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Most international travel has one common element: airports. Beyond travel by train or ship, most visitors come and go by aircraft, making airport experiences inevitable. Fortunately, Asia is internationally known for having some of the best airports in the world. Today, we’ll talk about some, giving an overview of a few we know well, sharing some travel tales of our experiences in airports in Asia, and offering a few tips for layovers in some of our favorite – and least favorite – airport terminals.

There are few better ways to see a country than by motorbike. Wind in your face, sharing ‘hellos’ with people as you pass, stopping when you feel like it, and having the ability to take small trails, an iron horse is perhaps the ultimate way to travel. Today we’ll learn about motorcycling in Vietnam, from longtime rider and tour leader, Hawk Moon. Strap on your helmet and get ready for an adventurous episode.

We’ve collectively lived and worked in Asia for more than 40-years. After that long, one begins to wonder where ‘home’ is? Is it where you were born? Where you grew up? Where you’re living now? Or a combination of all of those? And the longer one is away from their country of birth, and continent for that matter, the stranger it can feel when you return for a visit. On this episode we’ll chat about things we’ve found odd, uncomfortable, and just plain strange about returning to the west after recent visits. Today we’re chatting about Reverse Culture Shock!

Thailand is a country that many people know. Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Phuket, Ko Samui; you’ve likely heard of all those places. Well, today we’re not going to talk about any of them. Today we’re going to speak with someone who has lived there for more than two decades. Planned trips for the rich and famous across the kingdom, and find out where some of the lesser known gems are that should be on your travel radar.

Hotels can make or break a trip. Sometimes they bring you closer to a destination, sometimes they elevate your experience and other times they are the destination themselves. Trevor and I have been lucky enough to stay at a lot of interesting and memorable properties across Asia over the years, and today we’re going to share some of those experiences with you. From high-end to charming and local, there’s a wide range of winners here you’re sure to want to make a part of your next trip to the region.

On this episode of Talk Travel Asia Podcast, we chat with Matt Hunt about Free the Bears, an organization that rescues and protects bears with programs in Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, where today’s guest happens to be available for a live interview with me, your co-host Trevor Ranges. I’ve been fortunate enough to visit and support the Free the Bears sanctuary here in Cambodia, where Matt will soon join us, so I’ll turn the mike over to my co-host Scott Coates, who has visited Free the Bears’ site in Luang Prabang, Laos.

While we typically book our holidays based on the destination, it’s often the component experiences that really make or break a trip. Whether a half or full-day outing, day-trips within a longer trip, are the elements that make a vacation truly memorable. Still, making the most of your time can be challenging, so how do you ensure that you make your hours in-country count? Today, we’ll share some of our favorite, most rewarding, and memorable half and full-day experiences across the region that we’ve personally enjoyed to help you make the most of your time in Asia.

An nation of islands off Asia’s Pacific coast, Japan includes the four “Home islands” of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, which most travellers are familiar with, as well as nearly 7,000 more, mostly volcanic islands, that stretch over 3,000 km NE to SW. Comparatively, the area occupied by Japan is slightly smaller than the US state of California, and nearly the entire landmass is made up of the four primary islands. But, with towering mountains and almost 30,000 km of coastline, Japan is certain to harbor hundreds, if not thousands, of hidden gems that most travelers have never dreamt of. Today we’re going to discover a few of them.

French Polynesia comprises four archipelagos in the South Pacific, stretching for more than 2,000 km. Perhaps most famous of the islands, Tahiti conjures images of a postcard-perfect tropical paradise with coral-fringed lagoons and over-the-water bungalow hotels. But with more than 100 islands, French Polynesia is certain to harbor a few travel surprises, and our guest today will share some of her insights about how to make the most of your time and budget on a trip to this far-flung part of the world.

Longtime listeners and friends likely know that Scott and I love beer. I’ve worked on and off in the beer industry for decades and Scott has retained his amateur status in hopes of someday representing Canada when beer drinking becomes an Olympic event. Today, we’re going to talk hops and mashed malts from across the continent, to help you enjoy the best brews during your next Asian adventure on this episode: Favorite Beers of Asia.

As we reach the beginning of 2022, the world looks forward to traveling again, but the travel experience may never be the same. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however, as we discussed in a recent episode #132 Predicting Travel Trends in Asia for 2022 and Beyond. Supporting this assertion, an June 2021 Booking.com study that polled more than 29,000 travelers across 30 countries suggests that the pandemic has been the tipping point for sustainable travel. But how are travelers to know which properties in Asia are the most sustainable and regenerative, representing the region’s next-generation hotels? That’s one of the topics we’ll be discussing with our guest, Tomo Hamakawa, on this week’s show.

The Republic of Maldives, is a collection of 1,200 small coral islands in the north-central Indian Ocean, with only 200 of them being inhabited. Famous for luxury bungalows on stilts over stunning clear water, no natural point is higher than 1.8 meters, and there’s a population of less than 600,000. The country stretches 820 km from north to south, and more than and 130 km from east to west, covering a large swath of ocean. Put on a tropical shirt and let’s discover Maldives with travel writer Tom Masters.

While Talk Travel Asia has been sharing and dreaming of travel since 2013, there are still lots of countries in the region that we’ve yet to dedicate an entire episode to. As we begin 2022, we note a handful we’re curious about and hope to feature in the year ahead. Get ready to expand your travel ‘bucket list’ as we share some fun, interesting, and quirky facts about 13 countries we’d like to cover as show topics in 2022.

The Mekong is one of the world’s great rivers. Covering a distance of nearly 5,000km from its source on the Tibetan Plateau in China to the Mekong Delta in Viet Nam, the river flows through six countries: China, Myanmar, Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Viet Nam. It’s basin is home to one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world, with more than 20,000 plant species and 850 fish species discovered to date. An estimated 80% of the nearly 65 million people living in the Lower Mekong River Basin depend on the river and its rich natural resources for their livelihoods, making sustainable development crucial for the environment and communities living in the basin. Today we’ll dive into the Mekong River and specifically its basin, where it empties into the ocean, with multiple-time TTA guest, author, and all around great guy, Nick Ray.

What began as a brainstorming exercise for new topics turned into a trip down memory lane. One of the greatest gifts of travel is the stories we carry with us for a lifetime. Just as we have recorded not 1, nor 2 or 3, but 4 episodes of Tantalizing Travel Tales, we bring you something similar: Our Best, Worst, Scariest, and Strangest Travel Experiences. In Asia of course!

Central Asia is one of those regions that few international travers are familiar with, nowadays. That wasn’t always the case, however, as the Silk Road was once a crossroads for the movement of people, goods, and ideas between Europe and Asia, and Central Asia was at the heart of this prosperous trade route. Geographically, Central Asia stretches east-west from the Caspian Sea to China and Mongolia, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. In between are “the ‘Stans”, including the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Today we have the benefit of an expert in the region, writer Bradley Mayhew, joining us to share a bit about everything we didn’t know that we didn’t even know, about one of the largest -- and least visited -- regions of Asia.

Here we are, nearing the end of 2021 and hoping that the future soon looks brighter around the world and we can all get traveling again. It’s been a while since Trevor and Scott last met in person and with vaccines appearing to be having positive effects and countries talking about opening up again soon, we thought it was time to do a check-in with one another. On this episode we’ll gauge what’s on our travel radar, places we’d love to travel together and give updates on what regional travel for us looks like in the coming months. This is Checking in with Scott & Trevor.

“Singapore may look small, and geographically speaking it is, but this tiny island city-state is jam packed with a myriad of things to do, see, buy and devour. The sleek and efficient public transport system makes zipping around a breeze, allowing you more time to dip your toes into this melting pot of cultures, religions, food and architecture.” That’s an excerpt from an article by today’s guest, Ria de Jong, about the Lion City, otherwise known as Singapore, the smallest and southernmost country on mainland Asia, which we’ll talk about on this episode of Talk Travel Asia.

The subject of many novels and movies, Central Asia sits at the crossroads of legendary rivalries and is crossed by the fabled Silk Road. The region is massive, covering more than 4-million-square-km and includes five countries that were formerly a part of the Soviet Union, including Kyrgyzstan, the focus of this episode. Both Kyrgyzstan and it’s neighboring countries have diverse cultures and rich histories but are largely unknown to western travelers. On this episode, we’ll chat with travel writer and photographer Stephen Lioy about his life in the region, particularly Kyrgyzstan, where he lives, to get some inside tips for visiting one of the world’s most remote travel locales.

We don’t have a crystal ball, nor do you. But with mass vaccination taking root, we’re hoping the future soon looks brighter and borders will open again to travel in the not too distant future. So with that, on this episode we’ll share some things we hope happen when travel kicks-off again, cross our fingers that certain trends are left in the past and imagine travel anew. With that said, all items discussed might not materialize, then again some of them may. So join us as we look to that light beginning to emerge at the end of the tunnel and begin imagining the travel that is hopefully to come.