The Romance Of The Grand Tour

100 Years of Travel in Southeast Asia

Highlights from the second Tales of Asia talk on Bangkok and Phnom Penh, at the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore on 30 October 2015 are here.

A link to the full talk is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCFaDv0gfBE

[The Romance of the Grand Tour – 100 Years of Travel in Southeast Asia is available now at all major bookstores in Singapore, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and London. Find it at: http://www.amazon.co.uk,http://www.amazon.com, http://www.waterstones.com and http://www.bookdepository.com.]

Royal Barge on the Chao Phraya River, Thailand.

Part III of Tales of Asia features the royal cities of Bangkok and Phnom Penh, capitals of the fairytale kingdoms of Siam and Cambodia respectively.

Join me as we travel back in time to discover:

How Siam managed to be the only kingdom in Southeast Asia to avoid being colonised by the European Powers.
The story of the Thai King Chulalongkorn and the English Governess Anna Leonowens.
How the Grand Palace in Bangkok was both built to recall the ancient city of Ayutthaya, and also featured mixed architectural styles of Siam, China and Europe.
How the Cambodian King Sisowath travelled to Paris, wowed the French and fought for the return of Cambodian territories occupied by Siam.
How the Hindu epic The Ramayana was adapted to Southeast Asia and became the Siamese and Cambodian national epics.

…amongst other things.