Travelfish newsletter Issue 296 : How hard are hotels? + Champasak
Hi all,
New on Travelfish with week we have the remainder of Sally’s West Java update online including Batu Karas, Pangandaran and Cipanas...which we mixed up with Cimaja in last week’s newsletter—sorry! David’s massive Ko Chang rewrite landing yesterday and we’ll be working to get that online asap.
Sally and Stuart are still in East Java, arriving in Solo last night—follow Sally’s pics (they’re far better than Stuart’s) on Instagram, David’s heading back to Thailand’s eastern islands and Cindy, going by her Instagram account, is working north through Laos.
This week’s soapbox is a minor quibble about hotels that get, well, near everything wrong, the book review features Thailand and the featured destination is Champasak in southern Laos.
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Soapbox
How hard are hotels?
The hotel room I'm sitting in as I type this has seven lights in it. Five in the bed room and two in the bathroom. It also has seven light switches, but there is no master switch.
One bathroom light switch is in the bedroom, the other in the bathroom. The light for the main ceiling light is on the far side of the room, the furthest point from the door. The light for the second set of ceiling lights is inside a fold out desk—I assumed that light was broken until I opened the desk and found the light switch.
My room also has two plastic wrapped coffee cups. There is no coffee nor tea in the room nor a kettle, nor a hot water flask. There are two bottles of water which I guess I could pour into the coffee cup. Maybe this is why they are still wrapped in plastic—nobody has figured out what to do with them.
The shower has a glass cubicle around it, but the door doesn't close properly, so when I turned the shower on the water sprays through the gap onto the floor, then collects in a little lake as the floor slopes away from the drain. The fitting on the wall the shower head plugs into is at the wrong angle meaning the shower is great for washing behind my ears, but not much else.
The bum gun is wedged between the toilet and the glass wall of the shower cubicle. It requires the flexibility of a yoga guru to reach, and, as the spray head has been fitted backwards, you’ll almost certainly spray yourself in the face as you try to wield it.
The room has a stool, but there is no space in front of the fold out desk to be able to use it. What is it for?
You get the idea—don’t start me on the WiFi.
This is a relatively new, modern hotel.
Do hoteliers actually stay in their hotels? Often I wonder.
Good travels.
Stuart
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What we’re reading
Hothouse Flower by Lucinda Riley
Hothouse Flower is a sprawling, multi-generational family saga mostly set in the United Kingdom in the modern day, with Bangkok at the end of World War II featuring as the secondary setting.
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
CHAMPASAK
Set on the west bank of the Mekong River, Champasak is best known as being home to the magnificent ruins of Wat Phu, but, as with many destinations, there is plenty more to see and do.
Conveniently situated between Laos’ southern capital of Pakse and the layabout 4,000 islands, you’d think stopping here for a night or two would be a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many people skip it totally or just slow down for a quick Wat Phu visit before pushing on to the north or south.
Perhaps it is this lesser-visited status which adds to its charms and we’d say if you can fit in the time Champasak is certainly worth at least a one night layover—two if you can.
Champasak is home to a comprehensive range of accommodation from backpacker-orientated digs to quite comfortable luxury just to the north of town and the riverside food and drink scene continues to evolve.
We’ve long been fans of just setting up shop here with a book (yes a paper one) and just passing the day, watching the river flow by as we slowly work through a few chapters, a few meals and perhaps a BeerLao or three. But, for the more active, Champasak can deliver.
We’ve already mentioned Wat Phu—which ranks about even with Konglor cave as the must see attraction in southern Laos, but another great distraction here is straight across the river, on the river sands of the bucolic Don Daeng, which you can easily cycle around.
Further afield the ruins of Um Tomo will appeal to budding archeologists, while inland of the Mekong’s east bank you’ll fine the wood carving village of Ban Nong Bueng village, a minor but welcome diversion for those keen on traditional handicrafts.
Read more about Champasak here.
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Flights: roundtheworldflights.com
Places to stay: Agoda, Booking
Tours and activities: TourRadar, GetYourGuide
Ground transport: 12Go Asia
Travel insurance: World Nomads
News from the region
BURMA: Citing ‘Whitewash,’ Bill Richardson Quits Rohingya Post
"To this day, however, the Myanmar government has refused to allow United Nations investigators and the international media to freely visit northern Rakhine. Aid groups have been similarly stymied. Last month, Yanghee Lee, the United Nations special rapporteur on Myanmar who has been a vocal critic of the military crackdown, was denied a visa to the country."
INDONESIA I: Dutch call on Indonesia to investigate reports of mass graves and war wrecks
"Experts say salvaging operations are rife throughout Indonesia, varying from large commercial operations using cranes and platforms to smaller ventures shipping scrap to dealers along Indonesia’s thousands of kilometres of coastline."
INDONESIA II: Vaping under threat in tobacco-loving Indonesia
""We should turn vapers into conventional cigarette smokers," he said at the time." So much greed and stupid.
LAOS: Laos pushes ahead with Mekong dams despite environmental risks
"In addition, the report said biodiversity losses would be so great that iconic and endangered species such as the giant Mekong catfish and Irrawaddy dolphin could be driven to extinction."
THAILAND: Thai women's prison highlights need for reform, drug policy rethink
"Thailand has the fourth highest number of women prisoners in the world, after the United States, China, and Russia, says a French non-government body, the International Federation for Human Rights."
Travel writing
Overtourism solutions
"Pricing is another technique that can be used to reduce demand. It can be used as part of strategies to target specific types of customer groups. This might sit uncomfortably with ideals of making the world's heritage accessible to all, but without managing impacts the heritage can be damaged or destroyed so that, in the end, nobody can benefit. "
Back on the tourist trail: the hotel where women were raped and tortured
Would you want to know if something untoward (or in this case, horrific) had happened in your hotel room (or hotel)?
Are You Spending Your Time and Money at the Right Restaurants When Travelling?
"How to separate the wheat from the chaff without eating everywhere, wasting precious time and money and essentially voting for mediocrity?"
INDONESIA: Braving Ghosts in Lawang's Haunted Hotel
"Night had fallen. I went back to my room and turned on the television. No lank-haired demoness crawled out of the screen. I took a shower. No blood poured from the taps. I settled down under my blanket. Was that the distant sound of mournful singing in Dutch, or just Indonesian pop music from the television in the next room? I wasn’t sure, but before long I was fast asleep…"
THAILAND: Soi Phat Sai
"At the eastern end of the soi, a local family has renovated their 1916-vintage mansion and transformed it into an elegant four-room boutique hotel called Baan 2459 (98 Soi Phat Sai)."
VIETNAM: A Tour of Saigon's 100-Year-Old H?m, Hao Si Phuong
"What better way to learn about Saigon’s Chinese-Vietnamese heritage than to pay a visit to one of the city’s oldest residential enclaves?"
Interesting site
International Rivers
A great resource for what is happening to rivers around the world.
Travel shot
There is never a bad time to visit Don Dhet in southern Laos.
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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