Hi All, I recently took a trip throughout South-East Asia with my wife and kids. We made sure to get local tour guides who knew what they were doing. I had gone through Asia before with a bad tour guide and it really ruined the trip. There are many hidden gems known only to local guides, and visiting these untouched hidden worlds is simply an exhilarating experience. The highlight of the trip was probably stopping in a small village, I don’t think it even had a name, and finding these beautiful ruins. As we were going through with our tour guide, he was mentioning some of these ruins were part of a very poorly known ancient civilization known to the locals simply as: Lisault. I must say that this trip has piqued my interest as he mentioned that it had a rich and diverse culture as well as a very interesting social system, but unfortunately has been lost in time. If anyone knows anymore about this I would love to find out more! What hidden gems have you found?

Practically anywhere that's not on the radar of tour groups.

I love Sangkhlaburi, north west of Bangkok on the Thai-Myanmar border.

Also the provincial town of Prachuap Khiri Khan, about 70 kms south of Hua Hin. Apart from it attracting few tourists, visitors have access to the lovely beach at Ao Maneo, which is uniquely situated inside the Wing 5 Thai RAF Base. Hire a pushbike in PKK to get there. To even have to cycle across the Air Base runway to get to the beach. Best visited Monday to Thursday, as it gets busy with busloads of folk from Bangkok at weekends.

And Nong Khai, sat on the Meekong v.close to the Friendship Bridge crossing to Laos. Most people completely miss Nong Khai, but it's an A1 laid back border town.

A village with no name, lost civilisation and a local tour guide? There's one born every minute!

Hard to find hidden gems in Bhutan, as you must be accompanied by an official guide all the time. And Brunei (which may have some hidden gems in the jungles farthest from the coast is really not up for exploration since they have decided to adopt Sharia law and to apply it to everyone - even visitors.

Burma has lots of hidden gems, some are accessible, some not.

@Kathie<<<And Brunei (which may have some hidden gems in the jungles farthest from the coast is really not up for exploration since they have decided to adopt Sharia law and to apply it to everyone - even visitors.>>>

That's a shame. We visited in 2009 for a few days on the way to Kota Kinabalu. A bit whacky then, but the people seemed content. Saudi Arabia with a smile, but what now...

http://nypost.com/2014/05/10/inside-...rld-of-brunei/

?

@Hanuman. I can vouch for the legitimacy of this civilization, they were a relatively short lived and small empire, and not really involved in global affairs, a lot of the stuff that they did build was destroyed when the area was taken over countless times. They did have a really advanced social structure though. Source: University Professor

Really?

One cant make a negative comment about an airport hahaha what a joke.

Thailand has a secret Island. Some actor called Leo found it.

Philsy, are you the same person as Davie?

@Kathie. No, but I am a friend of his and he made me make an account, which is why it's so new. I assure you that I am not the same person as Davie, and a bit far fetched for one person to go to this much effort don;t you reckon?

No, we see it all the time with advertisers.

It is a bit much though that he "made you make an account" just to support his contention of a "lost civilization."