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Exploration Travel’s Managing Director,  Edwin Briels recently arrived back from Further East in Bali and he had so many excellent meetings with existing and new agents, that he is still busy sending personal follow-ups. Meanwhile our operations and customer service are in the midst of the high season and are creating smiles on the faces of visitors, as well as all our newly selected story tellers, guides and local suppliers in communities around Thailand. 

Further East in Bali

As takeaways from Further East, Edwin shares: “It was great coming back to Further East in Bali, the last time was before Covid and I am so glad that I attended, as I think it’s the only travel trade show (apart from Pure from the same company), that really understands experiential travel and applauds the way we want to show Thailand. I am happy to share some of my experiences for people who weren’t there.”

Open House

The first day of Further East is an inspirational day, called “Open House”, with talks from many entrepreneurs and visionaries in the industry, including Pure and Further East founder, Serge Dive. His talk was very much about the courage to stand out, come up with your own new ideas, follow your heart and always think about People and Planet.

Edwin was in a panel discussion on the topic: “What does the future of travel look like for APAC” and had a positive debate about overtourism (and “undertourism”, whereby communities don’t get the opportunity to benefit from tourism, while travellers miss out on forgotten or never awoken regions), sustainability and the art of creating genuine experiences. Edwin advocated that all travel should be sustainable and that despite its image, there is nothing more innovative and rewarding than creating genuine, non-staged experiences that touch the heart and that free emotions. The terms “algorithm tourism” versus genuine “goosebump travel experiences” probably sums up the discussion nicely.

What experiential travel agents worldwide talked about

It was inspirational to meet with so many existing and new agents during the appointment days (over 50 people in a short period) and we are glad to see that many agents understood the value of luxury excursions, away from the crowds. Luxury, for many of our clients, is not defined by top 5-star hotel branded accessories, but especially by personal encounters with local people and getting away from the ordinary path. 

As one agent commented “my clients live in small palaces at home and have everything they desire; when they come to Asia they want to get out and feel real and do something different”. Another American travel agent said “a real turn-off for my clients, is arriving to a popular tourist spot and banging into a queue of other tourists; they rather skip the most iconic attractions and go to an authentic, hidden places instead”. We were pleasantly surprised that several agents said they no longer sell Phuket, Samui and the floating market in Bangkok as we do agree these are not the best travel experiences for a real Thailand. 

A lot of sample itineraries were discussed, including Sukhothai – Burma Borderlands – Nan – Phanom Rung and Koh Kood. 

For a more visual inspiration, we created a photo book that illustrates a selection of special moments during the experiences our clients encounter, and we are happy to share this with you Exploration Moments – Photo book (Nov 24 – Further East)

All pictures are our own pictures or taken by the young and talented Thai photographer who recently joined us for some adventures and was completely in his element portraying different places.

Burma Borderlands Road trip – picture database

The first clients have experienced our new Burma Borderlands trip with Exploration Travel and the feedback has been fantastic. During the trip from Sukhothai to Chiang Mai, clients travel by 4-wheel car through remote parts of Tak and Mae Hong Son province and meet “story tellers” along the way. “Story tellers” are people who live in the area and work for example at a coffee plantation, as a ranger in a national park, as an English teacher or is somebody who is retired. All these people love to meet with foreign clients and show them around their community for an hour or so. Their English might not be perfect, and the story is not “AI scripted”, yet we think it’s important to have these genuine encounters when travelling in a country.   

Accommodation is always special during the trip; for example in a teak wooden hotel, in a small countryside guesthouse or in the beautiful Kanlaya Resort; certainly an experience clients don’t forget. 

For clients with less time or a little bit less adventurous appetite, we have the short version with an afternoon flight from Bangkok or Lampang to Mae Hong Son (daily except Tuesday  and Thursday with Bangkok Airways).

We’re creating a new picture database of the Burma Borderlands trip, please contact edwin@exploration.travel for the link.

Travelling in Thailand in the first quarter of 2025 – a perfect time!

While our operations are preparing for the peak season, our sales team is receiving many requests for the first quarter of 2025. It’s a very good time of the year to travel to Thailand and it’s dry all around, the temperatures are pleasant and it’s an excellent time to be away from the European winter.

Every year, people talk about the smog of the burning of paddy fields and we are glad to see the Thai government is trying to control the issue. We also do think that some reports are too alarming. Yes, many Asian cities are polluted and Chiang Mai is no exception and this is not good for health, especially for the local communities who are living daily in the smog. On the other hand, there are also many, many clear days and below pictures were taken by us in Mae Hong Son province in the first week of March 2025 and show blue skies.

Besides visiting Chiang Mai, we definitely always suggest visiting other, smaller Lanna towns in the area and we have developed excellent programs in Lampang, Nan and Mae Hong Son province.

In short: the first quarter of the year is excellent to visit Thailand, yes, there can be air pollution in the north and newspapers and social media will have “blazing headlines” – pun intended! Yet, as with many stories in the media; the reality on the ground is often very different.

Songkran dates – Thai New year

While the world is preparing for the new year on 31 December, the Thais are actually more interested in their own Songkran New Years festival, which is celebrated from 13 – 15 April 2025. Expect happy people nationwide, gently spraying some water and scented powder over visitors, coming together as a family, having a great time and in other places it’s more of a wild party. Quiet or raving, it is a cultural spectacle worth diving into. 

The festival is also celebrated in neighbouring countries (Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia) and officially has been recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity 

 

What to watch / read 

National Geographic released an excellent episode in their series of “epic food journeys” and guess what? “Our” local guide Ms Mook is in it, to show the presenter Mark Wiens around in her village and let him taste some excellent food. Watch this video to get an impression of the Karen village walk during our Burma Borderland trip: Mark Wiens Goes Night Fishing and Jungle Foraging in Remote Thailand | Epic Food Journeys | Nat Geo

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Edwin Briels and his team have been creating experiences for travellers for over 20 years. Edwin Briels continuously finds new paths to travel and new experiences to show clients the story of Myanmar and Thailand and engages you in a fascinating journey through this part of Asia with the most fascinating stories.