A Few Words From Me Most decisions that change how we travel this region are made somewhere we will never see, by people we will never meet, and announced once everything is already settled. This week four countries showed their hands at once, and the common thread is who gets to set the terms. Laos
A Few Words From Me There are a few signs that the wet season is ending. In Bangkok, shops and bars are putting up Halloween decorations, which in my experience is when the capital’s streets start to fill again. The Similan Islands reopen today, which is the surest marker of all. Two other dates are
A country-by-country guide to travelling the region from October to December, from the flooded central coast of Vietnam to Timor-Leste’s whale season Bangkok is wet again. This week the city’s drainage department reported standing water on five main road sections, and the Thai Meteorological Department expects isolated heavy to very heavy rain across the central
A Few Words From Me There was no issue last week, and I owe you a short explanation: I spent most of it getting back to Bangkok, a journey that always takes longer than the flight suggests. I arrived to serious flooding, and water is still standing in up country Bangkok and the provinces around
A Few Words From Me Some good news from the Mekong to start with, and it’s been a while since I could write that sentence with a straight face. In Kratie, up in Cambodia’s northeast, the Irrawaddy dolphin count is heading the right way, and after writing in August about the Laos side of the
A Few Words From Me Anak Krakatau has form for making headlines it would rather not, though I’ll say this for it, this time it let the world’s rarest rhino off comparatively lightly. Ujung Kulon has now sat out two Krakatau eruptions unscathed, which either says something reassuring about that stretch of coast or something
Six new ASEAN Heritage Parks were declared this week. What happens to them next depends on money nobody has fully worked out how to raise. There is a particular kind of conservation news that reads as an unambiguous win right up until you ask the second question. The first question, the one that made headlines
A Few Words From Me… Malaysia and Vietnam did something rather good for the region this week, six new names added to the ASEAN Heritage Park list between them, Bako and Lambir Hills among them. That sounds like the sort of thing that only matters to committee minutes until you realise Bako is a place
A new certification scheme wants to separate genuine sustainability from the towel-reuse card on your pillow. I went looking for the detail behind the headline. [COVER IMAGE GOES HERE – set as WordPress Featured Image only, not embedded in body. Description: Dragon Bridge in Da Nang lit up at night during a fireworks display, editor-owned
A Few Words From Me The biggest story coming out of the region this week is the weather itself. Green season brings a wash of colour to the region yet it can also prove to be a wash out, with lives disrupted through incessant rain that brings flooding to low-lying areas. Laos is dealing with
The Similan Islands Took 400,000 Visitors Last Season. Before You Book This One, Read the Rules.
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Malaysia and Vietnam Just Added Six Parks to an Exclusive List. The Badge Is the Easy Part.
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Da Nang Just Wrote a 219-Point Rulebook for What “Green” Actually Means. Here’s What’s in It.
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