...

Myanmar - Burma Guides
Since 1988 Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) has been under the military rule of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) - formerly known as Slorc - an abominable military junta. Prospective travellers should monitor events in Myanmar and weigh up the arguments in support of and opposition to travel. Dissent is suppressed, and political prisoners are jailed for expressing their opinions. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi advocates boycotting all forms of travel to the country as a means of isolating the government and forcing reform. Inside Myanmar, there are a number of people who support her stance. This pro-boycott group argues that much of the money from tourism goes directly and indirectly into the pockets of the very generals who continue to deny Burmese citizens the most-basic civil rights. However, others involved with Burmese politics, including many current or former members of the NLD, feel that a travel boycott of Myanmar is counterproductive. They maintain that tourism is not only economically helpful, but vital to the pro-democracy movement for the two-way flow of information it provides.

India Travel
This string of 300 richly forested tropical islands lies in the Bay of Bengal between India and Myanmar and stretches almost to the tip of Sumatra. Ethnically, the islands are not part of India and, until fairly recently, they were inhabited only by indigenous tribal people. The majority of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands are uninhabited, surrounded by coral reefs, and have white sandy beaches and incredibly clear water. This is an excellent place for snorkelling, scuba diving and lazing on the beach. Indian tourists may roam freely, but foreigners are constrained by a 30-day permit, allowing only limited travel. There are regular flights to Port Blair on South Andaman from Kolkata and Chennai (Madras); permits are issued at the airport on arrival. Infrequent boats from Kolkata and Chennai take four days to reach the islands; permits must be obtained in advance if arriving by boat.

Flores - Indonesia by Colleen Langenfeld
Flores The villages of Nggela, Wolojita and Jopu on the island of Flores are renowned for their beautiful ikat sarongs and shawls. The traditional whaling village of Lamalera on Lembata in the Solor and Alor archipelago east of Flores is a fascinating place to poke around the boatsheds and watch men making harpoons. The villagers are subsistence whalers and are therefore exempt from international whaling bans. Kelimutu's tri-coloured lakes are Nusa Tenggara's most fantastic attraction. The waters in the three volcanic craters have a curious habit of changing colour - most recently they were turquoise, olive and black, but a few years ago they were green-blue, maroon and black. No-one has managed to explain the cause of the colours or why they change, except to suppose that different minerals are dissolved in each lake. Local legend has it that the souls of the dead go to the lakes. Young people's souls supposedly go to the warmth of the green lake, old people to the milky turquoise one, and those of thieves and murderers to the black lake.

Maldive
Resorts in the Maldives woo tourists with promises of 'the last paradise on earth', and if your idea of paradise is a pristine tropical island with swaying palm trees, pure white beaches and brilliant turquoise lagoons, then the Maldives will not disappoint. It's also a major destination for scuba divers, who come for the fabulous coral reefs and the wealth of marine life. But it's not a place for low budget backpackers or amateur anthropologists who want to travel independently and live as the locals do. Tourism in the Maldives is carefully managed. The lack of local resources makes it necessary to import virtually everything a visitor needs, so it can't really compete on price. The strategy has been to develop a limited number of quality resorts, each on its own uninhabited island, free from traffic, crime and crass commercialism.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 71 | | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100