Travelfish #323: On Burma + 5 weeks in Southeast Thailand

Everywhere is on the way to somewhere Hi all, This newsletter is late because there is a guy next door breaking down a rock the size of Jupiter with a hammer and chisel. He hits it once every twelve seconds (that is, just long enough for you to think he is done) and it is driving me insane. Well, it has been a thoroughly depressing week on the news front in Southeast Asia, but I want to zoom in on the sentencing of the two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo to seven years in prison for [this story](. The trial has been widely reported as a farce and while people hoped the journalists would be freed, Burma has yet again opted to do the wrong thing. When Burma experienced its democratic gains five years ago there was considerable optimism about where the country would head, but those hopes were buried in the ashes of the genocide in the west of the country. At that time, Travelfish suspended our research to the country, as we felt that the popular support in much of the country for what was happening in Rakhine made travel there, for us, unconscionable. That the government has now elected to imprison those responsible for raising international awareness of what was actually happening has sadly only reinforced our belief that our decision was the best approach. While we have suspended our research to the country, we won’t be removing our Burma coverage. We recognise that decisions like this are a personal one. While the information will age with time, we still believe it will be useful for general trip planning. Should the situation change in Burma, we will look to update it again. In the meantime, from this day on, we will donate 100% of the revenue we make from any hotel bookings in Burma to a fund in support of the families of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. We are in the process of figuring out how best to manage this through liaising with friends who know Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo personally. [We’ll write more about it]( once we know more, so that you too, should you wish, can make a financial donation to people who have been so badly done by. Good travels, Stuart, Sam and the Travelfish crew 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](. Soapbox Where is everyone? On my recent short trip to Vietnam’s Mekong Delta (returning there in a few hours!) I scooted through a few Delta towns including Chau Doc, Cao Lanh and Sa Dec. Chau Doc is routinely used by travellers for the speedboat trips onwards to Phnom Penh, and Sa Dec is on the radar in a minor way for its part in The Lover by Marguerite Duras. Cao Lanh isn’t really on many people’s radar at all. Over four days in Chau Doc I saw a handful of foreigners, in Sa Dec I saw one tour bus of French tourists pulling up at a house related to The Lover, but in Cao Lanh, I saw no foreigners whatsoever. These places are not difficult to reach—Sa Dec is just three hours by direct bus from Ho Chi Minh City—and (at least in my opinion) all are well worth a look (Sa Dec and Cao Lanh will be on Travelfish this week, while [Chau Doc]( has already been updated). I dug out the oldest Lonely Planet I could find—it was published in 2005—and in it Chau Doc gets seven pages, Sa Dec about one and Cao Lanh a not disrespectful three and a half pages. So these destinations have been written about for years, and yet here we are 13 years later in European summer and at least tourist-wise, the towns were largely deserted. Meanwhile, back in Ho Chi Minh City, the backpacker district around Bui Vien was absolutely jammed with foreign tourists and locals enjoying the party (at maximum volume). I'm sure if I went to My Tho or Can Tho—both very popular on the organised tour set ex-HCMC for those looking for a “Delta experience”—I‘d see more people, but really, this stuff is not hard. Yes, you will save money by doing a tour, and obviously this works better if you have limited time, but spending a bit more time (and money) to have a better look around the Mekong Delta (or anywhere for that matter), will most likely pay off well. Go explore! 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 2018. Log in to the Member Centre on Travelfish now for your coupon code and [start designing your own round the world trip »]( What we’ve read Books on Burma If the news out of Burma has you scratching your head a bit, here are [a half-dozen books on the country]( you can read to start to understand what the country is (and has been) like. Featured Four weeks in Eastern Thailand Back when we were living in Bangkok, when Sam and I wanted to go to Ko Chang for a long weekend we’d leave our apartment on lower Sukhumvit, get a cab or the bus to Ekkamai bus station (yes, pre Skytrain!) and catch a bus that left at around 23:00, depositing us in Trat the next morning between 5 and 6am. We’d scoff down food at Trat’s excellent morning market then get a songtheaw to the pier and start our island break. For a wannabe Bangkokian, it was so easy—feet in the sand before lunchtime. This week David went and threw a cat among the pigeons and [presented an itinerary]( that allows you to achieve the same result, but just with one minor change: Spend two weeks getting to Trat, and forget this silly long weekend on the islands stuff. Here is how to spend another two weeks doing that. Our four weeks in Southeast Thailand eases you in, taking you down through the northern end of Chonburi province, before veering left to dodge Pattaya & Co, landing you back in old school [Rayong]( before scooting along the southern east coast towards the Cambodian frontier. While we wouldn’t say this is Thailand’s coastest with the mostest, it is a weirdly enthralling part of the country. Laidback seaside towns, expanses of beaches—some not too shabby at all—quite respectful national parks and a collection of provincial capitals, Rayong, [Chanthaburi]( and [Trat]( each of which delivers as a destination in its own right. Of the three, we’re most partial to Chanthaburi, which boasts some excellent food, and we love the old town gem market area. Yes, there are a couple of good national parks, but one of the real appeals is getting a hire scooter or car, driving out of town and just exploring—Chanthaburi may well be famous for its durian, but its people are also a fantastically welcoming bunch. Trat and Rayong are also well worth a looksee, but if you have enough time for just one, Chanthaburi would be our pick. And that is one of the wonders of Thailand. Here you were trying to get to some islands and we’re going on about mainland towns. Yes, the islands are great ([Ko Samet]( ex-Ban Phe (near Rayong) is Bangkok’s favourite weekender), but if you don’t need to be back in the office on Monday, we’d push on to the islands further east. [Ko Chang]( [Ko Wai]( [Ko Mak]( [Ko Kut]( and more ... the list goes on. You’ll be needing four weeks just to explore those. Read the full itinerary here. Travelfish partners [Browse the internet safely]( When we travel we always use TunnelBear VPN to secure our browsing. This reduces the risk from dodgy WiFi networks and idiotic ISPs who inject ads into our browsers. Use the internet safely with TunnelBear. TunnelBear offer a free 7-day trial or use it selectively and enjoy [500meg of data per month for free](. News from the region BURMA I: Massacre in Myanmar “The slain men’s families, now sheltering in Bangladesh refugee camps, [identified the victims through photographs]( shown to them by Reuters. The dead men were fishermen, shopkeepers, the two teenage students and an Islamic teacher.” BURMA II: Myanmar must pay for crimes it is committing “Once again, Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto head of government, has watched silently while injustice is committed on her watch. In the years since she was released from house arrest, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s fall from international grace has been spectacular.” Also “[That case no longer holds]( BURMA III: 7 Years for reporting the truth “Myanmar authorities [have denied extensive evidence of mass atrocities]( and refused to allow independent investigators access to the region.” BURMA IV: Like mother, like daughter “But [the greatest rift]( between her domestic and international audiences came with the crisis in Rakhine state. She failed to condemn the largely one-sided violence against the Muslim Rohingya, refusing to take sides. Instead she equated the suffering of Buddhists with that of the Rohingya. ” CAMBODIA I: James Ricketson: The ‘spy’ who loved Cambodia, and paid for it “It was bitter pill for a legal team that had built its defence around Ricketson’s credibility as an independent journalist and a caring man who rescued children from scavenging and life on the streets. [More was to follow]( CAMBODIA II: Street spirit “When US President Barack Obama flew in to visit Phnom Penh, residents slated for eviction from their impoverished community near the airport [painted a huge “SOS” on their roofs]( INDONESIA II: Lessons of yet another Indonesian blasphemy case “Then there is the question of [the truly appalling state of Indonesia’s courts]( one institution that reform has hardly touched. Corruption and abuse permeate the judicial system in Indonesia, making Indonesia’s perception of itself as a country abiding by the rule of law (negara hukum) a sad illusion.” So much this, tho note, the correct spelling of her name is Meiliana and the comment was made in Tanjung Balai, a town south of Medan—she was however sentenced in Medan. INDONESIA: Why beef rendang is the right food to send to natural disaster victims Because it is delicious obviously! The story has [other reasons as well](. MALAYSIA I: ‘Incompetence’ of Malaysian Airlines crew endangered all on flight that returned to Brisbane “However, apart from the failure of the crew to remove the covers, the fact that the plane could take off without having air speed readings was "unbelievable" and had [endangered the lives of everyone on board]( said the report.” MALAYSIA II: Women caned in Malaysia for attempting to have lesbian sex Parts of Malaysia are racing Indonesia’s Aceh for [first one to the Stone Age](. THAILAND I: The dark secret of Thailand’s child brides “The impact on girls of marrying before the age of 18 is globally accepted as [causing lasting emotional and physical damage]( but also perpetuating the cycle of poverty. Girls in the southern Thai provinces are commonly taken out of school once they are married. Many find themselves divorced and with a child before they are even 18.” THAILAND II: Ban threat for teen in rape case While there are a bunch of different versions of this story floating around, threatening an alleged rape victim with black listing seems, well, [extremely stupid](. VIETNAM: In Vietnam, kids shackled by isolation, poverty dare to dream “Van has been working as a banana porter in China for several years, [earning around VND300,000 ($13) each day](. Healthy people in his neighborhood leave home for such jobs whenever they can, especially after Tet, the biggest holiday of Vietnamese people, and after the paddy harvesting season in October.” VIETNAM II: How Vietnam fell in love with John McCain We try to steer clear of US politics in this newsletter, but what a life and interesting to see [how opinions change over time](. Travel writing ENVIRONMENT: Poached for its horn, this rare bird struggles to survive “Hornbills are [vital to the survival of Southeast Asia’s forests](. As “farmers of the forest,” they disperse seeds by regurgitating or defecating them, helping to replenish trees over several square miles. It’s an especially important task now, given how much primary forest has been cleared by commercial enterprises. Widespread logging also is reducing habitat for Asian hornbill species and threatening their ability to nest.” INDONESIA: Three newly opened lodging options for budget travelers in Jakarta “These spots come with trendy designs, proving that traveling on a budget [does not mean settling for unsavoury rooms in which to sleep]( LAOS I: How a Dutch visitor fell in love with Laos’ Luang Prabang, stayed and built a botanical garden “The garden is [an educational experience]( with detailed descriptions of species on signs that require some concentration, and perhaps reading glasses.” LAOS II: Faded grandeur and abandoned buildings in Savannakhet Who doesn’t love a town like [Savannakhet]( PODCAST: Talking with Saigoneer Listen to Stuart (and others) chatting with Saigoneer about all things Vietnam. Stuart was pretty downbeat on his appraisal of the benefits of tourism over the last decade or so, [saying he could think of none](. TRAVEL WRITING: On fixers An interesting piece with many parallels in travel writing. When good locals (pro & amateur) can be massive time savers & terrific sources, what gets disclosed where? Who gets paid what? [Interesting food for thought](. VIETNAM I: Anthony Bourdain wouldn’t want you to go on a Vietnam food tour in his honour Mixed feelings on this piece. Would it be acceptable if the tour was a tenth of the price? More importantly, if Bourdain was still alive, [would he be ok with his name being used in this way]( We’ll never know. VIETNAM II: The limestone loop: Motorbike guide [Vroom vroom](. VIETNAM III: Health tonics steeped in a cruel tradition “Is this a fun way to experience authentic Vietnamese culture? “Most Vietnamese have probably never eaten a snake, let alone drunk its blood,” says Tuan Bendixsen, Vietnam director of the animal welfare NGO Animals Asia Foundation. “It is not a significant part of our culture, and the fact that it survives at all [is largely down to the tourist trade]( Interesting site For 91 days This is the Ho Chi Minh City section, but this interesting travel blog covers a wide variety of destinations, from Palermo and Tokyo to Hanoi and Istanbul. [Lots of interesting stuff]( Travel shot [Have a frolic off Ko Rang. Photo: David Luekens] Have a frolic off Ko Rang. Photo: David Luekens Till next time [Sam and Stuart.] That’s it from us for now. As usual, enjoy the site’s new additions and drop us a line if there’s something in particular you’d like us to cover in Southeast Asia. Travel light! Stuart, Sam & the Travelfish team [( You're receiving the Travelfish newsletter because you signed up at Travelfish.org. Not interested anymore? [Unsubscribe Instantly](. Make sure you're getting our emails! If you're a Gmail user and would prefer your Travelfish newsletter in your Primary in-box rather than Promotions, just drag this email from the Promotions tab to the Primary tab, and click "yes" when it asks if you want to do that for all of our emails. Better still, [read this newsletter online.]( [Disclosure]( | [Privacy]( | [Unsubscribe]( We want travellers to love Southeast Asia as much as we do. 9 robinson close, hornsby heights, nsw 2077, AUSTRALIA [Unsubscribe]( | [Change Subscriber Options](