A Few Words From Me
Lampang doesn’t get that much attention – even from people like myself who’ve spent years in Thailand. This week its lac-dyed textiles earned official protected status, the same kind Champagne has, which feels overdue in the best way, a craft that could easily have been left to fade (no pun intended) instead getting the recognition to keep going. Over the border, Laos is working hard on its tourism strategy as regular readers will know, and has now locked in a ten-year plan for the Four Thousand Islands, a place that features on many travellers’ must-see lists, and a place that lost its last dolphins back in 2022. This time, Laos is working hard not to lose anything else along with them. Cambodia is continuing to discount hard to bring people back to Siem Reap after a genuinely difficult year, but not everyone in the industry thinks that’s the right call, which is worth a read whichever side of the fence you sit. While on the accommodation front, Club Med has opened a resort in Sabah that claims to have built its sustainability credentials in from day one rather than bolting them on after the ribbon gets cut – and that’s sadly rarer than it should be. Green Season is still with us across the majority of the region, so prepare yourselves accordingly, but the upside of the rain is a region looking considerably more alive than the dry-season ever does, and that’s a photographer’s dream. Get out there and enjoy it. I’m making the most of it myself. As always, drop me a line with anything I’ve missed this week (I’m only as good as a search engine and word-of-mouth), tell me what you’re experiencing on the ground, or say hello. It’s always good to know my newsletters are hitting the spot.
This Week in Southeast Asia
Thailand’s Ancient Lac Dye Just Became Its Newest Global Export
Lampang’s centuries-old textile tradition has a new title to go with it. The province’s naturally lac-dyed fabrics, known locally as Pha Khrang, have secured official Geographical Indication registration, the same kind of protected status that shields Champagne, Sherry and Parma ham from imitation. The Lampang Chamber of Commerce marked the milestone with a two-day showcase at Central Lampang, Phusa Sin Thin Pha Khrang: From Heritage to the Global Stage, bringing together more than 20 artisan groups who still produce the dye the old way, from the resin of the lac insect rather than synthetic pigment.
Lampang sits roughly 100 kilometres southeast of Chiang Mai and is reachable directly by train from Bangkok’s Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal, a route worth taking on its own merits since Lampang is the only place in Thailand where horse-drawn carriages have survived, running today as city tours rather than the daily transport they once were. The artisan groups behind the GI registration work out of workshops around the city year-round, and several offer hands-on sessions where visitors can dye their own tote bags or ceramic buttons using the same lac-based technique. For travellers who want their souvenir to have come from somewhere real, contacting the Lampang Chamber of Commerce directly is the most reliable way to find a workshop with space.
Lampang is the only place in Thailand where horse-drawn carriages survive, though today they run as city tours for visitors rather than everyday transport.
Laos Locks In a Ten-Year Plan for the Four Thousand Islands
The Lao government has approved a decade-long tourism development and management master plan for Nakasang, Don Det and Don Khon, the river islands better known to backpackers as Si Phan Don, or the Four Thousand Islands. Signed off in Champasak province and running to 2036, the plan aims to raise the area’s profile as a genuinely green destination while limiting the damage tourism growth could do to the Mekong ecosystems that make the islands worth visiting in the first place.
Don Det and Don Khon sit in the far south of Laos, close to the Cambodian border, and are usually reached via Pakse airport followed by a road transfer and a short boat crossing. The islands have long drawn budget travellers for their hammock-and-sunset pace, but the new plan signals a deliberate shift toward better-managed, higher-quality visitor infrastructure rather than simply more of it. Readers planning a trip should look to community-run guesthouses on Don Det and Don Khon over larger operators where possible. Don Khon was once the departure point for boat trips to see the Mekong’s Irrawaddy dolphins, a population declared locally extinct in 2022 after decades of fishing-net entanglement and habitat loss; the new plan’s focus on protecting what remains of the area’s freshwater ecosystem is as much about preventing another loss like that one as it is about tidier infrastructure.
Don Det and Don Khon have long drawn travellers for their unhurried pace along the Mekong.
Cambodia’s Big Discount Push Splits Opinion in Siem Reap
Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism launched its Siem Reap Mega Sale on 1 August, offering discounts of 10 to 50 percent at more than 50 hotels, restaurants and tour operators through the cambodiawonder.com platform. The campaign follows a genuinely difficult first half of the year: international arrivals to Siem Reap fell by roughly 48 percent, a decline the National Bank of Cambodia attributes to the Thai border conflict, lingering reputational damage from the region’s scam-centre crisis, and softer global travel demand overall.
Not everyone in the industry is convinced discounting is the right medicine. Former Cambodia Tourism Federation vice president Peter Brongers has publicly warned that Siem Reap was already competitively priced, and that steeper cuts risk dragging the destination toward high-volume, lower-value tourism at exactly the moment officials say they want the opposite. For readers weighing a visit, this genuinely is a good window: temples with fewer crowds, hotel rates that reflect it, and a local economy that would benefit from the visit. Our Siem Reap guide has the fuller picture on what’s changed on the ground.
Fewer people in Siem Reap could be seen as a genuine upside of a difficult year for Cambodian tourism.
Club Med Opens Its First Big Eco-Certified Resort in Asia Pacific
Club Med has opened reservations for Club Med Borneo, a new all-inclusive resort in Kuala Penyu, Sabah, roughly an hour from Kota Kinabalu on Malaysia’s side of the island. It’s the group’s first large-scale BREEAM-certified beach resort anywhere in Asia Pacific, built with architecture drawn from traditional Rumah Rungus longhouses and set into rainforest and coastline that Club Med describes as still largely untouched. The resort opens to guests from 16 November 2026, with a complimentary Deluxe room upgrade currently on offer for stays booked through early January 2027.
Sabah’s stretch of Borneo remains one of Southeast Asia’s genuine wildlife strongholds, home to orangutans, proboscis monkeys and some of the region’s richest rainforest outside Indonesia, and a certified resort of this scale arriving with sustainability credentials attached rather than added later is worth watching. Readers who want the fuller context on why Malaysia keeps producing destinations like this should see our piece on the country’s sustainable adventure tourism movement.
What’s On
This Week
- KADAYAWAN FESTIVAL – Davao City, Philippines | Month-long, 7-31 August 2026, grand parade and street dance on 16 August
A thanksgiving festival honouring the eleven indigenous tribes of Mindanao and the region’s harvest, with parades, street dancing and genuine tribal ceremony rather than staged performance. Free to attend. Full 2026 calendar on the Davao City government site. - INTERNATIONAL ALMS OFFERING AND MAHASANGHADANA – Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand | 16 August 2026
One of southern Thailand’s largest Buddhist merit-making events, drawing thousands of monks and devotees to Niphat Uthit 3 Road for a grand alms-giving ceremony. Listed on the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s August calendar. - THAI TEAW THAI 79 – Bangkok, Thailand | 20-23 August 2026
Thailand’s largest domestic travel fair, held at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, with hotels, airlines and tour operators offering genuine off-season promotions worth checking even for international visitors booking through local agents. Also listed on TAT’s August calendar, linked above.
Coming Up
- FEEL ALL THE FEELINGS @ PHUKET: ILLUMINATING PERANAKAN – Phuket Old Town, Thailand | 23-29 August 2026
A week-long celebration of Phuket’s Peranakan heritage through light installations and storytelling in the island’s historic old town, a strong pairing with this issue’s Lampang textile story for anyone building a craft-and-culture route through Thailand. Also listed on TAT’s August calendar, linked above.
Worth Reading
This week’s Laos story is about building tourism the right way from the ground up. It’s worth revisiting our piece on Zero-Dollar Tourism in Laos: Recognising the Challenge, Building Better Tourism, which looks at exactly the kind of visitor-spend problem the Si Phan Don master plan is trying to get ahead of before it takes hold.
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