hiya wa howa aswat

Officially a collectivity of France, the island of Bora Bora lies in the Leeward group of the Society Islands of French Polynesia. With its amazing reef, fantastic white sand beaches, and laid-back local population it is easy to see why Bora Bora is considered by many to be paradise on Earth. The island itself features an extinct volcano in the center and is surrounded by a lagoon and a barrier reef. Bora Bora is a tourist hot-spot and many resorts and over-the-water bungalows have been built on the island. The population of locals is just under 9,000 with Tahitian, French, and some English spoken. Visitors can enjoy world-class diving and snorkeling, as well as sunset catamaran cruises, fishing trips, and jet ski rentals.

The island nation known as the Seychelles can be found in the Indian Ocean off the East coast of Africa, North of Madagascar. There are 115 islands in the archipelago. Seychelles has become a popular tourist destination, thanks to its stunning tropical beaches and interesting wildlife. Popular activities include diving, fishing, sailing, and laying around on amazing white sand beaches. Visitors can find any range of accommodation on the main islands of Praslin, La Digue or Mahé, as well as a variety on outlying islands.

Once a backpacker’s secret, Thailand’s Phi Phi islands exploded onto the tourist map after the release of The Beach, a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio that was filmed on one of the islands. Ko Phi Phi Don and Ko Phi Phi Lee are located between the island of Phuket and mainland Thailand off the West coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea. Ko Phi Phi Don is the larger of the two islands and is home to permanent residents and a myriad of accommodations for tourists. Ko Phi Phi Lee has spectacular white sand beaches and can be visited by boat only, with trips leaving from the larger island throughout the day. Visitors can enjoy diving, snorkeling and kayaking in the waters off both islands.

Southwest of Sri Lanka in the Laccadive Sea lies a paradise like no other, the island country of the Maldives. The Republic of the Maldives consists of twenty-six atolls in an area spanning 90,000 square kilometers (34,749 square miles). The Maldives are popular for their picture-perfect lush islands ringed by gorgeous white sand beaches. The tiny country is the smallest in Asia both in land mass and population (309,000 people). It also has the lowest high point of any country in the world at 2.3 meters (7 feet 7 inches) and because of this the rising sea level threatens its very existence. All total, the Maldives consists of roughly 1,190 coral islands, only 185 of which are inhabited. The islands were discovered as a tourist destination in the 1970s and today tourism accounts for just under 30% of the country’s GDP. A range of accommodation for any budget can be found on the Maldives, and the country’s capital city of Male is home to an international airport.