Travelfish #454: Islands and Palm Oil

A couple of islands to keep you guessing.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 [Open in app]( or [online]() [Travelfish #454: Islands and Palm Oil]( A couple of islands to keep you guessing. [Stuart McDonald]( Dec 13   [Save]() [▷  Listen](   Hi all, This week I kick off with an epic piece from The Gecko Project looking at palm oil in Indonesia—it is well worth your time to give it a read. Over on Couchfish, I’ve got a longish interview with David Luekens about what he is planning for his excellent newsletter that has been renamed to [Thai Island Quest](. [Subscribe to Thai Island Quest today!]( Elsewhere, still on Couchfish, I’ve finally wrapped up my “rethinking travel” series—the links to each piece are below. The photos this week are of islands—a couple I’ve been to which I’m pretty sure David has yet to get to. No, island hopping is not at all a competitive sport between the two of us. Cheers Stuart Rethinking Travel - [Couchfish: National Chocolate Milk Day]( (World Tourism Day) - [Couchfish: Nice Tourism]( (Sustainable Tourism) - [Couchfish: The Benevolent Lie]( (Responsible Tourism) - [Couchfish: The Year Is 2006. The Town Is Luang Prabang]( (Pro-Poor Tourism) - [Couchfish: Zoom in to the Red Plastic Chairs]( (Slow travel) - [Couchfish: The Petro-bourgeoisie]( (On flying) - [Couchfish: Reality Check]( (On tour companies) - [Couchfish: Follow The Money]( (On where the money goes) - [Couchfish: Foundations Matter]( (On Community Based Tourism) - [Couchfish: The Writing On The Wall]( (Travel writing) - [Couchfish: Taking A Long Term View]( (A conclusion—finally!) Somewhere to the southeast of Bangkok Just the one place to stay here, David I think you almost went here once. Photo: Stuart McDonald --------------------------------------------------------------- ⭐️ Story of the week  - [Promised Prosperity, Drowning In Debt]( from The Gecko Project --------------------------------------------------------------- 📚 What I’m reading - [The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise Of The East India Company]( by William Dalrymple (Still reading it!) 🇲🇲 Burma - [Myanmar Tourism -- To Go Or Not To Go?]( from NikkeiAsia ($) - [Burma Past And Present: Same And Different]( from Reporting ASEAN 🇰🇭 Cambodia - [No Justice For Indigenous Community Taking On A Cambodian Rubber Baron]( from Mongabay - [“Placemaking” a Key Ingredient to Make Siem Reap More Attractive and Liveable]( from SEAGlobe [Ad: Phnom Penh’s Penh House, from US$70 per night. Click here for the details.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🌴 Environment - [As Tiktoks About Antarctic Tourism Go Viral, Some Worry About The Environmental Costs]( from NBCNews - [Café Culture and Sustainable Development in Southeast Asia]( from Fulcrum 🇮🇩 Indonesia - [Indonesia’s New Criminal Code Turns Representatives Into Rulers]( from New Mandala - [Indonesia’s Mangrove Revival Hindered By Conflicting Policies]( from Mongabay 🇱🇦 Laos - [Gordon Ramsay Names Laos As World’s Top Food Destination]( from Laotian Times - [After 10 Years, Civil Society Worldwide Is Still Asking: “Where Is Sombath?”]( from International Federation for Human Rights 🇲🇾 Malaysia - [Heritage Buildings In Ipoh Get A New Lease On Life]( from FMT - [Activists Appeal For Rescue Of Rohingya Refugees Stranded At Sea In Leaking Boat]( from The Guardian 🇸🇬 Singapore - [The 21-year-old Who Ditched A Vet Degree To Be A Professional Dog Walker]( from Rice Media - [Creating Spaces For Dialogue: Exploring Queer Cinema In Southeast Asia]( from Kontinentalist 🇹🇭 Thailand - [An Escape to Another World]( from Bangkok Post - [Chinese Underworld Floods Thailand-Myanmar Border River]( from NikkeiAsia ($) [Ad: Bangkok’s Sala Arun from US$73 per night. Click here for the details.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🇻🇳 Vietnam - [The Mekong Delta is Drowning in ‘Sand Debt’ – It Urgently Needs a Sand Budget]( from The Third Pole - [Ho Chi Minh City’s Plastic ‘Habit’ Leaves Piles Of Waste]( from AlJazeera Random other stuff - [The Secret Lives Of MI6’s Top Female Spies]( from The Financial Times ($) - [See The Relentless Beauty Of Bhutan—a Kingdom That Takes Happiness Seriously]( from National Geographic - [What Does Regenerative Travel Actually Look Like?]( from Vogue - [The Upsides of Feeling Small]( from BBC - [Walking Is A State Of Mind—it Can Teach You So Much About Where You Are]( from Adventure - [Why Are Travel Podcasts So Boring?]( from Talking Travel Writing - [The Story Of English]( from ABC Conversations (Podcast) Well south of Bangkok I know David hasn’t been here as he said so in the interview. 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]( [Share](   © 2022 Stuart McDonald Bali, Indonesia [Unsubscribe]() [Get the app]( writing](