The blogosphere has responded with an embarrassment of images from the disaster areas in Myanmar.

Abitsu.org has a heartbreaking video depicting the damage wrought by Cyclone Nargis – and it doesn’t hold back. There’s a high corpse count in this one, so you’d better think twice before clicking.

The webmaster of Full Bible Update posts pictures from a fellow minister in Myanmar – thankfully their congregation got through the worst, but seem to have lost a lot in the process. “Literally dozens of churches (as many as 100) were simply ‘washed away’ in the flooding around Bogalay and Laputta,” he explains. “Six families in his congregation in Yangon lost their homes and are now staying with him and a friend.”

San Oo Aung has collated pictures from all over on their website.

And finally, I’ve written a piece on whether outsiders should be more involved in the disaster: Should the World Intervene in Myanmar?

Finally, the military regime in Myanmar has permitted US aid to reach Cyclone Nargis’ hard-hit victims.

A United States military aircraft has been permitted to land on Monday, allowing the delivery of much-needed relief supplies to disaster victims in Myanmar.

This may be the turning point in what has so far been a sorry affair – the Myanmar government has been extremely reluctant to allow any aid to come in or any news to trickle out – to the extent of hounding a CNN reporter out of the country.

If you’ve been seeing this on the news, you know that you’re in a very good position to give – and give generously. The citizens of Myanmar need every little bit of help you can give – the UN estimates that between 62,000 and 100,000 have been killed in the cyclone, with hundreds of thousands more injured and homeless.

The following organizations are on the ground and ready to respond. (UPDATE: here's a more complete list of charities and NGOs working in Myanmar.)

• Save the Children Launches a Full-Scale Response
• Church World Service Appeals for Aid
• Donate to CARE’s Myanmar Cyclone Effort
• Donate to the Red Cross response to Cyclone Nargis
• Operation USA Appeals for Donations
• Donate to World Vision Efforts in Myanmar

The US News and World Report recently released a Consumer Guide to Medical Travel, enumerating the different ways U.S. patients can save money by getting medical treatment abroad.

The Guide includes a handy hospital finder that lets you find hospitals by country. Several medical outfits in Southeast Asia qualify: ten in Singapore, three in Thailand, and one in the Philippines.

The gap between U.S. prices and those abroad is undeniably huge: coronary artery bypass surgery that costs at least $70,000 will set you back only $12,000 in Malaysia.

How many Americans seek medical treatment abroad? The article’s author, Avery Comarow, reports that McKinsey & Co. tallies the annual number at around 60,000 to 85,000.

Is seeking medical treatment abroad somehow… unpatriotic? Comarow shrugs off the question – “Why should someone with bad hips or a bad heart and no health coverage... be criticized for seeking care at a perfectly good hospital 10,000 miles away at a quarter or a fifth of the price a U.S. hospital would charge? To suffer is patriotic?”

Looking for a child-friendly travel destination? You might take Angela Walker’s advice and head straight to Singapore. In her article for the New Zealand publication Stuff, Walker shows just how easy it is to discover Singapore even with a four-year-old in tow.

For the next four days, nothing was a problem. Transport? Taxis efficient, fast, cheap and clean, or the subway efficient, fast, cheap and clean. Food? Noodles for sir, or fries? Night safari at the zoo or jungle breakfast? Why not both? The hardest decision of the day came down to which of the hotel's two swimming pools to choose.

....No, it's not "extreme" or "intrepid" frankly, travelling with children who are automatically programmed to do the polar opposite of what their parents want is challenging enough for some of us. Instead, Singapore is a place to play, shop and eat. There's so much to enjoy, so little to endure.

If you’re planning to make Singapore your next family vacation, we suggest you do a little background work and check out our Singapore Travel Information page.

Put your video cameras to profitable use in Thailand – the Tourism Authority of Thailand is giving away a total of $5,000 in prizes to the best Thailand tourist videos uploaded to their site.

If you have an interesting snippet of your Thailand vacation, upload it on the contest site. Site visitors will be encouraged to vote for their favorite videos. (Personally, I’m rooting for whoever makes their shopping trip to Chatuchak look interesting.)

The best submissions get the best prizes of the lot. Up for grabs are Sony Handycams, Sony Ericsson cellphones, iPod Nanos, and two-night packages at The Rock Hua Hin Beach Resort & Spa and Baan Krating Resort & Spa.

Videos will be accepted for upload from May 1 to June 30, 2008. Voting ends on July 31.

Last weekend, my wife and I finally followed through on a long-standing invitation from Intramuros tour guide Carlos Celdran to join his “Rediscovering the Rock” tour through Corregidor Island.

The itinerary was simple and flexible, Carlos explained to us: we’d take our time going through the island’s ruins and gun batteries, with enough time for canapés, “ghost-hunting”, spelunking through old wartime tunnels, and a light-and-sound show.

There were about a dozen of us in the party, enough for a fun time spent poking through old concrete ruins and rusting artillery. Those of us who had our own blogs wasted no time sharing their own experiences of the trip:

Consider how you get around in Bali – not all options are that safe.

Four American tourists and one Indonesian pilot were injured after their helicopter made an emergency landing at Indonesian island of Bali on Wednesday, the district police chief Dedi Diadarma said.

The Bell 206 operated by Air Bali encountered engine trouble when flying over the Lebih beach area, southeast Bali, at noon, the police chief said… "There is no serious injury, the hard landing only made them shocked."

We suggest you avoid flying to Bali by helicopter, but that doesn’t mean we suggest you avoid flying to Bali, period. (Just the opposite.)

As summer heads to your neck of the woods, you’ll need to know where you can go for beach action. If you’re headed to Southeast Asia, you’ll be faced with an embarrassment of choices that, at first glance, favors the loaded.

Not every option is going to cost you, though. Boracay is one of the Philippines’ hottest beach spots, and despite its popularity (or because of it) is chock-full of excellent backpacker-budget choices.

Our buddy Peejo Pilar was kind enough to share with us his experience of Boracay’s Fat Jimmy’s hotel – one that seems to have left his wallet relatively unscathed.

Singapore Airlines was the first to get on board the new Airbus A380, and it looks like their early start is getting them some attention.

Their official site has been making the rounds of blog aggregators like Digg and Reddit, and no wonder – it has an awesome virtual walkthrough of the superjumbo’s interior and amenities.

Private cabins? Check. Beds? Check. (Shame that the carrier bans their most obvious use.)

Not a bad way to fly into Southeast Asia – in bed on a Singapore Airlines A380, flying into one of the busiest air hubs of the region. Changi Airport (Singapore Airlines’ main hub) connects to cities throughout Southeast Asia and other major tourist stops like Bali and Siem Reap.

Should you be in Hanoi around the end of May, you’ll have more than Vietnamese food to choose from.

On May 24, the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam will host a European Food Festival at the garden of the National Library of Vietnam, in partnership with the city’s leading hotels and restaurants.

"The Festival aims to offer a taste of Europe to the people of Hanoi, bringing the Vietnamese and European communities a night of food, drink and entertainment", EuroCham Hanoi Director Nicholas Greenfield said.