Agoda.com offers hotel deals for adventurous divers down under

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq: PCLN), is offering great deals on hotels in southern Australia that will suit scuba divers who are seeking a bit of adventure.

Both the city of Adelaide and the town of Port Lincoln in southern Australia are known for the populations of Great White Sharks that cruise the waters near shore, and there are many companies that offer divers the chance to see these magnificent animals up close – real close – with a variety of cage diving tours.

Known throughout the world as one of nature’s most fearsome apex predators, the Carcharodon carcharias (Great White) has been the subject of books, movies and documentaries for decades. Famous for its size (averaging around 5m and 800kg) and its propensity to eat whatever floats in front of its face, it takes a brave soul to jump into water where the huge animals are known to swim. However, advances in diving safety have made the experience available to a wide variety of people, and these two locations offer some of the best cage diving in Australia.

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Agoda.com offers deals on 18 outstanding properties in Palawan

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), is showcasing a selection of great hotels in Palawan, one of the Philippines’ most beautiful provinces and a top beach and island destination for vacationers from around the world. To see the selection, visit http://www.agoda.com/PerfectPalawan

Palawan is actually an island province easily picked out on a map of the region – it’s the long narrow one that stretches some 450 kilometers from the Philippines’ southwest corner almost to the tip of the Malaysian island of Borneo. There are several other islands that complete the province as well, from small uninhabited reefs to large jungled mountains such as Busuanga Island and Culion Island.

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Agoda.com fires up hotel deals for Taiwan’s annual Dragon Boat Festival

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), has assembled a list of hotels in Taipei that are offering special deals during the annual Dragon Boat Festival, one of the most colorful and rousing events on the calendar. This year it will be held on June 8 & 9.

As with many similar festivals in Asia, its history is long and complex. The most popular origin story says that during China’s Warring States Period (475-221 BC) there lived a statesman and poet named Cyu Yuan who was an advisor to the Chu King. After jealous rivals turned the King against Cyu Yuan, he was exiled. Later, when the Chu Kingdom was invaded, Cyu Yuan drowned himself in symbolic protest against the corruption of the system and to show allegiance to the empire. Hearing the terrible news, people organized search parties on the river, banging drums to scare spirits away and throwing rice into the water to distract hungry fish from eating his body. The ceremony also takes inspiration from annual water and agricultural rituals in China going back over 2,500 years, of which boat racing is only a small part.

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Agoda.com provides hotel specials in beautiful Hoi An, Vietnam

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq: PCLN), is providing deals on hotels in one of Vietnam’s most beautiful and alluring cities – Hoi An.

Located approximately halfway down Vietnam’s long, S-shaped coastline, Hoi An has the distinction of being one of Vietnam’s 7 UNESCO World Heritage Sites due to its exceptionally well-preserved colonial architecture and centuries of history as one of Southeast Asia’s most important trading posts. Indeed, it is said that Japanese mariners in the 18^th century believed that Hoi An was the heart of all of Asia.

The town has been a strategic ocean port since at least the  mid-1400’s, and was officially founded in 1595 as a result of the increased trade policies of the Nguyen Dynasty, which ruled Southern Vietnam from 1558-1777. During this time European powers were exploring and trading with an enthusiasm never before seen, and the mystical orient proved an irresistible destination. The town grew fast and quickly became the busiest and richest port in the region, and much evidence of these developments still remains.

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Agoda.com opens up fantastic hotel deals for the Great Singapore Sale

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), has announced a variety of hotel deals in the leadup to the Great Singapore Sale, one of the island nation’s biggest yearly events.

Celebrating its 20^th year and taking place from 31 May to 28 July, the sale – often abbreviated simply as GSS – is an annual event centered on the one thing that Singapore is known best for – shopping. Sales, specials and super saver deals by some of the country’s best-known retail names are spread out across the city offering shoppers a great way to stock up on their favorite brands while seeing some of the city’s most dynamic neighborhoods.

Of course, most people familiar with Singapore have heard of Orchard Road, the central shopping district of the city and one of the most iconic commercial destinations in Asia. With endless stores, huge shopping malls and below- and above-ground connections linking them all together, the biggest crowds will undoubtedly be here seeking out deals. This includes the massive ION Orchard mall and the Mandarin Gallery.

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Agoda.com shines a light on hotel deals for the Vivid Sydney Festival

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), is illuminating great deals on hotels in Sydney, Australia for the annual Vivid Sydney Light, Music & Idea Festival, which takes place this year from May 24 – June 10.

For the past 5 years, the festival has been wowing crowds with famous Sydney landmarks wrapped in thousands of meters of lights or used as massive canvasses, presenting giant expanses of rippling, morphing illuminated designs or photos. Earlier this year, the call went out worldwide for artists to send in expressions of interest, ensuring that the show will again have an international makeup reflecting a variety of backgrounds and cultures.

This year, the festival will showcase 60 installations, including favorites such as the illumination of the iconic Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. In addition to other light shows projected on a variety of local venues, sidewalks, promenades, and even inside tunnels, live musical shows by international artists and displays by leading creative, dance and performance groups will entertain crowds for the duration of the 18-day festival.

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Agoda.com aims high with great hotel deals for a trek up Mt. Kinabalu

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), is providing great new deals on hotels in the Malaysian city of Kota Kinabalu to take advantage of high season climbing opportunities on the beautiful and surprisingly accessible Mt. Kinabalu, only 50km from the main city.

Although it’s one of the tallest mountains in Southeast Asia, Kinabalu is famed for being climbable without specialized gear and by almost anyone who is relatively fit. Despite an elevation of 4,093m above sea level, it rarely snows at the peak. Indeed, climbers will go through six separate vegetation zones on their climb to the top, from steamy Lower Mountain Forest at the bottom to frigid Subalpine at the peak. However, it can get very foggy and if it rains – which it does most afternoons – the environment can become downright miserable, with high winds and freezing temperatures that can quickly turn dangerous. For that reason, there is a well-worn climbing schedule that minimizes exposure and provides the best all-around hiking experience.

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Agoda.com partners with WuBook for great hotel deals in Russia

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), is partnering with WuBook for a strategic partnership that will allow Agoda.com to add WuBook’s inventory of hotels in Russia to its global network.

WuBook, which was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Fano, Italy, is one of the leading technology companies in the global hotel industry. Its hospitality software solutions – Channel Manager, Booking Engine, and PMS Zak, among others – offer a streamlined, convenient method for hotels to upload their rates and room details for easy distribution to online travel agents (OTA’s) and other popular channels.

Since opening in 2008 the company has seen rapid growth, and now has over 2,300 hotels worldwide. With this new partnership, Agoda.com customers can gain access to 500 previously unavailable hotels in the vast and fascinating country of Russia. From the fast-paced lifestyle of capital Moscow to the cultural and commercial hub of Saint Petersburg to the stark beauty of Siberia and the Russian Steppes, the true splendor of the country simply can’t be fully appreciated in a single trip.

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Agoda.com offers colorful hotel specials for Penang’s fabulous George Town Festival

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), is getting in a creative mood in preparation for the upcoming George Town Festival, the most colorful and exuberant celebration of art, music, theater, dance, opera and film in Malaysia. This year the festival will be held from 7 June – 7 July, and Agoda.com customers who book hotels on a special festival webpage will enjoy 5% off of the already low prices.

The festival, commonly just called the GTF, began in 2010 as a platform to promote the rich artistic and cultural heritage of George Town, the capital of the state of Penang. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008 for its “unique architectural and cultural townscape without parallel anywhere in East and Southeast Asia,” the city is a product of centuries of maritime trading, where cultures, customs, religions and artistic styles mixed and thrived.

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Agoda.com offers new hotel deals for Hong Kong’s Cheung Chau Bun Festival

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), is preparing a wide range of hotel deals to help celebrate the Cheung Chau Bun Festival, one of the most lively and enjoyable celebrations of the year, which this year will be held from May 14-18.

Chinese festivals are known for having deep historical significance, and often celebrate ancestral connections, important events, or protective deities. Despite a name that hints at a focus on food, the Cheung Chau Bun Festival actually manages to celebrate all three of the above qualities at the same time!

The story goes that in the late 1800’s the residents of Cheung Chau Island – a relatively small one near Hong Kong’s southwest maritime border – were beset by a plague that killed a large number of residents. Desperate, they turned to the god Pak Tai to help them, building an altar and holding a parade in his honor. Miraculously, the plague dissipated and the residents were saved, and to this day the same rituals are performed in honor of Pak Tai. Over the years, the weeklong celebration has grown to include the burning of paper effigies, dragon dances and the performance of various Taoist rituals.

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