One’s first trip to Asia. It’s something few forget. The smells, the sounds, the crowds, big cities, wild landscapes, exotic food, a sometimes frenetic pace, tropical beaches, incredible mountains – you’re in Asia! We recently got chatting about our early trips to the continent, started to feel old, or perhaps well-experienced, and thought it might be fun to recount our initial journeys here. Reflect on those initial impressions and contrast it to our current lives and how we see things now. In these two parts, Scott then I will recount their first visits to Asia. Here we go for part 2…
Continue readingSome people travel to relax, unwind, and forget about the trials and tribulations of everyday life; some travel to expand their knowledge of the world; and others travel to make a contribution to the destination, or at least maximize the positive impact of travel while minimizing the negative impacts on local cultures, the environment, and economy.
Continue readingExperiencing wildlife in Asia is one of the world’s great natural adventures. Few countries can compete with Indonesia for its diversity of terrain, flora, and fauna that thrive on soaring volcanoes, sandy beaches, humid jungles, and everything in between. Today we’re going to chat with travel journalist and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Mark Eveleigh, about what Indonesia has to offer those in search of wildlife and how to best approach this sort of trip.
Continue readingHere we are, nearing the end of 2021, the future looks brighter around the world, and we hope to all get traveling again. Travel is one of life’s great joys. We learn about the world. We learn about ourselves. Sometimes in the best possible ways, occasionally in horrifically bad ways, but with some perspective, hopefully in a memorable way. Today, Scott and Trevor share some of their Best, Worst, Scariest & Strangest Travel Experiences.
Continue readingCentral Asia is one of those regions that few international travelers 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.
Continue readingExperiencing animals in Asia can be one of the most interesting parts of your travels. The animals you will encounter while traveling in Asia are often exotic: certainly different from the animals found in most visitor’s home countries. From elephants to street dogs, you’re bound to have at least a couple interesting animal encounters and experiences as you travel through Asia (and a few animal tales to take home as souvenirs). After living in the region collectively for more than four decades, Scott and Trevor have had some fun, at times unnerving, and often unique animal experiences in Asia, which they share on this week’s episode of Talk Travel Asia podcast: Animal Tales: Experiencing Animals in Asia.
Continue readingVisiting areas of Asia with monkeys can be very exciting. As monkeys are such intriguing creatures, people often consider them to appear friendly, especially if they’re not scared of humans. These monkeys usually expect people to give them food, whether the humans want to or not and they can be very cheeky if not dangerous in certain circumstances. Want to hear Scott and Trevor’s monkey stories? Listen to our Monkey Tales episode now!
Continue readingAlthough we love to share travel tips and advice about travel around Asia with expert guests, there’s nothing like sharing travel stories. As Scott and Trevor have been living in Asia for 41 years, they’re well-worn, traveled, and traversed expats with quite a few travel tales. But despite spending so much of their lives in Asia, Trevor and Scott are still amazed by how often there’s something wild just around the corner on a weekly, if not sometimes daily basis. Life continues to amaze and these experiences make for good stories. In this episode of Talk Travel Asia Podcast, Scott and Trevor share some wild stories about life living and traveling Asia in the fourth part of our Tantalizing Travel Tales series. Get a comfy seat, pour yourself a drink, and get ready to be transported throughout Asia.
Continue readingScott and Trevor recount their adventure to the remote Preah Khan temple in Kompong Svay, central Cambodia, which they visited in September 2018 by motorcycle. Remote, out-there, far-flung. All these words perfectly describe this temple complex. While located just 100 km east of Angkor Wat, it’s a lot further away from civilization than that. Located in Preah Vihear province, it is the largest single religious complex ever built during the Angkor Era. Constructed during the 11th century, it’s about 5km square, with what initially would have been a massive moat around it. We talked about going for years and finally made the journey in September 2018. We share how it all went down!
Continue readingNot long ago mountain biking was simply a minority offshoot of cycling, a sport only a few pursued on mostly quiet, cross-country trails. But over the last two decades it’s gone mainstream and now has many disciplines of its own. And as the sport has grown more popular, it’s also gotten more extreme for some, particularly our guest, Darren Berrecloth. A freerider, he’s ridden all over the world, and in 2019 filmed a mountain biking movie, Chasing the Yeti, in Bhutan. He’ll share that experience with us today.
Continue readingWondering where we would travel in Asia if we had free time to explore? On this episode of Talk Travel Asia podcast we talk about our Dream Travel Destinations – Volume 3! Back in December 2014 we shared some of the places in Asia we’d like to visit on ‘Dream Travel Destinations 1’ and then in June 2016 we followed up with ‘Dream Travel Destinations 2’. Well, we, just like you, are still dreaming of travel and the next spots we want to hit. So you guessed it, on this episode we’re going to share some spots we’re hoping to make it to soon.
Continue readingWow – 100 episodes! When we started this podcast, with our first episode on June 11, 2014, we didn’t envision hitting 100 episodes nearly 5 years later. Asia’s been home to us for 37-collective years, we’ve had a ton of incredible experiences, from jobs to travel and even marriage. Join us as we celebrate hitting the big 1-0-0 by sharing 100 Things We Love About Asia.