Haeundae Beach in Busan is where all the glitz is. It’s where you can pay hundreds of dollars a night to sleep at the Westin Chosun, water ski for equally exorbitant sums and eat overpriced Indian food. But down at the other end of the beach, down a little cracked-asphalt avenue that winds along the rocky shore, there’s a dirty side. Oh yes. Down there you can spy a booty cheek, eat f ...

Lijiang, in southwestern China, is a tourist hell – that is, it is wholly overrun with Chinese tourists. The town itself would be charming if the trappings of tourism had not penetrated every inch of it. It is one of the few places I visited in China that looks like old China – the streets are all cobblestone, the houses built of slate with tiled roofs. But it is impossible to walk a ...

Meet the swindlers   I would wipe the sweat from my eyes if I thought it would make any difference at all. This room, if you can call it that, has been designed to sweat a sale out of us. We’ve been trapped in this art gallery for more than 30 minutes now, listening to Firman, owner and artist, extoll the virtues of authentic Javanese art.

The name Kashmir is synonymous with conflict, but it boasts places of spectacular beauty. Dal Lake glimmers in the middle of Srinagar, the region’s most populous city. People live on the water, sell on the water, travel the water. In the morning, the lakes are glassy and mist-covered. In the afternoon, they are mirrors that reflect the sky and Himalayas. Every now and then a kingfisher&rsqu ...

We are in Kuta Bay on the island of Lombok, off the southeast coast of Bali. Our surf guide is a 20-year-old local who goes by the moniker Eddie Murphy. His Gudang Garam-stained teeth pop brightly against his dark brown skin every time he flashes his disarming smile. His large head rests atop a thin frame. Eddie is dressed in the same fashion as all the young people we see in Kuta: in the flashy ...

The Captain Erik Custer sits across from me in the living room of his Bokjeong-dong apartment, his large frame consuming a brown leather chair. He looks comfortable in his scattered environ. Acoustic guitar propped against the couch, power chords and guitar picks strewn about, football cleats and pub jerseys crumpled in the corner, dirty laundry draped over the furniture, and the hulky Canadian&r ...

CORON – Tiny shack houses lie at the bottom of a hill in this small fishing village in the Philippines. The shacks not only line the streets, but stretch far out onto the water, linked together by wooden walkways. A large cross stands proudly watching over the town. The dusty streets are busy as tricycles drive up and down trying to avoid the children playing in the road. Shops are filled wi ...

Most people would agree that the best way to see Seoul is high above it, from the top of the Samsung building, Bugaksan or Seoul Tower. I would argue it was most interesting from down below.

The baby-blue-tinted windows and the 6 a.m., fog-drenched sky give Seoul at dawn a strange, underwater feel.The large windows of the AREX carriages frame the sky and give the new, clean and fairly empty carriages the look of a doctor’s waiting room, filled with large, artificially lit aquariums. The train passes from light to dark, from the stirring light of dawn into the belly of the city ...

Forget finding an expat-friendly bar. Don’t bother looking for a Western restaurant. Half the reason for coming to Buyeo is to get away from English menus and waygooks galore. The other half? A great chance to see some history you won’t see much of in Seoul.