Travelfish newsletter Issue 298 : Ko Chang + Booking in advance (don’t be us) + Nong Khai
Hi all,
New on Travelfish with week is David’s massive Ko Chang update. All his new information is online, including his great photos and an almost 200-page PDF guide. Phew!
On the road, Sally and Stuart are just back in Bali writing up their East Java trip. Expect some of that to start filtering onto the site in the next few days. Meanwhile, David is now on Ko Kut in eastern Thailand and Cindy is still roaming around far northern Laos.
This week’s soapbox looks at how sometimes booking in advance can be prudent—we learned that the hard way this week. Our book review looks at an anthology focused on Indonesia's Banda Islands and our featured destination is Nong Khai in northeast Thailand.
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Soapbox
Sometimes booking in advance is a good idea
With school holidays on the horizon, without much thought I dashed an email off to an island hideaway we really love in eastern Indonesia last week (La P’tite Kepa if you’re wondering). We stayed there last year for around 10 days and absolutely loved it. We thought nothing would be better than to repeat the experience this year. They can be a little slow on answering emails, but a few days later a reply appeared in my inbox.
They’re full.
I almost cried.
The frustrating thing was we knew we wanted to go and what dates we wanted months ago. There was no alternative plan. It hadn't been too busy last year so we assumed it wouldn't be a big deal. I dragged my feet and we have paid the price.
Sobs.
Long story short, if you know your dates, and you know exactly where you want to stay, then book it today, not tomorrow—especially if, as was the case with us, the place can only be booked directly.
Why?
Because if you know about the place and love it, no doubt others do too!
Good travels.
Stuart
PS We settled on the Togean Islands for 10 days instead—not a bad second option!
PPS If you are booking hotels, please consider doing so through Travelfish (click on any link to Agoda or Booking) as we may earn a commission in the process.
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What we’re reading
The Banda Islands: Hidden Histories and Miracles of Nature Edited by Jan Russell
The Banda Islands: Hidden Histories and Miracles of Nature is an eclectic anthology of writings, photographs, illustrations and maps relating to Indonesia’s Banda Islands. Featured authors include Ian Burnet on the brutal Dutchman Jans Pieterszoon Coen, Giles Milton on the island of Run, Amitav Gosh on spices, Des Alwi on the Japanese occupation and Fatris Mf, who took part in a three-year project documenting the human consequences of the spice trade. There are plenty more, with photographers and artists given prominence, too.
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
Nong Khai
Back when Laos was starting to reopen to foreign tourism in the early 1990s, the Thai provincial capital of Nong Khai was the only entry point. The province straddled the “hump” of northeast Thailand and the entire northern border of the province was the (then yet to be bridged) Mekong River. Its muddy waters slowly slid by, uninterrupted save the occasional freighter chugging by and in the early morning and late afternoon light small sampans would bob in the shallows, drift fishing up and down the riverbanks.
The provincial capital back then was a small town by Thai standards. Long and thin, stretched out to the east and west—like the province—the town had as many wooden shopfronts as concrete, and the riverfront was still a tumbledown affair with large shade trees offering shelter from the blistering April heat. Thanks in part due to the difficulties (then) of doing business in Laos, the town attracted an interesting mix of long staying residents. Some were workers and volunteers for one acronym or another, others ran guesthouses and even the occasional bar.
To the east and west of the town, small traveller hangouts existed. Sri Chiang Mai to the west and beyond it, Sangkhom, while to the east Bueng Kan had a single fall-down guesthouse spitting distance from the river. Drawn by the river and the then mystery of Laos, travellers could catch the slow train up from Bangkok just to hang out, to watch the river slide by and gaze at the country across the waters.
Once Laos began to open up and the first Mekong bridge was opened (just upriver from Nong Khai proper) the town began to really thrive and it has grown in leaps and bounds since then, but unlike many Thai provincial capitals, Nong Khai has not lost its charm.
There are still plenty of excellent places to stay—particularly old wooden houses converted into guesthouses, and the riverfront still is a lovely place to stroll along in the late afternoon or early morning—an effort made easier by a long riverfront promenade. There is the charming Wat Pho Chai, and the magnificent Wat Sala Kaew Ku—a sculpture garden like nothing you’ve likely seen before. There are markets, a museum and, of course, plenty of places to eat spicy northeastern Thai food.
You can hire a scooter (or bicycle) and explore to the east or west—by Thai standards the riverside roads have reasonably light traffic—and there are plenty more towns and temples worth exploring.
Nong Khai will appeal to travellers with a bit of loose time as it is a town that you need at least a couple of days in to begin to appreciate. If you’re overlanding to or from Laos, a stop here is an absolute no-brainer, but even if you’re not heading to Laos, Nong Khai is an easy, approachable and friendly introduction to Thailand’s Northeast and it remains one of our favourite destinations in the country.
Read more about Nong Khai 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 I: Massacre in Myanmar
“The slain men’s families, now sheltering in Bangladesh refugee camps, identified the victims through photographs shown to them by Reuters. The dead men were fishermen, shopkeepers, the two teenage students and an Islamic teacher.”
BURMA II: Rakhine state: Hatred and despair in Myanmar's restive region
“We used to live together like brothers, said one woman, until 2012. So what changed? No-one seemed sure, but they were convinced the central government had a hand in the breakdown, although they all had long lists of alleged Muslim atrocities to recount, some of which were probably genuine, but some, they admitted, just hearsay.”
BURMA III: Beyond the Rohingya: Myanmar’s Other Crises
“Lee also wrote: “I was told repeatedly by other ethnic groups I spoke to, be they Kachin, Karen, Kayin or Shan, that they have suffered the same horrific violations at the hand of the Tatmadaw over several decades, and in the case of some groups continuing today.””
CAMBODIA: The sound of silence: sexual abuse in Cambodia’s Buddhist pagodas
“They’ve got access to children, without any real monitoring. We’ve [been involved in the arrest of ] at least ten monks in the past three years for the abuse of boys. Quite often there were multiple victims – sometimes two, sometimes three, sometimes four. A majority of the time, it was only through the parents or a relative that the disclosure was made.”
INDONESIA I: Criminal code revamp plan sends chill through Indonesia's LGBT community
“But as lawmakers look to shore up conservative votes ahead of elections, parliament appears on the verge of revising the national criminal code to impose restrictions on same-sex relations and consensual sex between men and women outside marriage.”
INDONESIA II: Indonesia's Papua province children starving in a land of gold
“UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, on a visit last week to Indonesia, said he was concerned "about increasing reports of the excessive use of force by security forces, harassment, arbitrary arrests and detentions in Papua".”
INDONESIA III: Indonesia is about to outlaw homosexual sex. Can we stop it?
“Still, that the political manoeuvring has not let up on private spaces makes me doubt whether there’s a way out of this.”
SINGAPORE: Singapore risks destroying past in race to build, warns top archaeologist
“But he concedes it is an uphill battle to safeguard such buried treasures in a city-state just half the size of London and is concerned the rush to build a futuristic metropolis could scupper chances to find out more about its pre-colonial past.”
THAILAND I: Hundreds gather at Bangkok's Democracy Monument to demand election
“Small anti-junta, pro-election protests that began earlier this year have gained momentum in recent weeks with a variety of activities staged by different groups every week. However, these have been mostly confined to the capital.”
THAILAND II: Protest just a kick-off activists say
“The activists pledged at a protest just opposite Democracy Monument to escalate their campaign if the ruling junta disregards calls for an election to be held this year and the military government to step down.”
VIETNAM I: The Journalist-Viet Cong Spy Who Changed the Course of the Vietnam War
“It was Pham Xuan An who convinced Tu Cang and North Vietnam’s communist leaders that the Tet Offensive was a political victory.”
VIETNAM II: A day with Vietnam's 'Top Gun' veteran fighter pilot
“Yeah. I quickly figured out that flying that metal heap was not so easy. I have a balance disorder, which made me sick the moment I got into the seat. We were not provided with sick bags back then, so I had to improvise with a soccer ball, cutting a hole in the top and tying it with a string around my neck. It was my sick bag during flights for the first year of training.”
Travel writing
INDONESIA: Indonesia’s Indian Community
“There are thought to be between 40,000 and 75,000 Indian-Indonesians living in North Sumatra, although firm data is difficult to come by as census documents no longer list ethnicity in Indonesia. ”
TRAVEL I: Does your holiday pass the human rights test?
“Mr Francis says that Responsible Travel "promotes holidays, not countries". That's partly because it's hard to find a single destination with a spotless record on human rights, animal rights, and the environment.”
TRAVEL II: How the travel map has changed since 1990
“In terms of relative growth, no country has experienced a tourism turnaround quite as spectacular as Cambodia’s.”
TRAVEL III: Holiday Noir: The Ultimate in Armchair Travel
“Travelling is a universal pleasure and preoccupation, but it’s not always the idyll the brochure covers make out. Challenging, stimulating and even life-changing, it’s only when we are away from everything we know, that we really find out who we are.”
TRAVEL IV: What Tech Tools Frequent Travelers Should Always Pack
“The trick then becomes discerning which intel is solid.”
VIETNAM I: Re-reading Greene
“Just like Ho Chi Minh City, I was striding ahead. Just as the city was reinventing itself, I was carving out a place for myself. And just like the city, which was destroying its heritage, I was ignoring my own history.”
VIETNAM II: A Pre-Tet Trip to Sa Dec, the Mekong Delta's Flower Capital
“Wading into the mud in between rows of bright yellow and orange blooms is about as far from the chaos of pre-Tet Saigon as you can get.”
Interesting site
TripFiction
“TripFiction was created to make it easy to match a location with a book, and thanks to our searchable database you can find a book relevant to any trip. A resource for both actual and armchair travellers.”
Travel shot
A bit of exploring can pay off handsomely. Photo: David Luekens
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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