Travelfish newsletter Issue 274 : Saigon, Pai & Hanoi updates + Walking distance + Taxi!
Hi everyone,
This week we’re all about walking distance. Online we’ve got updates to the accommodation scene in Ho Chi Minh City and Pai, a review of Leila S. Chudori's beautiful Home, and a soapbox on catching a taxi. More below the fold.
Travelfish premium members are growing like mushrooms in the wet season.
Learn how you can become one now! »
The week that was
This week we’re delighted to announce Roundtheworldflights.com as a Travelfish sponsor. They're supporting this newsletter and also offering a £30 per person discount for Travelfish Premium members. See below for more information. Thank you!
On Twitter this week Stuart asked people what they would consider “walking distance” and, well, he discovered it is the travel equivalent to the proverbial ball of string. What is the weather like, is it a walkable city, with or without bags, with or without holes in the pavement, sober? Needless to say the input was food for thought and it gave us this week’s theme as we ask, well, what is walking distance?
This week new on the site we have two almost-completed accommodation updates—one for Saigon and the other for Pai—talk about flip sides of the travel coin. Also online is a shopping guide for Hanoi, along with a detailed write-up of the city’s 36 Streets—Sam walked them all (okay, nearly).
On the road, Sally is back from Penang, Mark is back in Cambodia, heading to some rather wet beaches, David is wrapping up his Bangkok artistic coverage and Stuart is getting ready to head to Jakarta and Singapore.
Premium Travelfish members now have access to more than 200 downloadable guides (226 to be exact) and a special deal with roundtheworldflights.com. 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 soapbox is “Taxi!”, because chances are you’ve never caught one like the ride we heard about last week. It was certainly more than walking distance.
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
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 2018.
Log in to the Member Centre on Travelfish now for your coupon code and
start designing your own round the world trip »
Soapbox
Taxi!
Last week I was in Jakarta for a quick visit and in a taxi heading back to the airport I got chatting to the driver.
He asked where I was from and where I was going. When I told him I'm an Australian heading to Bali (where else do Australians go in Indonesia!) he told me of quite a fare he had a few weeks earlier.
He'd picked up an older Australian couple who had just flown in from Australia to Jakarta and, stuck in traffic (as has been known to happen on occasion in Jakarta!) they got chatting. The older couple were very concerned about flying domestically in Indonesia and were considering over-landing to Bali by bus or train and were asking the driver his thoughts on it.
“I could drive you,” he said, half joking.
Long story short, he did.
He dropped them at the hotel and picked them up the next day in a more comfortable car he borrowed from a friend. They then spent the next six days driving together across Java to Bali. The Australians paid him eight million rupiah (roughly A$800) for his troubles.
The route took them through Bandung, Yogyakarta, Solo (where they stayed with the driver’s extended family) and Bromo—a hell of a drive in six days I thought—but the driver said they loved it, and he seemed well pleased with the experience himself.
On a good day, the 1.5 hour flight from Jakarta to Bali costs under $50 so the Australian couple certainly paid more than they needed to. But, at least going on the tale the driver had to tell, they picked up an awful lot of memories along the way.
There are so many ways to travel.
Good travels,
Stuart
Travelfish partners
We work with a number of partners on a commission basis and this helps keep us in business. Please consider using the following links to make any reservations as a commission may end up being paid to us, with no impact on what you pay. Thank you!
Flights: roundtheworldflights.com
Places to stay: Agoda, Booking
Tours and activities: TourRadar, GetYourGuide
Ground transport: 12Go Asia
Travel insurance: World Nomads
Featured
A walk down Charoen Krung Road
From the Grand Palace to Little India and Chinatown, through the old European quarter and on to the beginnings of Bangkok’s modern business district, a stroll down Charoen Krung Road touches nearly all of the historical-cultural threads that weave this fascinating city together. With eclectic food, invigorating street life and a diverse mix of attractions, it’s also a feast for the senses.
What we're watching
Know This
A celebration of travel photographed over a period 6 years all over the world, entirely on an iPhone. Film by Christian Sorensen Hansen.
What we're reading
Home by Leila S. Chudori
Epic, compelling, important: 2012-published Home, by Indonesia’s Leila S. Chudori (Pulang in Indonesian) is a colourful and illuminating novel tracing the lives of Indonesian political exiles in Paris from 1968 onwards and, several decades on, their children both there and Jakarta during the upheavals and violence of 1998.
Off the forum
Can you help with advice on any of these questions?
Notes from the road
BURMA: An easy walk delivers a temple and a lake
Today Meiktila sits on the northeast bank of the sprawling Lake Meiktila and the town’s position delivers on both impressive sunrises and sunsets, with a large lake frontage and a couple of temples within easy walking distance of the most convenient hotel that is permitted to take foreigners.
CAMBODIA: A single minute can pay dividends
Within less than a minute’s walk of Siem Reap’s Old Market is a quiet little hideaway, a fragrant oasis where you can escape the hustle and the crowds of Siem Reap and take a moment to breathe, relax and get your bearings.
INDONESIA: Where five hours won’t take you to Tanah Lot
Those with energy (and sufficient sunscreen) can walk all the way from Kuta to Tanah Lot—it is more or less all the same stretch of sand, after all. This takes you through all the beaches of Canggu. Here’s a wrap on what you’ll find.
ISLANDS: Where an hour (or so) will take you around an island
If you enjoy walking around islands, Kepa can be circumnavigated in a bit over an hour, though you’ll need shoes as some of the going is rocky, and it is only really possible at low tide.
LAOS: Where 25 minutes walking distance will take you to a cave and a lagoon
The cave is primarily famous for a lagoon inside in which you can swim in the pitch dark. Guides at the entrance to the cave are able to show you the way to the lagoon which is about a 25-minute walk from the entrance of the cave.
MALAYSIA: Getting lost in the jungle can be walking distance
It’s possible to walk almost the entire way around Perhentian Kecil using d’Lagoon as a starting and finishing point, while on Perhentian Besar you can do a loop on foot to all the developed beaches save Bubbles (which is only reachable by boat).
SINGAPORE: A day can be walking distance
When it involves Singapore and food.
THAILAND: Is four kilometres walking distance? In this case, yes, you must
While the majority of visitors only see the museum and this first cutting, those who wish to explore the site in a more intimate way can walk the full four kilometres of the trail. It’s a relatively demanding hike and we got emotional while imagining what it would have been like for those forced to toil here.
VIETNAM: Two days? Why not?
Hang En may not be the world’s largest cave – that title goes to Hang Son Doong just three kilometres away – but a two-day, one-night trek to Hang En is a once-in-a-lifetime experience in itself.
News from the region
BURMA I: Can the NLD claim the high ground?
“The impunity of the armed forces has not diminished, nor has there been a significant expansion of rights under the NLD. In some respects, Myanmar was a freer place in the final years of the former Union Solidarity and Development Party.”
BURMA II: Protesting nationalist monks arrested in Mandalay
“The chief minister said he suspected there was someone behind the protests who wanted to “destabilize” the country, but said it was difficult to find out who.”
BURMA III: The unprecedented explosion of smartphones in Myanmar
“Just six years ago, only North Korea had fewer mobile phones than Myanmar. Now, almost everyone in Southeast Asia’s poorest country is connected.”
CAMBODIA: Australian nurse Tammy Davis-Charles sentenced to 18 months' jail in Cambodia
“Judge Sor Lina said there was sufficient evidence to prove that 23 Cambodian women were paid $US10,000 ($12,600) each to have surrogate babies and that the couples paid an average of $US50,000 for each baby.”
INDONESIA I: Pigeon racing leads to dozens of divorces in Purbalingga
Chasing birds can cause problems.
INDONESIA II: ‘A tragic, forgotten place.' Poverty and death in Indonesia's land of gold
“Papua is Indonesia’s poorest province, where 28% of people live below the poverty line and with some of the worst infant mortality and literacy rates in Asia. But it is also Indonesia’s land of gold.”
INDONESIA III: Asylum seekers, refugees protest over dwindling resettlement places
“Some 14,500 asylum seekers and refugees are currently residing in Indonesia – a non-signatory to the Refugee Convention – awaiting resettlement elsewhere without rights to education or employment.”
INDONESIA IV: Orangutan conservation: Government agencies no “cleaning service”
“Orangutan conservation in Indonesia is not working. The government has had an action plan for 10 years now, but either the actions in that plan are not being implemented, or they are not effective.”
SOUTHEAST ASIA: Suicides and forced migration: The reality of climate change in South Asia
“The unreliability of crop yields is also forcing people to flee the affected areas in search of income and a sustainable livelihood. This prompts significant social problems in the areas to which they are migrating.”
THAILAND I: Parks Department to appeal in island case
Two sets of laws in Thailand, one for those with dosh and another set for everyone else.
THAILAND II; Don Mueang passengers suffer in four-hour queue
THAILAND III: Influential Thais in push for Kra Canal project
“The plan the generals and businessmen had in mind is one of the most ambitious and transformational infrastructure megaprojects ever contemplated in Asia—construction of a $28 billion, 135km shipping canal across Thailand's narrow Isthmus of Kra to link the Pacific and Indian oceans.”
VIETNAM I: 70% of tourists do not return to Vietnam
“Nguyen Quoc Ky, head of Vietravel said Vietnam's tourism plan was outdated and wasted money and personnel. It needs more open policies, especially for visas, and support for start-ups. In addition, the authorities are not professional enough when dealing with problems.”
VIETNAM II: Harsh sentence for blogger may haunt Vietnam’s environmental movement
“Mother Mushroom had written previously about environmental crimes and state repression, but the Formosa disaster drew major government attention to her writing. On October 10, 2016, she was arrested while visiting a jailed dissident. She was accused of defaming the government.”
Travel writing
TRAVEL I: Destination misery: seven ways they turned airports into hell
Eurocentric, but still plenty of valid points.
TRAVEL II: Only governments can stem the tide of tourism sweeping the globe
Start with the cruise ships & AirBnb.
TRAVEL III: ‘Tourism kills neighbourhoods’: How do we save cities from the city break?
TRAVEL IV: What’s the matter with Lonely Planet?
“Often, I’ve heard, Lonely Planet contributors are told to use Google and TripAdvisor to create content.” Some friends who work regularly for LP dispute that this happens, but guidebook-spotters may find the piece worth a read.
BURMA: A guide to social enterprise in Burma
“In the past few years, there has been a big boom in creative social enterprises in Myanmar, and I wanted to shine a light on them.”
INDONESIA I: A whaling way of life under threat
“But as the government cuts down on illegal fishing in the Savu Sea, trying to conserve a critical migratory route for whale and dolphin species, conservationists are calling for a strict regulation of Lamaleran hunting practices, too.”
INDONESIA II: The spice island they swapped for Manhattan
“A solitary pier, snaking into the ocean, is the main thoroughfare. Locals take home the catch of the day still wriggling in their hands. A toddler plays with an empty detergent bottle on a string. There are no cars, internet, mobile telephone reception or newspapers. Most houses, however, have a television.”
THAILAND: The forgotten legacy of World War Two in Northern Thailand
“One of these men was Fujita Matsuyoshi who was eventually naturalised, and spent his life, until his recent death, dedicated to collecting the remains of soldiers who died along the Skeleton Road.” Really interesting story here.
VIETNAM: Space-saving in Saigon: How tiny lives squeeze into the big city
“Squeezed between two buildings, this clothes shop on Dong Khoi Street (District 1) has been open for over 10 years. Surrounded by high-end stores and hotels in the tourist district, the street is notoriously expensive for retailers.”
Interesting site
Maps.me
A very cool, easy to use offline map viewer for your smart phone. We’re big fans.
Travel shot
Sunset from Warung Pantai. Photo: Stuart McDonald
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.