While many travelers come to the USA to marvel at New England’s autumn leaves in shades from saffron to crimson, Japan’s fall foliage also beckons leaf peepers from around Japan itself and across the globe. Japanese culture reveres the changing of th
Along with sushi, teriyaki, tempura, and the like, Japan's classic, clear rice wine has become a widespread international ambassador for Japaness cuisine and culture. With origins in the 8th century and brewed in a fermentation process more akin to
Read more…Visiting South Korea's dynamic capital, one afternoon I decided to check out Seongsu-dong, the gritty, working-class neighborhood on the Han River that has in the last five years become Seoul's hipster-chic answer to Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Shored
The island of Bali is truly a dreamlike place to visit. The high volcanoes, thick jungles, and the warm surroundings of the Indian Ocean make it a piece of paradise on Earth. It is truly a fantastic place to visit. Bali is a charming place which ca
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Though yet another of China's megalopolises, Xi’an (pop. 13.6 million), on an inland plain in the country's northwest, is one of the Middle Kingdom’s oldest cities (dating back some 3,000 years, as well as one of its four great ancient capitals, unde
The memorable Takayama Matsuri takes place twice a year – October 9-10 and April 14-15 in central Japan's ancient city Takayama. Considered among the country's three top and most beautiful festivals (the others being the Gion Matsuri in Kyoto and th
Read more…When you think Goa, midway along India's west coast, a land of wild waves, music, and church bells might come to mind. Yes, the country's smallest state is no doubt the fun capital of Incredible India.
Colonial Churches
You can feel the Portugue
Kabuki is a traditional Japanese performing art, registered as an "Intangible Cultural Heritage" by UNESCO. In Gifu Prefecture, part of the Shoryudo, Central region of Japan, a couple of hours north of Nagoya, you can experience Edo-period (1603-1868
Shanghai Old and New
What’s it like to visit the world’s largest city proper (as opposed to greater metropolitan area, which is Tokyo)? A city on the mouths of the Yangtze and Huangpo River roughly midway along the South China Sea coast where the numb
The Philippines is an enormous, sprawling archipelago with lots of lovely, exotic corners to explore. But you don't need to go very far from its bustling capital to find them. One popular excursion takes you up to towns like Sagada, Banaue, and Bonto
What's it like for a boomer who who avoided the Vietnam War to finally face up to that Land of Awful Names: Da Nang, My Lai, Khe Sanh and others? I’m long overdue to find out. Just seeing the word "HANOI" on the destination board at JFK makes my hear
Along the northernmost coast of Vietnam, this dramatic UNESCO World Heritage archipelago of some 2,000 limestone islands (whose name is sometimes spelled Ha Long) has become one of the world's iconic travel destinations and bucket-list musts. And so
The principal sites and sights of what most of us think of as "iconic" India - the Taj Mahal of Agra, Delhi's Red Fort, the palaces of Jaipur, and the like - are all to be found along a circuit that has come to be known as the Golden Triangle. This t
This landlocked, mostly Buddhist country wedged between China and Siberia (a bit smaller than Alaska and with a population around 3 million) was in the Middle Ages essentially a world power thanks to the westward conquests of Genghis Khan, in the 199
Once known in English as Hangchow, the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou is on a bay between Shanghai and Ningbo. Once the southern end of the Grand Canal from Peking, it has long been famed for its beauty both scenery- and architecture-wise. On a re
Xian was the start of the Silk Road and at one time the largest city in the world. Today the city of eight million is booming, and still home home to the famous "Terracotta Warriors" and other great attractions. Here are its do-not-misses...
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Covering 600 square miles of the northernmost coast of Vietnam's South China Sea coast, UNESCO World Heritage Site Halong Bay (also spelled Ha Long) has become one of this country's most popular tourist attractions thanks to its 1,600 dramatic limest
Most people have little sense of Polynesian and Micronesian geography, and thus little or no clue about where or even what the U.S.-associated Marshall Islands are (though maybe at least Bikini Atoll might ring a bell?), let alone this subset of the
Like many of the urban boom behemoths of Canton, China,Dongguan (pop. in city proper 8.2 million, greater metro 44.4 million) can be intimidating, its new architecture and cityscapes monumental, its traffic massive and chaotic. And yet, signs of trad
This Philippines' largest island, home to capital Manila, is also home to many far-flung, corner far less trodden by visitors, which I recently discovered on a bus trip north from Manila. Vigan (right), capital of the province of Ilocos Sur, with a U
