Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with asia

Dairy in Asian Cuisine?

Yiggs — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:23:04 -0800

Why do dairy products have a limited geographic range in Asian cuisine? I've noticed a trend in my (admittedly limited) experience of Asian food: dairy products seem to be rarely featured, if not totally absent, in the cuisines of China, Japan, and some of Southeast Asia. Yet, just over the Himalayas, Indian cuisine has ghee and paneer, and the Mongolians have kumis. This also seems to be correlated with geographic distributions of lactose intolerance, with China, Japan and Southeast Asia having the highest rates in the world.

My initial guess was that, historically, geography prevented cultures with dairy-heavy cuisines from intermingling with dairy-free cultures - either the Himalayas or the Gobi Desert may have limited the movement of cattle into mainland China. But China seems to have plenty of opportunities to intermingle with other cultures, be it the Silk Road, the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty or even later trading with the Portuguese or Dutch. Why would the use of dairy products - which, if Wikipedia is to be trusted, greatly increases the amount of calories extracted from livestock - not be adopted by these cultures?

Travel Options w/a RT Ticket to Kuala Lumpur

gov_moonbeam — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:08:44 -0800

I jumped on a super cheap ticket on Air China to Kuala Lumpur next Spring. It'll be my first time in Asia and I have about 10 days. Should I stick to Malaysia & Singapore or is it worth it looking at other locations I can fly to from the airport? My #1 addiction is travel and after doing Peace Corps in the Caribbean and visiting almost all of Latin America, I'm ready to move on to a new part of the world. I've just bought a really cheap ticket on Air China to Kuala Lumpur in late April 2010. From what I've been told, Malaysia and Singapore are good "starter" countries for getting your feet wet in Asia.

I'm in the preliminary stages of reading about both places, but would love to hear from people who've been there. Having done exhaustive "hit every town on the tourist/backpacker route" trips before, I would rather be low key in my travels. So I'm hoping for advice from people who've either been there or who live there. Would you stick to Malaysia and Singapore or is it worth it seeing what other locations I can fly to out of KL? And if I just spent my time in M & S, what are the big "tourist traps*" that I could easily skip? I like wandering around and just getting a sense of people's lives in a place. And obviously I wouldn't have thought about the ticket i the first place if I didn't have an interest in street food. Also I love going to museums and being outdoors/hiking. I have one friend of a friend who lives in KL as a contact, but I'd love to hear from other people's experiences.

* I went to Brazil 3 years ago and thinking that speaking only Spanish would be a problem, I signed up for a tour through GAP Adventures. I really regret this decision because we hit all of the high cost "gringo route" locations in the country, plus the group I was with mostly cared about partying/finding the local disco. I didn't really feel like I'd had the experience of what life is actually like in that country outside of the hostel/backpack bubble.

So how bad is the swine flu??

gttommy — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:13:34 -0800

How blown-up out-of-proportion is the swine flu scare relative to other life-threatening infections/diseases? Is it alarming enough that I need a swine flu shot if I'm going to SE Asia in DEC09/JAN10? Time is running out, and I am confused as to whether I should get a shot before leaving for a 3 week trek in SE Asia through a handful of countries.

From what I have been reading, vaccinations are the ultra-safe path for short-term protection and definitely should be taken during a crisis (e.g. epidemic). On the other hand, if it is not a crisis it would overall not be beneficial for someone my age (26), as I am likely to recover from a swine flu infection... and something to do with antibodies, mutating-dormant-virus and the overall corruption of my immune system. My microbiology-graduate friend confirms the negative effects of inoculations are part of the process, but also says if its a 'crisis' it should be taken.

So how bad is the swine flu??

Thanks!

Bait-and-Switch or ineptitude?... WTF Travelocity!?

blueberry — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:27:45 -0800

Buying a ticket to Bangkok—is there a dependable online ticket-searching service that is all about getting the truly cheapest fare? Skinflint-In-Coach.com? Argh!, I spent over an hour today working on the Travelocity site, trying to find a low-priced ticket from Portland to Bangkok. After noodling around with my Portland/Bangkok departure dates I finally found a reasonably priced ticket that I could afford. However when I clicked to order it Travelocity said Sorry, that ticket's not available, please go pick another one—all of the other tickets being at least $500 more. (And annoyingly, when I went back to look at the other tickets, that cheaper un-buyable ticket was still listed as being available)

So, I tried Kayak.com and found that while it searches across four different ticket sites, each site finds fares that differ from each other by thousands of dollars. That is, each site is saying "This is the absolute cheapest flight out there" but actually the ticket prices vary from $1900 to $4000. To my mind, there should be only one "cheapest flight"—you know, hence the "-est" suffix.

So tell me hive mind, is there one ticket-finding site that
A: doesn't advertise tickets that it doesn't have (Travelocity), and
B: searches all flights all through one interface—so you don't have to dig through several different sites and windows wasting time with their laughable ideas of what they call "the cheapest flight"?

[For reference, I'm looking to leave PDX on Dec 9th, and leave BKK on any of the days between Dec 31 and Jan 3]

Where to find data on the size of the informal sector?

andoatnp — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:20:00 -0800

Does anyone know a good source for the size of the informal sector by country in Asia and Latin America? I'm at a university so I have access to any books you could recommend as well as JSTOR or other online resources. The data I've found so far seems old and bad.

I'm hoping to find information on the size of the informal sector for as many countries in Asia and Latin America as possible. The more recent and academic the source, the better.

Where to spend a 4-day weekend in SE Asia?

cosmonaught — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:54:07 -0800

I've found myself in SE Asia (KL, Malaysia) with a 4-day weekend (because of Raya) and nothing to do. I'm thinking I probably should travel somewhere, but really not sure where. Where is a good place for a solo traveler to go in the area (the area being anywhere in the eastern hemisphere I can get in a reasonable amount of time)? Cheap is good, but not essential.

Travelling with Swine flu risks: Safety vs Bargain

gttommy — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:12:08 -0800

Safety and budget -wise, should I buy a heavily discounted ticket now to SE Asia in January 2010? More details inside... Hi guys!

I am calling on the powers of mefi to help me in a time of swine flu fear...

I am afraid of the Swine flu getting worse and I hear it's pretty serious in those hot tropical countries.

While at the same time I would like to know whether there would be cheap flight deals leading up to Jan next year, based on historical trends. Any bargain travel shoppers here who can speak from experience?

If it is unlikely, I will have to just take up the bargain and hope that Swine flu doesn't get too bad in around 5 months time!
If likely, I will play the pragmatist and just wait it out a little more for the next hot airfare deal.

Many thanks.

Bringing legally prescribed controlled substances through customs in Asia?

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 06:01:33 -0800

Advice on bringing a small quantity of legally prescribed Ritalin (methylphenidate) and other prescriptions for personal use into Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, and the Philippines? I'm traveling to a number of Asian countries in the next three weeks, and I would like to bring my prescriptions with me. The drugs are 30x20mg Ritalin (methylphenidate), 6x200mg Provigil (modafinil), and 30x10mg Ambien (zolpidem). These are legally prescribed by a U.S. doctor, and I will carry the pills in the original, labeled bottle and will have an official-looking letter from the doctor.

But Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, according to their customs Web sites, either ban these drugs outright or require preapproval through a bureaucratic process. I wasn't able to find info on the other countries, but it's those three places that I'm most concerned about anyway (Japan and Singapore especially).

In those countries, since they require preapproval, if I indicate on my customs forms that I have controlled substances, then I'll almost certainly have them confiscated and could face other penalties (right?). If I play stupid and just state I have no items to declare, I'd most likely get through OK. But if they pull me aside and search my bags, then I'd be in big trouble, right? I will have entered and exited different countries ~13 times by the end of this trip, so at least on that I'd look suspicious.

So: what actually happens if Japan/Singapore/Hong Kong customs finds undeclared, un-preapproved but legally prescribed controlled substances in your bags? Is it something I can plead ignorance on and just get a warning, or are there serious consequences? I'm not sure if these laws are actually enforced in the case of small quantities and legal personal use. Should I just not bring the drugs?

Tell me about moving to South Korea.

GilloD — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:26:09 -0800

We're moving to South Korea! We've never been to Asia! Tell us what to expect! More inside! (!!) So, my wife and I will be moving to South Korea at the end of August to teach English in Gwangmyeongnam. We're excited about this! We've both traveled extensively across Europe, the USA, South America and a little bit of Northern Africa. We've lived in rural middle America and have made Brooklyn our home for the last year. So, we're not too spooked about packing up and moving someplace foreign.

However, there are a lot of mysteries involved. I guess what we're looking for is "101, Welcome to South Korea" starters kit. I poked around MeFi and found some posts, but they were all a few years old. I wanted to make sure we were up to date. We've also donea ton of reading, but, well. That's reading.

Some general Q's and then I'll just say, "Tell me what you wish you'd known":

We'll be teaching in a public school, so hopefully we'll be spared some hagwon hijinks. Still, are we likely to be screwed on this? What's the public school experience like? I'll be teaching Elementary, my wife will be in a high school. How liberal are they with vacation etc.? Are there a lot of "federal" holidays?

Stuff we should bring: I've been told deodorant and clothes that fit. Anything else?

As far as laptops go- I'm guessing we'll need new power supplies? Or will a converter do the trick? (I fried my Powerbook once in Germany. Maybe it was coincidental)

Are there things we should start learning now? Stuff we should start preparing for?

The won: Down, now back up a bit. A bad currency to hold on to? We'll make about 2.1 mil a month, each. What're living expenses like? Utilities?

I guess I secretly have an enormous number of tiny questions that are part of a big question: What's it like? What do you wish you'd been ready for?

Non-U.S.-centric web content and design

kalapierson — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:20:24 -0800

Non-U.S. residents: Aside from language issues, what issues can U.S. web designers keep in mind to make their sites ideally usable for you? I'm U.S. born/based and I'm working on a new version of my website. For the moment, it will be English-language-only (when I can afford it, my first priority is to get my short-form bio and a little practical info translated into as many languages as possible). I'm a classical composer and my non-U.S. projects & performances so far have mostly involved people in Europe and Australia/NZ. I want my site to welcome all users as much as possible, especially from regions I haven't dealt with much yet (Asia, Africa, South America).

This is oddly hard to Google (because in most cases, web internationalization = language encoding issues), but below are some things I've thought of so far. Please add your ideas. Thank you!

MATERIAL ISSUES:

• make any downloadable PDFs available in both A4 and Letter;

• be sure I'm not embedding (or linking to) media from any sites that only work for U.S.-based users;

• when offering anything for sale, use a payment/shipping method that excludes as few countries as possible (and on my site, mention the approximate prices in at least USD, EUR and UKP).

EDITORIAL ISSUES:

• use words, not numbers, for the month in all dates (10/11/2009 is bad notation -- is that in Oct or Nov?);

• in any random list of cities (e.g., when listing my upcoming events), name the country in every case so USA doesn't feel like the default assumption ("Lisbon, Portugal" / "Chicago, USA" / "Tokyo, Japan" );

• include free alternatives to phone numbers (email, Skype, etc.) wherever possible;

• express U.S. phone numbers without default-USA assumption (start with +1, not just the 3-digit area code).

[• this is just symbolic welcoming, but the front page will include a decorative list of non-English words for composer, with as many non-European words as possible.]

Book about Islam and intellectualism, what's the title?

divabat — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:13:10 -0800

I'm trying to find a book about Islam and intellectualism. I can remember the cover, and the content - but not the title or the author. Gah! The book was written by a Pakistani based in the UK. The book starts off with him explaining how he often has to fend off the people from the nearby mosque that always want to recruit him and a family member, but one time he decides to say "Yes" to see what they're about.

This leads him to an international journey about different ways Islam manifests itself around the world. He's more concerned with how people use their interpretations of Islam for political gain. There's a section about how Saddam Hussein was part of a political party that wanted Arab unity without concern for religion, and an encounter with a friend/relative in Iran who gets frustrated with his questions.

Later on in the book he details his experience of running an Islamic intellectualism magazine/organisation in Kuala Lumpur that lasted a few years, but then things like race riots and 9/11 made it really difficult to push through a more rational and intellectual view of Islam. There was some talk of revisiting questions about science, humanism, and so on through the eyes of Islam. Anwar Ibrahim gets a mention.

The cover is white; it may have had a mosque and some greenery on the bottom border. The title (which probably didn't have the word "Islam") was likely
vertically
aligned
like
so.
It was published sometime after 2002-2003. It's non-fiction but not a textbook.

I got this book from our local library last year but they don't keep borrowing histories and I couldn't find it on their catalogue. Amazon, Google Books, Barnes and Noble, and even Twitter friends can't find it. It was originally meant to be just a throwaway cite, but now I've become even more motivated to find the book. Can you help?

Suggestions for traveling cheaply, and (mostly) comfortably within Asia?

dubitable — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:50:18 -0800

Suggestions for traveling cheaply, and (mostly) comfortably *within* Asia? Hi folks, we are planning a trip to Asia this summer, between end of June and beginning of July. We will be hitting three countries: Singapore, Thailand, and Japan, in that order. We will be going to Chiang Mai in Thailand. Our master plan was to buy tickets from Boston to Singapore and then, at the end, out of Narita back to Boston, and assume we could figure out how to get around cheaply from Singapore to Thailand and then Thailand to Japan. At least, we'd heard of other people doing this and it seemed reasonable, but...is this really feasible and economical? Has anyone done this? Which are the best Asia-regional airlines to get around? For recommending airlines, know that we'd rather pay a bit more (but not a lot more) and get some more service, comfort and security than go with the bottom of the bucket sort of airline (a la no Ryanair analogs, thank you very much...).

Asia: Historical Fiction

ebeeb — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:05:29 -0800

Anybody have recommendations for good historical fiction/nonfiction books set in China or Southeast Asia? When I was traveling in Japan I read Shogun and thoroughly enjoyed the entertaining look back at the country's history. Hoping to get the same type of education while traveling for 1.5 months in: Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China. (Though China is probably the best focus as I'll be spending the largest chunk of time there at the end of my trip.)

Thanks in advance!

Fly fishing in South East Asia

roofus — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:05:01 -0800

South-East-Asia-Fly-Fishing-Filter: Any recommendations for beach resorts in South East Asia that offer guided saltwater fly fishing? Bonus marks for:
1. Somewhere that's a relatively short hop from Singapore
2. Decent surfing
3. Both surfing and fishing in February

Non Western Pen & Paper RPGs?

empath — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:36:29 -0800

What are some of the best Non-Western Pencil & Paper RPGs? I'm interested in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese games, but I'm especially interested in games that originated in India, Africa or the Middle East, if there are any, and ones that have unique settings (ie, not warmed-over D&D/Tolkien).

Help me travel SE Asia as cheaply and amazingly as possible, please

saul wright — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:27:43 -0800

So I'm going to be going over to SE Asia for the first time in a couple weeks and I'd love some advice on where to go and what to do... I've read previous questions here on metafilter but would love some more advice.

I will be spending time in Seoul and around Toyama, Japan to start with. I have friends and family in these places, so they should be able to tell me what's good to do. However, suggestions for things to do around these places are definitely welcome. I will then be traveling with my father and brother for January 22 - February 1st. (Tentatively Shanghai, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Vietnam.) I will then go off on my own, traveling by myself for about 2 weeks. I will then be in Seoul for about 10 days before I head home.

Questions:

1. I will have two days in Tokyo, one after I fly in, before I take the overnight bus to Toyama and another, after the bus from Toyama, before I fly out (Fri Jan 9th and Mon Jan 19th.) What to do in Tokyo during the day?

2. Where should I go when traveling on my own? I want to travel as cheaply as possible, so I reckon I will be taking buses. I'm thinking about Laos and Thailand (where to go within Thailand?) but I've heard now might now be a good time to go there. Can anyone tell me if it is a serious bad idea to go to Thailand now or is it just people being paranoid?

3. I will have some free time in Seoul (feb 18th - 21st) after my dad leaves. My brother will be there but he will be working during the day. I will have already done a lot of the main, typical things to do in Seoul with my dad. Any suggestions on what to do in Seoul? I'm not against travelin, but thinking about stickin around Seoul since I'll have a place to stay for free. I'll be in downtown by seoul station and city hall. I've checked out these previous questions.

4. Suggestions on packing? I'm a low maintenance kinda guy and will be taking just one moderately sized backpack. I've read onebag and these threads but those seem to be about the warmer season. I would love any more suggestions. I'm going to try and play it real light, guessing I can get pretty much anything I need when I'm there. Also, is it going to be crazy cold?

5. This will be my first time in Asia and my first time out of North America besides a week in Italy when I was in high school. Also, my first time doing serious traveling alone. I'm not foreseeing any problems but still, any general culture/travel advice?

6. If I am in a place where I can stay somewhere for real cheap, I will get a room. Otherwise, I'm going to try couchsurfing. Any suggestions for ways a broke stranger can say thank you for letting him stay on your couch? I'd love to cook a meal or draw some beautiful picture but I'm not much of a cook or artist.

Caveats:

1. While I won't be quite broke, I won't have very much money so the cheaper, the better. I don't get grossed out or uncomfortable easily.

2. I understand that it's impossible to see everything in just a few weeks but I am leaning more toward staying in each place just a couple days and moving on, to see as much as possible (without going crazy) as opposed to really getting to know one or two areas.

3. Anywhere I go when traveling on my own, I will have to get back the Vietnam-area (most likely Saigon) to fly back to Seoul so I can fly back to the US. Round trip tickets...

Any general travel advice is great too.

Sorry for the many questions and thanks so much in advance!

What are the most promising industries for a software engineer?

[user was fined for this post] — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:07:18 -0800

CareerFilter: I will be finishing my BS in Computer Science in 2-3 years. What industries will likely offer the best earnings potential and interesting work to a software engineer, and how do I improve my attractiveness as a potential hire to those industries? My question is similar to this one, but I'm specifically interested in identifying industries that are desirable to software engineers in terms of pay, growth potential, and challenging work. I don't have a fixed definition of "interesting," but at a minimum it would mean solving problems more complicated than connecting web forms to databases. (I find games programming interesting as a hobby, but as a career I can't reconcile the long hours and the low pay.)

1) What industries should I consider? At this point I'm open to pretty much anything: finance, defense, health care, anything else I may not have considered.

2) For a given industry, what minor and/or electives should I consider to be a strong candidate? Statistics, economics, systems design, information security, Standard Chinese, _________? If it's not premature, what should I be thinking about in terms of my Master's?

3) Possible complication: I would like to spend a few years working in East Asia, most likely China or Japan. I would be willing to accept reduced earnings for a few years as a fair trade-off for this type of opportunity, as long as I would be gaining relevant experience that would make me a strong candidate for higher-paying positions when I return to the states. What would be the best way to prepare for this, and how would this affect answers to the above questions?

Some possibly relevant details: I'm 29 and going back to school after several years away. I have a junior degree in liberal arts (oops). I've done programming as a hobby most of my life, but I work in an unrelated field. I am willing to work long hours as long as I'm well compensated for it (exception for opportunities in East Asia, as noted). I do well in high-stress environments but don't need pressure to feel satisfied as long as I find my work interesting. I'm willing to relocate to pretty much anywhere but will not be able to do so for about three years (hopefully by the time I graduate). I have some experience in corporate training and technical writing but have no formal education in those areas.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice!

What do I do with an intern?

priorpark17 — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:25:42 -0800

What do I do with an intern? he shows up next week. The boss has hired an intern - I am guessing it is a son of friend - and he is giving him to me. What do I do with him? We are are a small five person office in Asia researching and investing in property. He is out of a US school and this is his first "job" He doesn't really speak the language and definitely cant read or write. So far I have thought I could get him to hold the other end of the tape, or go get lunch as long as I want western fast food, or err.. and that is about it. I have no experience with interns. Please think of some quasi legitimate tasks or tell me your intern experiences. I don't want to waste his time.

One Week In Southeast Asia

bardic — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:11:24 -0800

Where would I have the most fun for one week -- Cambodia? Viet Nam? Or Laos? I'm in the enviable position of living in Asia right now and I need to start thinking about my vacation. It'll probaby be some time in the Spring (April maybe?), and I'd be going for about a week. I'm leaning towards Cambodia, but I'm open to other suggestions.

I would be 1) travelling by myself 2) with a backpack 3) ideally renting a scooter to get around 4) interested in seeing as much local culture and scenic beauty as possible 5) but not averse to doing a little partying as well. Oh, I'm also fine with cheap. I've been to Thailand and stayed in places that would make a lot of Americans have a seizure. Not that I don't like clean and modern, but down and dirty is OK. It's kind of what I'm looking for, actually. Comfortable is always nice though, I'm just not a picky person.

Information regarding visa and/or health requirements (shots) appreciated (I'm a Yank). But honestly, I'd love to hear some people's impressions of vacations in these places.

Oh, and I speak bar and restaurant French. Would that come in handy?

GiftFilter: must-have objects for a year-long trip

XiBe — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:09:08 -0800

What are the must-have objects for a year-long trip in the World's south-east (India, Asia, Australia). So, my brother is about to embark for his year-long trip (previous questions) on a shoestring (15€/day, roughly $20), and I'd like to buy him something truly useful to take with him, something that he hasn't thought about yet.

He already has a good list of usual items (french, in english): Swiss-army knife, mosquito net, dynamo headlamp, ziplock bags, and then some.

Requisites: small and lightweight (has to take it around the world), cheap (can replace it easily if lost), very useful/needed/helpful...

Please give me your ideas, hivemind!

Mongol Nazis?!

phrontist — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:59:29 -0800

A friend of mine has just returned from Mongolia and was describing roving mad-max style gangs of men using Nazi symbols, with apparently limited understanding of their meaning in the west. Where can I read more about Mongolian Nazis? Is this really prevalent? How did they come to hear about Nazis in the first place? Do they get along with western neo-nazis (despite being ethnically Mongolian)? It just sounds so surreal...

What should I do in Vietnam?

misterL — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:32:38 -0800

Does anyone have suggestions for me regarding my 14 day trip to Vietnam? I am in my late 20s, I am traveling alone, and I have never traveled in a foreign country before. I am flying into Ho Chi Minh City and would like to explore as much of Vietnam as possible. I was considering traveling by train and heading north. How easy/difficult is it to navigate the train system in Vietnam? Please, any suggestions, destinations, tips, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Victorian era travel journals and exploration books?

thewalrus — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:02:55 -0800

I'm looking for historical travel journals and books in the public domain. Specifically I'm interested in anything related to Victorian era exploration of the middle east and central Asia. About one month ago I came across the Project Gutenberg collection of books written by Arnold Henry Savage Landor, who seemed to delight in traveling "the hard way". As an example, in 1902 he decided to ride the train from Moscow to Baku, get on a Caspian lake steamer, travel to a port in Northern Iran and make his way over land through Iran to the western end of Balochistan, and from there to Quetta. In true Victorian era explorer fashion he brought a huge and unwieldy collection of scientific instruments, cameras, modern rifles, pistols and other things which baffled the local population. Reading any of his books one shifts between a sense of amusement (the guy believed in phrenology!) and genuine fascination at his observations of places and cultures that had rarely been explored or contacted by English speaking cultures. He goes into some detail about the historical, tribal and cultural background of the people in western Balochistan and southern / south-west Afghanistan.

Another example of a book in this genre is the Mark Twain non-fiction work Following the Equator in which he devotes a large section to describing his 1895 travels over-land throughout Australia, India and South Africa, with many amusing Twain-style anecdotes about the local cultures seen from the perspective of an American humor writer.

I'm looking for more public domain books in this style, although the Victorian era doesn't need to match exactly. Scientific observations aside, I found Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle to be a fascinating read. If it's something I can get from Project Gutenberg in plain TXT / HTML formats that would be a plus.

How to handle media upload when traveling far and light?

XiBe — Wed, 21 May 2008 02:09:12 -0800

My little brother will in a few months embark in a year-long trip around Asia (India, Vietnam, Thailand...), towards Australia as final destination. He asks me to set up a blog for him - easy does it, I'm a WordPress translator. But what about media? And in general, what should I not forgot to make sure we get the best from his experience while not making it hard for him to communicate? See, he'll be traveling light (so no laptop) and potentially deep in unknown territories, where there's little chance he'll cross any Internet cafe, let alone a computer with broadband - I might be wrong, of course, but I'm speaking with the experience of a friend who works at a resort in Laos valley, and he has limited (monthly) bandwidth at his workplace.

So, while it's gonna be easy for him to update said blog with text, media are another matter, and I have a few advices to ask for.
- How should he handle his files? With limited bandwidth, he cannot upload full size image, but he cannot edit them down either to take as few Mb as possible. Likewise, I don't want him to take pictures at minimal resolution just for this reason, since he'll certainly want to get them full size and on paper once he gets back home.
- He'll be carrying more than one X Gb cards for his camera, but those will run out quickly if he cannot dump them from time to time. I know there are dedicated card-dumping portable HDs these days, but I hear they're not reliable. Anyone has experience on this?
- Any tips on a light, good and sturdy camera, with standards cards that he can buy over there by the dozen?
- Videos are bound to be made, but weight way more than pictures. Should he avoid making them?
- More generally, what should I setup for him to ease the message transmission between his faraway land and the whole family back home? - again, with as little bandwidth use on his side as possible. Should I use my own server for hosting, or rely for instance on Flickr and it's (I suppose) many CDNs in the region?

Lastly, what are the cool traveler/around-the-world blog that you know?

Tales of the (Asian) City?

micketymoc — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:08:36 -0800

Reading yesterday’s Tales of the City post, I got to wondering: are there any books set in Southeast Asian locations that “sell” their settings the way Tales of the City does for San Francisco, or The Number One Ladies Detective Agency does for Botswana? I'm thinking about books that make you want to visit the setting depicted in the story; Alexander McCall Smith's books, for example, make me want to visit Botswana. You can feel the love of the place radiating off of each page.

I personally haven't read Tales of the City, but the post suggests that Maupin does the same thing for San Francisco.

Are there any books out there that make you "feel the love" for Bangkok, or Singapore, even Vientiane?

(Full disclosure: I'm the guide for Southeast Asia Travel on about.com - I'm thinking about reviewing any such books)