Travelfish.org

Photo provided by: Sarah Aves

With the use of the internet and expansion of blogging sites gathering information on traveling in foreign countries has never been easier. Whether it is a long or short trip, arrangements, information and reviews can be found on basically anywhere in the world you wish to travel.

Just last year I planned on traveling to Southeast Asia for a couple of months. I am not the type to just join a large travel group and go with the flow. I like to have control over the activities I do, the sights I am going to see, food I will eat, places I will sleep and all other aspects of travel. Although these groups are fine for some and often quite good if you have no one to travel with I prefer to do things at my own pace, thus I was going to have to plan my own trip to Southeast Asia.

Now this can seem daunting, planning a trip in a foreign country which I know nothing about. But it's nothing a little research on the internet can't solve. While doing my search I came across this fabulous site called Travelfish. This sites sole purpose is to provide information to travelers coming to Southeast Asia. The site was created by Samantha Brown and Stuart McDonald who had traveled through Southeast Asia and wanted to share some of their real experiences with other travelers. The site now has many researchers that live locally throughout Southeast Asia, ready to inform travelers on any changes or new exciting destinations that have been found.

Samantha and Stuart pride themselves on giving honest reviews and only suggesting and providing information on places that they both have been to themselves. They also have a list of useful tools like a check list of things to do before you leave, a summary of every place you might want to go, forums, feature stories and a list of Asia blogs. Many people also comment on the summaries of places they have written about allowing for even more opinions and stories to be told. This makes Travelfish a legitimate and resourceful site in which to plan a trip to Southeast Asia.

I personally used this site to make up my own itinerary and found that most summaries were spot on. So if you are thinking of branching out and doing your own thing in Southeast Asia, Travelfish is the place to start.