Travelfish newsletter Issue 294 : Staying alive + Mae Hong Son
Hi all,
This week we’ve got new coverage on Thailand's Mae Hong Son on the site, with West Java in the editing queue and Thailand’s Ko Chang due in shortly.
Cindy is set to soon head to far northern Laos, while Stuart and Sally are hitting East Java tomorrow, and Mark is hitting Chiang Rai next week. Busy, busy, busy! Thank you to those who emailed in with their thoughts on ageism in hostels—seems Stuart isn’t the only one!
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Soapbox
Staying alive
Sadly, this is not our first Bee Gees-themed issue, but rather we’re on about, again, the literal topic of staying alive while travelling in Southeast Asia. Here are two straightforward ways to improve your odds of having a safe holiday in Southeast Asia.
First: Avoid speedboats.
Sunday brought news of yet another speedboat accident in Southern Thailand. The King Poseidon speedboat, carrying five Thai crew and 26 Chinese tourists (including three kids) from Phuket to Ko Phi Phi Leh exploded while at the latter. According to the Phuket News the accident was due to a faulty fuel line. While initial reports said there was one fatality, they seem to have (thankfully) walked this back to 16 injured, five seriously.
After the Phuket accident, a guesthouse owner on Ko Chang in eastern Thailand tweeted that a similar accident between Ko Mak and the Thai mainland occurred a few months ago, killing a Cambodian crew member—it didn’t make the international news headlines. Google "phuket speedboat accident" or, for an Indonesian angle, "Bali to Gili speedboat accident" and you’ll see no shortage of similar reports. And as with the story out of Ko Mak, these are just the ones that make the news.
Speedboats are dangerous, but it is rare, if ever, that the only route somewhere is by speedboat. Timetable your trip sensibly, and allow for some extra time to travel by slower (albeit still not 100% safe) boats, and avoid speedboats entirely. Bonus: Slower boats bring with them fewer risks of seasickness.
Second: Learn to ride a motorbike properly or don't drive one at all.
By far the most likely way you are going to die or maim yourself (or kill or main another person) is while riding a motorbike. If you are going to ride a motorbike, learn to ride and get licensed before you leave your home country.
It is that simple. Knowing how to actually ride a bike drastically improves your chances of being able to ride one safely and well. It also makes you safer on the road—to everyone else’s great relief.
And if you do drive one, or just jump on as a passenger, always always always wear a helmet. The road is no softer in Southeast Asia than the roads in your home country. While we’re not suggesting Travelfish readers are soft-headed, dropping a watermelon out of a car when travelling at 50km/h is a pretty good indicator of what happens to a helmetless head riding at 80km/h. It doesn't matter if you’re just riding down the road to grab a coffee; wear a helmet. Always.
Do your bit to make the roads safer for you and everyone else on them.
You’re welcome.
Stuart
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What we’re reading
Raffles and the British Invasion of Java by Tim Hannigan
Raffles and the British Invasion of Java is a gripping, page-turner of a history that examines the five years of British rule in Java, from 1811 to 1816.
Thank you
Just a few quick words of thanks to businesses who have decided to advertise direct with us on Travelfish recently. If you know a business, small or large, who may be interested in advertising on the site, please send them our One Page Media Kit!
Asia Highlights offer tailor made travel through Vietnam, Take Me Tour offer experiences with locals out of Chiang Mai and, last but not least, Akha Kitchen offer Thai cooking classes in Chiang Rai.
Featured destination
MAE HONG SON
When independent travel really got going in Thailand in the 1990s, the northern town of Mae Hong Son, out in the wilds to the northwest of better-known Chiang Mai, began to feature on traveller itineraries.
More or less at the halfway point of what became known as the Mae Hong Son loop, Mae Hong Son delivered a beautiful, bowl shaped valley—often submerged beneath a thick blanket of mist—to weary scooter riders as they rolled into town from the hair-raising (and back then, far bumpier!) Route 1095, from Pai and Soppong. For those who preferred to ride clockwise, Mae Hong Son waited at the end of a blazing north-south road from Mae Sariang, which would take you through vast teak forests and sparse traffic. Or you could of course get the bus—a creaking, fan-cooled affair, but oh boy the going was slow.
With a wealth of cheap guesthouses and good places to eat, a frosty evening climate and an interesting cultural mishmash of Thai and Shan people, Mae Hong Son had an earthy traveller vibe, without the crunchy new age streak more common in Pai. Trekking was on hand for those who felt Chiang Mai was “trekked out” and it was also, thanks to the ongoing civil war(s) in Burma, home to a small number of foreigners involved in the refugee camps along the frontier.
Fast forward 20 years and while the roads have improved (though they’re still winding as all hell—do be careful) and matters have settled down somewhat over this border, the number of foreign visitors has, if anything, dwindled. Pai in particular meanwhile has boomed. A big reason for this would be the opening up of Laos to independent travellers, especially via the northern entry point at Chiang Khong. Many travellers today get to Pai but go no further, turning back to ride back to Chiang Mai to drop off the scooter and head up to Laos for the slow boat to Luang Prabang.
Domestic tourists, especially Bangkokians, who reminisce about old-style countryside Thai living, love the area—and also don’t seem to miss the 15 degrees of heat that goes AWOL in Mae Hong Son’s cooler climate. When the sunflower fields down to the south near Khun Yuam are in season it can feel like half the population of Siam Square (selfie sticks included) has walked through a portal to Mae Hong Son. But the rest of the time, the town is blissfully quiet.
We’re not saying it is a ghost town by any means (though, Thailand being Thailand, there is bound to be a ghost or two—check out some haunts [groan] at Mae Hong Son Living Museum), but rather this is the type of destination that will appeal to those looking for all the elements that make a stay comfortable and interesting, without the hordes.
Explore the markets or perhaps fill half a day with a boat trip. Do climb up to the hilltop temple to enjoy a late afternoon view (or an early morning misty one). Enjoy the late afternoon crisp air while walking around Jong Kham lake, and savour the reflection of the two wats dancing across the water.
Set aside a day by scooter (or hire car) to head north to Ban Rak Thai, an old Kuomintang village that's more Chinese than Thai. On the way, feed the fish at Tham Pla and walk the gorgeous bamboo bridge at Su Tong Pae. If you’ve more time up your sleeve, particularly if there are a few of you, Mae Hong Son still makes an excellent alternative base for some multi-day trekking.
Of course, sometimes all you really need is a holiday from a holiday, in which case we’d suggest aiming for one of the places on the outskirts of town where you can relax on your balcony with a book or three and enjoy some traditional Shan cuisine.
Yes, Pai is worth a look and Soppong’s cave is magnificent, but don’t turn back! Keep going around and set aside perhaps three days to enjoy one of the most beautiful (and hospitable) provincial capitals in the country.
Read more about Mae Hong Son here.
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Tours and activities: TourRadar, GetYourGuide
Ground transport: 12Go Asia
Travel insurance: World Nomads
News from the region
BURMA: For Muslims across Myanmar, citizenship rights a legal fiction
“But citizenship is an issue throughout the country, and Muslim community leaders want the world to know that it’s not only those who call themselves Rohingya who face prejudice and discrimination.”
CAMBODIA I: Cambodia’s queen of punk wants to kill the love song
“But when she began singing about women’s rights, about destitute children, dump sites and drugs — about real things — she felt she was onto something more meaningful. “I love love songs,” she says. “But not this stereotype, this well-selling recipe of a woman leaving because the other guy has a bigger motorbike.””
CAMBODIA II: Cambodia’s hidden language classes
"But it was precisely this connection to the 'free world' that made English so attractive."
INDONESIA I: Wildlife detectives pursue the case of dwindling elephants in Indonesia
“In an ideal world, it obviously would be law enforcement conducting these investigations,” said Shayne McGrath, an independent environmental development consultant based in Sumatra. “The reality, though, is that now that NGOs are engaging in it, it does seem to improve results.”
INDONESIA II: Meet the 80-Year-Old grandma trying to save Indonesia's classic 'wayang' comics
“Before Batman fought the Joker. Before Wolverine popped his claws or Naruto perfected his slack-armed run, Gatotkaca, the bald magical warrior, was the comic hero of choice for most Indonesian kids.”
INDONESIA III: Beware Indonesia’s quiet drug war
“In December, Waseso said the policy had resulted in the deaths of 79 suspects, including ten foreigners, in 2017. Human Rights Watch condemned the policy, which has seen the death toll jump from 14 the year before. These extrajudicial killings are expected to continue this year, with BNN announcing investigations into dozens of nightclubs and bars in Jakarta.”
MALAYSIA I: Licence revoked for hawkers with foreign cooks in Penang
“Ong said for privately-run coffee shops, foreigners were not allowed to be the principal cooks for 13 local delicacies. They are asam laksa, char koay teow, loh bak, hokkien mee, curry mee, chee cheong fun, wan tan mee, pasembur, mee sotong, char koay kak, oh chien, koay teow soup and nasi lemak.” Beyond absurd.
MALAYSIA II: Mahathir Mohamad crops up again in bid to lead Malaysia – with Anwar on the same side
“Even the multi-billion-dollar scandal that broke in 2015, and which remains the subject of a Department of Justice investigation in the US, seems not to have weakened its position.”
THAILAND: Yakuza boss arrested in Thailand after photos of his tattoos go viral
“That was until a resident posted photos of the diminutive retiree playing a streetside checkers game with his intricate gang tattoos on full show and a missing little finger – yakuza members often slice off a fingertip to atone for an offence.”
VIETNAM: The Beatles of Vietnam
“The children were so small when they started the band that no one could see the youngest, Tung Van, behind his drum set, even if he was standing.”
Travel writing
CAMBODIA I: Cambodia’s beaches
“At risk of sounding like a travel brochure, the water really was bathwater-warm and an arresting shade of Crest-toothpaste green; the sand really was white and fine as ash; and the intrepid young backpackers clustering around the “Dream Dorm” were so lithe and lissom that your middle-aged correspondent felt and looked like a hairy tub of yoghurt by comparison.”
CAMBODIA II: Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville by train
“The railway line from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville was reopened for passenger services in 2016 after 14 years of being out of action.” Pretty much everything you need to know about catching this train.
INDONESIA I: The five lakes of Lempur
“We came to a wooden hut in a small clearing where a farmer lived with his young family, right on the border where the hutan adat and virgin forest meet. Real frontier living—they even spoke of a tiger occasionally coming through their fields, in its hunt for wild boar.”
INDONESIA II: Goodbye Indonesia, I will miss you
“Accompanied by either one of them, I criss-crossed the archipelago in search of stories that interested me and (I hope) gave readers some insight into the complexity and wonder of one of Australia's closest but least understood neighbours.”
THAILAND I: Healing powers
“Certain aspects of massage therapy also have psycho-spiritual components. The wood used for the dok sen therapy should come from a tamarind tree that has been struck by lightning, as it is believed such a tree has been bestowed with rare energy from celestial realms. Likewise, the iron from a plough is deemed most auspicious for the yam khaang heated-foot massage because the ploughing of fields is believed to remove “bad energy” from the earth.”
THAILAND II: Thai Chinese food tour
If this video doesn’t leave you with a rumbling tummy we don’t know what will.
Interesting site
Explorelist
Since quitting his job of 24 years in 2015, Darren has worked remotely and travelled the world. He loves sharing travel experiences and advice.
Travel shot
How about some bamboo rafting at Pang Oung? Photo: Mark Ord
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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