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Australia's big hotels are first class, run about $10 per day for a double room with breakfast, but food is expensive ($9 to $22 for dinner for two). What to buy: Australian opals at $10 and up per gem, shell jewelry, and some of the world's finest woolens. What to avoid: back-country hotels, long, dusty, cross-country train and bus trips, confidence men peddling uranium mines and kangaroo farms.
New Zealand is just beginning to cash in on its natural wonders. In its waters, both salt and fresh, there is good fishing, while deer are so numerous that they are actually classed as vermin with no closed season. The scenery ranges from the verdant near-tropical in the north to cool alpine mountains in the south, with bubbling thermal pools and glaciers. The cost of living is much lower than the U.S., and a couple can tour in style for $20 per day.
In most of Asia, back-country hotels are primitive, trains and buses are slow. Away from big cities, drinking water should be boiled, and raw, unpeeled fruits and vegetables avoided.
Outside of Red China, the only country that tourists are advised by American Express to avoid is Burma, steaming in the jungle between India and China. Rangoon itself is safe enough, but guerrilla bands rove the countryside. Travelers can see nearby Thailand, from temple-strewn jungles to cosmopolitan Bangkok, with its winding, Venice-like canals, hundreds of golden-roofed temples and exquisite silverware. Despite Communists in the North, southern Viet Nam and Cambodia are safe for tourists anxious to visit the vast ruins at Ankgor Wat and Saigon, the "Paris of the East." Indonesia is difficult to visit; yet anyone making the trip will find that on the beautiful island of Bali the lovely women and soft scenery are unspoiled.