https://www.scmp.com/rss/329023/feed Long-time Asia resident Peter Ford has written variously on culture, history, travel, and the many joys of journeying by train across the continent. His work has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, The Christian Science Monitor, as well as the now-shuttered Cambodia Daily newspaper. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com The view as we fly into Leh is black and white. White clouds, white snow and the black of exposed mountain tops. No sign of humanity, or indeed anything living at all. In the distance, peaks rise above the clouds in stately solemnity. Everest, maybe? Two phones have been thrust to me from the middle and aisle seats, to record the scene below. “I’ve never seen this much snow,” says the woman next to me. As the plane descends into the capital of Ladakh, in the Indian-controlled Kashmir region,... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3295981/trekking-through-ladakhs-markha-region-reveals-its-ancient-appeal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3295981/trekking-through-ladakhs-markha-region-reveals-its-ancient-appeal?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Feb 2025 09:15:07 +0000 Stepping onto the small passenger ferry to Ludao, or Green Island (population: 3,000), few of my fellow travellers show any trepidation. Although the island is only 50 minutes east of Taitung’s ferry port, I have been warned that the choppy waters off southeastern Taiwan can make for an uncomfortable ride. And indeed, water sprays the ferry windows and the generous allocation of plastic vomit bags is put to use, but thankfully not by me. Nevertheless, the journey will prove to be worth it. The... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3258180/coral-turtles-diving-and-rare-saltwater-hot-springs-southern-taiwans-green-island-and-liuqiu-island?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3258180/coral-turtles-diving-and-rare-saltwater-hot-springs-southern-taiwans-green-island-and-liuqiu-island?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Apr 2024 04:50:13 +0000 Anyone who has watched the recent Netflix series Dark Tourist may have been left with the wrong impression of dark tourism. In the New Zealand documentary series, journalist David Farrier travels the world searching out the macabre and visiting places associated with death and suffering. In the episode devoted to Southeast Asia, for instance, he seeks out a shooting range in Cambodia at which it’s possible to shoot living cows and, in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, he observes a traditional Toraja... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3169496/dark-tourism-sites-japans-yasukuni-shrine-vietnam-war-cu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3169496/dark-tourism-sites-japans-yasukuni-shrine-vietnam-war-cu?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 07 Mar 2022 09:45:21 +0000 When archaeologists arrived in the village of Srok Chek – within sight of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh – more than 20 years ago, they sought help to excavate parts of the strange circular area that encased the community’s dry-season rice fields. Ek Dara (not his real name) was eager to assist; not only did he want to learn more about something that had long confused him and fellow villagers, but the small income would supplement his subsistence existence as a fisherman and farmer. “We found... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3167498/cambodias-famous-historical-sites-unesco-protected-angkor?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3167498/cambodias-famous-historical-sites-unesco-protected-angkor?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 21 Feb 2022 04:45:12 +0000 Vientiane to Phnom Penh via Bangkok; Ho Chi Minh City to Luang Prabang by way of Hanoi and Kunming; Hong Kong to Singapore via half of those stations plus Kuala Lumpur – train travel between some of Southeast Asia’s biggest cities is looking increasingly feasible. Asia is investing heavily in rail infrastructure just as the growing “slow travel” movement in Europe – which sees passengers swapping flights for less carbon-emitting train travel, especially for journeys of just a few hours – is... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3140419/attraction-rail-travel-southeast-asia-growing-networks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3140419/attraction-rail-travel-southeast-asia-growing-networks?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Jul 2021 04:15:17 +0000 “Mind your head, you are too tall!” warns Rin Rith with a big grin as we dodge another low-hanging branch, the motorbike he is driving skidding along a forest path made muddy by a rain shower. We are hurrying to the base of Mrech Kongkep Mountain, to set up camp. In the fading light, flashes of orange break the dense green of Cambodia’s Areng Valley forest. Cambodian monks, like monks in Thailand, have sought to save what remains of their forests by tying religious observance to protection and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3094495/how-eco-tourism-saved-stunning-cambodian-valley-and-key?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3094495/how-eco-tourism-saved-stunning-cambodian-valley-and-key?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Jul 2020 02:45:10 +0000 A bicycle ride in Cambodia is guaranteed to offer the following: waving children shouting hello, boys on bikes too big for them trying to race you, dusty tracks past dusty fields, and someone selling cold Coca Cola and Carabao from a large red cooler. On a recent ride, however, anti-Covid-19 scarecrows – a traditional rural response to sickness, using old clothing stuffed with straw to resemble people (some even with plastic guns for extra menace) – hung outside houses to ward off the virus. The... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3086635/cycling-cambodia-what-bike-trip-phnom-penhs-newest-tourist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3086635/cycling-cambodia-what-bike-trip-phnom-penhs-newest-tourist?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 31 May 2020 21:15:05 +0000 Stories of a large rock-face carving of the Buddha on Kangva hill, in Cambodia’s Pursat province, had long been told in the village at the foot of the hill, but no one alive remembered seeing it. Local legends of giant snakes and earth spirits, or neak ta, had largely kept villagers away from the low hills that straddle the border of Pursat and Kampong Chhnang provinces, on the western banks of Tonle Sap lake. That changed last year on the morning of November 27. “Bun Sopheap was scrambling over... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3077573/lost-treasures-emerge-cambodias-hunt-historic-sites-locals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3077573/lost-treasures-emerge-cambodias-hunt-historic-sites-locals?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 31 Mar 2020 04:15:04 +0000 Steering my scooter down the potholed red clay roads through Phou Khao Khouay National Biodiversity Conservation Area, the tyres kicking up copious dust, is an exhilarating reminder of the joys of exploring rural Southeast Asia. Listening to the yelps of my companion, however, is a reminder that these roads can induce terror for newer scooter riders. I’m here visiting a friend who works in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, and wanted an excuse to explore outside the city. We settled on Phou Khao... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3048402/laos-getaway-scooter-jungle-dirt-roads-wild-elephants-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3048402/laos-getaway-scooter-jungle-dirt-roads-wild-elephants-and?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Feb 2020 04:30:05 +0000 Towering over Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan in Central Asia, is the snow-capped Trans-Ili Alatau mountain range that separates the country from its southern neighbour Kyrgyzstan. From turquoise lakes and reservoirs high up in the mountains, ice-cold water bubbles and flows through two rivers and innumerable gullies, watering the many parks and tree-lined boulevards that make the city green and shade the ubiquitous Soviet-era concrete blocks of flats. The largest city in the world’s... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3037559/skiing-shady-avenues-and-stalins-legacy-almaty-kazakhstan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3037559/skiing-shady-avenues-and-stalins-legacy-almaty-kazakhstan?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 17 Nov 2019 10:00:07 +0000 Vietnam is long – extending 1,650km north to south – but only 50km across at its narrowest point. It includes stunning natural and architectural beauty that is best appreciated from the windows of the Reunification Express train – from the mountains of the north, to the endless miles of golden beaches in the middle, to the flat lushness of the Mekong Delta in the south. Travelling Vietnam by train is the perfect way to take in the sights, smells and sounds of the country on a “slow travel”... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3018820/vietnam-train-see-ever-changing-country-reunification?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3018820/vietnam-train-see-ever-changing-country-reunification?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Jul 2019 21:00:13 +0000 When the last train departed from Singapore railway station just after 11pm on June 30, 2011, Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar of Johor was at the helm. The sultan, who also flies jets and helicopters, and skippers yachts, had learned to drive trains especially for this occasion. It slowly made its way northwards along the ageing rails that once cut a tree-lined path across the island, before crossing over the causeway linking Singapore and Malaysia and pulling into the modern expanse of Johor Bahru... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3014319/singapore-kuala-lumpur-train-see-southern-malaysias-rural?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3014319/singapore-kuala-lumpur-train-see-southern-malaysias-rural?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Jun 2019 07:30:09 +0000 Anlong Veng, on Cambodia’s border with Thailand, is not particularly easy to get to – which is why it made such a good stronghold for the Khmer Rouge leadership long after their genocidal regime was toppled. Today, it offers rich rewards to visitors seeking to better understand Cambodia’s recent history. The modest town and its surroundings were the last bastion of the fanatical Maoists who ruled the country, then called Kampuchea, between 1975 and 1979, and subsequently waged a bloody guerilla... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2187583/cambodian-bastion-genocidal-khmer-rouge-tourist-destination?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2187583/cambodian-bastion-genocidal-khmer-rouge-tourist-destination?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Feb 2019 17:03:39 +0000 The narrow old streets of Jiufen, a former gold-mining town perched on steep hills to the northeast of Taipei, offer visitors a chance to experience an older Taiwan filled with neighbourhood temples, hole-in-the-wall eateries, and a charm lacking in the island’s bustling capital. That, at least, is how Jiufen might feel if it wasn’t proving so popular with tourists. Is the media to blame for overtourism? Or the travellers? The 100-year-old town is straining under the ever-growing number of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2184601/how-dodge-crowds-and-enjoy-old-taiwan-charm-jiufen-magnet?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2184601/how-dodge-crowds-and-enjoy-old-taiwan-charm-jiufen-magnet?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Feb 2019 10:01:56 +0000 The ruins of the Ogon Shinto shrine are high on the steep slopes above the residence built for Japanese Crown Prince Hirohito. Close by, the tatami mat floors and the architecture of the Jinguashi gold mine managers’ quarters betray their Japanese heritage. “I think it is interesting to see these sites from Japan’s history,” says Japanese tourist Kenji Matsue, a history student from Nagasaki, standing next to one of the two remaining stone torii – gates that mark the entrance to Shinto shrines.... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2181037/japanese-tourists-taiwan-colonial-history-trail-taipei?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2181037/japanese-tourists-taiwan-colonial-history-trail-taipei?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Jan 2019 23:15:00 +0000 The changing colours of Japan’s autumn foliage have for centuries drawn people to temple gardens, riverbank walks and mountainsides across the country. As winter approaches, the vivid reds, yellows and oranges of maple, cherry and chestnut trees offer a final burst of colour, a last hurrah before the inevitable whiteout. Newspapers and TV weather shows chart the autumnal changes as they happen, ensuring the best momijigari, or leaf viewing experience. Six great places to visit on a Japan Rail... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2169833/best-place-see-glorious-autumn-colours-japan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2169833/best-place-see-glorious-autumn-colours-japan?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Oct 2018 23:15:30 +0000