If there's something we've learned over the last year, it's never to trust an overnight "tourist" cruise in Southeast Asia. It was only a little more than a month ago that such a boat sunk in Vietnam's Ha Long Bay, killing 12 in only 30 feet of water. The safety (or lack of) in these boats is to blame, and nothing has illustrated the issue better than the story of "Adventurous Kate," who survived a shipwreck in Indonesia.

Kate is author of her own blog about traveling Southeast Asia on her own, which she has been doing continuously since October of last year. A week ago, on Monday March 28, she was enjoying a 5-day cruise to visit the famous Komodo dragons of Komodo Island when her tourist boat hit a reef and promptly sank, causing her and her fellow travelers to abandon ship and swim to the closest island—Komodo, with its dragons.

The reason they swam? Half of the life jackets onboard were unusable and both lifeboats failed. Their luggage was waterlogged and left behind, and what they did eventually reclaim had been pillaged by the boat's crew. ]]> JetSetCD 2011-04-04T12:04:47-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/1/26/12311/0885 Habitat for Humanity is creating its first international eco-tourism community in Soran, Indonesia and you can be a part of it.

H4H is teaming up with Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) to establish a eco-tourism village made up of more than 420 homes and guest accommodations near Indonesia’s famous Prambana Temple. Does that sound intriguing at all? Because they are, of course, looking for some good help to move the project along. ]]> cmb 2011-01-26T16:41:14-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/11/15/11343/179

President Barack Obama has just had quite the whirlwind travel weekend, hopping and skipping from Japan to Singapore to China to South Korea in a matter of only a few days and yet he managed to fit in a few cultural stops in amongst all the flying and diplomatic handshakes. Most of the time, the sightseeing came with a required speech or a luncheon with a world leader, but still we're pretty jealous of all the places he got to go. We've listed the touristy places he visited below, just in case you'd like to take your own Obama Tour of Asia: ]]> JetSetCD 2010-11-16T12:04:35-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/11/8/114518/205

There have been many trends in travel for 2010, such as the rise of location-based social media (ah hem, Foursquare) and the outcry against full-body scanners, but one of the most unexpected trends is that of flight disruption due to volcano eruption. In just this year we've have the explosions of Iceland's illustrious Eyjafjallajokull, Reunion Island's Piton de la Fournaise, Indonesia's Mount Sinabung, Russia's Shiveluch and now, another from Indonesia: Mt. Merapi.

All of them have caused flight delays at the very least, and Mount Merapi impacted flights on Cathay Pacific and JAL to Jakarta last week and over this last weekend. It was even thought the ash could have been responsible for the "uncontained engine failure" of the Singapore-Sydney Qantas A380 on Thursday. Now we know that is not the case. ]]> JetSetCD 2010-11-08T14:30:15-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/8/30/2391/01390

Dormant volcano Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra, Indonesia, erupted on Sunday and again today, spurting ash 1.5 miles up into the air. It was worse than the eruption a day earlier, but it hasn't caused any major problems at Polonia International Airport in nearby Medan.

However, officials are worried that if the volcano continues to erupt, the thick ash will cause flight disruptions. Officials also worry that the eruption could cause problems for the estimated millions of people who plan to travel from Jakarta to native villages to mark the September 9 end of Ramadan.

Indonesia sits on the Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines around the Pacific Basin so this volcanic eruption isn't exactly a fluke. However, before Sunday, the volcano had been inactive for the past 400 years. The recent eruptions have caused two deaths and the forced evacuation of more than 21,000 people living in the North Sumatra village.

If you plan on flying anywhere near the area today, play it safe and check with the airport ahead of time.

Related Stories:
· Indonesian volcano erupts again, many evacuated [Reuters]
· 2 die after Indonesian volcano erupts [CNN]
· Volcano warning in Sumatra as Mount Sinabung erupts [AsiaNews.it]

[Photo: AsiaNews.it]]]> Jennifer Kester 2010-08-30T07:53:29-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/3/19/112718/062

Hey, President Obama—when you've just finished watching the House vote on the controversial Health Care bill, where are you going to go? It's not the Super Bowl, so you're not going to DisneyWorld, but we hear that you would have been taking off on Sunday before the vote for a lovely little tour around Indonesia, Australia and Guam, but that it's now postponed until June.

We like to imagine that that's how it'd be if we were President. Every time we overcome a hurdle, whether or not it comes out in our favor, we'd head somewhere tropical (maybe or maybe not Guam), and lift morale while getting our international diplomacy action on.

Obama postponed his Asia trip twice already to see the health care vote through, and just this morning he postponed it again until June, ruling against dashing off this weekend in Air Force One as he in favor of taking his time with both the health care bill and his trip. It's too bad he has to wait to go; we understand the cabin fever of winter, and the Washington Post talked to Mike McCurry, a Clinton-period spokesman to remind us of an important fact, however: ]]> JetSetCD 2010-03-19T11:56:29-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/10/5/25124/0102

If you've ever smelled the supremely unpleasant odor of a durian fruit, you'll understand why we've never been brave enough to try one. This spiky, malodorous fruit comes from Malaysia and Indonesia, and while many people have assured us the flesh tastes heavenly, we've just never got past the smell.

But durians are ready for the eating in Malaysia right now, and there's even a new durian trend this season: the red flesh durian. Found growing wild in the jungles in the state of Sabah, they say that the flesh is drier than a regular durian, and the taste is a little sourer, but it's gaining popularity with tourists because of its bright red flesh.

The bonus is that at the moment, the red durian is still a lot cheaper than a regular durian. Only problem for us is that it wasn't the price or the color that was putting us off before. The bad smell, apparently, remains.

Related Stories:
· Unique Red Durian Making Heads Turn [The Star]
· Eight Minutes of Durian [Jaunted]
· Durian Cupcakes Are The New Pot Brownies [Jaunted]

[Photo: The Star] ]]> amandak 2009-10-06T12:03:55-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/