Travelfish Weekly Newsletter

Hi! This week I’m leading with a terrific piece on tourism by Henry Wismayer—go grab a coffee and give it a read. A quick update on the whole Substack drama I mentioned last week. I’ve almost finished moving this newsletter, and as long as the plumbing in my house doesn’t detonate again (see below), this should be the final issue coming from Substack.

Hi! Happy New Year from West Bali! I hope you all had an excellent holiday period and are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ready for a brand-spanking new year. Here at Casa Travelfish, we had a great family Christmas holiday in Thailand, then to the tune of about a bazillion fireworks, we watched the clock tick over to the New Year back in Bali.

Hi! This week I’m leading with an interesting Al Jazeera piece on a slice of Malaysian (then Malaya) history from not that long ago. Well worth a read. Over on Couchfish, I had two pieces related to my beach shack out west, one about how I found it, and what I’m trying to do with it, then I wrapped up the year for Couchfish—as I am today with the Travelfish Newsletter. Both will be back in your inbox in early January.

Hi all, Sorry, it has been a bit between emails! This week I have three picks on Thailand’s Ko Pha Ngan—a great choice for your Christmas holidays. For each pick, I’ve looked up some prices on our partner Agoda, and listed them along with—as always—the direct contact details for each place. That way you can compare and figure out what works for you. Just a disclaimer here, Agoda is a Travelfish partner, so if you book a room through them a commission may be payable to us.

Hi! This week I’m leading with a piece out of Condé Nast Traveler (yeah I know), but I thought it was a good read and it taught me two new words—solastalgia and fernweh—so there you go, CNT isn’t a complete waste of space. Also this week gone The United States’ most famous war criminal finally kicked the bucket—don’t let the door hit you on the way out dude.

Hi! Saigoneer is a great site for getting both my stomach rumbling and feet itching and this week’s read is a great piece they have on that Hội An fave, Cao Lầu. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. This week’s newsletter is supported by Ling—think of it as a new way to learn a language without picking up phrases like how to tell your neighbour there are a million cats in your house.

Hi! This week I’m leading with an interesting wrap on hostels by backpacker academic Michael O’Regan. I have to say, after staying at twenty different hostels across four weeks in Singapore a few years ago, I swore I’d never stay in another, but O’Regan’s piece had me almost missing them. If you’re a hostel fan, give the story a read.

Hi! This week I’m leading with an old—though not as old as the dinosaurs—piece on the end of the world. With all this chit chat about global warming, madness and chaos, it’s best not to forget about some giant rock just bangin’ into us. Yes, I am the good news channel. This week’s newsletter is supported by Ling—think of it as a new way to learn a language without picking up phrases like how to tell your neighbour there are a million cats in your house.

Hi! This newsletter is coming to you from Pemuteran in West Bali where I’m diving with my daughter and some friends for a few days. Lyla and I decided to ride here by motorbike from the south—in theory about a three and a bit hour ride (assuming Bali’s bonkers traffic is slightly less bonkers)—but luckily for Bali, and unluckily for us, Bali’s drought decided to break the day of our ride, which turned out to be four and a half hours, with three and a half of said hours in the rain.

Hi! The other day I was reading an academic paper in prep for my dissertation at uni—due in a mere ten months. The paper was on about how destinations often become “prisoners” of their own images—often very old images—which are pushed in travel guides but don’t reflect well on what the place is today. The paper focusses on a European town—Girona in Spain—but this certainly holds for many spots in Southeast Asia.