Travelfish #434

Bali re-opens + star-gazing outside Hue

Hi all,

Yes, nothing has changed since last week—the world is still bonkers—and as with last week, here are a bunch of interesting things I’ve read this week. 

Up top is an old collection of stories focused around corruption on The Maldives—there are plenty of pieces to read, so set aside some time for a look-see.

Elsewhere, there is more bad news out of Burma an upbeat piece on Cambodia and a not so upbeat one. The catching crabs one in the environment section, while not Southeast Asia specific, is still interesting. Elsewhere, Indonesia’s Bali has sort of reopened, the second-hand clothes scene in Malaysia gets the NYT treatment, and ex-pats are freaking out about surveillance in Singapore. Do read the piece on Ban Ta Nui and the star gazing outside of Hue one is great.

The photos this week are from Indonesia because it is sort of open again. If you come to visit Bali, drop me a line and we can meet up for a coffee!

Cheers

Stuart

Looks sustainable

Beach shack, Lakey Beach, Sumbawa. Photo: Stuart McDonald

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Vaccinations snapshot

The following chart is per capita—not total numbers. The dark green bar is the one that matters—it represents the percentage of the eligible population that are fully vaccinated. You can see a full-size and interactive version of the chart here.

Source: Our World in Data

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Travel summary

So where is open and where is closed? This chart by Hannah Pearson at Pear Anderson summarises the state of play in the region as of Sunday, March 6, 2022. If you’re after a detailed weekly report on the region, Hannah’s report is the absolute business.

To receive Hannah’s report in your email mailbox every Sunday you can sign up here (it is free!). This is my go-to report for where things are at in the region. If you have any queries or suggestions about how the chart could be improved, please drop her a line via the Pear Anderson website here.

Source: The Impact of Covid-19 on the Southeast Asian Tourism Industry (PDF)

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⭐️ Site of the week 

• Paradise Leased: the Theft of the Maldives from OCCRP (from 2018)

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🇲🇲 Burma

• What’s Going On in Myanmar? from Asymptote

• The Junta’s War on Humanitarian Groups Is Bleeding Myanmar Dry from Frontier Myanmar

🇰🇭 Cambodia

• Abby Seiff on the Slow Death of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake from The Diplomat

• Cambodia Boots Ngo That Ran 550 Rural Schools from Radio Free Asia

• Siem Reap Gets $150m Makeover—Now It Needs Visitors from Nikkei Asia ($)

• Why Now Is the Best Time to Visit Siem Reap from Afar

Environment

• Available but Not Needed from Earth Journalism Network

• Rumors of This Coral’s Survival Were Greatly Exaggerated from Hakai

• Combatting Climate Change Is About Responsibility Not Profit from Sarawak Report

• Why Do Corporations Greenwash? from AlJazeera

• Putting a Floor Under Asia’s Sinking Cities from Fulcrum

• Catching Crabs in a Suffocating Sea from Hakai

🇮🇩 Indonesia

• Foreign Travellers Can Enter Indonesia's Bali Without Quarantine From Mar 7 from CNA

• Russian Travelers in Limbo in Bali Amid Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine from Coconuts Bali

• Deadly Beach Ritual in East Java Exposes Dark Side of Spiritual Groups in Indonesia from CNA

• Peeling Back the Facade of Indonesia’s Colonial New Capital from New Naratif ($)

• Campaigners Against Dog Meat Trade Take on One Indonesian City at a Time from Mongabay

🇱🇦 Laos

• Tensions Among Truckers on Laos-China Border Again Erupt Into Fistfights from Radio Free Asia

🇲🇾 Malaysia

• How Malaysia Got in on the Secondhand Clothing Boom from The New York Times ($)

• Ordeal at KLIA for Arriving International Travellers from Free Malaysia Today

• Why Brickfields’ Heritage Should Be Preserved from Free Malaysia Today

🇸🇬 Singapore

• Surveillance Culture Is Driving The Foreigners’ Exodus from Rice Media

• Singapore Will Review Its 2030 Climate Targets This Year from The Straits Times

🇹🇭 Thailand

• Living in Flux at Ban Ta Mui: Perspectives from a Mekong Border Village from Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung

• Khon Kaen’s Railway Community Sets to Vanish as High-speed Train Arrives from The Isaan Record

• Bang Bao Beach, Koh Kood: a Quiet Slice of Paradise in Eastern Thailand from Thai Spicy

• ‘Stand, Stop, Imprison’: People’s Defiance Against the Thai Establishment from Fulcrum

🇻🇳 Vietnam

• 12km From Huế, a Hidden Lake Welcomes You to a Night of Stargazing from Saigoneer

• Ever Wonder What Happens to Your Plastic Bags? Ask Vietnam's Ve Chai Army. from Saigoneer

• Vietnamese Couple on Dog-adoption Spree After Authorities Cull Their Pets from Reuters

Random other stuff

• Travel Guidebooks Aren’t Dead, but They’ll Never Be the Same. Maybe That’s a Good Thing. from The Washington Post ($)

• Studying the Script from Lapham’s Quarterly

• A Reading List About Listening to Nature from Longreads

Couchfish (Free-to-read)

An exciting time

Couchfish (Paid subscribers only)

Couchfish Day 289: When is a park not a park?

Island research

Doing the hard yards off the east coast of Lombok. Photo: Stuart McDonald

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See you next week!

So that’s the wrap. I hope you are all in good health and weathering Covid19 as well as possible.

See you next week,

Stuart