Travelfish #370: Good riddance to 2019! + some less travelled spots for 2020

Everywhere is on the way to somewhere Hi everyone, Welcome to our final newsletter of 2019—a year I really cannot wait to see the back of. OMG! New on the site is [Koh Rong Samloem]( the sister island to [Koh Rong]( (which I covered last week), both situated off the south coast of Cambodia. In a nutshell, the beaches are great but prepare yourself for some sticker shock when it comes to room rates. [Pull up a pew on Koh Rong Samloem. Photo: Stuart McDonald] Pull up a pew on Koh Rong Samloem. Photo: Stuart McDonald As with [Sihanoukville]( I’d prefer not to relive 2019 again. I’ll not get into the nitty gritty, save to say personally 2019 has been, without doubt, the worst year of my life, and I cannot wait to see the back of it. Likewise the year has been absolutely brutal on the business. Brutal. I have friends, and obviously plenty of people I don’t know, who have had even worse years, so I’m not going to draw this one out, other than to say “Good riddance 2019!” I hope you dear reader had a far better year, and I hope you managed to fit in loads of travel along the way. As mentioned, this is the last Travelfish newsletter of the year. I’ll be back in mid January, hopefully re-energised with another year’s worth of newsletters ready to go. That’s the theory anyway. Looking for the perfect holiday gift for Silly Season? How about me?! Perfect for that special someone or just someone who won’t stop asking you for travel advice. Just 12 slots left. Offer closes December 31. [Find out more here](. In other news, we have added a donate to Travelfish page. If you’d like to make a one-off (or regular even!) donation, [please see here](. Thank you! (I put the wrong link in last week’s newsletter—ops!) Good travels, 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](. So where to go? Fresh off a pass-through Sihanoukville, you can’t blame me for being a bit head in the hands when it comes to where tourism and development is headed in Southeast Asia. So while I‘m not keen on getting into top ten untouristed destinations ala whoever, I thought instead in this, our last newsletter of this goddam year (better known as 2019) to highlight some spots that are worth a poke around. A poke around not so much because they’ll be devoid of foreign travellers (though many of them will), but rather regions where “the old spirit of travel lives on“! Yes really, these do exist. And the thing is, these destinations were often deserted in 2000 and 2015, and, well, they’ll most likely be deserted in 2020, 2030 and 2040. Really. Another thing is, with a couple of exceptions, it is hardly like these places have not been written about before—many have been in guidebooks (you remember those right?) and even travel blogs for years, if not decades. Yet still, the hordes are holding off. So yeah, if you’re looking to drop a little off the map, with no further ado, here is my very personal hit list for 2020. Bring it on! 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 2019. Log in to the Member Centre on Travelfish now for your coupon code and [start designing your own round the world trip »]( Burma Of all the countries we cover, Burma is the least covered. We listened to the (now very tainted) lady and followed the tourism embargo for over a decade, then, things looked good, then things went so pear-shaped it wasn’t even funny. Semi recently when in Saigon I met up with an old school LP author who had ignored the embargo back in the day, and even he said now there was no way he would go there. So, please read up on the situation there before you decide to go. [Our guiding team. Photo: Stuart McDonald] Our guiding team. Photo: Stuart McDonald With that out of the way, when I was last there a few years ago, I caught up with a mate and we headed south from [Mandalay]( to [Monywa]( , from where we then took a two day public ferry up the Chindwin River, first to [Kalewa]( and then onto [Mawleik](. We were the only western tourists within I dunno how far, and while I’m a big fan of boat travel (water trains I like to think of them as) and I’ve been up and down the Mekong in Laos gawd knows how many times, this was one of the most stunning trips I’ve ever done. Not so much for the scenery as much as the life on the river experience. We’d pull into hamlets and all these sampans would pull up along side selling everything from beer and ciggies to rice and curry in banana leaf (then tossed in a plastic bag of course!). In between, the river slipped by, like a moving pavement of life ... just ... sliding ... by. I loved it. We overnighted in Kalewa (now a gateway to the overland crossing to India that everyone has been waiting on forever) before pushing on to Mawleik. There we found a throw back to the British colonial period (yes there was a golf course, really!) and a great guide who told us ghost stories and talked about a war-era hospital where all the Japanese prisoners committed suicide as defeat neared. In the late afternoon a lux river cruiser showed up. We met their guide in a riverside “bar” read, shack with cold beer and warm curries, and he decompressed to us about the trouble with his pax. He couldn’t chat for long though as the boat had to float a little downriver to where the pax had a silver service dinner party within eyeshot of the village. Go figure. So if you’re in Burma, go find a river, could be the Chindwin, could be another, get a public boat, and just see where you get to. Cambodia A little over a decade ago I lived in [Phnom Penh](. Previous to that I’d been living in Bangkok for around seven years, and it wasn’t until we got to Phnom Penh that I realised I was more of a “small city person” (too bad Jakarta was next stop lol). At the time, the tallest building downtown (ignoring the skyscraper down the bottom of town) was, I think, four stories tall. [Chhlong also well worth a look. Photo: Nicky Sullivan] Chhlong also well worth a look. Photo: Nicky Sullivan I got around by bicycle, you could see where the traffic was headed, but at the time, it wasn’t a shadow off what it is now. When I returned almost a decade later, I’d seen the pics and read the stories above the massive amount of development and, the night before I left I’d pretty much decided to hate it before I even got there. Yes, I was going to be one of those “you should have been here yesterday” guys! Then Sam said “Just treat it as a new city you’ve never been to. Forget what we had when we lived there (we both loved it) and treat it as a new slate.” So I did, and I loved it. Sure it was a very different city, and yes defying the odds, politically Cambodia is even MORE screwed up than it was when I lived there, but I loved it. Sitting atop a gin bar with a good friend overlooking the river, the city booming, the sun sinking, the river sliding by...it was magical. But this isn’t about Phnom Penh, I just thought I’d slot that memory in. Instead, I wanted to write about [Kratie]( on the way to the Lao border. Now Kratie has been in the guidebooks FOREVER. Primarily off the back of the small number of [endangered dolphins]( who inhabit the river a little to the north of town. The dolphins are well worth seeing, but even when travellers still bothered to do overland crossings, there seemed never to be more than a handful of foreigners in town. I’ve a soft spot in my heart for here though, partly the dolphins, but I also love [Koh Trong]( the small island in the middle of the river more or less opposite Kratie town. There you can stay in a locally owned and run homestay, grab a bicycle and go cycling. The scenery is well, island in the middle of the river scenery, but its just a great way to lose a day. Years earlier I’d been in [Stung Treng]( (the next provincial capital north on the river) and I met a couple of Polish academics, who were there measuring sediment levels on the river islands. They invited me to join them and we spent the day boating from island to island, bushwhacking and taking core soil samples. It might not sound too exciting, but it beat reviewing accommodation! Along the way we met local villagers who were just about as incredulous as I was about what they were doing, but, standing there in the middle of some island in the Mekong while a guy dug dirt out of the ground, I remember thinking, (a) what the hell am I doing here, and (b) this is why you leave a few loose days in your itinerary so you can do stuff you never otherwise have done. Indonesia Oh man, where to start? When it comes to Indonesia, if the ferry stops somewhere, it is worth getting off, at least for a night. If I had to pick one low key spot that illustrates this, it would be [Lembata]( set roughly halfway between Flores to the west and Alor to the east. The island has a (relatively) [easy to climb volcano]( some excellent beaches, a couple semi decent hotels and is also home to one of Indonesia’s better known whaling villages, [Lamalera](. [Approaching Lembata on the ferry from Pantar. Photo: Stuart McDonald] Approaching Lembata on the ferry from Pantar. Photo: Stuart McDonald I’d head here far faster for the volcano and the beaches than the whaling village, but one of the reasons this place springs to mind is it is a bit of a microcosm of the challenges that face broader Indonesia on the tourism front. Most travellers get a slow ferry from [Kalabahi]( in western Alor to Larantuka in far eastern Flores. The trip takes 20 or so hours, and it is one of the prettier trips as, while you slowly trundle your way along the north coast of Lembata you’re presented with a series of volcanoes and peaks, one after the other. It’s hypnotising (in calm seas), sitting on the deck, watching the peaks slowly slide past while practising your Indonesian with locals who’ll happy to squat down with you for an hour—everyone has plenty of time! After a few days in Lewoleba (the capital of the island) I met Jim, who used to run the Lile Ile guesthouse. You’ll find him mentioned in any older guidebook, and, well, he deserves the mentions—quite the character. By the time we met in 2017 he had closed his guesthouse, though the house was still there and we kicked back drinking local coffee and gasbagging. Jim told me how in either the current (at the time) or the previous Lonely Planet edition, the entire island of Lembata had been removed from the guidebook when they cut down the size of guide considerably. The result, according to Jim, was that travellers just stopped coming. Jim would jump up and wave his arms around, exclaiming “the island still be here! But not in the book? I’m not getting off!”. Of course, there are plenty of Indonesian islands that are not in the guidebooks (nor on Travelfish for that matter), but Jim’s good humoured frustration was palatable. If the boat stops, get off. Especially is there is a volcano there. Laos It’s been many a year since I‘ve been to [Sekong]( in far southern Laos, but the first time I rolled through, the guidebook noted that the Sekong Hotel was haunted, so of course, I stayed there. The place had my hair standing on end from the moment I stepped in, and that wasn’t an involuntary reaction to the half inch of dust that covered almost everything. The night was restless, doors bashed shut for no reason and the place generally just gave me the heebie jeebies. [Multiple falls at Tad Houa Khon. Photo: Cindy Fan] Multiple falls at Tad Houa Khon. Photo: Cindy Fan Back before roads improved in southern Laos, travellers with time on their hands would take a small motorised sampan from the riverfront in Sekong down the Sekong River to [Attapeu]( a larger town further south. Unfortunately the river was narrow and shallow enough in places that it wasn’t safe (well, not recommended) to put scooters on the sampan, so if you had your own wheels, the boat trip wasn’t really an option. Not so for two Malaysian travellers the story goes, who decided to leave their bikes (and bags) at the Sekong Hotel and take a sampan downriver, planning to get ground transport back. Unluckily for them, there was a boating mishap and they both drowned. Every evening since, their spirits have returned to the hotel to try and retrieve their luggage. Oooooooooooo. Sekong forms part of an extended [Bolaven Plateau Loop]( that travellers opt for on scooters. Roads have improved greatly since the haunting began, so it is an easy one to add in, the riverside scenery is pretty. The more adventurous (we’ve never tried this) can charter a sampan north from Sekong to visit tiny villages. Trust us, do that and you’ll have the boat to yourself, Sekong won’t be in Travel & Leisure any time soon. Malaysia Back before the troubles kicked off in far southern Thailand, there was a well trodden trail that would take travellers down from [Ko Pha Ngan]( and the other silly islands, through [Hat Yai]( and seedy Sungai Kolok into Malaysia with the first stop being [Kota Bharu]( famous for a great selection of guesthouses and a fabulous night market. From there the [Perhentians]( , then south to [Kuala Terengganu]( for Pulau Redang, then south again to [Cherating]( (for a few dubious waves) and Kuantan before taking a turn west for [Taman Negara]( or continuing south for Tioman, [Johor]( and then, finally, Singapore. [Grazing at Restoran Hover. Photo: Stuart McDonald] Grazing at Restoran Hover. Photo: Stuart McDonald A decade or so on though, and the ongoing troubles in far southern Thailand (almost 7,000 people were killed between 2004 and 2017) have taken a toll on the Malaysian east coast tourism scene (along with a growing conservative Muslim angle) and increasing travellers bent on the islands are choosing to fly into Kota Bharu or Kuala Terengganu and connecting directly for boats to the islands—the overlanders have dropped to a trickle. On a recent two week from Kuala Terangganu to Johor, I saw just four obviously foreign tourists in ten days! So if you’re looking for a low key series of destinations and don’t mind the lack of a hugely active bar scene (the most obvious manifestation of a more conservative Islam to casual tourists), the east coast towns make for a great lazy two weeks. Starting at the top or bottom, all are well connected by public transport, the roads are good, the accommodation great value and, even ignoring the islands, there is plenty to see and do for the traveller who doesn’t mind a lower key vibe. The food is great too! Singapore Singapore, a city that for years I didn’t really appreciate until I had kids and a pram, needed a footpath. Then I was ready to move there. For the non pram-encumbered though, the city is jammed to the gills with museums, galleries and enough fantastic food to make even the shortest stay come with a kilo or two loading. [The Geylang skyline. Photo: Stuart McDonald] The Geylang skyline. Photo: Stuart McDonald So where do you go to unload that loading, or if you just want to clear your head by walking, and walking, and walking? In my case I hit the Southern Ridges Walk, where, by stringing three separate parks together you can walk for the best part of a day and enjoy not just some of Singapore’s well maintained (and categorised online) forestry, but also some war history and some terrific views. No shortage of grazing stations either. Rather than regurgitate the story here, I‘ll point you to [a piece I wrote for Fairfax]( and that should get you started. Enjoy! Thailand Honing in on 40 million tourists this year, it is easy to think of Thailand as being jam packed with punters, but you’d be surprised just how easy it is to drop a notch down to a destination where instead of counting other tourists by the truckload it’ll be be by the handful. Here are a few swap outs. [Take a wander. Photo: David Luekens] Take a wander. Photo: David Luekens Switch Sukhothai for Si Satchanalai: Some visit [Si Satchanalai]( on a day trip from Sukhothai, but if you have the time, overnight in a local homestay and enjoy the ruins in the early morning and late afternoon bereft of other travellers. Switch Ayutthaya for Kamphaeng Phet: Ayuthhaya is a bit of a three trick pony, the ruins, the food and an excellent budget accommodation scene. In the case of [Kamphaeng Phet]( you still have the food, the ruins are, ala Sukhothai, in a historical park and there is one of our top guesthouses in the entire country to kick your heels up at. Switch Kanchanaburi for Sangkhlaburi: They’re on the same road, so just keep going. A spectacular sunken town with boat trips, a Mon village, terrific food, excellent guesthouses and a photogenic bridge. [What, you want more]( Switch Chiang Rai for Nan: Are there temples? Yes. Is there trekking? Yes. Is the food great and is there a great budget accommodation scene? Yes. Go to [Nan](. If this is all too much, just strike into the Northeast. Start in Sangkhom and spend [four weeks working your way along the Mekong River](. Not a river person? Spend [two weeks exploring the centre of the northeast](. Bring an empty stomach. Is this all too much? [Perhaps you need to meditate on it](. Vietnam In the north recently, I rode the Dien Bien Phu loop (also doable by bus and car) and I was amazed to meet fewer people riding it this year than last time I did it 25 years ago. As with Singapore, [I wrote a story covering the highlights]( of that trip for Fairfax here. [Mid afternoon shopping anyone? Photo: Stuart McDonald] Mid afternoon shopping anyone? Photo: Stuart McDonald The [Ha Giang Loop may be more popular]( but I’d argue the Dien Bien Phu Loop rivals it, especially if you’re after lower crowds. The other main area I’d point a finger at in Vietnam to get a bit more off the beaten track is at the opposite end of the country, the Mekong Delta. Many experience here on one-, two or three day tours ex Ho Chi Minh City, but it is also straightforward to do it yourself, and while it will almost certainly cost you more (not necessarily a lot), you’ll most likely have a more interesting time, and certainly meet more locals along the way. A week-long trip out of HCMC could take in [My Tho]( [Ben The]( [Cao Lanh]( [Sa Dec]( and [Chau Doc]( while if you wanted to delve further south, [Can Tho]( , [Rach Gia]( and even Ca Mau are all well worth a visit. In Ca Mau I took a public speedboat down to the absolute southern most point of the country—see it before it is underwater! [Meet Military Beach on Koh Rong Samloem. Photo: Stuart McDonald] Meet Military Beach on Koh Rong Samloem. Photo: Stuart McDonald So that’s a wrap! A few suggestions with some tales squeezed in between about places to visit a little off the beaten track within the countries covered on Travelfish. At the end of the day, almost anywhere, ok, not Sihanoukville, is worth at least an overnight stay and the less touristed the destination, the more likely you’ll meet locals in something other than a transactional manner. Thanks again to everyone for reading this newsletter and (hopefully!) using the site throughout the year. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much and good luck to you and your families and friends for 2020. Good travels! Stuart 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! 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