Best Beaches
– “Top 10 beaches of the world” (Guardian)

Dallas for Art Buffs
– “Bohemia in the Big D” (LA Times)

French Country Retreats
– “The best of rural France” (Times of London)

Hanoi
– “The Awakening of Hanoi” (NYT)

New Orleans Dining
– “Preparing a Renaissance” (Washington Post)

Singapore
– “Another side of Singapore” (LA Times)

Tahiti’s Tuamotus
– “The Fragile Paradise That Tahiti Used to Be” (NYT)

Taiwan
– “Fantasy Island” (SF Chronicle)

A tip of the Skipper hat to Jaunted for turning us on to Island of Sound, a website dedicated to exploring Taiwanese Indie rock. Independence is a sticky issue in Taiwan and happily musical independence is a little easier to achieve. The website features bands, obviously, we haven't heard of. Thankfully the site has quicktime samples of bands like indie popster Natural Q and punk outfits like the Deported. Also the site has a nice list of live music cafes and bars at which one can find these bands. Though a little light on the deets, Islands of Sound is a good, and perhaps the only, place for an Anglophile to delve into Taiwanese indie music.

Islands of Sound

[Photo: Islands of Sound]

Previously: Touchable Design, Fashion Notes from Taiwan

This image of Manila comes from a Forbes special on the most densely populated, congested cities on earth. With a total population of 10 million in the metropolitan area, Manila may not be the largest city on earth, but its city center squeezes a staggering 41,000 people into each square kilometer. In comparison, Mumbai, which has become virtually synonymous with urban density, has just under 30,000 people per km squared by Forbes’ reckoning, and doesn’t make the list of the most congested cities. They are, in descending order: Cairo, Lagos, Macau, Seoul, Dhaka, Buenos Aires, Jakarta, Kaohsiung and Santo Domingo. Attempt driving in any of them at your own risk.

Vlogger tburnett5 over at Current TV posted this nicely meditative pod about traveling alone on the wrong side of a language barrier.