Asienreisender

Travelling Southeast Asia by Asienreisender Asienreisender

Travelling Southeast Asia

Asienreisender shares years of world travel experiences. Since more than twenty years he travels to Southeast Asia as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Burma/Myanmar. To collect some thoughts and experiences systematically, this magazine is launched. Asienreisender is absolutely nonprofit and independent.

This website is not intended to be politically correct. Therefore it is rather authentic. It sees the things with the eyes of a traveller.

Copyrights

Images and texts are free for use, so long it serves non-profit purposes only. Business usage of any content of this website is strictly excluded. Whenever you use text from here, mark the text as quoted and set a link on your website, blog or whatever to the exact source page. Denote any images you use as coming from this website and give it a link to the page where it is from.

Would be great if you inform me, but don't bother if not.

Exploring Southeast Asia...

The "Theme Gallery" is the core of the website. It gives a quick overview on country-related topics, e.g. all the articles who have to do with Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the other countries who are listed. The main, basic article on the world region is the one on Southeast Asia. Most of the website's other articles are in the gallery which is subdivided into eight chapters. It's about people, as well as individuals as ethnics, it's about some out of the great number of remarkable animals in Southeast Asia, it introduces a choice of landscapes, places and sights. A few articles are on politics and there are some miscellaneous, who are difficult to be put into any of the other categories.

This section is offering a growing store of information.

These and other articles provide introductions to social, political, economical and historical topics. That includes an alternative view on the so called 'hill tribe people' as well as views on the Vietnam War, a biography of the Buddha and insights into the many severe threats on the nature and people, as the construction of the first of dozens of dams on the Mekong River in Laos for example. However, over the time the list of the many personally visited 'Places in Southeast Asia' grew up to become the largest chapter.

As a brilliant example for a sight in Southeast Asia I would like to introduce you to the page on Borobodur:

Borobodur / Java

Borobodur, Borobudur by Asienreisender Borobodur, Borobudur by Asienreisender

Borobodur in Java, Indonesia, is a unique medieval monument which might represent the finest sight in Southeast Asia. It's not so much impressing by it's huge size, but by it's highly sophisticated architecture and the very artistic reliefs over six kilometers length, who tell a number of stories on the religious systems of the builders as well as the all-day-life on Java 1,200 years ago. Borobodur has defenitely the magnificence of a world wonder.

Images by Asienreisender, 2012

The conventional guidebooks are mostly painting things in a brighter colour and neglecting critical approaches. They promote business and therefore annoyances and nuisances are seldom mentioned or elaborated in them, rather played down. For this site is non-commercial and does not follow any other interests than giving authentic information, it has a critical view on what's going on in Southeast Asia. Noise Pollution, Air Pollution (as the Southeast Asian Haze) and Dust Pollution are just three basic articles on grand problems in Southeast Asia. There are many more pointed out in the different articles.

Rural Scene by Asienreisender

A rural scene in north Thailand. Temple painting in Wiang Kaen. Image by Asienreisender, 2012

A strict alphabetical overview of completely all the articles on this website offers the 'Index'. A list of 'Literature on Southeast Asia', including a great deal of the read background knowlegde which influenced the whole project, is given behind the link. However, there is much, much more, as uncounted other websites and many films, documentaries, movies and more, who also influenced the sites.

Videos

Some of my self-made videos are collected on this side. Here you can for example take part on an authentic journey downwards the Mekong River and enjoy kind of 19th century surroundings in Laos, or watching a 'living' Tyrannosaurus rex.

It's worth to visit the 'Videos' section to have a look.

Asienreisender - Movie Stripe

Reviews on Books and Movies

Reading offers much deeper insights in many topics we can not reveal otherwise. It's the same with some movies. For a better understanding of various Southeast Asian themes Asienreisender introduces some selected books and movies.

Reading by Asienreisender

Warning: Reading will change your life!!!

The world region is since centuries of interest for western observers. Simon de la Loubere wrote a 'Depiction of Siam' in the 17th century as a report to his king Louis XIV in Versailles; Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn, a classical 19th century explorer and natural scientist, wrote a number of very readable books on his explorations of Java and Sumatra, as for example 'Licht- und Schattenbilder aus Java'. Nowadays many authors refer to contemporary Thailand as Stephen Leather in 'Private Dancer', giving a clear and realistic insight into Thailand's sex industries, or Hugh Watson in his book 'Siam Smiles', where the mentality of contemporary Thai People is described with a good deal of humour. Andrew Marshall Mc Gregor analyzed contemporary Thai politics in 'Thai Story' and 'Thailand in Crisis', giving the deepest inside into the background of the political drama of torn present Thailand I got into my fingers till now. His brilliant and brave works are on the index in Thailand, for being considered 'lese majeste' in an epic scale.

One shouldn't forget here the brilliant British thriller author Eric Ambler, who placed two of his great stories in Malaysia and Indonesia: 'A Passage of Arms' and 'The Night-Comers', who give also a really deep insight in these countries in the mid 20th century. Also George Orwell paid a tribute to the literature on Southeast Asia with his great novel 'Burmese Days', in which he tells a thrilling story with backgrounds of personal experiences in his time as a young officer in 'British Burma' in the 1930s.

Southeast Asian authors are unfortunately rare; most of what was written here in the past was on religious themes, and most of it is lost, as all the scrolls of the great Angkorean libraries for example. Very few contemporary Southeast Asian writers reach a wider, international audience; the first to name here is certainly the Indonesian author Ananta Toer. For an overview on the reviews click yourself into the book section.

An index of literature on Southeast Asia is given behind the link. These works had, more or less, influence on this website project. Additional there are many, many movies who had also influence on it, but are not explicitely listed.

Have also a look in the Movies Section for an invitation to Thai Movies or some Western movies with Asian themes as 'City of Ghosts', 'The Killing Fields' or 'The Beach', the war-classic 'Apocalypse Now' or another older, but evergreen classic: Richard Attenborough's 'Gandhi'.

Friends

The Friends Site offers some recommendations. It's about people I met or places I can recommend. Some of them have an own website. Then I set a link to them. If it attracts you, feel free to click on their link and they will tell you their story. For others I made a small website to introduce them.

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