Parol, or star-shaped lanterns, are a staple of Christmas festivities in the Philippines, and Pampanga is the place to go if you want to see more of these multi-colored, flashing marvels. Come December, almost every home in the Philippines has one of these blinking from the windows; the best and biggest of them come from the province of Pampanga, where the "Ligligan Parul", or Giant Lantern Festival, is held every December.

Our Awesome Planet has a great blog entry on how these monsters are made. And Ultimate Pampanga Tours is covering the Giant Lantern Festival in Pampanga, Philippines, as part of a bigger tour of the area that includes a tour of the good food the place has to offer.

The Ligligan Parul event itself is not one to miss: different towns around San Fernando, Pampanga competing for the distinction of having the best giant parol for the year. It's good business, too, for the parol-makers who sell their wares to the onlookers who stream in from the capital Manila.

For more on the Ligligan Parul, go here: Giant Lantern Festival.

Christmas light-up on Orchard Road, Singapore. Image © Craige Moore/Creative Commons.

So what's the point of celebrating Christmas in a snowless tropical country? Why go celebrate the Yuletide season where "White Christmas" is shorn of meaning?

You'd wonder, wouldn't you - until you make your way to Singapore, where the shopping- and scenery-mad Singaporeans are working their tushies off to give visitors and locals alike an unforgettable Christmas experience. Find out more when you venture onto our page: Christmas in Singapore.

Hey Barack Obama, don't look now, but the Indonesian capital of Jakarta just put up a statue of you. As a kid in short pants. Now don't let your head get any bigger now.

It is a bronze statue of a smiling 10-year old Barack Hussein Obama in shirt and shorts, with a butterfly perched on his outstretched hand. [...]

"This statue is designed to inspire Indonesia's children, to tell them that they can be anyone they want to be," Ron Mullers, chairman of the Jakarta-based Friends of Obama Foundation, which initiated and raised the money for the statue, said. [...]

"I think what's really nice about it is that it reminds us that the man who's now the U.S. President grew up here, eating bakso and nasi goreng, speaking bahasa and learning about the world," Mullers said.

OK, I dig it. Particularly the eating local food part - last time I was in that part of town I had nasi gila with my new friends on Pestablogger '08, and I agree about the nice part - but maybe they ought to be putting up a statue to the bakso and nasi goreng chefs first? That's just me.

Anyway, next time you're in that part of the world, you might like to check out my list of top things to do in Jakarta. You'll love it there, even if they likely won't put up a statue in your honor.

Image © Jakarta Post.

Orchard Road, Singapore, with the Heeren in the foreground. Image © Singapore Tourism Board.

This Christmas, the magic word in Singapore is - "Celebrations Hotel Packages".

Say the magic word, and you'll get one night free when you stay at participating Orchard Road hotels between November 7, 2009 and January 3, 2010. Just quote the promotional code while booking: "Celebrations Hotel Packages".

For as low as SGD 208++ a night, guests enjoy free daily breakfast, free tour of the Christmas light-up along Orchard Road and Marina Bay on a decked-up open top bus, and so much more:-

• Free food vouchers at the historic Lau Pa Sat food center
• 25% off two full-priced Adult admission tickets at Mint Museum of Toys, and free two children's tickets
• Free wellness treatments and traditional Chinese medicine consultation at IAG HealthSciences on Orchard Road
• SGD 10 Voucher for Captain Explorer DUKw Tour (originally priced at SGD 29.90) & SGD 8 Voucher for FunVee City Hopper 1 Day Pass (originally priced at SGD 19.90).

Additional hotel offers, and terms & conditions depend on the hotel you book.

For a list of participating hotels, go here: "Celebrations Hotel Packages" Participating Hotels in Singapore.

Image © Mike Aquino, licensed to About.com

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the two nights I stayed in Long Life Hotel (schizophrenically also named Thanh Xuan Hotel, which is the same thing in Vietnamese). I loved the sincere attempts at recreating old-style Vietnamese architecture, with the addition of Romanesque columns. I loved the good service I got from its staff.

I just had one complaint - it's the windows inside the room. Why oh why did the architect add a window from the bathroom into the bedroom? If I were traveling with a companion I weren't having sex with, that would be a problem. I was traveling with my cousin Jake for the first leg of my Vietnam trip - thankfully he'd flown home by the time I got to Hoi An, or I would probably have had this conversation.

"Dude - mind getting out of the room while I take a crap and shower? It just doesn't, you know, feel right that you're watching CNN in plain view while I'm on the john. You'll thank me for it - my stomach didn't do so well with the pho we had last night, if you know what I mean."

It was a tiny detail anyway, and the hotel had a good number of upsides. To read my take on this Hoi An hotel, read this article: Long Life Hotel in Hoi An, Vietnam.

Image © Lara Djonggrang, used with permission.

The Lara Djonggrang Restaurant in Jakarta, Indonesia celebrates the end of the year with Indonesia's Cultural Dining Series, embodied in the Pasar Malam Lara Djonggrang, a tribute to the Javanese market (pasar malam) that has dominated village life in Indonesia for hundreds of years.

Inspired by traditional pasar malam, Lara Djonggrang's take on the Javanese market brings together different delicacies, presented together with cultural presentations the bring out the best of Javanese culture. Read more...

"Fresh Food", acrylic on canvas. Image © Arya Sucitra / Komaneka Fine Art Gallery, used with permission.

Artists Arya Sucitra and Nyoman Agus Wijaya take on art from different perspectives - Arya is a painter, while Nyoman prefers sculpture. For Arya, cows are her main subject, while Nyoman likes to sculpt dogs.

Both Arya and Nyoman will reveal their unique perspectives on animal friends to guests at Komaneka Fine Art Gallery in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia this December 30.

"Friend or Foe" explores the competition and collaboration inherent in struggling Bali artists, using Arya and Nyoman's favored subjects, leavened with a dash of humor. Read more...

Armed guard at mosque beside Lanao Lake, Muslim Mindanao, Philippines. Image ©  Mike Aquino, licensed to About.com.

There's no shaking it: the Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines is one of the worst evils to take place in this part of the world. I'm all for encouraging people to visit the island where I was born, the country I live in, but I can't lie and say that no bad shit goes down in this part of town.

Yes, bad shit does go down. You might want to cross Muslim Mindanao off your travel list. You know the "hundred places to go before you die"? Muslim Mindanao might be on the list of "hundred places to go if you want to die". Especially if you're a reporter, the M-16-toting lunatics there love reporters. Love them to death.

We city-dwelling folk in the Philippines - those of us in the capital of Manila, about 600 miles northwest of Maguindanao - we like to ignore this kind of trouble, but it gets hard to ignore when election season rolls around. Read more...

Image © Mike Aquino, licensed to About.com.

That's my PC at the dresser in my hotel room at Victory Hotel, Hue, Vietnam. I liked where I ended up - as my first choice couldn't accommodate my change of schedule, I switched over to the side of Victory - and got more than my money's worth.

For more on my Hue hotel experience, read my review: Victory Hotel, Hue, Vietnam.

Image from "Cu Chi Guerrillas" © Cu Chi Tunnel, 1967.

One of the most interesting things they show you when you visit the Cu Chi Tunnels exhibit in Vietnam - provided you can muster a sufficient sense of irony - is the kitschy propaganda video "Cu Chi Guerrillas" (shot in 1967, in flickery black and white), depicting Cu Chi's valiant struggle against the invaders.

It alternates between fun (awww, cute teenage guerrillas!) and grisly (momentary shots of dead American servicemen... thankfully it's in black and white). But overall, it's enlightening - a look at how the Vietnamese establishment is shaping the Vietnam War into its own revolutionary moment in history.

I asked an American Vietnam War veteran about it, and he wasn't angry or hurt; he just shrugged his shoulders and said, "They won... the winners get to rewrite history."

Click "read more" to see three excerpts from the video. Or click through to our article on Cu Chi Tunnels to see the reality behind the hype.

Read more...