by Jennifer Roberts

Ever wonder what it would really be like to be mahout?  Adventurous travelers can now find out at a unique elephant farm in northern Thailand where guests literally “own” an elephant and are taught the basics of being a real mahout.  Located 30 km southwest of Chaing Mai in the Hang Dong District by the beautiful mountain ranges and valleys of Dot Suthep National Park, Patara Elephant Farm offers visitors this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

For the whole article, read our August 2009 issue online.

by Sunshine Lichauco de Leon

The Green School, situated on eight hectares of untouched land between Ubud and Denpasar on the island of Bali, is a place where sustainability is at the heart of its philosophy and curriculum. The Kul Kul campus sits on a property bisected by the Ayung River and is surrounded by rice paddies, palm trees, vegetable gardens, and animal-filled pastures. The school focuses on creating passionate students who will become engaged global citizens with a deep awareness of caring for the world.  The theoretical is balanced with the practical, and the learning environment is one that strongly links education to living.

For the whole article, read our August 2009 issue online.

by Jude A. Bacalso

Almost exclusive to the degustation of seafood is a macabre preprandial satisfaction in watching the subject thrash about in a cold metal scale.

Weighed down with life, the numbers rise steadily in crimson LED, announcing heft and corresponding monetary value like a boast; pincers and carapace full of the promise of the inevitable. An uncertain future that forks the question: chili crab or steamed?

I should have gone for the latter. After all, just-caught is to gourmet what hand-made is to couture; everything else is just seafood and clothes. Who needed the coconut milk and spice when I was in Roxas City, Capiz, Seafood Capital of the Philippines?

Read the whole article in our July 2009 issue.

by Gary Singh

With the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games less than nine months away, Vancouver is awash in new infrastructure. The Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Center has tripled its size and new hotels and luxury accommodations are appearing everywhere.

In the suburb of Richmond, the brand new Olympic Oval venue will host the long track speed skating events, with the new Canada Line linking Richmond to downtown Vancouver in just 20 minutes. Two hours up the Sea to Sky Highway in Whistler, the Peak 2 Peak gondola, an unprecedented project, opened last December and now links Whistler and Blackcomb mountains together for a thoroughly staggering 2.75 mile gondola ride.

But what really makes the 2010 Games unique is the cooperation between the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) and the aboriginal peoples of British Columbia (BC), which boasts 198 First Nations (indigenous tribes), more than any other province in Canada. Because the Games overall are being held within the traditional and shared territories of four nations—the Lil’Wat, the Musqueam, the Squamish and the Tsleil-Waututh—those nations collectively incorporated a nonprofit organization and were a major part of Vancouver’s proposal to host the Games.

Read the whole article in our July 2009 issue.

by John Oates

I wouldn’t begin to deny that the view from the top of Malaysia’s Mount Kinabalu at sunrise is impressive. What I would say is that scrabbling up there in the cold and wet pre-dawn darkness is not my idea of fun.

Mount Kinabalu is among the best known tourist attractions in Borneo. Reaching 4,095 meters above sea level, it is one of the tallest mountains in Southeast Asia, and is popular partly for the speed with which the summit can be reached. Walkers set off in the morning from the park headquarters at 1,563m, spend the night at a guest house at 3,300m, then get up very early to reach the summit by dawn. Reasonably fit walkers can make it back down for lunch.

The first day had me questioning whether I could be considered “reasonably fit.” It proved to be a rainy and rather relentless five hour grind uphill, mostly through jungle with little in the way of views and often on steps made from wood or carved into the rock or earth. Thankfully there was a series of shelters along the well-marked trail for those who needed a rest every now and then.

Read the rest of this article in our June 2009 issue.