Our latest STA Explorer Stu Owens - aka The Tai Pan - is seriously looking forward to his trip to Indonesia. Having travelled all over south east Asia for the past seven years (meaning that he got to know the inside of his local STA Travel branch in Nottingham pretty damn well) and even lived and worked in Thailand and Taiwan for two years, Stu is going to be a godsend to any other STA travellers needing advice and insights into the Indonesian experience.

He’s blogging here and microblogging here but you’ll also want to keep an eye on his Flickr account as Stu is an avid photographer, planning on capturing the people and landscapes of the region like never before.

With a week or so before he sets off, Stu has already been blogging about vaccinations, reminding Asian adventurers how important they are and recommending a good website for research into which jabs do the job.

The title of this article refers to this specific post in Dave and Meredith’s Travel Blog, a couple who, as it states in their about section, like to travel.

The Ghengis factor is a term used to refer jovially to when things going awry in Mongolia, although it is unclear how far spread this term is. But it was utilised by Dave and Meredith’s tour leader when a scheduled flight to Western Mongolia was moved four hours forward, something the party was informed of 20 minutes before the new departure time. Cue the dash to the airport. Other posts from Mongolia include very differing views from windows number 1 and number 2, as well as a cultural performance in Ulaan Baatar.

Also travelling in Mongolia recently was Jake of Jake’s Travel Blog. He has two posts dedicated to his time there, the first involving horse-riding, latrine building and vodka. The following piece has some detail about Mongolian hunters who use eagles to help them catch their quarry, and Jake shares his thoughts on the days he spent soaking up the experience.

“Overall my experiences of Mongolia in general and the Kazakhs in particular have been some of the best in my life. Their nomadic lifestyle, hospitality, food, and vodka culture is incredible.”

For more ideas on what can be done in Mongolia, have a skim through this thread on the Lonely Planet forum.

Vietnam is a popular destination for the year-outer come casual traveler and as such I thought I’d scour the web and see what experiences are being documented.

Andy Stoll’s comprehensive no boudaries.org travelogue records his experiences of Vietnam on an ‘unscripted’ around the world trip, described in his about section. He’s offered up numerous posts while in the country, from a train trip from Saigon to Hanoi to what it’s like to fire a machine gun in Vietnam. Trains to machine guns in two posts… that’s eclectic.

Having already made their way through Vietnam, the Coopers are currently in Sydney and are keeping everyone up to date with their two month honeymoon via the blog Adventures in Africa and Asia.

Vietnam was covered in a variety posts at the beginning of June and included the Chu Chi War Tunnels, A Mekong Delta tour and an impromptu dash around a Ho Chi Minh City emergency room (everyone was fine, it was as a result of infected wounds, that, as I discovered in an earlier post on Phu Quoc Island were a consequence of a minor motorbike accident).

Motorbike scrapes and machine guns - Vietnam sounds like an action flick script!

The Agenda for my post today is (check the title) Taiwan and features two bloggers, 1life2live and Ann Jaimi, both of whom have been investigating what the country has to offer.

Regarding Taiwan, I’m partly like Ann, who suggest that a mere mention of the country instantly brings to the fore front of my mind those generic toys that you can only buy in post offices and chemists. Yup, the ones ‘made in Taiwan’.

This, of course, is casually insulting, especially after a read through Ann’s post, The Island Claimed by China. Notable points of interest are the Longsham Temple, CKS Memorial Hall and the tallest building in the world, dependent on whose rules you are playing by, Taipei 101. All intriguing, though it is the concept of the Shilin night market that peaks my interest most. Apparently due to the heat, the Taiwanese do their shopping at night, which coupled with the fact that Taipei is particularly safe, sounds great! Got to be better than a Saturday morning jaunt around Sainsbury’s anyway.

1life2live hits many of the same spots as Ann, adding in the National Palace Museum in his post Taiwan (Republic of China). He also gives a “nutshell” history of the territory and the political awkwardness of the subject that Taiwan has never actually been its own country.

“Of course the communist government in China still claims that Taiwan is part of China, and the Republic of China (government in Taiwan) claims that they are an independent nation. It is a very controversial subject not only in China and Taiwan, but also in international arenas around the world.”

He also gives a rundown on the Dragon Boat racing festival that coincided with his visit. It is basically a glorified raft race, but far more exciting and very cool… excellent.

For some visa information on visiting, head to this lonelyplanet forum thread.

In the ever increasing environmentally aware global culture in which we exist, it is no surprise that ecotourism is becoming ever more prominent.

On this subject we’ve found a couple of posts talking about a fear of ones own carbon foot print. The pieces are Asia based, one on Bali and one focusing on the area surrounding the Himalayas. Each gives an overview of the ecotourism concept and how, when traveling, you can become part of those travelers contributing to the preservation of desirable destinations.

Seeing this as an excellent way to go about your globe-trotting Barrie of the BaliBlog gives out some tips,

This [ecotourism] can be done in several ways. Use locally owned tour operators, or better still, those independent drivers who one often sees on the streets offering day-trips around Bali. Another is to stay in the not-so-fancy hotels but instead staying in reasonable accommodation owned by the Balinese themselves.

He also links to an article in The Jakarta Post on the subject, for anyone looking for a bit more than the outline he provides in his article.

The second article is by Apabrita, at the Ecotourism Blog and is discussing how, rather than having a negative impact on the Himalaya region’s towns, tourism of the eco variety will preserve the regions and aid the economy.

Whether you buy-in to ‘the world will be dead tomorrow’ theory or not, ecotourism is the way forward. It’s just a nicer way of doing things.