Travelfish #442: The River of Kings ...

... has a trash problem.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 [Open in browser]( [Travelfish #442: The River of Kings ...]( ... has a trash problem. [Stuart McDonald]( Jun 20 [Comment]( [Share]( Hi all, This week, I’m leading with an interesting read on the challenges of waste on Thailand’s Chao Phraya River. The photos this week are on topic, though you can’t see the trash. Ad: [Looking for an affordable travel insurance policy? Consider SafetyWing.]( It was a quiet week on Couchfish, due to my needing to finish a university assignment. Just the one new post. Back on track this week. Cheers Stuart River cruising Cruising upriver on the Chao Phraya. Photo: Stuart McDonald. --------------------------------------------------------------- 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]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 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 19, 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)]( --------------------------------------------------------------- ⭐️ Story of the week  - [Following the Waste That’s Choking the Chao Phraya]( from The Third Pole --------------------------------------------------------------- 🇲🇲 Burma - [“I Had to Cut Off the Head, Bro”]( from RFA (Content Warning: Violence/Death/Torture) - [“Nothing Called Freedom”]( from Human Rights Watch - [Resistance Forces Reject Junta’s Call to Surrender]( from Myanmar Now - [Myanmar’s Junta ‘Block or Censor’ Everything, Journalists Say]( from VOA - [Myanmar Is Open, but Is It Safe to Visit?]( from Travel Weekly Asia 🇰🇭 Cambodia - [For Cambodian Women, Equality Starts in the Home]( from The Diplomat - [Unique Slab Found in Angkor Thom]( from Khmer Times - [Cambodia Risks 'Consequences' if China Uses Naval Base]( from NikkeiAsia - [Solving Cambodia’s Waste Sorting Issues]( from Cambodianess - [Debt and Land Degradation: Lake Farmers’ Plight]( from Cambodianess - [Family to Retrace Brother's Sailing Journey to Cambodia Before His Murder by Khmer Rouge]( from ABC - [Meeting Mendeleev](from Mekong Review - [Soldiers Rip Up Community’s ‘Forest of Loving Kindness’]( from VOA 🌴 Environment - [Can Carbon Markets Help Tackle Climate Change?]( from The Third Pole - [Land Grabs and Conservation Propaganda]( from Africa Is A Country - [‘Fortress Conservation’ Violently Displaces Indigenous People]( from Grist - [Climate Denial’s Racist Roots]( from Atmos - [How Will Climate Change Impact Cold-water Corals? Mostly Through Food Loss, Study Says]( from MongaBay - [For Happy the Elephant, Personhood Is Yet Another Cage]( from CounterPunch - [The Lunar Sea]( from Hakai (2017) - [Burning Planet: Why Are the World’s Heatwaves Getting More Intense?]( from The Guardian 🇮🇩 Indonesia - [Overrun by Hotels, Resorts, Bars, Bali’s New Travel Hotspots Fall One by One to Uncontrolled Development on West Coast]( from SCMP ($) - [Editorial: LNG Terminal in South Bali]( from Bali Discovery - [SDGs in North Sumatra: Climate Action, Peace, Justice, and Institutions]( from New Mandala 🇱🇦 Laos - [Mekong River Commission Unveils Technology to Monitor River's Water Quality and Fish Migration]( from The Star - [Domestic Tourists in Laos Lured Away by Renewed International Travel]( from The Laotian Times - [Laos-China Railway – A Review of the Vientiane to Boten Train]( from Nomadic Notes 🇲🇾 Malaysia - [Vehicles Outnumber People in Malaysia]( from New Straits Times - [Mandatory Death Penalty to Be Abolished]( from Free Malaysia Today - [Malaysia’s ‘Mystery Hybrid Monkey’ Could Be Result of Habitat Loss]( from The Guardian Ad: [Looking for an affordable travel insurance policy? Consider SafetyWing.]( 🇸🇬 Singapore - [Singapore Is Facing a Dengue Fever 'emergency' and Peak Season Has Only Just Begun]( from ABC - [Singapore, if All Chairs Were Ergonomic]( from Rice Media - [Singapore’s Urban Farming Heights Cast a Shadow Over Traditional Agriculture]( from SEAGlobe ($) 🇹🇭 Thailand - [Bangkok's King of Clubbing Plots Fresh Projects]( from NikkeiAsia ($) - [Elephant Welfare in Thailand: a Growing Ethical, Political, and Cultural Concern]( from The Isaan Record - [Central Bangkok Redevelops Around New Green Heart]( from NikkeiAsia ($) - [Cannabis Tourism: How a New Travel Trend Is Taking Off]( from The Conversation - [Thai Insurers Sink Into Bankruptcy Due to Covid Claims]( from Nikkei Asia ($) - [Recalling Bangkok's Dark Side]( from Bangkok Post - [Behind the Story: Mailee Osten-Tan on Reporting on Gender Confirmation Surgery in Thailand]( from Longreads - [Thai Monks Who Drink and Their Lay Supporters]( from Fulcrum 🇻🇳 Vietnam - [For Adventurous Families, a Bespoke Motorbike Tour in Vietnam]( from The Wall Street Journal ($) - [Dam Tre Bay | Con Son Island]( from Vietnam Coracle - [Mi Hu Tieu: A Man Named ‘New’ Sells Old Noodles]( from Vietnam Life - [Hanoi Invests 1.3 Billion VND to Restore Relics]( from Nhan Dan - [Nha Trang Scrambles to Save Coral Reefs From Bleaching]( from Viet Nam News - [Vietnam Was Once Praised for Its Pandemic Response. Now a Covid Corruption Scandal Has Brought Down Its Health Minister]( from ABC - [In a D6 Hẻm, Saigon’s Last Remaining Broom-Making “village”]( from Saigoneer - [Can the Mekong Delta Be Saved?]( from Vietnam Weekly ($) Random other stuff - [How Yoga Carries Its Own Legacies of Violence]( from LitHub - [Can the Age of Middle East Train Travel Return?]( from The National - [200 Years of Frankenstein]( from The Marginalian - [Our 15 Favorite Summery Novels for Summer Reading]( from LitHub - [Seven Stowaways and a Hijacked Oil Tanker: the Strange Case of the Nave Andromeda]( from The Guardian - [How Refugees Leading City Walking Tours Helps Increase Their Sense of Belonging – New Research]( from The Conversation - [Confronting Privilege, Identity and Guilt Trips | Dr Anu Taranath (Beyond Guilt Trips)]( from The End of Tourism (podcast) - [“The Pandemic Was the Best Thing to Happen to Travel”]( from Travel Weekly - [Rethinking Prison Tourism]( from The Marshall Project Couchfish (Free-to-read) - [Couchfish: What Would Buddha Think?]( Couchfish (Paid subscribers only) - [Couchfish Day 308: Greed Meet Grifter]( Late light, riverside Sun sets over the Chao Phraya, from Loy La Long in Chinatown. Photo: Stuart McDonald. --------------------------------------------------------------- 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 [Like]( [[Comment]Comment]( [[Share]Share]( If you liked this post from [Travelfish weekly newsletter](, why not share it? [Share]( © 2022 Stuart McDonald Bali, Indonesia [Unsubscribe]( [Get the app]([Start writing](