Asia Unmasked

Travel Tips

Southeast Asia Does Not Have One Wet Season. It Has Eleven Timetables, and Most Visitors Read the Wrong One

A country-by-country guide to travelling the region from October to December, from the flooded central coast of Vietnam to Timor-Leste’s whale season Bangkok is wet again. This week the city’s drainage department reported standing water on five main road sections, and the Thai Meteorological Department expects isolated heavy to very heavy rain across the central

October 10, 2026

a forest setting featuring a stream surrounded by rocks and lush vegetation

Destinations

Four of Khao Yai’s Seven Trails Are Off Limits Without a Guide. Thailand’s New Hiking Schools Want to Change How You Walk the Rest.

Thailand’s first national park has just hosted the launch of a hiking school programme built around leaving nothing behind. Here is what it means for your visit: which trails you can walk alone, how to behave around wild elephants, and when to go. Khao Yai will not let you walk four of its seven nature

October 3, 2026

Tall stone arch with ornate towers sits behind an ornamental fountain under a cloudy sky.

Tours

Vientiane Wants You to Stay Longer. Here’s the Heritage Walk You Can Do Now, and What’s Coming Next

The Lao capital is planning new routes, night-time shows and a city pass to turn a one-night stopover into a proper stay. Some of it you can use now. Some of it is still on paper. Updated 25 September 2026. This article was first published in December 2024, the week the Vientiane Heritage Route launched.

September 25, 2026

a wooden pier featuring three boats, stretches out over a turquoise sea, with a forested island in the background

Conservation

The World’s Rarest Rhino Faced a Threat Far Worse Than a Volcano

A third of the Javan rhino’s population disappeared from Ujung Kulon National Park before anyone noticed. Here’s the fuller story, and what’s actually left to protect. This month’s Anak Krakatau eruption made headlines for grounding flights and stranding travellers across Indonesia. A few kilometres across the Sunda Strait, it also drew attention back to Ujung

September 19, 2026

Wading birds foraging in the mudflats of Xuan Thuy National Park, Nam Định

Conservation

Malaysia and Vietnam Just Added Six Parks to an Exclusive List. The Badge Is the Easy Part.

Six new ASEAN Heritage Parks were declared this week. What happens to them next depends on money nobody has fully worked out how to raise. There is a particular kind of conservation news that reads as an unambiguous win right up until you ask the second question. The first question, the one that made headlines

September 12, 2026

a typical hotel reception desk, showing to staff members separately assisting two customers

Opinion

‘Eco-Friendly’ Is Now a Legal Risk for Hotels Chasing European Guests

A new EU law bans vague sustainability claims from 27 September, applies to Southeast Asian hotels marketing to Europeans, and already has a real court case behind it. From 27 September, hotels marketing to European travellers can be fined for making sustainability claims they can’t back up. It’s a new EU law, the Empowering Consumers

September 6, 2026

A wide elevated view of dense rainforest canopy across the Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia

Conservation

Singapore Never Said Where the Next Fifty Years of Sand Would Come From. Cambodia’s Rivers Have an Answer.

A banned trade, a protected river, and the ambitious reclamation plan quietly depending on both. The Trapeang Rung River isn’t somewhere most people have heard of. It flows through Koh Kong province in southwest Cambodia, past mangroves and lowland forest, home to one of the world’s least understood otter species, the endangered hairy-nosed otter, before

September 5, 2026

dragon bridge in Vietnam's Da Nang illuminated in green lighting in the background a firework explodes colour across the night sky

Eco-tourism

Da Nang Just Wrote a 219-Point Rulebook for What “Green” Actually Means. Here’s What’s in It.

A new certification scheme wants to separate genuine sustainability from the towel-reuse card on your pillow. I went looking for the detail behind the headline. [COVER IMAGE GOES HERE – set as WordPress Featured Image only, not embedded in body. Description: Dragon Bridge in Da Nang lit up at night during a fireworks display, editor-owned

August 29, 2026

Inlet of Kong Lor cave in Laos sits above a rocky pool, partially hidden by tree growth

Conservation

The Animal Nobody Has Seen: Inside Laos’s Bid to Save the Park It Barely Shows Anyone

Nakai-Nam Theun is being assessed for international recognition. Its most famous resident hasn’t been confirmed alive since 2013. No scientist has ever seen a saola in the wild. Not once, not briefly, not through binoculars from a safe distance. Everything known about the animal comes from a handful of camera-trap images, a few individuals that

August 22, 2026

two ancient statues draped in bright orange robes dominate the entrance inside Angkor Wat temple

Opinion

Siem Reap Needs Tourists Now. Is It Fair to Ask the City to Wait for the Right Ones?

Cambodia’s discount campaign has split the tourism industry down the middle, and the divide says something uncomfortable about who gets to hold out for quality Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism launched the 2026 Siem Reap Tourism Service Mega Sale on the first of August, offering discounts of 10 to 50 percent at more than fifty hotels,

August 15, 2026

A whale shark swimming near the surface in open water in the Philippines, with a outrigger boat observing at a distance

Conservation

The Philippines Has Two Ways to Watch Whale Sharks Yet Only One Holds Up to Scrutiny.

A decade of peer-reviewed research and a protection law barely a year old point to two very different answers on how to see the world’s biggest fish responsibly. Ninety-three percent. That is the proportion of tourists at Oslob, in southern Cebu, who were found swimming closer to a whale shark than the town’s own ordinance

August 10, 2026

Traditional tuk-tuks parked Bangkok old city street Thailand

Opinion

Southeast Asia Is Finally Getting Serious About Its Air, but It’s the Tuk-Tuk Drivers Who Are Expected to Pay for It.

There are 8,582 registered tuk-tuks in Bangkok. As of the end of May this year, 1,056 of them, nationwide, were electric. Hold those two numbers next to each other for a second, because they explain almost everything about what’s actually happening across Southeast Asia right now, and why I think the region’s sudden enthusiasm for

August 8, 2026

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