Travelfish newsletter Issue 256 : Ko Muk, Pakse & Hanoi updates + Getting to know a place + Iconic
Hi everyone,
This week we’ve got another Thai island, Ko Muk, online, Pakse in southern Laos and the first of our updated Hanoi material has started sliding online. The theme? Iconic.
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The week that was
This week we have yet another glorious southern Thai island online, the ever-popular Ko Muk. Also, from over the border in Laos, we got Pakse online including an epic write-up on how to do the Bolaven Loop.
From southern Laos to northern Vietnam, the first of Sam’s revamping of the city is trickling online, including the world’s longest mural, the most Vietnamese of Vietnamese attractions, the Perfume Pagoda and the iconic—naturally—Long Bien Bridge.
For premium members, we have a new PDF guide for Ko Muk, with Pakse coming in the next couple of days. Not a premium member? It costs a very reasonable A$35 per year for access to more than 190 guides (among other things). Find out more here. The more premium members we have, the more coverage we can keep fresh for you on the site. We’ll hopefully be announcing some new deals for Premium Members in the coming weeks as we get some partners on board to offer some premium discounts—making that $35 better and better value.
On the road, David is just about wrapping up his three-province extravaganza through the far south. Sally has shifted coasts and is now eating her way through Johor Bahru, Mark is in Cambodia, Sam is back to Singapore and Stuart is driving the kids to school! Keep an eye on the Travelfish Instagram feed for some live armchair travel.
Our soapbox, this week by David, is about getting to know a place. Our theme this week is “iconic”—who doesn’t like a good icon or two?
As always, please feel free to forward this newsletter on to your friends, family, strangers in bars, bus drivers and massage men.
Good travels,
Stuart, Sam and the Travelfish team
Soapbox
Getting to know a place
Now I sit at the 1952 Cafe in Trang, the first city, province, group of islands—or anything—that I ever covered for Travelfish back in 2011. At the time I was a bartender pretending to be a travel writer.
Six years later, I pass through Trang for the umpteenth time. I say hello to locals who know my face, even if they can’t always remember the name (which is “Dabe” around here, owing to the lack of a V sound in Thai). For me, Trang has taken on a hometown feel. I may well retire here.
None of Trang’s islands became magnets for tourism like Phi Phi or Lipe or Tao. And yet they’re at least as visually impressive, if not more so. For natural beauty, real island village life, sustainable tourism and tranquility, serious tranquility, these islands—Muk, Kradan, Ngai, Libong, Rok, Sukorn, Lao Liang and Phetra—are now, more than ever, some of the finest in Thailand.
But beyond the beaches and reefs and flower-strung hammocks, the people have made me smile the most.
Like William, the little-bit crazy Dutchman who learned to speak Thai fluently with a Muk accent; or Roberto and Krom, the sly Spanish/Urak Lawoi managers of Gipsy Resort on Lipe; or P’Su, the soft-spoken Trang travel agent who helped me out a ton on that first trip; or Mut, a gentle Pattani native who runs a convenience store on Libong and once drove me to Trang in his pick-up, discussing 9/11 and refusing to take payment for the lift.
On Kradan, beyond the sheets of white sand and crystalline water, I met Wally, a Hawaiian sailor who used his gruff welcome and fascinating stories to make all of my trips memorable. He died on February 24, 2015. Without planning, I arrived to Paradise Lost, the resort he built, exactly two years to the day after he passed. There I reminisced with his old friend, an Italian, Johnny, who showed me photos from when he and Wally first discovered Kradan.
Getting to know these places—and people—on return visits over several years has made them more like old friends than travel destinations. And sure as hell, I’m not the only one making it here from across the globe year after year.
Maybe I’ll meet you someday, dear reader, at Ting Tong or Longtail Bar or a thatched shack on Ko Lao Liang Nong. And maybe we’ll cross paths again on Lipe or Libong or Lanta. Or Bulon... Trips to these islands take on lives of their own... And that smooth blue Andaman just goes and goes...
Peace
David
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Featured
Iconic eating (and red umbrellas)
Though it’s more than just a beach bar, Ku De Ta is Seminyak’s sunset-spot par excellence. Stunningly situated overlooking an enticing stretch of beach, in the right light, it’s close to unbeatable. Drinks aren’t cheap but they are imaginative, and service around those iconic red umbrellas is always swift. Linger for dinner, too, if you like, at their main restaurant or cutting-edge Mejekawi.
Film of the week
Street punk! Banda Aceh, where punk rock refuses to die
“Ten years ago, a massive undersea earthquake triggered an Indian Ocean tsunami, killing 167,000 people in Indonesia’s Aceh Province. Since then, strict sharia law has grown in influence. Punk’s freedom of expression clashes worldwide with political and religious dogma, and here the ongoing crackdown has driven punks further underground.” Film by Vandaluna Media.
What we're reading
Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw
Map of the Invisible World is at heart the story of two Indonesian brothers separated when they are adopted out by different families from an orphanage. The backdrop of the story is a roiling Indonesia grasping to find its place in the world in the aftermath of its independence from the Dutch. Adam and Johan, living in neighbouring, enemy countries, are coming of age and considering their identities amid their adoptive families. At the same time, President Sukarno hurtles towards his demise in an increasingly oppressive Jakarta . Adam witnesses his adoptive father Karl, a Dutch national born in Baru, Indonesia, whisked away by soldiers, and heads to the Indonesian capital in a bid to find him.
Notes from the road
BURMA: Iconic bridge
Traditional style, teak U Bein Bridge, stretching over scenic Taungthaman Lake, is one of Burma’s most iconic sights.
CAMBODIA: Iconic mountain (well, hill)
At just over 300 metres in height it doesn’t look especially significant, yet it’s not only Kompong Chhnang’s most iconic landmark but one of the most famous mountains in Cambodia.
INDONESIA: Iconic philosophy
It’s rumoured Indonesia’s iconic "Pancasila" national philosophy came to Sukarno as he sat under a breadfruit tree in Ende, which still stands in the park near the town soccer field.
ISLANDS: Iconic Buddha
Wat Phra Yai, better known as the "Big Buddha", is an iconic Ko Samui image. Located on route 4171 at the end of Bang Rak, as one rounds the bend to Plai Laem, this huge statue is glimmering gold and visible from kilometres away.
LAOS: Iconic vertical highway
Perhaps the lack of interesting architecture is what led the Royal Lao government to create Patuxai when the US supplied cement and funds to build an airport in 1960—that’s where the cement ended up, anyway.
MALAYSIA: Iconic, rather large, statue
The almost 43-metre tall statue of Lord Murugan stands by the entrance to the Batu Caves and is one of Malaysia’s classic iconic images. The epicentre of the annual Thaipusam procession, Batu Caves is famous for the festival, statue and main cavern behind it.
SINGAPORE: Iconic community
The community here numbered merely around 100 families at its peak, but the people left a disproportionate imprint on Singaporean culture and heritage. Here are a few of the contributions the Armenian diaspora made.
THAILAND: Iconic shrine
If entering Bangkok’s Chinatown to the south through the Odean Gate, a shrine that bursts with ornate detail and spiritual mystique immediately grabs your attention. Fittingly situated next to a charity hospital, the shrine houses a religious image of particular importance for the city’s Chinese residents — a sparkling Chao Mae Kuan Im, the Mahayana Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion.
VIETNAM: Iconic images
The photos were later published in LIFE magazine, exposing the war crime to the world. The image of anguished women and children cowering together moments before they were shot became one of the most iconic images of the Vietnam war.
News from the region
REGION: South-east Asian cities are waging war on street food
"Bangkok’s government is not the only one seeking to ’tidy up’ its streets. Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City are moving vendors away from congested areas, and ’advising them on more stable ways to make a living’. A similar drive is under way in Jakarta." What a mistake.
CAMBODIA: Pepper prices plunge
"Chhay Sor, a small-scale pepper farmer, explained that local pepper prices were unstable because Cambodian farmers rely on Thai and Vietnamese brokers to sell their products to the wider market."
INDONESIA I: Stage-diving from Mecca?s verandah
"This heart-breaking yet empowering film reveals how young people are striving to hold on to their identities and fight for freedom in the face of religious stricture and fierce opposition." Also see this week’s featured video.
INDONESIA II: Indonesian army destroys much-mocked tiger statue
"Every unit has their own decision on how the statue was made, but sometimes the artist was not that good." LOL.
INDONESIA III: Community in chaotic Jakarta goes green to fight eviction
"Residents have transformed the ’kampung’, as traditional neighbourhoods are known in Indonesia, into a model of clean and green living in an effort to fight off the threat of eviction."
LAOS: A young monk in Laos had pressing life questions for President Obama
"And Sengdao, an 18-year-old monk, had fantasies of shaking the American president’s hand — or better yet, asking one of the many burning questions he had for Obama, whose speeches had inspired him from half a world away."
SINGAPORE I: How to revive a 500-year-old dying language
"Until two years ago, university student Kevin Martens Wong had never even heard of his ancestral tongue, let alone spoken it."
SINGAPORE II: The last of Singapore’s Chinese puppet performers
It is 1.30pm on a rainy, humid December afternoon and the Sin Hoe Ping puppet troupe is busy making sure that everything is in place before they perform for Da Er Ye Bo, the two Taoist gods of the underworld.
THAILAND: Buddhist Thailand hunts halal gold
"From hotels with segregated swimming pools to jelly made from seaweed instead of pig bones, Buddhist Thailand is chasing halal gold as it welcomes Muslim visitors and touts its wares to the Islamic world."
VIETNAM: In search of Vietnam’s nearly forgotten cinema history
"After years of governmental neglect, the Nguyen family’s cinema in Tan Hiep eventually became a large bookshop, with little trace of its celluloid history."
Travel writing
SINGAPORE: 17 essential walking trails to get your trek on
"From forested hills to swampy wetlands, Singapore’s parks have loads to offer to the intrepid hiker. Here’s our list of 17 trails that’ll get you out of the urban gridlock and back into nature."
THAILAND I: ‘A Bangkok scented candle would smell of incense, grilled pork and tuk-tuk fumes’
"But to really make sense of the city, jump on a Chao Phraya river ferry. Take the Skytrain to Saphan Taksin and go 15 stops to Thewet. This 30-minute journey gives a full tour of the city, taking in shiny high-rises, Portuguese mansions, the edges of Chinatown, everyday river life, the old French embassy, as well as jumping catfish and people feeding fish outside temples. "
THAILAND II: The world’s best hidden beaches: Trang archipelago, Thailand
Not sure any of these are really “hidden” beaches, but there are some good ones in this piece.
Interesting site
Saigoneer
An online hub of all things happening in Saigon. Heading to Vietnam? They belong on your reading list.
Travel shot
Farang Beach on Ko Muk is none too shabby.
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
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