Travelfish newsletter Issue 281 : More Georgetown + Feeding the beast + yellow!
Hi everyone,
This week we’re all about "yellow". We’ve got a review of Steve Sheinkin’s Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War, and a soapbox on "Feeding the beast". More below the fold.
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The week that was
We’re delighted to say we’re on time this week—unlike Bali’s Gunung Agung, which continues to (thankfully) break its media-imposed eruption deadlines. More on that below and in this week’s soapbox.
More than 100,000 Balinese have been relocated from their villages around Bali’s holiest peak. Yesterday we took a drive up to a centre for displaced people in north Bali. A journalist friend who has been visiting the centres told us what they needed (based on their own whiteboard list) so we carted up three heavy-duty stoves, a couple of gas tanks and other bits and pieces.
They’d had three stoves to cook three meals a day for hundreds of people, so that doubled their capacity and something was bubbling away on one of the burners before we'd even left. The centre we visited was sleeping 200, but was responsible for managing supplies for 600. It was great to see how involved the local community is in getting supplies to those who need them.
If you'd like to help the people of Bali from afar, the following organisations are all doing great work on the ground in Bali.
Meanwhile, on the site, we’ve updated the sights and attractions in Malaysia’s Penang (well almost, four to go tomorrow); this week we have coming an update to Can Tho in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, and Sihanoukville in Cambodia.
You’re able to access all of Travelfish.org's information via our website. But if you'd like another way to support independent, informed coverage of how to travel around and what to see in Southeast Asia, we'd be grateful for you chipping in. It costs a very reasonable A$35 per year to become a premium member (please note: Australian not US dollars!). Membership gives you access to our forum plus more than 200 downloadable guides (231 to be exact) and a special deal with both roundtheworldflights.com and All Points East. We've been covering Southeast Asia since 2004 and we plan on doing so for many years to come.
Please forward this newsletter on to anyone you think might be interested to receive it.
Good travels,
Stuart, Sam and the Travelfish team
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Soapbox
Feeding the beast
Back in another lifetime, Ms Travelfish was a correspondent, bureau chief and news editor with an international news agency. A large part of that job was working with a team of local reporters to pull together copy that went out onto the news wire.
When breaking news and momentous events like disasters took place, the pace of work was considerable. Thousands of words were written by Sam and her co-workers in a day, with endless updates going out onto the wire. Every minute, somewhere in the world a newspaper hits deadline—the readership is insatiable. It's called “feeding the beast”.
This past week in Bali we’ve seen plenty of beast feeding going on. Waiting for Gunung Agung to erupt, local and international journalists, along with an endless supply of amateurs with a smartphone and a Facebook account have been busy feeding the beast.
Eating too much of anything is bad for you, and this Agung diet isn’t too healthy. This morning, courtesy of CNN, we had the headline: “Entire island evacuated as volcanoes rumble in Bali and Vanuatu”; the lead picture was of Gunung Agung on Bali.
Takes a breath.
Bali is not being evacuated (the CNN headline is actually referring to Vanuatu). The vast majority of Bali is entirely unaffected by the rumblings of the volcano. Yes, an area in a radius around the volcano has been evacuated, which means the diving centre of Tulamben has been cleared out. Stories suggesting multiple tourist hotspots in Bali have been evacuated are patently false. Sure, the text below might clarify a headline, but plenty of people don't read beyond the headlines.
If the volcano erupts, the effects could be cataclysmic, not just to Bali, the local population and the local tourism industry, but also to greater tourism in Indonesia.
However, the volcano has not erupted. It may rumble on like this for six more minutes, days, weeks or months. Nobody knows.
In the meantime, sensationalist journalism is scaring off both domestic and international visitors for no good reason. All this will achieve is an economic calamity without the volcano even needing to erupt.
We set up a little website (initially as a joke, then people said they thought it was helpful) which has feeds from what we think are reliable sources—it also has links to organisations you can support to help evacuees.
Good travels
Stuart
Featured
Shopping in Penang
For Penang’s widest range of books on everything Malaysian and beyond, the cheerful yellow doors of Gerak Budaya Bookshop reveal a treasure trove. And there's much more shopping to be done in Penang. Here are some highlights.
What we're watching
Indonesia.
"Filmed during my 3 weeks trip to Indonesia. We spend most of our time on Bali. The other islands we've visited are Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Ceningan and Gili Trawangan." Film by Joren de Jager.
What we're reading
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin
How many more books do we need about the American War in Vietnam? As Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer showed, there’s still plenty of scope for Vietnamese perspectives in the English language to hit our shelves. While Steve Sheinkin is American, what makes 2015-published Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War different to others is not just that its focus is on Daniel Ellsberg, of the Pentagon Papers fame, but that it’s written for children (depending on who you read, either from 10 or grade 7 up).
Notes from the road
BURMA: Thanaka paste
The beige-yellow splodges, swirls and spots on cheeks and foreheads means one thing: you can only be in Burma.
CAMBODIA: The Pavilion
Despite being within walking distance of many of Phnom Penh’s central historical highlights, the lovely Pavilion has an atmosphere of refined seclusion—and plenty of yellow walls and tiles.
INDONESIA: Kawah Ijen, Java
It’s not these views that are the lasting impression for most visitors to Kawah Ijen. Instead, people return home with memories of the yellow sulphur miners carting unbelievable amounts of raw material from the bowels of the earth.
ISLANDS: Yellow Bridge Homestay, Nusa Ceningan
The first place you’ll spot as you cross the yellow bridge to Nusa Ceningan from Nusa Lembongan is cute and friendly Yellow Bridge Homestay.
LAOS: Wat Phu, Champasak
Further up is the precarious climb on narrow stone steps, the occasional yellow frangipani tree offering some much needed shade. At the top visitors are rewarded with a stellar view of the Mekong plain below and the main sanctuary itself, originally devoted to the Hindu god Shiva, subsequently transformed into a Buddhist shrine in the 13th-14th century.
MALAYSIA: Snake Temple (Hock Kin Keong), Penang
We’re not saying it’s devoid of the oft-feared reptiles, it just takes a moment before you will spot your first pit viper, its skin a zesty lime green with yellow striped undertones, wrapped snugly around a rattan frame on the altar, prostrate beneath a Chinese vase or slunk over the plump dragonfruit, offerings to the gods.
SINGAPORE: Sultan Mosque (Masjid Sultan)
An iconic landmark in historic Kampong Glam, yellow (okay,golden)-domed Sultan Mosque is the centrepiece of Singapore’s Muslim community. If you’ve never been inside a mosque before, Sultan Mosque is very welcoming, with friendly guides on hand to greet non-Muslims and answer any questions you may have.
THAILAND: A-isa Rot Dee, Bangkok
Snacks include pork ball skewers with sweet and spicy sauce, beef satay that’s bathed in yellow curry powder before being grilled, and mataba, a flaky unleavened bread that’s stuffed with ground beef, green onions and egg before being fried.
VIETNAM: Hoa Lo Prison (Hanoi Hilton)
Originally sprawling over 13 hectares, yellow-painted Hoa Lo Prison, better known as the Hanoi Hilton to Westerners in one of its later iterations, was one of the largest prisons built by the French in Indochina.
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News from the region
CAMBODIA: Vann Molyvann, visionary architect who shaped Phnom Penh, receives a final farewell in Siem Reap
"Politicians, historians and admirers of the father of New Khmer Architecture – an urban planning movement that shaped the capital in the 1950s and 1960s – flocked to yesterday’s funeral to pay their respects to Molyvann, who passed away last Thursday."
INDONESIA I: Indonesia takes a step back from reckoning with a past atrocity
"Yet aside from endorsing a public symposium on the issue that was held last year, Mr. Joko’s government has done nothing to investigate the mass killings."
INDONESIA II: In Indonesia, drag allows queens to shift between worlds
"Still, like many on the Muslim-majority island of Java, the queens live as observant Muslims and refrain from consuming alcohol. They all lead different lives in the daytime, with some pursuing education and others dancing professionally."
INDONESIA III: End of the road for Indonesia’s motorbikes?
"Jakarta’s transport authorities estimate that by limiting motorcycles in the city’s thoroughfares, traffic velocity would increase by more than 17 per cent." Find that impossible to believe.
LAOS: Laos is 'world's fastest growing' ivory market
"Tens of thousands of African elephants are killed every year for their tusks, and Chinese buyers are getting around a domestic ivory ban on the mainland by shopping in neighbouring countries."
MALAYSIA: Women plead not guilty to murdering N. Korea leader's half-brother
"These range from how two women living precarious existences among Malaysia's army of migrant workers allegedly became involved in a high-profile assassination, to how a lethal nerve agent was deployed in an airport and killed Kim but harmed no one else."
SOUTHEAST ASIA: Four days, 11 flights, 10,000km
"It was in the 26th hour that I started to unravel. A self-enforced stoicism that had remained steady up to this point, was now being tested."
THAILAND I: Prawit orders mafia crackdown at tourist spots
"Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon has ordered widespread crackdowns on mafia gangs to stop them causing trouble to Thai and foreign tourists across the country."
THAILAND II: Mekong clearance will destroy 'a few islets'
“Just a few...”
TOURISM: How Chinese tourists are changing the world
"John Kester, director of statistics, trends and policy at the UNWTO, says, “Chinese travellers may overwhelm other visitors if they are not managed properly.” He advises destination countries to use both capacity and marketing to help spread visitors throughout time and space. “The best scenario is having a good mix of nationalities and to avoid creating ghettos.”"
Travel writing
BURMA: Don't believe the travel brochures: Myanmar is deeply racist and bigoted
"An ambassador in Yangon tried to put in a good word for my husband and was told that Myanmar had recently become 'very strict with Bangladeshis'."
Interesting site
Has Agung Erupted Yet?
A silly little site we threw together on Friday night which some people are finding a little bit useful.
Travel shot
Keep an eye out for the Acheen Street Mosque. Photo: Sally Arnold
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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