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Surfing the Net is not real traveling, but it can help you get more out of your journey
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DESTINASIAN
World Party
world-party.com
Walk on the Wild Side Where's the party at? Here's the place to find out. Almost every major festival, carnival and street party in the world finds a mention on these pages, so live it up and two-step your way from Germany's Oktoberfest to India's fall camel fair.
Asian Utopia
utopia-asia.com
Choice of Options A great resource for gay and lesbian travelers in Asia, these fun pages dish out the spice on even the most buttoned-up spots in Asia.
Asia Art
asia-art.net
Liberal Arts All you wanted to know about Asian art, but never thought to ask, can be found on this exhaustive site dedicated to the history, techniques and styles of Asian art. A few scrolls through and you'll soon be an expert.
Costumes
costumes.org/pages/asiancostlinks.htm
Full Regalia As with everything else in this region, the art of dressing changes as you cross each border. This colorful net stop features details on fabric, styles, technique, accessories and the history behind Asia's myriad outfits.
Manjushri's Temples
manjushri.com/TEMPLES/temple.html
Mind and Body For a holistic holiday experience, make a dharma center your next destination. This Buddhist-community site has a range of information on monasteries and meditation centers across six continents.
Literary Traveler
literarytraveler.com
Novel Journeys For voracious readers who hate to get off their couch, this site is your ticket to the world. Trek to some of the most adventurous places in literature: meet Ernest Hemingway's Old Man in Cojimar, Cuba, or go on a Jack Kerouac-style road trip—without putting a foot out your front door.
Kinetic community
kinetictravel.net
Off the Beaten Track This online magazine and travelers' network provides original and imaginative features, as well as insightful historical and cultural articles about unusual destinations. A Bhutanese writer recently posted his country's efforts to tread a middle path between modernity and tradition. The site also hosts housing and equipment exchanges, travel recommendations and volunteer opportunities.
ROOM & BOARD
Do Asia
doasia.com
Asia Entrée Where can you get the best bowl of bouillabaisse in Tokyo? Or find the definitive history of kimchi in Korea? With more than 8,000 listings of the best restaurants, bars, shops and even food museums in 13 Asian cities, you can plan your menu before you even get on a plane.
Vegetarian Eats
www.vegeats.com
Finicky Feast For the strict vegan, finding the right restaurant can be tricky. This site has a listing of more than 2,500 vegan and vegetarian restaurants around the world, so you won't go hungry wherever you're headed.
Mari Mari
marimari.com
Hospitality Central You have the air tickets; now it's time to find a hotel. This well-thought-out world hotel guide will help you decide on the right place to stay, for the right price—and then help you book a reservation.
Pets Welcome
www.petswelcome.com
Jetset Pets A site for animal lovers run by the pet-obsessed. It offers everything you need to know to make sure Fifi, Fido and even Polly travel well and stay in style, including listings of pet-friendly lodgings and quarantine information.
SURVIVAL GUIDES
Tips For Trips
tips4trips.com
Hints 'R' Us Try wrapping a thick rubber band around your wallet to foil pickpockets. If someone pulls on your billfold you will immediately feel the friction. This and thousands of other user-submitted tips are found on this must-see site.
World Travel Guide
www.worldtravelguide.net
Palm Reader A comprehensive at-a-glance guide to the world's countries, including currencies, religions, history, languages, holidays, mobile-phone networks and English-language media. Download to a PDA for convenient referencing.
World Room
worldroom.com/pages/maps.phtml
Map the World Business travelers will be keen to bookmark this site featuring executive survival guides for major cities. Providing comprehensive detail on a variety of topics, from the best restaurant in which to clinch a deal to weekend escapes from each city, it also offers downloadable maps. So you'll always know where to find the nearest shopping center and ATM machine.
Journey Woman
journeywoman.com
You Go Girl For working girls and homebodies alike, this is the one stop every woman needs to make before setting off on her maiden voyage. Learn why it's a bad idea to wear shorts in Papua New Guinea and why a handkerchief is essential on a trip to Japan.
Absolute Asia
absoluteasia.com/links/destination.asp
Prim and Proper Find answers to all your questions on appropriate etiquette in different countries, and links to the tourism board of every major destination in the Asia-Pacific region.
Asia source
asiasource.org/reference/language.cfm
Resourceful The only way to describe this website is it's smart. With all the different languages spoken across the Asian continent, the language links on this portal give the visitor tons of details on varied tongues—enough for you to try your hand at conversing with the locals.
American Public transportation association
apta.com/sites/transint/asia.htm
The Scenic Route This directory portal serves as a terminus for the websites of almost every railroad from Central to South Asia, including urban mass-transit systems. So plan ahead, and leave the mad rush behind.
HEALTH & SAFETY
Travelers' Advisory
travel.state.gov/travel_warnings.html
Safety First This U.S. State Department website has the lowdown on more than 200 countries, covering everything from medical facilities in Vanuatu to road accidents in Zambia. To non-American visitors, the site might seem overly cautious with its multiple warnings, so don't use it as a definitive guide. It's kind of like mom: she knows what's good for you, but she doesn't know what's fun.
global warning
sheldonlittle.com
Avoiding Grief Get a daily list of the world's latest trouble spots, ranked by magnitude of risk for foreign travelers. From storm warnings to airport strikes, a click a day keeps travel surprises at bay.
Travel Health
travelhealth.co.uk/advice/dvt.htm
Reducing the Risk In addition to pertinent information on travel-related health concerns, this Britain-based website contains a formidable list of warning signs for the onset of Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT), along with risk factors and exercises to help prevent potentially fatal blood clots from forming while you're flying.
World Health Organization
who.int/ith
The Cure Log Click on the online companion of the who's publication on international health and travel to know which bugs to look out for and where. The site is armed with detailed medical facts and travel documentation requirements for more than 200 countries.
FLIGHT PATH
Zuji
zuji.com
Price Genie Sponsored by Travelocity and partnered by some of the best airlines in the Asian region, this website makes finding heavily discounted tickets a snap.
Flight Times
flightarrivals.com
There Yet? This site offers an easy way to track flights to and from the U.S. and Canada. All you do is plug in the flight information and up pops a screen showing the flight's real-time status. If the plane hasn't touched down yet, the website will tell you how long until it will. The site also monitors delays and cancellations.
ASIA ACTION
Asia bike tours
www.asiabiketours.com
Ride the Wind Motor your way across South Asia on the legendary 1948 Enfield Bullet and see if you can take the grit and grime of a "real" trip. If that is too much work for a vacation, how about a Harley tour of Thailand's beaches? These and other motorcycle journeys can be found on this entertaining site dedicated to bikers with bugs in their teeth.
Rockclimbing
rockclimbing.com
Climb Every Mountain Look no further for a world's worth of information on the art and craft of rock climbing. The site's forum has plenty of climbers offering advice and exchanging tips on all manner of minutiae, from knots to gear. And the excellent training section will help you buff up for your trip.
Peak To Peak
peaktopeak.net/asia.html
Ups and Downs From bushwalking in Australia to skiing down the Himalayas, if you're up to experiencing Asia's highs, this simple directory contains links to some of the region's most challenging adventure travel destinations.
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