Travelfish #462: Those Thieving Museums I Tell Ya

A never ending stream of stories.

Hi!

This week leading with yet another story on museums nicking stuff and after much hassling slowly and grudgingly giving some of the loot back. These stories just keep coming and there is no end in sight given how much is still hoarded.

Thanks to a very unplanned and very short notice trip to Australia, last week was a bit of a mess Couchfish-wise, though I did get one out looking at Thailand’s upcoming tourist tax with some thoughts on an alternative approach.

If you’re after some Thai island stuff, do be sure to swing by Thai Island Quest—David has been putting out some solid stuff for paid subscribers and take my word for it, a paid subscription is worth it.

This week the photos are from my home town of Sydney—indeed a beautiful town even if it is witheringly expensive.

Cheers

Stuart

Getting hitched in Sydney

Not a bad spot to swap some vows. Photo: Stuart McDonald.

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⭐️ Story of the week 

• Are Museums Celebrating Cultural Heritage—Or Clinging To Stolen Treasure? from National Geographic

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📚 What I’m reading

• Columbus: His Enterprise Exploring The Myth by Hans Koning

🇲🇲 Burma

• Myanmar’s Tamils Maintain Legacy In The Face Of Upheaval from SEAGlobe ($)

• The Empire Struck Back: Oliver Slow’s ‘Return Of The Junta’ Reviewed from Frontier Myanmar ($)

🇰🇭 Cambodia

• Stolen Trove Of Angkor Crown Jewels Returned To Cambodia After Resurfacing In London from The Guardian

• Who Says Avian Flu Cases In Humans ‘Worrying’ After Girl’s Death In Cambodia from The Guardian

• Cambodia Ruling Party Is Buying Young Environmentalists With Senior Government Posts from RFA

Ad: Phnom Penh’s Penh House, from US$70 per night. Click here for the details.

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🌴 Environment

• 5 Questions To Ask When Booking More Sustainable Travel from AFAR

• My Community Doesn’t Exist Just To Absolve You Of Your Climate Sins from The New York Times ($)

• New Gecko Species From Timor-Leste Hints At Island’s Unknown Diversity from Mongabay

🇮🇩 Indonesia

• The Problem With Indonesia’s Plan To Attract ‘Digital Nomads’ from The Diplomat

• Technology Can Bring More Tourists Back To Indonesia – But First We Need A Map To Guide Us from The Conversation

• People On Tiktok Are Paying Elderly Women To Sit In Stagnant Mud For Hours And Cry from Rest of World

🇱🇦 Laos

• Laos To Declare 2023-2024 As Year Of Tourism from The Laotian Times

• Messy Motorhomes Concern Residents In Luang Prabang from The Laotian Times

🇲🇾 Malaysia

• Meet The Punk Rocker Building Life-sized Paper Effigies For Malaysia’s Ghosts from Atlas Obscura

• Malaysia Admits 150 Foreigners Died In Detention Last Year from Nikkei Asia ($)

🇸🇬 Singapore

• Special Report-Dow Said It Would Recycle Our Shoes. We Found Them For Sale In Indonesia from Reuters

• What Happens To Hawkers After Their F&B Business Shutters? from Rice Media

🇹🇭 Thailand

• My Favorite AirBnb In Thailand: A Remote Eco-Villa Floating On A Lake In Kanchanaburi from CNT

• Richard Barrow On Life In Samut Prakan And Finding A Niche Online from Bangkok Podcast (Podcast)

• T.I.D.: Ko Sukorn & Mu Ko Phetra from Thai Island Quest ($)

Ad: Bangkok’s Sala Arun from US$73 per night. Click here for the details.

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🇻🇳 Vietnam

• Nha Trang Resort Blocking Sea View Being Dismantled from VNExpress

• Half-Finished Hotel Projects Leave Central Vietnam’s Coast Wasted from VNExpress

• A Brief History Of District 1's Collège d’Adran, Saigon's Oldest School from Saigoneer

• No Rescue For Real Estate from Vietnam Weekly

Random other stuff

• Is Tourism Destroying Goa? from Rediff

• Greenland Wants You To Visit. But Not All At Once. from The New York Times ($)

• Podcast With Mark Eveleigh, Author Of “Kopi Dulu: Caffeine-fuelled Travels Through Indonesia” from Asian Review of Books (Podcast)

• China’s Tourists Can Travel Again. Here’s Why The World Is Still Waiting For The Rebound from TIME

• To Build A Healthier City, Begin At The Sidewalk from Bloomberg

• ASEAN Self-Drive Manual from The ASEAN Secretariat (PDF)

• Rescuing The Trafficked In Southeast Asia from The Diplomat

Now that is a library

The State Library isn’t a bad spot to write about Thai tourist taxes. 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 thanks for reading.

Cheers!

Stuart