For Phuket's ethnic Chinese community, this bizarre festival is a time of cleansing, purity and abstinence.

Her aim is to help 'kickstart a revolution' by giving citizens access to the power and information to challenge and overturn decisions.

This nationwide 'coming of age day' celebration is held each year on the second Monday in January to congratulate those who have reached the nice round number of 20. The tradition goes back well over a thousand years to a time when young princes marked the beginning of their second decade by switching to wearing adult clothes and hairstyles.

In Japan on one day a year 20-year-olds pull out all the stops for a big, noisy, colourful public party, notes Ian D. Robinson.

This park, in Sri Lanka's hill country is the only one in the country where it is considered safe to explore on foot as the native elephant population which used to inhabit the area was decimated by colonial hunters.

Jill Worrall visits one of Sri Lanka's most impressive natural attractions and wonders who really decimated the local elephant population.

Every night of this spectacular annual festival, huge, colourful lantern floats are wheeled through the streets.

From biking, braving local delicacies and touring temples, Ann Newbery discovers there’s plenty to do in Kyoto, Japan.

Beyond the beaches, a world of sound awaits, writes Graham Reid.

Incredibly, most of the half-million tourists who visit this Indian Ocean nation annually miss out on exploring its cute capital.

Turkey's Aegean coast, is home to a wealth of antiquities, architecture and art with few parallels in the Mediterranean.

Sigiriya is one of Sri Lanka's eight Unesco-listed World Heritage Sites and is for me, its most spectacular monument, an absolutely vital part of any visit to this country.

Charlotte Whale and Mauricio Olmedo-Perez brave a malaria hot-spot and relish some first-class travel.

Air New Zealand is seeking to add twice-weekly flights to Bali to its international service.

From the earliest days of settlement, this hill - originally known as Bukit Larangan or Forbidden Hill because it was reserved for royalty - was the seat of power.

An ancient seat of power still presides over Singapore, finds Jim Eagles.