Travelfish newsletter Issue 266 : Semarang & Kaeng Krachan + Silent Killer + Colonial
Hi everyone,
This week we have Semarang and Jepara (both in Indonesia) and Kaeng Krachan (in Thailand) all new and sparkling for you, on the bookshelf we look at Tales of Old Bangkok, and we highlight a short film based around Koh Trong near Kratie in Cambodia. More below the fold.
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The week that was
This week we've got Semarang and Jepara all ready. They're two little-visited towns in Indonesia's Java and in the case of Semarang in particular we’re new and big fans—check it out. We’ve also got Kaeng Krachan, Thailand’s largest national park ready for you.
On the road, this newsletter is being finished off in Bali's international terminal as Stuart heads down to Sydney for a week. On the same island, Sally is slicing and dicing Bali’s Kuta and Legian and she’s had some surprising finds so far. In Thailand David is heading back south to hit Phetburi and Cha-Am while up north, Mark is winding up his Chiang Mai research—looking forward to seeing that. Sam was back from Bangkok earlier today with a glad bag full of shopping, massage and bar-hopping data. She liked Chinatown—a lot. Meanwhile over in Vietnam, Cindy is wearing our her shoes queuing for banh mi—luckily Saigon has quite a cobbling industry.
For premium Travelfish members, Semarang, Jepara and Kaeng Krachan are the three new guides this week. We have more than 200 guides available for download (219 to be exact). Not a premium member? It costs a very reasonable A$35 per year (please note: Australian not US dollars!) for access. Find out more here.
This week's soap box is about a silent killer: electricity. The newsletter theme is colonial.
Please forward this newsletter on to any friends, family, strangers in bars, bus drivers, som tam ladies and massage men you think might be interested to receive it.
Good travels,
Stuart, Sam and the Travelfish team
Soapbox
The silent killer
About 20 years ago a friend and I were hitching around northern Vietnam in the back of a cement truck when we pulled into some town that had a decidedly ordinary flophouse which was to be home for the evening. When the staff showed us to the room they made a point of taking us to the bathroom and pointing out a lump of wood we were to use when touching the switch. Through bad mime and acting, it was clear that the switch was deadly and we were not to touch it. The room was still for rent though!
Despite being covered in cement dust, neither of us bothered to shower that night, though afterwards we joked about the place many times—it was a good one for the "crazy travel tales" part of the evening.
Sadly 20 years later, matters really have not improved much at all in the region, it seems.
In May this year, two mad-keen Indonesian travellers who were friends of friends were found dead in the bathroom of their hotel in Ende in Eastern Indonesia. While there was no investigation into the tragic event, it is suspected that the woman was electrocuted in the bathroom and her travelling companion was killed trying to assist her. What an awful tragedy.
The internet is awash in photos of dodgy wiring which even to non-electricians looks deadly, but, need it be said, electricity is no laughing matter. Unfortunately the people employed to work with it the region are not always as well-trained as perhaps they could be.
With this in mind, here are five pointers to keep in mind for when you're travelling in the region:
1) Never assume that wires are safe to touch even if they appear to be insulated.
2) Never operate an electric appliance when standing in water—think barefoot on a wet bathroom floor using a hair dryer.
3) Never touch someone who is being electrocuted—turn the mains off.
4) Never operate or even touch dangling and lose switches or plugs with wet hands or when you are barefoot.
5) Never ever mess around or "try to fix" dodgy wiring that you may encounter in your room. Call staff and request a different room.
Safe travels,
Stuart
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Featured
Colonial district walking tour
The heart of Melaka’s colonial district is the conspicuous cluster of Indian-red buildings dominating the southern bank of the Melaka River at the foot of St Paul’s Hill. From here, climb over the hillside and circle its base to explore the vestiges and museums of this historical area, enclosed by the ruins of old Portuguese fortifications.
Film of the week
Kratie
In French, this is a great look at Koh Trong near Kratie—love it! Film by Le voyage de monsieur Panda.
What we're reading
Tales of Old Bangkok: Rich Stories from the Land of the White Elephant
Tales of Old Bangkok: Rich Stories from the Land of the White Elephant is a collection of colourful snippets from various written sources about Bangkok, mostly from the 1800s through to the 1960s.
Off the forum
Can you help with advice on any of these questions?
Snorkeling visibility first week of September?
Snorkeling destination with on-land attractions?
Looking for people who want to explore Flores by car
What should we absolutely see between Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi?
Notes from the road
BURMA: Central Railway Station
Unless you’re actually catching a train, it may not be worth going far out of your way to visit Yangon’s Central Railway Station but this spectacular building is impossible to miss and one of downtown Yangon’s most iconic structures — here’s a brief rundown on this elegant old railway station.
CAMBODIA: Chhlong
Many towns and villages make pleasant day trips from Kratie, and chief among them is Chhlong, about an hour and a half south by motorbike. The town itself was once a bustling port for French and Chinese traders, and the beautiful, decaying colonial architecture lining the riverfront attests to this. The buildings are all occupied, so you can’t go in to explore, and there’s something terribly sad about seeing such grandeur being left to rot away surrounded by mountains of rubbish and the stench of fish.
INDONESIA: Lawang Sewu
What the Eiffel Tower is to Paris and the Opera House is to Sydney, Lawang Sewu is to Semarang. Semarang’s iconic building has a mixed history: it was built at the beginning of the 20th century as an administrative building for the Dutch East Indies Railway Company (Nederlandsch-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij) and during WWII was occupied by the Japanese, reportedly to have been used for torture and interrogation. Today it is an excellent museum.
ISLANDS: Don Khon
It’s bungalows and hammocks galore but over a century ago, Don Dhet and Don Khon were more than a lazy backpacker idyll. It was a battleground where ambition clashed with nature as the French tried to create a passage for their colonial empire through Indochina.
LAOS: Savannakhet
Savannakhet translates roughly to “Golden Land”, and while it was historically a prosperous, promising land for the French colonialists and the Vietnamese and Chinese merchants who followed them, the city has moved on from that bygone golden age.
MALAYSIA: Fort Cornwallis
Despite its history, Fort Cornwallis is curiously devoid of any belligerence and might indeed qualify as one of the most peaceful, breeziest spots in all Penang. Its lawns are green; its wide ramparts undulate, dotted with benches, and planted with sweet smelling borders.
SINGAPORE: Long Bar at Raffles Hotel
Sipping on a cherry-red Singapore Sling at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel is perhaps the most iconic thing to do in Singapore. Though it won’t score you the cultural points of say a visit to the National Museum, you may not feel too upset about spending an hour or two forcing yourself to down the slightly sweet, easily drinkable cocktail in the name of historical tourism.
THAILAND: Wongburi House
Wongburi (or Vongburi) House is a beautiful two-storey teak mansion built during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and now open to the public as museum. Phrae royal genealogy has us somewhat confused but, if we’ve understood correctly, the mansion was the home of Luang Phongphibun and his wife Chao Nantha. Nantha was a princess of the Phrae royal family and Phongphibun was a noble who’d made a lot of dosh out of the profitable teak trade.
VIETNAM: Vietnam Fine Arts Museum
The Vietnam Fine Arts Museum has one of the best and most diverse art collections in the country, and a visit here will provide some good insight into Vietnamese culture and history.
News from the region
BURMA: Sexual harassment, the hidden scourge of Myanmar women
"Myanmar has a strong legislation to fight against sexual harassment according to Daw Htar Htar, the director and founder of the Akhaya women Myanmar. However, she added that the implementation is 'very weak'."
CAMBODIA I: Cambodia opposition claim gains in local elections
"Cambodia's opposition claimed gains in local elections on Sunday that could shake Prime Minister Hun Sen's longtime grip on power."
CAMBODIA II: The end of the road for Kampong Cham’s iconic bamboo bridge?
"That is likely to change after this year, however, when modernity finally catches up to the tradition. Two kilometres south of the bamboo bridge, a team of Royal Cambodian Armed Forces engineers is putting the finishing touches on a new government-funded concrete bridge. Once the river rises, the bamboo bridge is likely to come down for the last time."
INDONESIA: Free school meals help Indonesian children stand tall
"According to government data, about 37 percent of all Indonesian children under five were stunted in 2013, up from 35.6 percent in 2010. This translates to over 9.5 million stunted children, the fifth highest national figure globally, the WFP says."
INDONESIA II: Cracking Indonesia's corruption code
"It's not the most complex code to crack. But Indonesia has a long history of talking in code when discussing some rather illegal corruption business."
INDONESIA III: Indonesia starts count to solve the riddle of the islands
"Indonesia stretches more than 5,000km from the Indian Ocean to the South Pacific. But the world’s largest archipelago nation does not know how many islands it has."
INDONESIA IV: Sunken Australian warship HMAS Perth ransacked by illegal scavengers
"One of Australia’s most treasured second world war battleships has been illegally salvaged for metal, and in the process a war grave for more than 300 sailors has been devastated, maritime archaeologists say."
SINGAPORE: Pink Dot, Speakers' Corner and the death of Singapore's only space for dissent
"The implications also extend far beyond just this pride rally; it affects every civil society event held at Hong Lim Park in the future, most of whom have less material support and resources than Pink Dot. If the only solution acceptable to the police was the erecting of barricades for Pink Dot, will they make similar demands for future events?"
THAILAND: Bangkok’s bars and clubs fight for survival in face of curfews
"On 31 March, approximately 10 bars and restaurants on Sukhumvit Soi 11, long one of the city’s nocturnal hubs, closed to make way for new apartments."
VIETNAM: Sand mining ban needed to rescue Hoi An from watery grave: experts
"Experts have urged authorities in Quang Nam Province to ban sand mining in a bid to protect the popular tourist town of Hoi An from erosion, local newspapers reported."
Travel writing
BURMA: Cultivating a coffee culture
"Since the country began to open to the world after the end of outright military rule in 2011, farmers have increasingly had access to markets and techniques that were denied to them for years. A host of brands producing high quality roasts have sprung up -- some with the help of foreign experts -- and in 2016 speciality Myanmar coffee became available for sale in the United States for the first time."
INDONESIA: The island that forever changed science
"When 35-year-old Alfred Russel Wallace arrived in Ternate in January 1858, he’d been exploring the vast and sprawling mass of islands he called the Malay Archipelago for almost four years."
MALAYSIA: The regeneration of Kuala Lumpur Old City
"Like other cities in the region, Kuala Lumpur is seemingly ignorant about preservation of heritage buildings."
TRAVEL I: The truth behind the 10 deadliest plane crashes of all time
Something to read at the departure gate...
TRAVEL II: The Art of Travel: Theories of travel in the Renaissance
"For example, travel was an invaluable part of education for the English aristocracy, partly because mastering foreign languages was a crucial skill in a period when few outside Britain spoke English.
Interesting site
Beer Travelist
Beer meets travel on this new site by our friend Brian Spencer—a man who knows his way around a keg.
Travel shot
Just go.
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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