Travelfish #395: Travel writing’s trickle down effect

Some thoughts on how travel writing could be adjusted.                                                                                                                                                                                                        [Travelfish #395: Travel writing’s trickle down effect]( Time to turn travel writing on its head. [Stuart McDonald]( Jul 28 Hi everyone, Sorry, a day late! Have been a bit unwell. As with last week, a huge thanks to all our supporters who have made a contribution to our crowdfunding campaign. We’re now [at over US$8,500]( and have started commissioning stories—stories you are making possible. Thank you! If you’ve not heard about what we are trying to do, [you can find out more here](. [Subscribe now]( Last week on Couchfish, I’ve been in [Sapa]( a [few days](, then to Bac Ha for [two entries]( of [misadventures](. Sapa doesn’t always look this great—take my word for it! Photo: Stuart McDonald. --------------------------------------------------------------- On free to read Couchfish, I had [“You should have been here yesterday. Really?”]( with some thoughts on tourism and then, [“I need a gun”]( about an unusual evening in Bangkok and then a ride down the Thai–Burma border. I hope you enjoy them—all the photos in this week’s newsletter are from these entries. Over on Thai Island Times, David took [a close look at Khao Sam Roi Yot](. If you’re lucky enough to be in Thailand at the moment, or planning a trip in the future, give it a read. Cheers and again thank you for all your support Stuart --------------------------------------------------------------- Support Travelfish! If you'd like to chip in (if you haven’t already) for using the site, we'd love you to sign up for a year-long subscription for just A$35. [See more here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- On travel writing I’ve been thinking about travel—and travel writing—a lot of late. Who hasn’t? Much of the coverage around Covid19 has revolved around the detrimental effect it is having on travellers and the companies who cart them around the world. Less, though not none, has focused more on how Covid19 has affected the small businesses and communities around the world who receive these travellers. Why? There’s lots of reasons why this is, but I got stuck on what travel is. Travel writing, in all shapes and sizes, has helped form what travel is today, so I kept circling back to wondering “what is travel writing?” Pretty even in bad weather. Photo: Stuart McDonald. --------------------------------------------------------------- Knowing some professionals in the field, I put the question out on Twitter, “what is travel writing to you?” Ask ten people the same question and you get ten different answers right? Yup. [You can see all the replies here](. Not surprisingly I guess, most replies focused on either the writer imparting their experiences, or the reader potentially improving their’s. None really took the destination, and the people who live there, into account. The closest replies got to considering the local population, was still in a currency for the traveller rather than the local—how the traveller could have a “better experience”, “avoid scams”, perhaps work on their empathy. Swinging by the good and dodging the bad should help those in the destination doing good right? On the way to Bac Ha. Photo: Stuart McDonald. --------------------------------------------------------------- It’s like the trickle down effect of travel writing. Nobody suggested “good travel writing” as a means to encourage travellers to have a more positive effect on where they travel, or a reduced impact. None suggested that the old “front and back of the book” (the introductory and background information in a guide book, which is traditionally split in two halves with the “meat” in between) were actually the most important part of a guidebook. Are they? Is it more important to be told where the post office is, or to be told why you shouldn’t point your feet at people, or ride an elephant, or touch someone’s head? Enough for everyone! Photo: Stuart McDonald. --------------------------------------------------------------- These fall under the catch–all “service writing”—essentially guidebook writing—which much of Travelfish currently is. Many of these facts can be imparted more gradually in narrative travel prose I guess, but you don’t read [Kapuscinski]( to find out where the post office is. Much as there is talk about a re–calibration of tourism post Covid19, I think talk of a re–calibration of travel writing is well past its due. Helping improve the lot of the local people in the destination, should not be a side benefit of you doing some activity that benefits you. This is backwards thought. It could be why you are doing it. Company for an hour. Don’t ask. Photo: Stuart McDonald. --------------------------------------------------------------- For decades, for many travellers, not just the local population but the environment, governance, human rights and so on, have been but sideshows to the self–centred experience. Fodder for Instagram pics or Facebook Friends you never talk to–until you’re in the market for a discounted room rate next year. Don’t “travel like a local”—“travel with a local”. I’m ashamed to say, having run Travelfish for over 16 years, it has taken a pandemic of these proportions for me to realise that, while I’m over–the–moon proud of what our writers have created, we’ve been doing, at least part of it, wrong all this time. I hope others in the trade realise, that they too can take this moment (even if it is a moment that stretches for years) to rethink all they’ve been doing, all they’ve been writing and, well, how they’ve been guiding. Got the dosh? Sapa can be pretty comfy. Photo: Stuart McDonald. --------------------------------------------------------------- Local communities first, travellers second. Before you write anything, think, what are the pros and cons of me writing this. What effect will it have on local communities? How can I advise a better approach that will have a better result for all involved? Where should I tell people simply not to go? What are the costs for those in that destination of doing this? What could I do instead? Where should I just not mention? Most importantly, does the local community even want tourists? In a way, as always, for Travelfish at least, our number one priority has been the reader. That has not changed, but I think there is a lot more weight which needs to be given to local communities. I don’t think, the “if I don’t write about it, someone else will, so I may as well” really holds anymore—if it ever did. What more do you need? Sapa views. Photo: Stuart McDonald. --------------------------------------------------------------- None of this excludes also advising readers on how to have a good time—but surely having a good time in the knowledge that what you’re doing isn’t having a detrimental effect on local communities, is an even better time? Travel for too long has been about the traveller, then the destination. Right now it feels like the planet has been turned on its head, and it is time to flip this one on its head too. Good travels Stuart --------------------------------------------------------------- Premium members only: Book a round the world with [roundtheworldflights.com]( (must travel from the UK via Asia, Australia, New Zealand AND the Americas) and get £30pp off your trip. Offer valid for departures to December 2021. Log in to the Member Centre on Travelfish now for your coupon code and [start designing your own round the world trip]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Ten things worth reading Fishermen without fish as Cambodia's river reversal runs late “The Mekong River Commission attributes the delay to lower 2019 rainfall and operations of upstream Mekong hydropower dams, [two of which are in Laos]( and 11 in China.” From egg hunter to protector, Malaysian ranger battles to save turtles “Aziz, from a poor fishing family on the island, remembers how he used to hide in the bushes by the beach and race out to grab the eggs shortly after they were laid, [with brawls often breaking out between rival collectors](.” The “State of Travel Writing” [Plenty of smart people chatting away here](. 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[Subscribe now]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Something to read The Glamour of Strangeness Erudite, colourful and packed with intriguing anecdotes, Jamie James’ Glamour of Strangeness: Artists and the Last Age of the Exotic is [a romp through a bygone era](, studying the lives of six artists who left their homelands to pursue creativity elsewhere. --------------------------------------------------------------- Photo of the week Mu Chang Chai is much better. Photo: Stuart McDonald. --------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you! Thanks from reading the Travelfish newsletter. Please feel free to forward it to all and sundry and your feedback, as always, is much appreciated. Travel light! Stuart & the Travelfish team If you liked this post from [Travelfish weekly newsletter](, why not share it? [Share]( © 2020 Stuart McDonald [Unsubscribe]( Bali, Indonesia [Publish on Substack](