Artisans De Angkor Siem Riep Cambodia

Welcome to this week's Blog.

Cambodia is a destination rich in history, culture and religion. It has been through turbulent times in the past, with the French occupation and the Khmer Rouge revolution however, Cambodia, has managed to retain its identity and culture. Nowhere more is this exhibited, than at Artisans de Angkor, a European Union sponsored business program, producing traditional local handicrafts for sale, across Asia and around the World.

Artisans De Angkor is in Siem Riep, home to the finest examples of Khmer architecture in the country, including Angkor Wat which is the main attraction that visitors to the area come to see.

A trip to Artisans de Angkor, is well worth including in your tour to the area, as it will open your eyes and provide a real-life insight, into the nature of the handicraft making business. The company employs graduates from the nearby 'Chantiers-Écoles de formation professionnelle' a professional training school that was set up with the aim to provide skills and training to unemployed people between the ages of 18 and 25, particularly after the reign of the Khmer Rouge, to make sure Cambodian arts and culture survived and could be showcased in the future.

Artisans de Angkor was then set up to provide the graduates with an employment opportunity, providing them with sustainable employment and income for themselves, their families and their local areas.

The best way to see Artisans de Angkor, is to take a fully guided tour, with the help of your fully knowledgeable guide, you will be shown around the whole process of producing fine local handicrafts including 100% fine Silk products, such as scarfs, bags, purses, wallets, cushion covers and excellent Silk woven paintings.

Also, Artisans produces a variety of lacquer ware products including statues, ornaments and containers, and amazing stone sculptures, all which you are able to purchase and take home as a souvenir of your visit to Cambodia.

Purchasing a souvenir or two from Artisans de Angkor, contributes to the sustainable employment and income of the regions people and keeps the fine arts and cultural heritage of Cambodia continuing, for now and into the future.

Please visit our website for details of tours that include Artisans de Angkor and the Cambodian region in general.

www.xplore-asia.com

The Sapa Valley Region of Northern Vietnam

Welcome to this week's blog!

Located an overnight train ride from bustling Hanoi is the remote region of Sapa Valley, home to beautiful mountains and valleys, many minority hill-tribes and fascinating street markets. An escape to Sapa is highly recommended for those looking to see real life and culture in Vietnam.


















Sapa is an old French Colonial Hill station nestled amongst the highest mountain range in Vietnam, Hoang Lien Son close to the Chinese border. Sapa is well known for its outstanding natural beauty and the variety of hill-tribes people that live in the area. As a destination it offers many adventure outdoor activities, cycling and trekking are the most popular of these.












For those seeking the ultimate adventure, consider a three day trek to the summit of Fansipan, standing at 3143 meters, it is the highest peak in Vietnam, affording breathtaking panoramic views into neighbouring China. Travelling to the summit, is not the hardest trek in the world, so if you are fit and healthy and have plenty of energy, consider making this trek to the roof of Vietnam, where you'll be amongst the clouds.












Hill-tribe visits and home-stays are a very popular activity in the Sapa region. One of the most well known hill-tribes in the area is the Black Hmong minority, who frequent the villages throughout the area. They have their own culture and customs and many tourists enjoying visiting and learning about their ways of life, by taking a tour or even arranging an overnight home-stay. You will learn about farming techniques, how their wonderful garments are made and be treated to traditional hill-tribe fare and music, a fascinating experience, allowing you to immerse yourself in how simple life can be!
Home-stays are an ideal choice if you wish to have a real life experience of how these people live and work their daily lives and the people of the Hmong tribe and other minority groups are very welcoming to foreigners visiting them. Another aspect of local culture not to be missed is a visit to one of the numerous, hill-tribe markets. Each market has its own unique feel and is generally a place for the locals to get together to sell their wares and to socialize with friends and family, perhaps even meet a partner!

The largest of these markets in Bac Ha market, 80 Kilometres from downtown Sapa in the Lao Cai region, this market takes place every Sunday under the gaze of the nearby mountains and the border with China. In-fact, tribes people from all over the region and even from over the chinese border come here to barter and trade. This is very common at all of the markets in the Sapa region, a real cultural experience, where horseback is the mode of transportation of goods for sale.












A Hmong culinary specialty you may wish to try is Thang Co Blood Porridge, made from a mixture of pony and goats meat, slow cooked to produce a fine 'blood soup' served in a large hot-pot. This dish is a popular staple of the hill-tribes people in the region and is shared by everyone, using chopsticks to dip the succulently cooked meat into a spicy dip and then eaten, normally accompanied with bread, instant noodles, vegetables and herbs.














It is best to try this dish at one of the restaurants in the Sapa area, as opposed to experiencing it at one of the markets, like Bac Ha, here you will see the locals socialize , eat and wash the soup down with wine! Thang Co is very popular among the locals and warms the body in a region where temperatures and plummet dramatically in the evenings.

Cycling, trekking and even traveling by motorcycle are all very popular ways to explore the Sapa Region. Generally tourists take an overnight 9 hour rail service from Hanoi to Lao Cai, the main town in the region and then a 90 minute journey by road and dirt track to get to Sapa itself.

For a short break to visit hill-tribes and trek, 3 to 4 days is the recommended amount of time for a tour here, for the more adventurous there are various treks, cycling routes and home-stays that can be arranged for those wishing to spend longer, and a perfect combination with the Sapa Region would be Hanoi and a cruise around stunning Ha-long Bay, well known for its limestone cliffs, commonly referred to as the Gullin of Vietnam!

So consider visiting the Sapa region as part of a tour to Vietnam and indeed Indochina, Vietnam offers a fantastic mix of history, culture, outstanding natural beauty and stunning beaches, more than comparable to other Asian destinations such as Thailand and Malaysia. You would also be supporting Responsible and Sustainable tourism and growth throughout the region as a whole.

Xplore Asia offers a variety of escorted and tailor-made tour options, please visit our website and contact us for more information and to design your personalized tour.
www.xplore-asia.com

Responsible Travel and Tourism

Welcome to this week's Blog

Our theme this week is Responsible Travel and Tourism.

Many hotels, resorts, attractions , tour operations and industry suppliers claim to be eco friendly and promote Responsible Travel & Tourism, but really is everyone doing enough to justify their claims?












These days we live in a world where development in an environmentally friendly way is of the upmost importance. Tourism in the past has been seen to have had both positive and negative impacts on the world's environment as a whole, whilst creating much needed infrastructure and employment this has sometimes been done at the expensive of the natural environment.
Nowadays, because of the global warming issues we currently face, we as an industry are recognizing this and waking up to the reality, that we all must change our outlook and act with responsibility, hence this week's title, Responsible Travel and Tourism.












There are many ways you the traveler can act with responsibility on your holidays and be friendly to the environment, firstly, travel in a more eco friendly way, consider cycling, hiking and trekking as alternatives to buses, cars and trains for shorter distances. Try to choose hotels which offer eco friendly programs, where they promote the use of re-cycled materials throughout the hotel and have eco friendly programs. Some hotels have even gone as far as having their room designs based completly on recycled materials, being used to decorate and facilitate rooms and furnishings.

Responsible Travel is also about supporting the local economies and environment of the people and the places in which they live by bringing a sustainable income to the regions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the hill-tribe villages throughout Asia and Indochina.

These people have had their own ways of life for generations such as the Black Hmong in the Sapa Valley in Vietnam. By respecting their ways, we can learn alot from these tribes people, as they too have to live off of the land and what the land naturally gives them. Encouraging purchases of souvenirs produced locally by these people, also acts responsibly, as it supports their own sustainable growth and development of their local economy.













Trying adding to your holiday adventure, by including a tour that visits Hill tribe villages, handicraft workshops, or take on the experience for yourself, and stay a few days with the locals, on one of the many authentic Home-stay programs available.
Choose a tour where the operator has a firm commitment to Responsible Travel and Tourism and their programs reflect this, such as the Mekong Discovery Trail in Cambodia, which runs tours through the Cambodian Jungles, alongside the Mekong River from the Laos Border all the way to Phnom Pehn. This program was set up to bring a sustainable income to the people in the region through tourism, and Xplore-Asia is actively involved within the operation and training for the program in this region.















Tree planting programs in Southern Laos are another aspect of Responsible and Sustainable tourism development on-going in the Indochina region. Both Cambodia and Laos offer outstanding cycling and trekking experiences too, allowing you to contribute to responsible tourism, first hand.

Choosing your operator is of paramount importance, one which cares for the environment and offers tours that actively reflect this. Now you can select your operator easily by referring to 'green travel market' a website that list Responsible Travel and Tourism operators throughout the world.

This website has been set up as part of a program organized by the Non-profit making organization 'Sustainable Travel International' whose main goal is to provide unbiased information, industry training, assistance and accreditation to the Responsible Travel and Tourism Industry as a whole, providing a recognized logo worldwide, to assure you the traveler, that the hotel, tour, product that you have bought, is up to standard and satisfies the quality and guidelines laid out, to be classed as a Responsible Travel and Tourism Operation.













Xplore-Asia has proudly recently been accepted by’ Sustainable Travel International‘as a valid organizer of Responsible Tourism Tours and programs, and over the coming weeks and months will be contributing to the development of STI’s programs with submissions and will also be listed on the Green Travel Market website, where you will find more information on Green and Responsible programs in general.

www.xplore-asia.com