A belated National Geographic heads-up

I just realized that in September I had short pieces in both National Geographic Traveler and National Geographic Adventure, yet I somehow went all month without blogging mention of them. The Traveler piece was a roundup on the magazine’s World Legacy Awards in responsible tourism. I covered the “Destination Stewardship” award, which went to a community-based tourism operation based among the Thai Muslim fishermen of Koh Yao island in the Gulf of Thailand.

The Adventure piece wasn’t a full article — just a bit of advice in the magazine’s “Ask Adventure” column. A reader had written in to ask if Southeast Asia was safe from terrorism, and I told them that — for the most part — it was. I even offered a bit of counterintuitive advice: Be sure and visit Bali, which — in addition to being a gorgeous world-classic destination — should have heightened safety and lowered prices since the Kuta bombing of a year ago.