Explore, the adventure travel specialists, has launched eight brand new ‘Explore Beyond’ trips, which offer cruising through the tropical waters of West Papua, exploring the remote villages of the Ivory Coast or experiencing the Adivasi Tribal Fair in east India. 

Thais and tourists have headed warily into the main part of a big holiday weekend as authorities hunted for suspects and a motive behind a series of blasts that struck resort towns across the south in some of the worst violence since a military coup two years ago.

Directski.com reports huge increases in group bookings for the next skiing season and advises potential customers to get their skates on, with Christmas, New Year and mid-term break periods very heavily booked. 

Thailand: Bangkok’s main international airport has issued an apology after a snake was found on a luggage cart in the arrival hall and startled passengers.

I PASSED through Los Cristianos in southern Tenerife last week on my way to my youngest son’s wedding on the island of La Gomera. 

More than a dozen Irish tourists stranded in Thailand when fog closed an airport in Abu Dhabi are to make their own way home after giving up on Etihad Airways.

One of the founders of popular file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has been arrested under an Interpol warrant as he was crossing into Thailand from Laos.

Europe’s best golfers may still be jockeying for position on the 2014 Race To Dubai, with the season’s climax at the DP Tour Championship still five weeks away.

International intelligence agencies have joined the investigation into the two passengers who boarded the missing Boeing 777 plane with stolen passports.

An explosive volcanic eruption on Indonesia’s most populous island has blasted ash and debris 18kms into the air, killing two people while forcing authorities to evacuate more than 100,000 and close six airports.

A Thai court has sentenced a British kickboxer to 25 years in jail for the 2010 murder of a former US Marine on a resort island.

Thai authorities have arrested a bar owner in connection with a lewd sex show mentioned in racy tweets by pop star Rihanna during her recent trip to Thailand, two weeks after an Instagram photo of Rihanna with a protected primate led to the arrest of two men.

Rihanna seems to be attracting a whole new social media following these days - police.

US: The cameras were rolling even though the Kardashians were not filming their reality show.

About two dozen people on two flights were injured when their aircraft hit turbulence before landing at Hong Kong today.

Four people died when a fire swept through a nightclub frequented by foreign tourists on the Thailand’s resort island of Phuket.

British rocker Pete Doherty has been asked to leave an upmarket drug rehab centre in Thailand, with the centre saying his lack of commitment jeopardised the treatment of other patients.

SINGLES TO HAVE A BALL AS BARÇA BECKONS

Catching The Sun

In nations around the Indian Ocean, thousands scrambled for higher ground after powerful quakes triggered fears of a disaster in a region all too familiar with the power of a tsunami.

A massive earthquake off Indonesia triggered tsunami fears across the Indian Ocean today sending people in coastal cities fleeing to high ground.

A tsunami watch has been issued for countries across the Indian Ocean after a large earthquake hit waters off Indonesia, sending people pouring from their homes in panic.

BATS were flitting through the trees as I watched a group of aging Europeans with serious cases of waist-slippage drink Angkor beer and dine on slim frogs at a pavement restaurant by the riverside in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

An Iranian armed with grenades blew off his own legs and wounded four civilians in a trio of blasts in Bangkok.

EVEN in troubled times, tourism in Thailand appears to be flourishing with the numbers of Irish travellers increasing year on year.

Thai police said today an American tourist was killed on the island of Phuket after a British man allegedly picked a fight with him at a bar, followed him back to his hotel and stabbed him to death.

Buddhist monks in orange robes chanted on a Thai beach, an Indonesian mother mourned her children at a mass grave, and a man scattered flowers in now-placid waters today to commemorate the 230,000 killed five years ago when a tsunami ripped across Asia.

A strong earthquake struck deep under the sea in eastern Indonesia today, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, officials said.

Alex Reid and Katie Price spent hours in "crisis talks" yesterday, as he tried to save their three-month relationship.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that North Korea had “no friends left” to defend it from nuclear sanctions, triggering vitriolic defiance from the Stalinist regime.

THESE may be troubled times, but the travel industry is ploughing ahead with plans to keep the “ship” afloat over the next six months or so.

THE totally Irish-owned travel company Topflight are ! ski specialists but they have moved carefully into the summer overseas holiday market during the last 20 years as well.

Sunderland will draw up a shortlist of candidates to replace Roy Keane later this week – but former boss Peter Reid will not be on it.

Victorious anti-government protesters lifted their siege of Bangkok’s two airports today while the ousted government’s leaders met to decide on a caretaker prime minister to lead Thailand.

France sent a jumbo jet to Thailand today to pick up some of its nationals stranded by the closure of Bangkok’s two civilian airports.

More than 300,000 travellers were today stranded in Thailand, trapped in the siege of Bangkok’s two airports by anti-government demonstrators.

Tensions in Thailand were mounting tonight as stranded holidaymakers were forced to wait it out in Bangkok.

Thousands of stranded tourists will be flown out of Thai military bases in the next 48 hours, the country’s tourism minister promised today.

The political crisis gripping Thailand could damage vital tourism trade, experts said today.