Upcoming: top 5 authentic destinations in South East Asia!
It´s about time I put some words and photos to all the travels I´ve been doing the last 3 years, so I decided to make some comprehensive posts about my favorite experiences in South East Asia so far. For the next 5 weeks I will be posting about lesser known destinations I thoroughly enjoyed that didn´t make it unto any lists I´ve seen so far.
These posts will appear every friday for the next month!
To kick things off some photos I made that didn´t appear on my blog yet.
The first was taken on a short boattrip to Rabbit Island in Cambodia. To get there you catch a local fisherman´s boat from the town of Kep and the island itself only exists of a couple of Cambodian families renting out bamboo huts on the beach.
(1/100, F7.1, ISO200, 28mm)
This is definitely one of the places that will be part of the featured travels!
Same goes for the next photo, which was taken on a boattrip on the Nam Ou river in Northern Laos.
(1/640, F9, ISO200, 12mm)
And to get my least favorite out of the way; the next two were taken last week on a visit to Koh Phi Phi island and although I knew it was going to be touristy, I still wanted to check it out myself and thought that during the rainy season now I had my best chance.
I spent two nights there and although I was more than 2km away from the tourist village the loud beats easily reached my jungle retreat the first night. The second day I was there the King of Thailand died and this threw the whole country in mourning. I was very impressed by the heartfelt emotions shown and spoken by the people I met the week after.
It also meant no parties, no music which meant the second night I was there was very magical and allowed the sounds of the ocean, jungle and night to show the island´s true beauty.
This first photo I took while hiking thru the pristine jungle interior of Koh Phi Phi, which is beautiful with views down to the lesser visited beaches and natural life surrounding me all day.
(taken with Redmi Note 3)
And the worst part was to find some of the beaches that weren´t frequently visited by snorkeling trips to be full of trash and speaking to a local restaurant owner I found out that they can hardly clean up against what the tides bring in every day. This remains a huge problem in South East Asia as plastic and other rubbish is everywhere and unfortunately the waste process is not a priority….
(1/1000, F8, ISO200, 10mm)
El Bueno, El Feo y El Malo 
Great post! We have not been to Asia at all yet so can’t wait to see the rest of the destinations you will be including 🙂
Stunning photos! Even the beach rubbish in your feature page looks darn good! 🙂
Hi Helene, weird to find this polluted beach after hiking pristine jungle for a couple of hours, but it seems it´s impossible te clean, after cleaning it only takes a oucple of weeks to be like this again, all coming from the sea 😦
Thanks for dropping by, great to read your Malaysian adventures on your blog!
Have a great sunday, greetings,
Ron
Cool pictures an amazing butterflies.
Dank je wel, die vlinders waren zo leuk, hele wandeling waren ze overal op dat eiland! Fijne week, groet, Ron
You are really experiencing life fully. I agree, shame about the garbage. I guess it’s not just Americans who disrespect our earth.
Trying too, Candace, so many nice things to experience in this part of the world, friendly people, amazing cultures, feel very blessed to have been able to be a little part of it last 3 years 😉
Greetings from Malaysia, Ron
My goodness, Fernando, you have been to so many beautiful places, and your photographs are just magnificent!
Thank you so much for sharing them here.
Have a wonderful day, my friend.
Hi Lisa, getting used to you calling me Fernando, starting to like the name 😉
Thanks a lot for the compliment, feel so lucky ot ahve been able to travel so much around SE Asia the last 3 years, very enriching to see the culture and spirit of the people here. Very nice to see you came along for the trip, you have a great day too, warm greetings from KL,
Ron
Super wow Ron and so much trouble getting past the dynamism of your 2nd shot, so good!!
Ha, thanks, Patti, good advice, save the best for last next time 😉
That was my favorite daytrip on the water spent in Asia, so beautiful there!!
Have a great week
Looks like an amazing trip. Always wanted to do South East Asia and we always talk about at least doing a short stop over in somewhere like Thailand on our way to Australia (to visit family and friends), but we never quite have the time or the money. Lovely shots.
Well, thanks, Stevie, these are from multiple trips around SE Asia, guess you would stopover in BK then? Not the perfect place to get to some nice places, but if only a week or so, you could see some great stuff! Have a great week!
Beautiful photography!
Thanks a lot, Michael, this time it´s gonna be a bit more about the travel info than photography, but still hope to have some good ones 😉
Have a good weekend, Ron.
Great images Ron…..love the butterfly shot. And great to hear from you again.
Thank you very much, Mark, it´s good to be back 😉
And also nice to catch up on other blogs to see what you have been up to!
Enjoy your weekend,
Ron
Nice work Ron. I would love to photograph these areas.
Thank you, Craig! It is a very photogenic region for sure, but so is the US and you seem to enjoy it there too 😉
Greetings from Malaysia, Ron.
Great pictures, Ron – I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of this series. I’m a little jealous of your boat trip on the Nam Ou – the river was too low when I was in that part of Laos a few years ago, so I had to travel by bus. I’ll just have to go back…
Hi Jon, thanks, so cool to ahve found your blog too, amazing photos, the street photography I wish I could do, but more of a ´still life´ photographer myself 😉
The trip on the Nam Ou up to Muang Ngoi was one of the most beautiful I´ve done to be honest, but when we were there beginning of the year the first dam down river was already opened and changed the river flow dramatically, so not sure how much the effect on life around those parts are no!
But definitely a destination to go back too, won´t make it my number one then cuz I dont want to make you too jealous 😉
Have a great week,
Greeting from KL, Ron.
Oh my, that garbage..
Oh yeah, didn´t want to leave that out, it´s everywhere in SE Asia and you cannot really blame them, because with poverty and non-education it means waste processing is not really a big priority! Such a shame…
Greetz, Ron
Beautiful places/photos. It’s a shame about all the garbage.
Thanks, Cardinal! Yep, unfortunately there are a lot of ugly places too, mostly out of sight like this one, the snorkeling trips around the island just skipped this bay and went to the next turquoise clear one 😕
It’s obvious why they skipped this one. 🙂
True, but if there was a resort (and not deserted, like here) or visitors they would clean it up, interesting duality, no? 😉
Awesome pictures from those places!
Thanks a lot, YellowCable, hope to bring more and not so ugly as the last one 😉
Have a great weekend,
Ron
Beautiful photos, Ron. Different from before, but still lovely. I wonder why you had to use ISO 200?
Thanks, Paula, yeah, these photos are more informative about my travels than the ´artsy´ ones I used to post, definitely will get back to that photography side of things, but first wanted to do the travel advice 😉
As for the Iso200; the first I used it because of the lowlight and keep the shutter sharp enough, second it was more to keep the shutter as high as possible to get the f9 and sharpness in the water, the last it was definitely not necessary 😉 I think it was just on that ISO, cuz I just came out of the dark jungle!
🙂
Wonderful writing and images, as usual. Thanks so much for “taking me along.”
Oh, thank YOU, Carlos, very loyal of you to still have a peak at my stuff. Hope there´s some taking along in the next ´trips´ too 😉
All the best, Ron
Can’t wait!
Love the butterflies, and the Nam Ou river. Is the water brown because it’s a delta or confluence?
Hi John, I think its just cuz all the sediments and mostly this is because of them being fast flowing and unobstructed, I read. Thanks for your interest, hope all is great, greetings, Ron
Can’t wait for the rest of this series. Will South Korea, my new Favourite Destination feature, I wonder? Truly shocking last photo, by the way. Though a great shot, as they all are.
Hi Margaret, oh wow, I see that you´ve been there, will check out your posts, haven´t been there (yet), so not in my top 5 😉
Yep, I know about the last photo, couldn´t keep it out as the plastic problem is very big on the islands around South East Asia, really depressing sometimes! Thanks for compliment, all the best to you, Ron.