ADVISORY - Series of Asia-Pacific travel features

Asian Political News, Jan 7, 2002

TOKYO, Dec. 31 Kyodo

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States and the war in Afghanistan, many travelers are rethinking vacation plans for the year 2002.

But even with a global recession looming and nagging worries about safety still in the air, the travel bug, once caught, is almost impossible to cure with anything but yet another adventure.

With this in mind, Kyodo News correspondents from across the Asia-Pacific region offer a series of safe, scenic and historic suggestions for trips short or long throughout the region or just down the road and across the hills of their home country.

Photos attached to some travel feature stories are available via e-mail. Please call KWS editor 03-5573-8089.

The schedules are as follows:

---------- Nepal's grandiose mountains offer timeless appeal

KATHMANDU, Dec. 26 Kyodo - Slumping may be the kindest word for the current state of tourism in Nepal.

The Himalayan Kingdom received some 500,000 visitors in 2000, but in 2001 it has had to make do with less than half that number.

An ongoing communist insurgency rendered Nepal's countryside unsafe for many travelers, while a bloodbath in the Nepalese royal palace in June, in which the country's popular king Birendra was slain along with nine other royals, also kept potential visitors away.

---------- Climbing one of world's most dangerous, active volcanoes

MT. MERAPI, Indonesia, Dec. 27 Kyodo - It was 3:00 in the morning. All were still sleeping. But Christian Awuy woke us up, knocking on our room doors at his Vogels Hostel in the quiet highland resort of Kaliurang, near Yogyakarta.

''Wake up, guys! It's time to climb!'' he shouted.

Fifteen minutes later and our group of six -- two French lawyers, two New Zealand journalists, a Dutch student and myself -- was sitting in the hostel's dining room, listening to Awuy's short briefing about Mt. Merapi, one of the most active volcanoes in the world.

---------- Cambodia is a relaxing Buddhist getaway in a time of terror

PHNOM PENH, Dec. 27 Kyodo - The Buddhist southeast Asian nation of Cambodia is still attracting many visitors even though the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States have prompted many people to shy away from traveling overseas.

Fearful tourists are starting to get adventurous again and want ''to relax at a peaceful destination like Cambodia,'' said Sathol Miura, president of APEX travel agency.

Tourists find Cambodia's ancient Buddhist history attractive for many reasons, including the perception that Buddhism does not seem to be suffering from the current strife plaguing other religions such as Islam, said secretary of state for tourism, Thong Khon.

---------- Sri Lankan links offer both natural beauty and golf history

COLOMBO, Dec. 28 Kyodo - Sri Lanka offers fantastic golfing holidays at near give-away prices. A week of challenging golf at its three international golf courses can be had for less than $700, with luxury accommodation, breakfast included, and transfer costs.

''We see a huge potential for golf tourism in Sri Lanka,'' said Vasantha Leelananda, general manager of Walkers Tours, a travel agency that has been avidly promoting the sector. ''With three internationally acclaimed golf courses in Colombo, Nuwara Eliya and Kandy, enthusiasts can combine their passion for the game with a very nice tour of the country.'' (Photo available)

---------- Philippine gov't frantically woos tourists

MANILA, Dec. 29 Kyodo - Efforts to aggressively ''sell'' the Philippines are in full swing in a bid to lure back local and foreign tourists.

The government has launched an offensive against criminals as part of its bid to purge memories of the Abu Sayyaf, a notorious kidnap-for-ransom rebel group that preyed on tourists, among others.

Full-page ads have been taken out in national dailies touting several tourist destinations inside the country.

---------- China's railways fight competition via luxury 'train hotels'

BEIJING, Dec. 30 Kyodo - Each evening on the stroke of 6 p.m., the T21 pulls out of Beijing.

Fourteen hours later, its well-rested and well-fed passengers -- the sound of the T in the train's name suggests the words ''extremely fast'' in Chinese -- step off the train in Shanghai, having helped open a new page in Chinese railway travel.

Once the main mode of moving around the country, the railways have suffered heavily from the competition of air and road travel, but now they want to win back domestic customers by offering greater comfort and appeal to tourists with the creation of luxury ''hotels on wheels.'' (Photo available)

---------- Insa-dong: a Seoul cultural asset for visitors

SEOUL, Dec. 31 Kyodo - Insa-dong, a cultural melange of old and new, is becoming famed among locals and visitors alike as ''street filled with aroma of Korean history,''

Many shops feature old furniture, antiques and old paintings, while, since the 1970s, modern galleries and exhibition halls have also begun to dot the kilometer between the traffic circle in Ankuk-dong and Chongno.