If these photos don’t make you wanna quit your job and travel the world, we don’t know what will.

Asia’s diversity never fails to astound. Nowhere on Earth can you find a greater variety of cultures, languages, races, ethnicities, religions, climates, and geography. It’s mind-numbing.

These photos provide just a taste of what Asia has to offer. They’re also an important reminder of the need to protect what makes the world’s largest continent unique. Though the scenes depicted here may seem worlds away, our choices always have an impact wherever we may roam, reminding us to tread lightly.

(above) Penang, Malaysia

Bangkok, Thailand

Great Wall, China

Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh

Hong Kong

Polomok, Philippines

Bali, Indonesia

Maldive Islands

Nha Trang, Vietnam

Lhasa, Tibet

Huashan Mountain, China

Udaipur, India

Cassava farm near Luang Prabang, Laos

Bali, Indonesia

Singapore

Koh Samui, Thailand

Tokyo, Japan

Tainan County, Taiwan

Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Seoul, South Korea

Abseron, Azerbaijan

Busan, South Korea

Kampong Thum, Cambodia

Shanghai, China

Himalaya Mountains, Uttarakhand, India

Binh Thuan, Vietnam

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Meizhou, China

Koh Samet, Thailand

Dornogovi Province, Mongolia, from the Trans-Siberian Railway

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Ratchaburi, Thailand

Yangon, Myanmar

Eastern Vasayas, Philippines

Makalu Base Camp, Nepal

Kyoto, Japan

Taj Mahal, Agra, India

Elephant orphanage between Colombo and Kandy, Sri Lanka

Angkor Wat, Cambodia 

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The post 40 Gorgeous Photos of Asia appeared first on EcoSalon.

The Avana Resort and Spa in Bali is the perfect place to seek refuge.

Voted the “#1 Spa in the World” in 2010 by Conde Nast Traveler readers, the Ayana Resort and Spa in Bali will take your breath away. The 290-room hotel and 78 private freestanding villas are perched above the Indian Ocean on Jimbaran Bay amongst beautiful tropical gardens.

Just a few days ago, Ayana Resort and Spa was recognized for its commitment to sustainable practices and is now a certified Eco Hotel by the prestigious TUV Rheinland Germany. Apparently the resort’s eco-friendly practices have been followed for a long time: the two water recycling plants, which recycle grey and black water, are used on the gardens and ponds; a composting program is utilized; energy efficiency is of great importance and the resort uses eco-friendly detergents and other products.

There is nothing but indulgence at Ayana Resort and Spa from a “Floataway Champagne Brunch,” to a “Spa on the Rocks” treatment. But perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of Ayana Resort and Spa is the meaning of its name in Sanskrit – “a place of refuge.”

If you go: Ayana Resort and Spa offers perfume-making workshops and cooking classes. Rates start at approximately $260.00 USD per night.

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

The post Places & Spaces: Ayana Hotel & Resort in Bali appeared first on EcoSalon.

The woman in your Yogalates class explaining that the switch from coffee to green tea has changed her life – really “centered” her – she might have it. Your coworker who returned from a two-week service trip to Southeast Asia and promptly bought everyone in the office a copy of Three Cups of Tea – he’s probably got it too. Your friend who just replaced her perfectly serviceable Honda with a brand-new Prius definitely has Eat Pray Love Syndrome. You might have it too.

Elizabeth Gilbert’s 2006 memoir has received equal parts adulation and derision over the past few years, only some of which is deserved. The fact that it’s being adapted into a Julia Roberts vehicle seems cosmically perfect somehow, if by “perfect” you mean “absurdly self-indulgent.” Now – for a memoirist at least – self-indulgence isn’t necessarily a problem; most of the time it’s sort of the point. The problem isn’t Eat Pray Love itself so much as the way its philosophy is filleted and half-digested into a self-help-based approach to healthy and sustainable living.

The next logical step is – of course – turning the movie into a guided tour run by a Vegas-based “spiritual travel company.” Eat Pray Love Bali is a week-long vacation created by Spirit Quest Tours to “enjoy Bali the way [Gilbert] did, like a native,” offering carbon-offset flights, authentic Balinese prayer costumes (available for purchase), and palm-reading by Ketut Liyer, a prominent character from the book. “Don’t forget to bring your copy of Eat Pray Love for him to autograph,” the website’s authors helpfully suggest.

This doesn’t mean there’s something inherently wrong with going on vacation. Western-style tourism has thousands of both positive and negative repercussions, none of which are the point here. What’s disturbing about EPLB is the wide-scale production and packaging of Eat Pray Love syndrome, the idea that sudden insights can be planned and purchased, quantified and reproduced with the developing world serving as background scenery. Rather than considering how the conservation of resources can benefit the planet as a whole, we Westerners all too often merely shift from one method of consumption to another.

My new Balinese sari sure makes me feel enlightened, though and it looks great with my skin tone.

Image: eoinfinnyoga + blissology

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Schools throughout the world are making efforts to be greener in both their environment and their actions.

But none can beat Green School in Indonesia, which opened in September 2008. Green inside and out, it is considered the world’s first truly green school. Located in Sibang Kaja in central Bali, this school is made from Balinese bamboo and features local alang-alang grass roofs and traditional mud floors. Even the furniture and furnishings are made from the local bamboo.

Green School’s energy and electricity are generated by solar panels, biogas (from cow manure) and hydropower. Living fences border the 8-hectare campus that is also a productive organic farm. The roads around the campus are made of volcanic rock and the footpaths combine gravel with a pumice rock border that allows grass to grow within.

It’s a school with no walls. Children are able to do their reading and writing under natural light and fresh air breezes. They even get to help tend the gardens under the guidance of a permaculturalist.

Serving more that 100 children from kindergarten through eighth grade, the Green School’s curriculum is aimed at encouraging not only a child’s love of learning and spirit of inquiry but a better understanding of the environment. Traditional subjects such as reading, writing, and arithmetic are taught alongside subjects such as rice field ecology. Students also learn how to make abstract ideas become real at the school’s Learning Village where they participate in various entrepreneurial and agricultural projects ranging from the manufacture of chocolate to helping manage organic fields and bamboo plantations.

The brainchild of John and Cynthia Hardy, expat Canadian jewellers who have lived in Bali for the past thirty years, the goal of Green School is to prepare students to thrive in the challenging, complex 21st-century world by “…connecting learning with creativity; environmental responsibility with scientific knowledge; respect for the self with respect for a wide variety of cultures.”

Sounds like something all schools should be aiming toward.

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