"Christmas in the Tropics" Orchard Street, Singapore.

Getting ready for any trip takes months and weeks of research and planning. While you prepare all the activities, transportation and documentation for your trip, don’t forget that taking care of your health should be the number one priority! A quick visit to Passport Health will ensure you receive the very latest information regarding outbreaks or security issues which may affect your trip.  

Planning to stay healthy while you travel is the MOST important part of planning for your trip. The best ways to ensure a safe and healthy trip are to be educated about the health risks you may encounter, take the necessary precautions to be protected and receive the vaccinations that you need.  A lot can change in just a few months; even in just a few weeks, so be sure to contact us for the latest updates in safety information, recommended vaccines and malaria medication.

Of course these are general recommendations.  Your travel medicine specialist will make specific recommendations based on your length of stay, prior vaccine record, your health history, planned activities, time of year, altitude and other risk factors.  You may need more or less vaccinations depending on the variables which will affect your trip.

The cuisine in Asia is superb and varies a lot from region to region, country to country and even city to city.  While experiencing the local gastronomy is one of the highlights of any trip, we would like to remind you to take precautions when you drink water and make sure your food is thoroughly cooked. Being properly vaccinated before you go is one layer of protection.  The knowledge that your travel medicine specialist will share regarding disease patterns and how to prevent them is another.

Like you, we absolutely love to travel and to have fun discovering, trekking, climbing, dining, dancing, swimming and absorbing a new culture.  We know how exciting it is to travel during the holidays and want to wish you a fun-filled odyssey and a safe and happy return.  Happy holidays and a prosperous new year from our family to yours.

Enjoy your holiday travels!

Are you on Facebook? Of course you are! So are we! Stop by, like our page and share with us your travel stories and photos.

Great Wall of China

Not as many Americans travel to Asia as Europeans. We recommend that you travel to Asia in small groups, independently or via cruise. Many of the tours that we recommend are conducted by some of our favorite vendors who offer a variety of group tours including: a 15 day tour of China and Japan, a 14 day tour of Vietnam and Cambodia, a 12 day tour touring all of Thailand, a 14 day tour of India, or taking a river cruise and discovering China on a 15 day river cruise visiting Shanghai, the Georges Dam, cruise down the Daming River, the Shibaozhai and ending up in Beijing. One our favorite tours is a vacation visiting Beijing, Xi’an, and Shanghai. As you’d expect from a trip to China, a tour highlight is your visit to the Great Wall of China. Known as one of the Seven Wonders of the World, it is the only man-made object that can be seen from space by the naked eye. As you walk along the wall, see how expansive it is and imagine what it was like to construct the wall—at a time without modern machinery to help! As if the Great Wall of China is not enough to astonish you, wait until you see the Terracotta Warriors. Discovered accidentally in 1974, construction on the roughly 8,000 soldiers, chariots, and horses started in 210 BC—all to help China’s first emperor in the afterlife.

Best Times to Visit: The Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Chinese populations, such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Tibet, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and also in Chinatowns elsewhere. The Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors, as well as cultures with whom the Chinese have had extensive interaction. This time is on the first day of the Chinese calendar which is on January 23, 2012. Another time you might not want to miss is Lantern Festival, The Colorful of Southern Cities.  It runs from November 1, 2011 through February 28, 2012 in Had Yai District (Songkla Province), Thailand. You can experience “9 Wonders of Lantern of Happiness”,  such as Ice Lantern from Harbin of People's Republic of China, Lanterns from 14 Southern Provinces, Lanterns from 4 regions of Thailand, International Lanterns of the World Children’s Imagination, and enjoy Thai local festivals as well as lantern contests.

Chinese Lantern Festival

Tanah Lot Temple in Bali

Some of our suggestions when visiting Bali include the Besakih Temple in Eastern Bali –which is best known as the “Mother Temple of Bali” and the Tanah Lot Temple which is a temple that stands on top of a huge rock, surrounded by the sea and is one of Bali's most important sea temples. Tanah Lot pays homage to the guardian spirits of the sea. Poisonous sea snakes found in the caves at the base of the rocky island are believed to be guardians of the temple, standing virgil against evil spirits and intruders. You’ve also got the Utuwan Temple. It’s known as Bali’s most spectacular temples located on a cliff top at the edge of a plateau 250 feet above the waves of the Indian Ocean.

About the Author Martie Watson has been in the travel industry for 10 years and has over 20 years of Marketing, Sales and Customer Service experience. She has created a community service for brides and their families by hosting wedding seminars that help families determine the right questions to ask when planning a wedding. Martie is an ambassador for the Collierville and Bartlett Chambers and is an active member of the Kindness Revolution, Business Over Coffee and Weddings and Events Association of Memphis.  She is Sandals certified and has traveled throughout the U.S., The Caribbean and parts of Europe.

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A health worker from Nigeria and amateur bowlers from Maryland may seem worlds apart, but they are both connected in the global fight against malaria, a preventable and treatable disease that takes nearly a million lives a year.

“Malaria is the No. 1 killer of children globally, claiming one child every 45 seconds,” says Rev. John Nunes, LCMS pastor and president of Lutheran World Relief (LWR), a Baltimore-based pan-Lutheran relief and development ministry. “We have to work to stamp out malaria so that children might learn, grow and thrive with the dignity God gives all people.”

In response, LWR and The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod have teamed up to form the Lutheran Malaria Initiative (LMI), an unprecedented nationwide effort to mobilize millions of Lutherans in the United States to raise funds and awareness to help end malaria deaths in Africa by 2015.

“LMI gives Lutherans an opportunity to work with international partners to end malaria deaths. Specifically, we’ll work with our partners in Africa to help promote awareness of malaria symptoms and encourage people to seek timely treatment,” says Rev. John Fale, interim executive director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care. “We do this in response to the Gospel call to action, showing the mercy of Jesus Christ and responding to His call to relieve suffering.”

Preaching the Gospel “Wherever I go, I am talking about malaria,” says Rev. David Ngogo. “Many people have lost their lives because of ignorance about malaria. Through education, we could save a lot people.” Ngogo is pastor of a rural parish in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT). With support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), LWR partnered with the ELCT to educate church members about malaria prevention, how to recognize symptoms and what to do if they or their children became ill. Ngogo is one of more than 1,600 ELCT leadership and staff trained to deliver malaria messages in their congregations and parishes.

“God has empowered us to know how to avoid diseases like malaria,” he says. “Because of this empowerment we can defeat bad things like malaria. Since we started, more than one person [in my parish] has gotten sick and recognized the symptoms early enough to seek treatment,” Ngogo says.

Wii Fight Malaria
When St. Paul Lutheran Church in Annapolis, Md., was invited to be an LMI pilot congregation, the members decided there was really only one thing they could do: Have a Wii bowling tournament!

“It seemed like a great idea and a good way to have fun and get everyone involved,” said Rev. Josh Hatcher, St. Paul’s pastor. Each tournament player paid $10 a game to play. “We told people, ‘Buy a net. Bowl a round,’” Hatcher explained.

The tournament was a successful first step, raising $1,500 for malaria work. Lutherans are encouraged to get involved in malaria work, Hatcher says, “because we can. God promised to Abraham that his people would be a blessing to the world. We can do that. Fighting malaria is faith through grace in action.”

About the Author Nikki Massie is a staff writer at Lutheran World Relief.

By: Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA)

Over the course of the past few months, Thailand has been struck by what has been described as the worst flooding in 50 years. Provinces to the immediate north of Bangkok as well as some districts in suburban Bangkok were inundated. In no time, news reports with images of flooded areas and aircraft surrounded by water circulated online as well on print and TV media. Much of the world had the incorrect belief that much of the country was under water and that travel and tourism in Thailand was difficult or impossible.

Amid the crisis, PATA took a stand to appeal to the media for balanced reporting and to get the truth out there – that the main impact was confined to central Thailand and suburban Bangkok. Our correct message was that central Bangkok, like the vast majority of upcountry Thailand, was open and ready to welcome visitors. (Which is still the situation.)

PATA member organisations have helped victims affected by the Thailand flood (none of whom were tourists).

Japan Airlines (JAL) provided free transport of relief goods from Japan to Thailand. From November 10, 2011 to December 9, 2011, JAL will transport relief goods on scheduled JAL Group operated flights from Tokyo's Narita and Haneda airports, as well as Osaka (Kansai) to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport.

Some 30 JW Marriott Hotel Bangkok staff associates (pictured above) went to a refugee centre in the Chaengwattana district of Bangkok to serve hot meals to about 4,000 flood victims.

Furthermore, in April 16-17, 2012 PATA, together with the World Travel and Tourism Council,  will conduct the PATA-WTTC Tourism Recovery Forum in Sendai, Japan. The forum is designed to help tourism destinations struck by disasters (such as tsunamis and floods) bounce back quickly.

PATA also extends an invitation to travel industry stakeholders to take part in its upcoming events in 2012:

PATA Adventure Travel and Responsible Tourism Conference and Mart, February 3-7, Paro, Bhutan
Pacific Asia Indigenous Tourism Conference, March 29-30, Darwin, Australia
PATA Annual Meeting, April 20-22, Putrajaya, Malaysia
PATA Travel Mart, September 25-28, Manila, Philippines