Six out of every ten people prefer Asia as their next holiday destination, and for all good reasons. Amazingly beautiful, culturally vibrant and incredibly fascinating are few of the many aspects of Asia which often lean travellers spoilt with choices. This is where the old meets new, the east meets the west, and where you can relish the flavours of many worlds all together. As you begin to plan your holidays in the continent, you have a pool of choices to consider.
If you crave for a secluded vacation, go to a remote island village, or if you wish to enjoy the hustle and bustle of the crowd, pack your bags for a major city. Trust this, no matter what tickles your fancy, Asia has it all for a memorable holiday. Here is a list of top destinations in Asia which you may consider for a holiday this season.
Sri Lanka
Adorably dubbed as ‘The Pearl of the Indian Ocean’, Sri Lanka is indeed one of the most celebrated holiday destinations of Asia. The spellbinding beauty of this nation is its biggest asset and the greatest reason that cheap Asia flights are so popular. This tear shaped island nation is adorned with tropical forests, diverse landscapes and lush wildlife which give individual holiday ideas to the visitors. The beautiful white sand beaches of Sri Lanka enjoy equal popularity among the vacationers. The charming beach houses and the groves of fragrant bamboo at the shorelines make for an all different view.
Bali, Indonesia
Bali is often considered as one of the world’s best island which is dotted with some of the liveliest beaches in the Asian region. This Indonesian province is a true haven for the beach lovers who wish to spend most of their holiday in sand, surf and sea. The huge mountains and coastal areas are some of the favourite spots for nature lovers who wish to explore the every inch of Bali’s spellbinding grandeur. A holiday to Bali would be incomplete if you won’t treat your taste buds with some lip smacking sea-food. The dishes here are prepared using special ingredients, flavours and spices.
Phuket, Thailand
Fabulous beaches and luxury hotels, amazing day trips and vibrant nightlife, reasons are galore to plan a memorable holiday to Phuket. This largest southern province of Thailand prides itself with rugged yet densely vegetated hills and an attractive assortment of picturesque bays which makes for a distinct beauty which is hard to find anywhere else. However, the centre of the attraction in Phuket is Patong Beach, which is crammed full of water sports by day and sizzling nightlife after the sunset. Phuket forms the perfect setting for all tastes and budgets by providing them the best accommodation.
Sabung Ayam
The Dark Side Of Paradise: Mental Illness in Bali
(This film has been entered into the 2011 APS Film Festival from the Association for Psychological Science at www.psychologicalscience.org)
Professor Lu Ketut Suryani is a Balinese psychiatrist and the director and founder of the Suryani Institute for Mental Health (http://www.suryani-institute.com ) in Denpasar. In addition, she is the president of the Committee Against Sexual Abuse
(CASA), the chairperson of the Indonesian Cultural Psychiatric
Association, and the former Head of the Department of Psychiatry (1997-2005) of the Udayana University and the Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar.
Professor Suryani has been very active in her community, trying to help with mental health issues around paedophilia (she has been an expert witness in a number of court cases), suicide prevalence and prevention, and severe mental illnesses, like psychosis.
In her latest project, she and her team ran a 10-month survey (2007-2008), in an attempt to uncover the prevalence of mental illness in Bali. According to the official governmental position, mental illness is almost non-existent in Bali. However, after interviewing almost half a million Balinese, she uncovered a far more sinister reality.
She estimates that over 7000 people in Bali suffer from serious chronic mental illnesses, but are not reported (and naturally not treated). For various reasons, financial, social, political, educational, or simply shame, their families have been reluctant to seek help, while the few who did never received any. Therefore, as a last resort, these families may either abandon their mentally ill relatives in the jungle (hoping they will die or just forever disappear) or keep them under restraints, chained or inside makeshift cages. The survey-team encountered numerous cases where people were being locked up or in chains for several years (in some cases over a decade), in conditions that would have been considered inhumane even for livestock in the West!
The irony in all of this is that almost every one of these cases is treatable. Professor Suryani has used her limited personal resources and has already successfully treated (obviously free of charge) 258 of these people, all of whom have recovered and are now living normal lives. However, the Indonesian government still refuses to acknowledge the existence of a problem.
In an attempt to communicate the seriousness of the situation and plea for help, the survey-team recorded and photographed a large number of these cases, and made this short, 4-minute documentary, which was presented to over 1000 elders, Indonesian government officials, and local MPs on 11 May 2008. However, they still believe the message is falling on “deaf ears”.
My name is Dr Niko Tiliopoulos, PhD, and I am a personologist at the University of Sydney in Australia ( http://www.psych.usyd.edu.au/staff/nikot/ ). Under this capacity, I have been involved in numerous research and teaching activities in Bali and elsewhere in Indonesia. When I became aware of the above case, heard the story, saw the evidence, and witnessed the frustration of these scientists, I was deeply moved and felt obliged to try to help them expose to the rest of the world this injustice and unspeakable negligence of human rights.
Therefore I submit to you, as part of my attempt, that brief documentary, in the hope that someone among you is a journalist or works for an NGO, and will be willing to take the matter further.