Indonesia - Sumatra Paradise for surfers

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When it comes to the best places for surfing in Indonesia, Bali has long topped the list, but next in line is Kampar River in Riau, West Sumatra.

Located on the equator, this river is a natural wonder of Indonesia; its waves can reach a height of up to six meters and a length of 300 meters.

Another good area for surfing, though less known, is the western coast of Lampung, which has a coastline of 210 km. There are 21 surfing spots on this coast, including Ujung Bopur, Karang Nyimbor, Way Jambu, Mandiri beach, Labuhun Jukung and Tanjung Setia beach.

 

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“Waves at Tanjung Setia beach are said to be the best ones in the world, the place is on par with Hawaii,” said West Pesisir regent Agus Istiqlal.

Istiqlal said 16,400 overseas tourists had come to West Pesisir regency in 2016, roughly double the 8.866 tourists counted in 2015.

“The highest number of visitors are from Australia with 5,524 tourists, followed by Spain, France, Japan, Korea and other countries. This year, I hope we can double the numbers,” he added.

Recently, the international surfing competition Krui Pro 2017 was held at Tanjung Setia beach and joined by 53 overseas surfers. Indonesia sent a team of 18 surfers, 11 men and seven women: Oney Anwar, Darma Putra, Dylan Longbottom, Mustafa Jekson, Pepen Hendrik, I Nyoman Artana, I Komang Hermawan, Dede Suryana, I Made Widiarta, Raditya Rondi, Tipi Jabrik, Janiati Hansel, Yasinyar Gea, Ni Kadek Dyah Rahayu Dewi, Kailani Johnson, Taina Izquierdo, Puanani Johnson and Salini Rengganis.  

Source - TheJakartaPost

This untouched beach in central #Vietnam will take your breath away

Bai Dong, which literally means Eastern Beach, is located on the Nghi Son Peninsula in Tinh Gia District, 60km (37 miles) from Thanh Hoa Town. Every weekend, the beach is filled with visitors from the north of Vietnam. Photos by Hong Nhung

The newly-discovered Bai Dong Beach is wowing locals with its sparkling blue waters, white sands and delicious seafood. 

 The beach is with white sand and blue sea.

 Bai Dong is over 200km south of Hanoi. You can travel by coach from Hanoi to Thanh Hoa’s Nghi Son Economic Zone, then take a taxi or a motorbike taxi the next five kilometers to the beach.

 Restaurants located by the sea offer a variety of options.

 Resorts, hotels, and hostels are available to meet your accommodation needs. The cheapest hostel will cost you VND200,000 (less than $9) for a night.

Source - VN Express

#Thailand - Krabi beaches generate most entry fees for national parks

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Nopparat Thara Beach and Phi Phi Islands in Krabi generated the most revenue from entry fees for the national park agency over the past nine months.

Following the renovation of facilities and restoration of natural resources, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) has collected Bt1.7 billion in revenue from nationwide national park admission fees from October 2016 until June 2017, DNP spokesman Sompot Maneerat said on Wednesday.

Most of the revenue was collected from the admission fees of Bt428 million at Krabi’s Nopparat Thara Beach and Phi Phi Islands National Park, followed by Bt299 million at Phang Nga's Mu Koh Similan National Park. 

The DNP is aiming to generate more revenue from tourism at the national parks and will allocate the money for the restoration and development of natural attractions, as the budget from the government is not sufficient.

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Line's adventure park to make global debut in #Bangkok

Line Village Bangkok says it will open a Line Village merchandise store on Friday before fully opening its doors in the capital's Siam Square at a cost of 500 million baht (US$14.7 million). (www.facebook.com/linevillagebangkok/ File) 

 The world's first indoor adventure park featuring friend characters of Japan's immensely popular messaging app provider Line Corp. will open later this year in Bangkok.

Line Village Bangkok says it will open a Line Village merchandise store on Friday before fully opening its doors in the capital's Siam Square at a cost of 500 million baht ($14.7 million).

The adventure park will showcase the houses of Line sticker characters -- Brown, Cony, Moon, James, Boss and Choco -- as well as photo shoot spots and digital games.

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 It anticipates 12 million visitors a year. Ticket prices will be around 800 baht. Kampanart Wonghongkul, chief executive officer of Fire Dragon International Co., says his Thai firm has been granted a license by Line Friends Corp., a subsidiary of the Tokyo-based messaging app company, to run the amusement facility. He expressed hope that Line Village will become a new tourist attraction in Bangkok.

According to Line Thailand, the Southeast Asian country is its second-largest market after Japan as more than 94 percent of Thais using mobile internet are Line users. 

 Read also: LINE introduces WAVE, its first smart home device

Source - TheJakartaPost
 

#Bangkok - Suvarnabhumi Standoff: Airport claps back after being called ninth worst

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Since being rated the ninth worst airport in the world last week in a report by the website airhelp.com, Suvarnabhumi has released a statement calling into question the survey, its data-collection methods, and their low score.  

In a Thai statement published on its Facebook page, Suvarnabhumi Airport called the survey unreliable and its methods unscientific.

The airhelp report, released last Monday, said that it took into consideration reviews from passengers regarding customer service, security, comfort, check-in, user experience, and quality of facilities at 76 airports around the world. Suvarnabhumi International Airport was rated 68, scoring just 6.3 points out of a possible 10. 

 

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The Bangkok airport said that, while they are open to criticism and suggestions for improvement, they never provided any info to airhelp and have a much higher rating on the better-known site FlightStat, which tracks flight data and airports. 

They also accused airhelp of only taking into account reviews written in English while the majority of reviews for the Bangkok airport are written in Thai.

Below is a translation of the statement released by the airport about the recent ranking:
Suvarnabhumi Airport will take comments from the passengers or the organizations who conducted the survey into consideration, as Suvarnabhumi views that this information is greatly beneficial to the management of the airport. We know that this information reflects the thoughts of the passengers. 

The ranking on airhelp.com was conducted for the first time this year, claiming that the survey was conducted between Dec. 2016 – March 2017 from sources that have no standards. Regarding the rankings for on-time performance, quality and service, and passenger sentiment categories, the survey does not declare the merits and demerits of the airports ranked in the list.
They address each ratings category individually:

1. On-time Performance
www.airhelp.com does not clearly state their source for the ranking. Suvarnabhumi insists that it has not provided any information regarding its performance to this website.
However, Flight Stats, an organization collecting real-time information on air traffic, ranks Suvarnabhumi at 13th place in the category of Global Hub Performance in May 2017.

2. Quality and Service
Airhelp.com stated that it sourced the information from SKYTRAX star ratings collected between Dec. 22, 2016 – March 20, 2017. There is no evidence that SKYTRAX confirms the correctness of the information for Airhelp.
The Airport Council International ranked Suvarnabhumi as the 10th best airport in the world last year.

3. Passenger Sentiment.
Airhelp.com stated that it sourced from Twitter. We found that Airhelp only conducts their ranking from English-language tweets and its own tools.
Suvarnabhumi Airport welcomes the results of all surveys if these surveys are from reliable or well-known organizations such as the Airport Council International, which ranked Suvarnabhumi 10th best airport in the world.

Probably worth pointing out here that the Airport Council International is a lobbying group for airports.

Source - Coconuts.co

#Thailand - Temples transformed: superheroes bolster Buddha's ranks

Superheroes are coming to the rescue of Thailand's temples, where monks have commissioned giant statues of comic book icons and toy robots to entertain children while parents donate to their coffers.

Instead of the traditional tranquil Buddhas and mythical beasts that adorn most monasteries in the land, the shimmering Wat Ta Kien temple outside Bangkok is guarded by three towering Transformer robots.

The enormous and intricate sculptures, made from bits of scrap metal and painted bright orange, yellow and blue, "have no spiritual purpose", explained monk Pra Vichien. 

"It's for children so they won't get bored when they come to the temple with their parents," he said.

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Other temples are following suit in a country whose monasteries compete to draw visitors and keep donations flowing.

At least four Buddhist temples across Thailand and a meditation centre have bought superhero statues, according to Pairoj Thanomwong, the Thai artist who runs the workshop where the sci-fi monsters and comic book figures are manufactured.

Armed with blow torches, heaps of metal bolts and twisted car parts, the artists piece together the elaborate sculptures in a warehouse in central Thailand called "Ban Hun Lek", which translates to "House of Iron Robots".

The largest sculptures -- around seven to eight metres high -- can be sold for thousands of dollars, he said.

The factory also sells its wares to local restaurants and bars but its biggest customer base lies abroad, especially in Europe, with around 80 per cent of sales made to overseas clients who have seen the statues on social media.

Pairoj started with comic book classics but has expanded production to to include everything from steely desks and chairs to polished replicas of luxury cars and motorcycles. 

Nearly 90 per cent of the materials are recycled metal, a cost-cutting measure that also means each piece is unique. 

Tastes have changed quickly since he went into business, he said.

"In terms of the products that people like, it evolves over time," Pairoj explained. 

"Over the past 10 years, people used to like (characters from) Aliens and Predator, but now they like the Transformers."

Source - TheNations

#Indonesia - Modangan Beach in Malang a haven for paragliding

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Fans of paragliding should consider adding one more destination to their list of places to visit: Modangan Beach.

Located in Sumberoto village in Malang, East Java, the beach, which has recently been named a tourist village area, is known as a place associated with the aerospace industry.

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 As paragliding serves as one of the beach’s main attractions, a local community, the Modangan Paragliding Club, employs senior paragliding coaches to train local youths to become paragliding athletes. The village is also home to a picturesque teak forest and several Instagrammable spots.

For those looking to spend a few days at the destination, Malang village is currently developing five homestay areas that occupy 1.5 hectares of land. The local administration reportedly plans to offer opportunities for the villagers to open their houses to be used as homestays for tourists.

Sumberoto village head Budi Utomo says the administration has plans to develop halal tourism at Modangan Beach, considering that the villagers are known to be religious.

 

 Read also: Malang's colorful kampongs attract photo enthusiasts

 

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