Travelfish #481: The piles of rocks edition

A wrap on stuff worth reading

Hi!

This week I’m leading with a solid piece on considerations regarding writing about, well, anything, in Southeast Asia. If you’re finding you’re needing to read between the lines at times, the story is a good explainer as to why.

If you’re thinking of writing a review for something you just did/saw/ate/whatever, hold your horses and read the piece from Without Maps first. You’ll find it in the “Random Other Stuff” section below.

On Friday I finished up university for another term (thank God) and celebrated by shovelling two tonnes of dirt and a tonne of boulders at my beach shack. Given my new found respect for those who drags boulders around, this week’s theme seemed fitting.

Cheers

Stuart

Cambodian pile of rocks

A quiet moment at Beng Mealea, Cambodia. Photo: Nicky Sullivan.

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⭐️ Story of the week 

• ‘The Red Line Is Shifting’: Environmental Journalists In Asia Feel The Squeeze On Freedom To Speak Truth To Power from Eco-Business

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📚 What I’m reading

• Kopi Dulu by Mark Everleigh

🇲🇲 Burma

• Aung San Suu Kyi Moved From Prison: NLD Official from Frontier Myanmar ($)

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Looking to book your transport online when you’re on the road in Southeast Asia? For Vietnam, look no further than Baolau. For the rest of the region, 12Go should be your first port of call.

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🇰🇭 Cambodia

• Cambodians Expect More Of The Same As Hun Sen’s Son Set To Take Power: ‘We Have No Hope’ from SCMP ($)

• Explainer: What Does Hun Sen’s Resignation Mean? from RFA

• Indonesian Police Crack Down On Traffickers Who Sent 122 People To Sell Their Kidneys In Cambodia from AP

Did someone order a beach view?

Ad: Salad Hut on Ko Pha Ngan’s beautiful west coast, from US$118 per night. Click here for the details.

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🌴 Environment

• Tourists Have Acted As If The Climate Crisis Isn’t Happening. This Year Will Force Change from SBS News

• What Is Ecotourism? A Guide On How To Travel Sustainably. from Vox

🇮🇩 Indonesia

• In Indonesia’s Bali, A Task Force Will Weed Out Misbehaving Tourists, Low Spenders ‘Who Make Trouble’ from SCMP ($)

• Are Zoos And Wildlife Entertainment Venues In Bali Ethical? from World Animal Protection

• The Mystery Of Snake Island from The Lombok Diaries

• Five-Decade Study Of Wild Orangutans Points To New Urgency As “Pre-extinction” Looms from Simon Fraser University

• How Indonesian Studies’ “Brand Needy” Lets Australian Students Down from New Mandala

🇱🇦 Laos

• A $6 Billion China-Built Railway Is On The Move With A Vast New Network Down The Track from The Wall Street Journal ($)

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Looking for deals on organised tours **with no domestic flying**? Here are a few for Southeast Asia via Travelfish partner TourRadar. (Prices are in US$)

Cambodia
Cambodia Explorer (11 days, $920)

Indonesia
Komodo Island Hopper (9 days, $1,196)

Laos
North Laos by motorbike (7 days, $2,062)

Malaysia
Sabah Highlights (7 days, $1,243)

Thailand
Bangkok to the North (9 days, $1,130)

Vietnam
North Vietnam by motorbike (7 days, $1,026)

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🇲🇾 Malaysia

• My Pole Is Bigger Than Yours from From An Equatorial Lens

• The Untold Story Of Pangeran Panji And Bintulu’s Heritage from The Central Borneo Stories

🇸🇬 Singapore

• In Singapore, Loud Echoes Of Beijing’s Positions Generate Anxiety from The Washington Post ($)

• The First Woman To Be Executed In Singapore In About 20 Years from We, The Citizens

• From The Darkness Cometh The Night (Race) from Around The World In 80 Scrapes

🇹🇭 Thailand

• What Happened To All Those Chinese Tourists? from Bangkok Post

• Bid To Save Thailand’s Last Remaining Sand Dune Forests from Mekong Eye

• T.I.C.D.: Krabi Coast & Offshore Islands (Part I: Mueang Krabi, Railay, Ao Nang & Khlong Muang) from Thai Island Quest ($)

• T.I.C.D.: Krabi Coast & Offshore Islands (Part II: Mu Ko Si Boya, Nuea Khlong & Khlong Thom) from Thai Island Quest ($)

• Closing The “World’s Best Beach”: Balancing Tourism And Sustainability On Thailand's Koh Kradan from CNA

Looking for somewhere special in Penang?

Ad: Campbell House in Georgetown, Penang from US$72 per night. Click here for the details.

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🇻🇳 Vietnam

• The Rescue Flights Trial Ends from Vietnam Weekly ($)

• A Delta Nest In Cao Lãnh Fit For A Solitary Poet from Saigoneer

• Yen Hoa Tower & Phu Tuong Gate from Vietnam Coracle

Random other stuff

• Lonely Planet At 50: How Two Young Backpackers Changed The World from The Times ($)

• Travelers Say They Want To Travel More Sustainably. So Why Aren’t We? from Adventure

• ‘No Poor Person Decides How They Get Photographed’ from The Guardian

• Social Cachet And Souvenirs: A Brief History Of Modern Tourism from LitHub

• Modern Tourism Makes It Difficult To Truly Appreciate The Sistine Chapel from LitHub

• Should Europe’s Museums Repatriate Colonial Loot? from The Global Jigsaw

• Why All Our Maps Are The Wrong Way Round from Everything Is Amazing

• Stop Reviewing Everything from Without Maps

• The Case For Tourism from The New York Times ($)

• Google Hotels And Google Flights Stir Bipartisan Flack Over Business Practices from Skift

• The Overlooked Leakages Of Tourism from ReThinking Tourism (Video)

Indonesian pile of rocks

Saving your time by wasting mine, eleventy million hours outside Sumbawa Besar. 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