Chicago - Recently, a new web site focused on authentic travel experiences in Southeast Asia was launched. Asiascapes.com, an online travel magazine with a blog-like format, is updated regularly with new columns and travel articles. The site carries the tagline “travel beyond tourism.”

Editor and contributing columnist Louis Alexander, a longtime expat who has traveled extensively in East and Southeast Asia and lived in Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Hong Kong, explained the origins of the site in a recent interview:

“Earlier this year, I was thinking back on all the travel experiences I've had over the past decade in Asia, and I realized that there were a lot of things that I now know – from experience - that I didn't know in my earlier days of traveling. So I guess the main goal of creating Asiascapes.com is to share my insights about East Asian destinations so that other people can know how to have a more-authentic travel experience instead of just doing whatever the guidebook or travel web site tells them to do. In a sense, this site is the kind of resource that I wish I had when I first started traveling in Southeast Asia.”

Asiascapes is now less than two months old, but it has already published articles about destinations in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines and Cambodia. These columns have covered subjects such as nightlife, urban travel, air travel, food and dining, and little-known destinations in Southeast Asia.

Alexander's columns are a mix of practical travel planning tips, insights about destinations, and commentary that focuses on explaining the subtle attraction that each place has. He also occasionally shares his own experiences and travel stories when they are relevant to the article’s subject matter.

Alexander provides daily travel-related updates via his Twitter account (@xandertravel). Tweets include hotel and travel deal announcements, tourism news stories, and links to videos, articles, and reports that are relevant to Asiascapes' readers. The latest tweets are published in the sidebar on Asiascapes' main page.

In the same interview mentioned above, Alexander explained what he hopes people will get out of the site: “There are going to be travel tips and recommendations in each article that we publish, but I don’t really see Asiascapes as a guidebook or travel planning site. At its heart, this is a site for people who want to travel as enthusiasts - or connoisseurs, if you will - NOT as tourists who are just there to see the sights or cross places off their to-visit list. I just want to show readers how to get below the surface of a destination and what to expect once they get off the tourist trail.”