Travelfish #441: The stuff of life

A wrap on a week’s worth of procrastinating

Hi all,

This week, I’m leading with a great read on the stuff of life—salt—except it isn’t always quite that. The photos this week are on topic.

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It was a quiet week on Couchfish, with a free-to-read piece looking at the Borobudur thing, while on the paid itinerary a bit of a muse on the weather.

Cheers

Stuart

This way to salt

Sign to salt makers, Kesumba, Bali. Photo: Sally Arnold.

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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 is 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, June 5, 2022. To receive Hannah’s report in your email mailbox every Sunday you can sign up here (it is free!)

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

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⭐️ Story of the week 

• Salt, the Great Chemical Threat from Hakai

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🇲🇲 Burma

• Myanmar to Execute a Former MP From Ousted Leader Aung San Suu Kyi's Party, Its First Use of Death Penalty in Decades from ABC News

• The Wizards of Myanmar from Aljazeera

• ‘I Don’t Feel Safe’ from Frontier Myanmar (video)

• NBSEAS Talks to Jonathan Saha on “colonizing Animals: Interspecies Empire in Myanmar” from New Mandala (podcast)

• When Even Dreaming Is Impossible: How Covid-19 Hit Myanmar Women Working in Thailand’s Agricultural Sector from Tea Circle

🇰🇭 Cambodia

• Cambodia Creates New Snarls as It Tries to Untangle Its Internet Mess from Nikkei Asia ($)

• China Secretly Building PLA Naval Facility in Cambodia, Western Officials Say from The Washington Post ($)

• In Cambodia, Local Elections Hold Out a Glimmer of Progress from The Diplomat

• As Expected, Cambodia’s Ruling Party Claims ‘Sweeping’ Victory from The Diplomat

🌴 Environment

• Why Airline Tickets Prices Are Sky-high Right Now from The Straits Times ($)

• Global Plastic Waste Is Projected to Triple by 2060: OECD from Aljazeera

• How America’s Recycling Program Failed—and Scarred the Environment from FEE

• The World's First Octopus Farm - Should It Go Ahead? from BBC

• How Can Corals Withstand Ever-warming Seas? from The Economist ($)

• From Bricks to Bags to Eco Art: Six Innovative Uses for Plastic Waste Around the World from The Guardian

• Coastal Cities Are Already Sinking from Hakai

🇮🇩 Indonesia

• ‘KKN Di Desa Penari’ Becomes Indonesia’s Biggest Ever Homegrown Blockbuster from The Diplomat

• Songbird Competitions Are a Popular Pastime in Indonesia from The Economist ($)

• Borobudur: World's Largest Buddhist Temple to Get More Expensive from CNN

• Indonesian Villagers Missing Out on Spoils From Palm Oil Boom from Mongabay

🇱🇦 Laos

• Laos Launches First Homegrown Messaging App from Nikkei Asia ($)

• Laotians Continue to Visit Thailand for Petrol from The Laotian Times

• Future Boten – The Gateway City on the Laos-china Border from Future Asia

• How **Not** to Travel Through Laos on a Motorbike — a Cautionary Tale Told Many Years Too Late from A Story From Connla

🇲🇾 Malaysia

• Unsolved Mysteries of South-east Asia: the Ourang Medan 'Ghost Ship' in the Malacca Strait from The Straits Times ($)

• 7 Years and No Justice in 1MDB Case from Whale Hunting ($)

• Sarawak Rice Wine Makes a Comeback Through Creative Renditions from SEA Globe ($)

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🇸🇬 Singapore

• In Singapore, a Chicken Ban Is a Serious Threat from Bloomberg ($)

• In Space-crunched Singapore, Homes on Private Plots of Land Are the Ultimate Trophy. Take a Look Inside One of These 'good Class Bungalows,' Recently Listed for $64.2 Million. from Insider

• Here’s Why the Caged Songbird Sings — A Cultural Tradition at Odds With Ethics from Rice Media

🇹🇭 Thailand

• Spooky, Sexy, Political: Thailand’s Golden Age of Comics Fading Fast from Coconuts Bangkok

• A Museum Tells the History of One of Bangkok’s Notorious Districts from The Economist

• Thailand's Rise of Virtual Influencers Born Out of Covid-19 Curbs That Limit Humans from The Straits Times ($)

• Complicated History and a Comeback from Bangkok Post

• Common Goals Ensure Forest Restoration Success in Northern Thailand from Mongabay

🇻🇳 Vietnam

• Vietnam’s Child Drowning Plague, and the Community Swimming Trainers Doing All They Can To End It from SCMP ($)

• Tourist Hotspots Expect Summer Crowds as High-end Resorts Near Fully Booked from VNExpress

• Postcard From Hanoi - Vietnam Is Open from Rusty Compass

• Phan Rang Is the Kitesurfing Capital of Vietnam That You’ve Never Heard of from T&L

• In Chợ Lớn, Leaf-wrapped Rice Dumplings Abound Every Tết Đoan Ngọ from Saigoneer

Random other stuff

• ASEAN Re-opening: When the Whole Is Less Than the Sum of Its Parts from Fulcrum

• Mexico City and the Pitfalls of Becoming a Remote Work Destination from Vox

• It’s Been 50 Years. I Am Not ‘Napalm Girl’ Anymore. from The New York Times ($)

• The Luxury of Asia’s Malls Is No Substitute for Genuine Public Spaces from The Economist ($)

• Miranda Carter on the World’s Longest-running Interview Show from LRB

• Circling Sicily on Its Regional Trains from The New York Times ($)

• Seeking Answers and Finding Meaning in Modern Deities and Myths from Rice Media

• Consider the Croissant: a History of Food Fraud from Le Monde Diplomatique ($)

• Wendell Berry’s Advice for a Cataclysmic Age from The New Yorker

Couchfish (Free-to-read)

• Couchfish: What Would Buddha Think?

Couchfish (Paid subscribers only)

• Couchfish Day 307: The Rooftop Percussion

Pyramids of power

Salt farms near Baan Laem, Phetchaburi, Thailand. Photo: David Luekens.

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See you next week!

So that’s the wrap. I hope you are all in good health, and thanks for reading.

See you next week,

Stuart