Travelfish newsletter Issue 384 : Keep a place in mind + Thai Island Time
Hi everyone,
This week I’ve got you a guest piece by David Luekens, suggesting you “keep a place in mind”—I hope you enjoy it.
Sticking with David for a sec, I’m delighted to announce he is starting his own newsletter, Thai Island Times. I can’t think of a writer better versed in what Thailand’s diverse islands have to offer than David. For now the newsletter is free and will be being sent two to three times per week ... as David writes “Hey, I’m on island time too!”. You can read more about what he has planned here. So if you’re keen on the Thai island scene, what more can I say than sign up!
Talking about newsletters, last week, Couchfish journeyed though Tak, Sukhothai, Si Satchanalai and Phitsanulok. Free posts included Svay Rieng and a piece on getting off the boat in Eastern Indonesia. Stuck on the couch? Give them a read! Membership costs US$5 per month—free if you are a Travelfish member (in which case just email me your Travelfish member name and I’ll add you to the list.
Approaching Wat Si Sawai. Photo: David Luekens
Talking about publications that cost just US$5 per month, an appeal for support from another publisher. Regular readers will know I’ve long been a fan of Southeast Asia publisher New Naratif and I often include material from them in this newsletter. Like many publishers, business is challenging for them to say the least. This week their founder PJ published an appeal for donations and subscribers noting they currently have enough funds in the bank to last until the end of June. If you’ve enjoyed their work and would like to be able to continue to read it in the future, please consider becoming a supporter (starts at US$5 per month) or making a donation.
Cheers and thank you for your support,
Stuart
Support Travelfish!
If you'd like to chip in (if you haven’t already) for using the site, we'd love you to sign up for a year-long subscription for just A$35. See more here.
Keep a place in mind
Like others, I’ve fought my way through some gloomy days here in Bangkok. Parks are closed. Alcohol is banned. International flights are grounded. Hell, even a lot of Thai provincial borders are closed. Thousands of desperate people are lining up for free food at temples and restaurants that have become charities. Some people are falling through the cracks. A doomsday air is weighing on all of us.
To stay sane, I keep myself thinking about a few months down the road, when it might be possible to travel domestically in Thailand again. I’ve been pondering where to go first, setting aside a pinch of cash specifically for travel. Money is tight, to say the least. But it’s important to have a trip to look forward to—an image in mind to cut through the gloom.
Options I’m tossing around include mostly old favourites like Nan, Trang and Chanthaburi. Kamphaeng Phet, as well. By keeping places I love in mind, I see more of them in my dreams. And less of the doom.
Keep a place you love in mind. It helps, and I think this is one reason why Stuart’s new Couchfish newsletter has resonated with a lot of people. It reminds them of better times, and compels them to keep future travel in their thoughts, no matter how far away it seems.
In addition to thinking a few months ahead, I’m also looking a couple of years down the road. By then, we’ll probably be on the way out of this mess. Maybe it will take longer than two years. Maybe less.
In the meantime, I’m heartbroken for the travel/tourism workers and operators that are losing or will lose everything. Thailand is as dependent on foreign tourism as any country in the world.
But when travel becomes possible again, I look forward to being a part of it. Think of the magnificent natural environments that will have been preserved and rejuvenated by the time you make it back to them.
This past week, dugongs met up in unusually high numbers off Ko Libong; reef sharks returned to Ko Hong for the first time in years; leatherback sea turtles were breeding in the highest numbers seen in decades on Phuket; and there was even a sea otter playing on an empty Patong Beach.
Tourism will pick up with a trickle, reminding old hands of the days when only a few hotels did business on Ko Samui or Khao San Road. The first domestic travellers will venture out, filled with joy. Thai merry makers will return to Cha-am Beach by the busload, and Thai merit makers will again bow before the sacred stupas of Nakhon Phanom.
Initially, after international travel restrictions ease, a few hard-nosed foreign travellers will jump at the chance of a 14-day quarantine—if it means they’ll be among the first to enjoy those rejuvenated environments.
Later, the quarantines will end. The last of the country-by-country travel restrictions will be lifted. Yes, this will happen!
And when those happier times unfold, the people who held up the tourism industry in the past will return, as if out of the woodwork. By then, I reckon, their smiles will be rejuvenated too.
Keep that place in mind.
David
Premium members only:
Book a round the world with roundtheworldflights.com (must travel from the UK via Asia, Australia, New Zealand AND the Americas) and get £30pp off your trip. Offer valid for departures to December 2021.
Log in to the Member Centre on Travelfish now for your coupon code and
start designing your own round the world trip »
Ten things worth reading
A Food Snob’s Food Tour Conversion $
“How arrogant and elitist I had been, now both shamed and grateful. Arriving as a skeptic, I returned from Mexico City a food-tour convert.”
How Vietnam is getting it right
“Such responses overlook the many decisive steps that the government has taken in response to the novel coronavirus.”
Hunkering down in tourist-free Siem Reap
“The shops and restaurants that remain open are largely empty, offering alcohol sanitisers and temperature readings to the few who still enter. It is staggering how quickly these post-apocalyptic scenes have become everyday urban reality.”
Plenty of whiskey, few backpackers
“As the rare farang (white foreigner) visitor, I'd often be invited to share a bottle of Thai whiskey or a bowl of noodles, especially in night markets. I'd ask about places to see and things to do around the area, and my new friends would recommend waterfalls, museums, monuments.”
Indonesia COVID-19 Ground Zero $
“A third patient comes in on a stretcher: a man in his 60s or 70s wearing a brown batik shirt. He is clutching his throat, almost clawing at it. He is rushed to a bed and put on oxygen by the doctor wearing a plastic apron. Two family members are with him, neither of them wearing masks. A younger woman, his daughter, starts walking in circles outside his cubicle as the medical staff try to hook him up to various machines. He dies about 15 minutes later...”
Finding Nagaland: Tribes On India-Myanmar Frontier Dream Of Unity
“Tonyei Phawng claims to be the 12th generation of his family to rule the Konyak, whose feared tattooed warriors once brought home their enemies' heads as trophies. His son, the crown prince, will one day take over in a lineage many believe possess supernatural powers.”
Why aren't we Talking About Vietnam's Success with Covid-19?
“To better understand Vietnam's stunning success in managing Covid-19, I spoke to Vietnam-based Journalist Mike Tatarski, and Academic Mai Truong of the University of Arizona.” (Podcast)
Yangon: Life under lockdown
“The checkpoint volunteers are rigorous in fulfilling their responsibilities. They record the time when residents leave their homes, which they can do twice a day, and block the entry of outsiders, even if they are hoping to visit relatives.”
Did People in Indonesia Drink Tea in the Middle Ages?
“Betel long preceded coffee and tea as the archipelago’s preferred stimulant. Betel wasn’t just a mild narcotic: it was also a social glue, and it seems to have held a lot of sentimental value, just like tea in England and India or coffee in Italy and Oman.”
Myanmar’s Delayed Reaction to the “Foreign Virus” $
“In Shan State, rows of thatched huts are being erected while one man built himself a treehouse to self-quarantine. All efforts seem to be focused on preventing the virus from coming into Myanmar from the “outside”.”
Something to read
The Best We Could Do
“The Best We Could Do, by Thi Bui, is a beautifully drawn graphic memoir that tells the story of Thi’s parents before they fled Vietnam in 1978 with her and her siblings. More than this though, it’s also a quiet meditation on becoming a parent, and considering where she, her parents and her son sit in the generational story of their family.”
Travel shot
Keep an eye on the details. Photo: David Luekens
Till next time
That’s it from us for now. As usual, enjoy the site’s new additions and drop us a line if there’s something in particular you’d like us to cover in Southeast Asia.
Travel light!
Stuart, Sam & the Travelfish team
You're receiving the Travelfish newsletter because you signed up at Travelfish.org.