Travel Newsletter: 1 September 2023

Medan airport train, Fukuoka, Albania for nomads, London to Istanbul by train, and more travel reads

Hello from Chiang Mai. In a case of I'm Not Even Supposed to Be Here Today, last week I was all set to go to Vietnam until I had visa issues. I wrote about that here. Not that being in CM is a bad thing, as it’s one of my happy places. It just meant a bit of last-minute reorganisation.

After 6 weeks of solid travel, I now have a month in one place to write about this trip. I started with my arrival in Sumatra.

Latest posts at Nomadic Notes

• Kualanamu Airport Rail Link: The Medan airport train

My review of a surprising airport railway in Indonesia.

Travel reads

• In Japan’s ‘Gateway to Asia’: street food, night life and a thriving arts scene

• Mumbai's last remaining 'Irani' cafes recall lost culture of Bombay

• Can tourism save China’s small villages?

• Lessons learned from hiking the Camino de Santiago in Spain and Portugal

• The most mispronounced tourist spots

• Bhutan cuts daily tourist fee by half to lure more visitors

• How Lonely Planet is planning for the future of travel

• A guide to Marseille: beaches, bouillabaisse and street art on the French Med

• Micro hotels: Inside the world’s 5 smallest hotel rooms

• 86% of Singaporean travellers are keen on hotels that use artificial intelligence (AI) to personalise their services and offerings

Digital nomad travel

• Albania: Europe’s hidden haven for digital nomads

• India’s beach paradise Goa is overrun with digital nomads

• Want to move to Czech Republic? A new digital nomad visa hopes to attract skilled workers

Train travel

• How to plan the ultimate European rail adventure, from London to Istanbul by train

• Phnom Penh to Battambang by train: Embracing slow travel

• Japan Rail Pass, one of travel’s great deals, gets pricier

• Eurostar announces ski service to the Alps