Balinese Dance, Fantastic Creative Beauty

The mountainous town of Ubud, in the Indonesian island of Bali, is a charming village located amongst the emerald and vibrant green mountains and valleys of this tropical island. Besides being a culturally rich place to visit, having plenty of galleries, temples and ancient buildings, it has a vast offering of Balinese Dance performances which transport the onlooker to an extraordinary world of bizarre, undefined creatures, incredible artistic detail, and extravagant imagination.

If you would like to be transported to an ancient and unworldly Balinese dance, please be my guest and take a look into the fantastic realm of Indian epics and Javanese culture in my Photographic Documentary of Balinese Dance, which has also a brief overview of its history and characteristic traits. Thanks for dropping by, I hope you enjoy it.

Indonesia: The Unbelievable Beauty of "Gili Trawangan"

Gili Trawangan (Gili meaning island) is one of the tinniest islands in Indonesia, a country composed of little islands surrounded by an increadible variety of coastline sceneries, which go from the far extreme of black sanded beaches -as in Lovina in Bali- to absolute white, fine and soft sanded beaches like the ones of Gili Trawangan.

The island is so tinny that you can walk around it in about 2 hours, but it has a tremendous natural beauty and a special magnetism that is truely captivating and unique. If you are a beach person and an admirer of natures mystifing beauty, Gili Trawangan is, in my opinion, one of the best destinations in the world. Its natural and social charm go beyond words, I can only describe the valuable things that are present in this island and talk about my humble experience, as any editorial traveler would do, please go to my article on Gili Trawangan to read the full description and enjoy the photodocumentation of my experience.

Gili Trawangan: Stunning Photo Gallery, Map and Accomodation

Cambodia: Country of Contrasts

Cambodia is a country full of dramatic contrasts that go from the utmost sad history of the not so far reign of terror perpetuated by Pol Pot and his cruel dictatorship -the effects of which are still palpable today- to the most exquisite beauty and admirable creations of human kind.

The architecture, the color, the design and detailed ornaments, the flora, the natural environment and kind folkloric people are very heartwarming and admirable; while the negative past and present makes us conscious of the cruel reality of some people on Earth, and make us want to reach out and help, if only with a kind gesture or a smile saying we care.

Phnom Phen has one of the loveliest Architectural Designs in the World, the extremely beautiful Royal Palace Compound and Silver Pagoda are sure to take your breath away and bring out the photographer in you.

To read more about Cambodia, including its history, highlights and travel information, as well as an ample photographic gallery, go to: http://claudiatello.hubpages.com/_1fclx5rkjd1r/hub/Phnom-Phen-Cambodia

Temples of Angkor, Cambodia's Greatest Khmer Ancient City

If you have an adventurer within you, if you love nature and enjoy spending time surrounded by the peaceful beauty of a natural environment, if you like to admire the great accomplishments of human civilizations of today and yester years, if you like to travel and step into a different time and place coordinate, if you are curious and get pleasure from learning about different cultures, or all of the above, Angkor is one of those places you should get to know in this lifetime, and explore to the fullest.



The Temples of Angkor are a group of religious buildings spread throughout the Cambodian forest, whose mesmerizing beauty made them creditors to the Eighth Wonder of The World designation.



If you would like to read more about this Khmer Archeological Site, please go to the following article, where you will find a thorough description of the place and ample photographic documentation: http://claudiatello.hubpages.com/_1fclx5rkjd1r/hub/templesofangkor

Hanoi, Vietnam

If you go to Vietnam by airplane, you will most likely arrive either at Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) or Hanoi. I chose to fly to Hanoi simply because it sounded much more attractive on paper, and actually discarded Ho Chi Minh from my schedule entirely. It sounded too noisy and obscure for my kind of travel destination.

I arrived in Hanoi early March; this means it was still theoretically winter time, not-too-cold not-too-warm weather with cloudy sky (that is way you’ll see most of the pictures with a grayish kind of light). All in all, Hanoi was a very pleasurable city to visit; it is culturally, gastronomically and artistically interesting and has many alluring places to visit: some of them beautiful; some of them quite clever; some of them outright strange. It is a place that will certainly surprise you in many ways.

If you would like to read more about this elegant and unique oriental city go to my second article of the Vietnamese series "A Visual Guide to Hanoi, Vietnam's Capital".

Goodbye Laos, Hello Vietnam

I would have liked to visit many other places in Laos and give you a broader scope of this country, unfortunately, time and money weren’t limitless and I had to make some choices. With the consideration that traveling through Laos was going to be somewhat complicated and would represent a lot of time, I decided to make the jump to Vietnam. Nevertheless, I want to clarify that I would love it if you could tell me about your experiences in Laos (where else did you go, what did you see), there can always be a next time.

So now it is turn for me to write about Vietnam. Before I planned my visit to this country, I had only thought of Vietnam in association to war, bombs and injustice. That was the only thing I knew about the place and the only thing that made me indifferent to it as a travel destination. Fortunately, I am the kind of traveler that likes to document myself before launching my adventure and I read about all the countries located in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, before deciding where I wanted to go. Vietnam sounded very attractive to me on paper. It has all the mystery and exotic qualities of a far and unknown land. What I read about Vietnam lead me to believe that it had the potential of a novelty extravaganza, and I had to go see for myself.

Vietnam turned out to be a multilayered cultural explosion. It really takes you to another world where you can communicate with many realities I’d bet you’d never seen before (if you come from the western world). One of the interesting destinations that have a check on all this excitement triggering factors is Sapa, a tinny little village surrounded by Hill Tribe Villages, an opportunity to get in contact with a life completely different to the one we live in modern Mexico City.

And the journey through Vietnam begins!

Here is my first article of the Vietnamese series "Sapa & Surrounding Hill Tribe Villages in Vietnam"........ yuhu!!!! I get excited all over again.

Wat Xieng Thong, Luang Prabang Laos

Wat Xieng Thong is one of the biggest and most beautiful Buddhist Temples in Luang Prabang. Once you get there it is almost impossible not to feel the need to photograph every building, every sculpture, every wall and every detail. It is absolutely amazing to see all the work and creativity Laotians put into their worshiping temples.

Wat Xieng Thong