A Few Words From Me
As the region embraces green season, news on the ground is typically thin, and that’s the case this week as some countries in the region move from headline announcements to the quieter work of planning ahead. That’s especially true in Laos, where authorities are making good use of their time, as you’ll have read in Issue No. 21, by considering ways to better protect and promote the country for tourists. And Laos makes the news again this week, as one of its national parks is assessed for ASEAN Heritage Park status. Nakai-Nam Theun is one of the last proper wildernesses left in this part of the world, and it’s still years away from the recognition it’s clearly owed, let alone being somewhere you or I could actually visit. Read why that’s important below.
Thailand’s tourist fee has been “nearly here” since before I started writing this newsletter, and it’s just gone up in price without so much as an official launch. But as tourist tax rises aren’t the most popular news, maybe that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Timor-Leste, meanwhile, has quietly built itself a welcome mat that travellers will actually find worth treading on, which after years of watching this region change, still catches me off guard when a country everyone overlooks gets something right first.
None of this week’s news is glamorous. But it’s honest, and it’s where this region actually is right now, not where the brochures say it is. And that’s the version of Southeast Asia I’ve always tried to write about, and the version I hope you keep coming back for. As always, your comments are useful to me as I try to keep my finger on the pulse of developments, so continue sending them in. And if you’d prefer to receive this newsletter direct to your inbox, rather than searching for it on Facebook, or wherever, then you’re welcome to subscribe below.
This Week in Southeast Asia
Laos’s Wildest National Park Edges Closer to International Recognition
ASEAN assessors arrive at Nakai-Nam Theun National Park this week to examine whether the 4,270-square-kilometre reserve in central Laos qualifies for ASEAN Heritage Park status. If Laos succeeds, recognition could follow as early as 2028, with UNESCO World Heritage listing pencilled in for 2029, putting Nakai-Nam Theun alongside Hin Nam No, the country’s existing natural World Heritage site shared with Vietnam’s Phong Nha-Ke Bang. The park protects some of the last intact forest in the Annamite Range and is home to the saola, a creature so rare it is nicknamed the Asian unicorn, along with the large-antlered muntjac and several other species found almost nowhere else on Earth.
Nakai-Nam Theun itself remains closed to general tourism for now, its 31 villages and fragile habitats managed for conservation rather than visitor numbers. But the assessment gives travellers a reason to look at what is already open in the same province: Kong Lor Cave, a seven-kilometre limestone cave carved by the Nam Hin Bun river through the same Annamite karst, sits around 130 kilometres north of Thakhek in Khammouane Province, the same province Nakai-Nam Theun occupies. Visitors travel it by longtail boat, torchlight picking out chambers up to 90 metres wide. It is a genuine, bookable trip today, and a fitting way to explore the same karst terrain that Nakai-Nam Theun is trying to protect while it remains closed.
Nakai-Nam Theun National Park in central Laos is being assessed this month for ASEAN Heritage Park status. Photo by International Parks
Thailand’s Tourist Entry Fee Rises Again Before It Has Even Started
We flagged Thailand’s proposed 300-baht tourist entry fee back in Issue No. 1. It’s the same fee, still years in the making (first floated in 2020, given in-principle government approval in 2023), and it still has not launched. This week it just got more expensive instead. Thai authorities have just endorsed a revised flat rate of 450 baht (roughly £10/$13) for all arrivals, up fifty percent on the original 300-baht figure, with collection now pencilled in for the first quarter of 2027, possibly timed to Songkran. Air passengers pay first, with land and sea arrivals following a year later once officials settle on how the fee is actually collected. Airlines have already rejected folding it into ticket prices, so expect more back and forth before this one is final. It’s worth reading this alongside the airport departure tax we covered in Issue No. 13: two separate charges, both aimed at the same visitor, arriving from different directions.
A portion of the fee is earmarked for a small, automatic accident and emergency medical benefit that activates the moment you land, on top of a pot for restoring sites strained by over-tourism. Worth me being clear about what this isn’t: it’s basic, government-funded cover, not a substitute for your own travel insurance. Thailand doesn’t legally require tourists to hold personal insurance to enter, but private hospital treatment here can run into hundreds of thousands of baht, and this fee-funded benefit won’t come close to covering that. Get your own policy regardless. Thailand’s international arrivals have been running around three percent below last year, so officials have good reason to keep this simple rather than let it become a deterrent. Nothing changes for travellers booking now. If a Thailand trip is on the cards for early 2027 or later, budget the extra few pounds, keep your own travel insurance in place, and expect the collection details to firm up over the coming months.
Thailand’s proposed tourist entry fee has risen to 450 baht, with collection expected from early 2027.
New Timor-Leste Tourism Website Available in Eight Languages
Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Tourism and Environment has launched a redeveloped official tourism website, timorleste.tl, replacing the site that had stood since 2016. The new platform runs in eight languages, including English, Portuguese and Mandarin, and includes an interactive map of every municipality, helping visitors plan routes to the country’s national parks, diving spots and coffee-growing highlands without relying entirely on third-party operators. A built-in chat assistant is available around the clock for visitor questions.
Timor-Leste remains one of the least-visited countries we cover, and often the hardest to plan for independently, given how thin the available English-language information has traditionally been. This redevelopment, launched on 11 August, is a genuinely practical upgrade for anyone weighing a trip. It also carries the Ministry’s free operator listing programme, giving smaller Timorese tour operators and homestays a proper shop window for the first time. Worth bookmarking before planning any Southeast Asian itinerary that stretches beyond the usual circuit.
Timor-Leste’s redeveloped tourism website, timorleste.tl, launched 11 August 2026.
What’s On
This Week
VU LAN (WANDERING SOULS DAY) — Nationwide, Vietnam | 27 August 2026
Also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, this is one of the most spiritually significant dates in the Vietnamese calendar, when families lay offerings at pagodas for departed ancestors. Visitors are welcome to observe respectfully at any major pagoda in Hanoi, Hue or Hoi An.
Coming Up
HARI MERDEKA (MALAYSIA INDEPENDENCE DAY) — Nationwide, Malaysia | 31 August 2026
Malaysia marks 69 years of independence with parades, flag-raising ceremonies and cultural performances nationwide, most visibly around Kuala Lumpur’s Merdeka Square.
Worth Reading
Nakai-Nam Theun’s bid for international recognition is the headline version of something Laos has been building for a while at the certification level. We covered that groundwork in Zero-Dollar Tourism in Laos: Recognising the Challenge, Building Better Tourism, which looks at how Laos is earning international trust at the operator level.
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