EVEN THE most avid Thai globetrotter is like to give a blank stare when asked to name tourist attractions in Bangladesh.

But 26 journalists from 10 European and Asian countries came away from a recent familiarisation trip impressed by how much there is to see and enjoy there.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation and Bangladesh Tourism Board organised this first such excursion last month, showing off the South Asian nation’s beautiful culture, nature and opportunities for adventure.

Teenagers are among the patrons of the Paharpur Buddhist Monastery.

India surrounds Bangladesh except for a relatively small connection to Myanmar in the southeast and the coastline on the Bay of Bengal. Three major rivers – the Parma, Meghna and Jamuna – converge in a massive estuary and what has been called the greatest delta in the world.

“Last year we had around 700,000 visitors, mostly from Thailand, China, Japan, India, Nepal and Bhutan,” said Mohibul Islam, assistant director of the Tourism Board. “We expect that number to increase.

“Bangladesh is a land of hospitality – the people are really friendly – a land of archaeological sites, the longest natural beach in the world, the world’s largest mangrove forest, a picturesque landscape, historic mosques and monuments, as well as a lot of forested hills and wildlife.”

Bangladesh’s amazingly rich history, culture and natural appeal were clear enough as I visited three World Heritage sites, the Paharpur Buddhist Monastery in Naogaon, the Sixty Domed Mosque City in Bagerhat, and that gigantic mangrove forest, which is called the Sundarbans.

Boys greet visitors to the Paharpur Monastery.

The Paharpur monastery in the northwestern district of Naogaon, is nearly 300 kilometres from the capital, Dhaka, meaning a six-hour drive. It is well worth the trek, though, being renowned as the country’s most spectacular and magnificent monument and the second-largest Buddhist monastery south of the Himalayas.

The monastery was built by Dharmapala Vikramshila between 770 and 810 AD, a fact inscribed on a clay seal discovered in the compound. It’s a large quadrangle with the elaborate main entrance on the north side.

The main central shrine, cruciform at the base, rises in three terraces to a height of about 70 feet.

The upper level is a massive rectangular central block. At the intermediate level there were originally two bands of terracotta around the perimeter, of which half remain in place. At the base of the shrine are more than 60 Hindu deities sculpted in stone.

The Sixty Domed Mosque was built in the 15th century.

The Sixty Domed Mosque – Shat Gombuj Masjid in Bangla (Bengali) is in Bagerhat, about 200km southwest of Dhaka. It was built in the 15th century and is the largest mosque in the country and regarded as the most impressive on the subcontinent.

The mosque walls are of tapered brick in the Tughlaq style and there are 77 squat domes, with seven four-sided pitched Bengali domes in the middle row. The vast prayer hall has 11 arched doorways on the eastside and seven each to the north and south, providing ventilation and light, but it’s nevertheless dark and sombre inside.

You can still see one of the original pillars, blackened close to the base and otherwise also quite different from those erected during reconstruction.

Teenagers commonly come to pray and families take an interest in their valuable national heritage.

The ancient pond Ghora Dighi is sacred – but handy for clean-ups too.

Behind the mosque is a vast sacred pond called Ghora Dighi where people stricken with disease once drank and bathed, believing its waters held the cure. The pond was designated a protected monument in 1986, but people still routinely do their dishwashing there.

Sundarbans National Park 140km from Kolkata Airport can only be accessed by boat and the ride takes about eight hours. This isn’t just mangrove central but also the natural habitat of the Royal Bengal Tiger, spotted deer, crocodiles, jungle fowl, wild boars and lots of lizards.

Where the land meets the sea at the southern tip of West Bengal lies the Indian Sunderbans, another area of impenetrable mangrove forest of great size and biodiversity.

The Sunderbans cover 4,264 square kilometres in India alone and are the largest tiger reserve and national park in India. Birdwatchers can glimpse rare species such as the Masked Finfoot, Mangrove Pitta and Mangrove Whistler.

A fisherman taps the natural abundance of Sundarbans National Park.

The Sunderbans are part of the world’s largest delta, formed by the mighty rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna. Situated on the lower end of Gangetic West Bengal, it is also the world’s largest estuarine forest.

The Sunderbans are criss-crossed by hundreds of creeks and tributaries. This is one of the most attractive and alluring places on earth, for most people a truly undiscovered paradise, drawing only about 2,500 visitors a week.

On the way there, we saw fishermen using trained otters to do the work for them, an ancient technique that is fascinating to watch.

Sharon Reyes, executive producer at Global Media Creators Productions in the Netherlands, summed up her perceptions drawn from the trip

“As an outsider, I think the Tourism Board has a lot of work to do, such as getting infrastructure built that will not only benefit the local community but also tour operators,” she said. “The board and the tour operator should decide exactly what they want to brand, their target clients, how they will market it and what areas they need to focus on more – the places that are ready to sell to the market.

“They should learn more about hospitality and do proper planning and in-depth research about each area. That’s very important before you showcase the place to foreign tourists. The potential is there, but the mentality should change. The big question is whether they are ready yet to change and accept other cultures.”

James Hubert Sebastian Dunn, an actor and journalist from England, said “Bangladesh is wonderful country. People are very friendly with smiling faces. I believe the country has a very bright future in tourism.”

Sander Groen, another journalist from the Netherlands, agreed.

“The country has great culture and nature and that wonderful beach,” he said. “I think Bangladesh has a lot of tourism potential. The people are so friendly, kind and helpful. I have to say that, of all the beautiful things I’ve seen. I admire the people most.”

SEE IT AT LEAST ONCE

Learn more at http://www.TourismBoard.gov.bd.

The national airline Biman Bangladesh operates direct flights from Bangkok to Dhaka. Go to http://www.Biman-Airlines.com.

The new age carrier also called for all travellers to join the fun in a one-of-a-kind summer parade with a host of attractive gifts to be given away on Vietjet flights from June 1 to July 31.

For the first time ever, Vietjet’s mascot Amy will be inviting passengers to experience a special summer across Asian countries and territories, including Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, Hong Kong and Indonesia in one of the airline’s biggest ever events with a series of entertainment activities only available on Vietjet’s flights.

Accordingly, passengers can dress up in cosplay style when travelling on Vietjet flights from June 1 to July 31 to receive a special gift. They can also attend a special parade to be held in Da Nang on June 29,

To snap up the Bt0 airfares during the “Love Connection – Show Your Summer Version” campaign, customers can make the most of the daily promotion, “12pm, it’s time to Vietjet!” with millions of tickets from just THB0 (Excluding taxes, fees) up for grabs at http://www.VietjetAir.com. Promotional tickets apply for domestic and international routes. Wherever they go, passengers will also get to enjoy funfilled activities exclusive to Vietjet’s flights during the summer time.

To get this party started, Vietjet is offering an additional 800,000 supersaver tickets for three ‘golden days’ from today through Friday (May 22 – 24). These promotional tickets will be available from 12pm to 2pm (GMT+7) for all domestic routes within Vietnam. The travel period for this promotion is from July 23 to December 31 (excluding national holidays).

All promotional tickets are available via the airline’s standard online sales channels: http://www.VietjetAir.com and Facebook.com/vietjetglobal/ (just click the “Booking” tab).

innovation. Known as “Multi-city”, it allows users to book flight tickets to several destinations in one transaction.

Users can easily add two additional destinations from and to several international destinations, such as Japan, South Korea, Australia, China, Europe, and the United Kingdom.

According to Mastercard Future of Outbound Travel in Asia Pacific (2016 to 2021) data, Thailand is expected to record annual outbound travel growth of 4.8 per cent during this period with the number of tourists expected to exceed 9.1 million people in 2021. This growth is also expected to increase, both due to business trips and leisure travel.

Caesar Indra, senior vice president of Traveloka’s Business Development, said: “We understand that outbound travel shows positive growth. This is also in line with our understanding and valuable input from our users to provide Multi-city flight features. When travelling abroad and staying in a country such as Japan, visitors often move from one city to another. For instance, they will arrive in Tokyo but move to Kyoto or Osaka and make the last city they visited their return flight location. By using Multi-city flight feature, we want to invite users to explore the world around them and remain also committed to continuing to accommodate users’ needs.”

To access the Multi-city flight feature, users should open the Traveloka application and on the main page, select the Flight icon product,

On the Search Flights page, select Multi-city; Select your 1st and 2nd flight destination, fill in passengers data and preference seat class; Click “Search” and page will show the results of a flight search that matches your flight destination

Multi-city flight feature is available in Traveloka application version 3.9 and above, both on Android & iOS devices, and can also be accessed on desktop computers.

The Multi-city flight feature is also equipped with Smart Combo service, where the service will show affordable airline ticket prices both for departure and return flight.

“With this new flight feature, we hope to be able to further enhance our user experience while strengthening the evidence of our commitment to provide end-to-end and integrated solutions for travel & lifestyle,” Indra added

For more information, visit http://www.Traveloka.com/flight/multi-city.

THE EHIME University Museum in Matsuyama has one of the largest collections of insect specimens of any university in Japan, boasting more than 1.2 million beetles, bees, butterflies and other insects from around the world.

This is one of the finest collections held by a university established under the post-war education system. Every summer it holds an insect exhibition that mesmerises insect-loving boys and girls.

Large and small butterflies spread their colourful wings in German-style specimen boxes as if they were alive, while stink bugs smaller than grains of rice are lined up in neat rows by type. The boxes are stacked on the shelves in a specimen room filled with the acrid smell of chemicals.

According to Hiroyuki Yoshitomi, 46, an associate professor of the Entomological Laboratory at Ehime University’s Faculty of Agriculture, 70 per cent of the insects in about 4,300 specimen boxes at the museum belong to the coleopterous family. The museum has an especially world-class collection in that type of insect, which includes beetles, ladybird beetles and long-horned beetles.

“The collection is the result of about seven decades of effort by teachers and students,” Yoshitomi says.

The museum was established by Tamotsu Ishihara (1918-93), the laboratory’s first professor. He later chaired the Entomological Society of Japan.

Ishihara became an assistant staff member in Kyushu University’s laboratory after graduating from the University of Tokyo. In 1945, immediately after the end of World War II, he assumed a post at the Ehime Prefectural Agriculture and Forestry School, the predecessor of Ehime University’s Faculty of Agriculture.

There were many unknown insects at that time, as there was limited knowledge and experience in this area in the Shikoku region.

Directed by Ishihara to collect as many insect samples as possible, teachers and students went around mountains and rivers near the university with insect nets in their hands. At night, they would turn on the lights on the roof of the university building to catch insects drawn to the illumination.

They would then mount the insects or dissect them to identify what they were. Their range of activity ultimately spread throughout the entire Shikoku region, the nation and abroad.

About 10 students conduct research at the laboratory every year. They often travel to remote islands in Okinawa Prefecture or Southeast Asia, for example, to gather insects.

Yukito Tada, 22, who was a laboratory member until this spring, walked around Ishigakijima island in Okinawa Prefecture for a week during his junior year, searching for coleopterous insects of the Cantharidae family.

“Whenever we lab members get together, we talk about where we’re going next time to find insects,” Tada smiles.

Yoshitomi adds: “The collection and classification of insects are a true tradition passed down through generations at our laboratory.”

“That’s why all the lab members – teachers and students – love catching insects. We’re all mushi-ya (insect enthusiasts). Ishihara-sensei was also a mushi-ya first and foremost,” he adds with a smile.

The laboratory has organised a summer insect exhibition every year since 1997. Future mushi-ya gather crowd in to see the laboratory’s vaunted collection.

Shigetomi Matsuno, 32, who works at the Wakayama Prefectural Museum of Natural History, enter Ehime University and became an insect researcher after he was inspired by the exhibition as a high-school student in Hiroshima Prefecture.

“I was shocked by the massive collection. I could feel the researchers’ love for insects not just from the volume of the collection but also the way they carefully prepared the specimens,” he recalls.

Yoshitomi has something on his mind these days: He says an increasing number of parents tell their children not to touch the live insects at the exhibition because, for example, they are “dirty.”

“Insects are the most familiar way for children to learn about nature and the environment. The personal experience of getting close to them will bear fruit when they grow up. They won’t litter garbage and engage in other disruptive behaviour, for example,” Yoshitomi says. “Making insect specimens may seem simple and unflashy, but it plays a large role.”

IF YOU GO

>> The museum is on Ehime University’s Johoku Campus, a 20-minute streetcar ride from JR Matsuyama Station plus a five-minute walk. Only researchers can enter the specimen room, but part of the collection is on permanent exhibit. This year’s exhibition will run from August 8-12.

>> It’s open daily, except Tuesday, from 10am to 4.30pm.

>> Admission is free.

Now in its tenth edition, the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival will feature an action-packed programme.

The dragon boat, a long canoe carved with a decorative dragon head and tail and painted with totems, embodies the venerable creature in Chinese mythology.

“Traditionally, dragon boats and paddles are made from teak and camphorwood and there are three different boat sizes. Today in international races, the stronger fibreglass is used and the boats are standardised in size,” says HKCDBA chairman Arnold Chung Chi Lok.

While dragon boat racing is practised throughout the world year-round nowadays, Hong Kong is the world’s first to organise invitation races, and has been hosting a major carnival since 2010 to promote the sport.

Dragon Boat Festival celebrations in Hong Kong are heated. In addition to wellknown races in Stanley, Shatin and Aberdeen on June 7, the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival will push the festivities to the summit in the weekend that follows (June 14 to 16).

One can expect to witness vigorous battles among some of the world’s strongest dragon boat teams at the threeday carnival. Previously a Hong Kong dragon boat team member and coach, Chung said that it is no easy feat to paddle in Victoria Harbour: “The deep, wavy water poses a great challenge. That said, the atmosphere is wonderful, especially when you see spectators lining the harbourfront to cheer on the teams.”

This year will surely be more exciting for Thai spectators, as the Thailand Dragon Boat Team and the CU Dragon Boat Team will be participating in the competitive races.

Conventional races aside, there will be a “Fancy Dress Competition”, while a funfilled playground with a manmade beach, a “Splash Area”, the Street Food Gala, the newly introduced Artisanal Market and more will be set up at the Central Harbourfront – and entrance is free for all.

The Dragon Boat Festival wouldn’t be complete without the festive food – glutinous rice dumplings. Theresa Mak, cook, food writer and top apprentice of Cantonese cuisine authority Pearl Kong Chen, makes dumplings at home every Dragon Boat Festival. She recalls “In the 1940s and 50s, people were eating small, almost bite-size savoury dumplings made of glutinous rice, mung beans and braised pork belly.”

Today, the bigger, leafwrapped steamed rice dumplings which contain a greater variety of ingredients, from salted egg yolk to roast duck, roast pork, dried scallops, Jinhua ham and shiitake mushrooms, can easily feed two to three people.

Another choice is the sweet lye water dumpling, made with yellow tinted sticky rice and a lotus paste filling. Visitors should also try other regional variations available in Hong Kong, such as Zhongshan’s reedwrapped rice dumplings and the famous Shanghainese rice dumplings from Jiaxing and Huzhou.

Find out more at http://www.DiscoverHongKong.com/eng/seedo/eventsfestivals/highlightevents/dragonboatcarnival.jsp.

The “2 Billion Kilometres to Safety” campaign encourages people to support refugees by championing individual acts of solidarity. These acts, when taken together, acknowledge the resilience and strength of refugees.

UNHCR traced the journeys of refugees around the world and calculated that collectively, people forced to flee travel approximately two billion kilometres every year to reach the first point of safety. In 2016, Syrian refugees travelled more than 240 kilometres to reach Turkey, South Sudanese refugees travelled more than 640 kilometres to reach Kenya, and Rohingya refugees in Myanmar travelled approximately 80 kilometres to reach Bangladesh.

The “2 Billion Kilometres to Safety” campaign invites people to act in solidarity and run, walk or cycle to achieve a cumulative total of two billion kilometres. Participants can use their fitness apps or the campaign website – http://www.Unhcr.or.th – to log the kilometres and contribute to a global total.

In Thailand, UNHCR introduces the campaign with a “2 Billion Kilometres to Safety” charity run to be held on June 16 on Rajdamnern Nok Avenue in order to commemorate World Refugee Day on June 20. The charity run is the first in a series of events organised by UNHCR’s corporate partners to accumulate the distance covered by Thai people and contribute to the campaign to show solidarity with refugees worldwide.

“Running, walking and cycling are well accepted in Thailand. This campaign will encourage Thai people to support refugees through something they are already doing,” said Giuseppe de Vincentiis, UNHCR representative in Thailand. “At a time of record high global displacement, it is vital that we remind ourselves of the real and dangerous journeys they are forced to take.”

Thailand is one of 27 countries across Africa, Asia, Central and North America, Europe and the Middle East taking part in the campaign, including individuals, celebrity supporters, refugees and UNHCR personnel.

“Refugees do not have a choice and must take dangerous journeys to seek safety for their own lives and those of their loved ones’,” says UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Praya Lundberg. “To show solidarity with refugees, I will start by running at the 2 Billion Kilometres Charity Run to step with refugees and ask all Thais to join me.”

Tickets are available at Bt550 and Bt1,000 and can be purchased at http://www.Unhcr.or.th. All proceeds will go to support refugees with registration and reception services, food and water, shelter, basic aid, healthcare and psychological support.

“The campaign is basically aimed at attracting domestic visitors this year and we have started promotional campaign drive in all seven provinces,” said Shankar Pokharel, Chief Minister of Province 5.

Bhairahawa, the gateway to Lumbini, has transformed itself into one of Nepal’s largest tourism and industrial hubs with investors and the government pouring billions into infrastructure development.

The once sleepy market town in the Tarai plains was thrust on to the international stage after becoming the gateway to the pilgrimage destination of Lumbini. Proliferating factories and a rapidly spreading transportation network have turned Bhairahawa into an economic powerhouse.

Lumbini, which attracts international pilgrims as the birthplace of the Buddha, has observed the construction of large-scale infrastructure from an international airport, industrial corridor, trade highways to a bevy of luxury hotels.

“The Visit Lumbini campaign is not only aimed at drawing domestic and foreign tourists, but to let everyone known that the area is ready to welcome investors with its world class infrastructure,” Pokhrel told the press.

A six-lane highway has already been constructed from bordering Sunauli in India to Gautam Buddha International Airport and is expected to come into operation by the end of this year.

Lila Giri, Minister for Industry, Tourism, Forests and Environment of Province 5, said that the provincial government has allocated a budget of Rs40 million (Bt11.3 million) for the campaign with key focus on attracting domestic tourists from across the country.

More than 1.55 million tourists visited Lumbini in 2017, of which 1.25 million were domestic visitors, according to the statistics of the Lumbini Development Trust. The statistics show that foreigner numbers stood at 301,240, including 155,444 Indian visitors.

Despite the growth in foreign tourist numbers, foreign tourists’ stay in the birthplace of Buddha has not increased, travel trade entrepreneurs said. Nearly 90 per cent of foreigners visiting Lumbini spend less than an hour in the area before moving on.

Foreign tourists usually stay for an average of 13 days in Nepal but most travellers visiting Lumbini barely stay for 30 minutes, according a study conducted in 2013. The survey titled “Visitors Survey and Observation” revealed that 72.6 per cent of the visitors spent only half an hour sightseeing in Lumbini.

According to Giri, the campaign objective is to increase the visitors’ length of stay and create local jobs by adding infrastructure and other facilities. “We have launched road shows and other promotional programmes in some key Indian cities also,” he said.

Lumbini is a potential worldclass tourist destination for 500 million Buddhists in Asia. It hosts the birthplace of the Buddha and over 100 related archaeological sites scattered within a 50km radius.

Offering the space of a land-based hotel, this innovation in the river cruise segment is offering breaks on the river Rhine from 2021.

With a width of 17.7 metres and a fourth deck, the ship is extremely spacious. All standard cabins are generously sized and feature a balcony, and there is a dedicated family area with a kids club and an extensive sun deck with separate adults’ and children’s pools.

“We have designed our new ship according to the wishes of our guests. Our customers appreciate the fact that they can enjoy many kinds of holiday rolled into in one with us,” reads the press release advertising the service.

“A city break, a package holiday, a cruise that takes in natural and cultural sites, a spa break – with A-Rosa, you don’t have to choose just one. You can have them all.”