Fake beaches of Kep and Laos rail tickets
Nomadic Notes site changes, Futuristic Batam, Pizza in Asia, Airbnb discourse, digital nomads in Mexico City, and more travel reads.
Where I’m At: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Where was I? Last week I was in Batam, which was the second of five new places I was supposedly visiting this month. Alas, I had to reschedule my trip for next month. I am now back in my default home base of Saigon.
I made a list of big projects happening in Batam while I was there, and I have enough content from this trip to keep me busy for a month.
[Futuristic Batam: Could the next Singapore be next to Singapore?]
Where was I on the blog? I left off at Kampot in Cambodia. I was going to bundle my visit to Kep in that post, as most people tend to treat Kep as a day trip from Kampot. Kep is a separate province though, and there are things going on there that warrant a separate article.
What is happening on the Nomadic Notes blog and newsletter? Now that this newsletter is taking on a life of its own I’ve decided to merge the “Where I’m At” section of Nomadic Notes and put it in the newsletter. It didn’t make any sense to do updates on the blog when I was also posting updates on the newsletter. Google doesn’t like short posts with no defined topic, so it makes more sense to put what used to be blog posts in a newsletter.
I’m also starting to clean up and expand my guides. I’ve been putting it off, but now that travel is recovering it is time to clean up dead links and make updates.
This week I’ve added an “updated” section, where I will feature any notable updates. I’ve started off with the Laos-China Railway guide, as it is now possible to buy tickets online through an agency.
Latest posts at Nomadic Notes
Notes on Kep – Fake beaches, ruined villas, crabs (of course), and a cool cafe of Cambodia
Updated posts at Nomadic Notes
Laos-China Railway – Travel information for the Boten-Vientiane Railway
After writing about my experience on the Laos-China Railway, one of the recurring questions I get is how to buy a ticket. There is no official website that sells tickets, and until recently you had to queue at a ticket office in Laos.
You can now buy tickets with the online travel agent Baolau. You still have to pick up the tickets, but at least you don’t have to worry about missing out. I use Baolau for train and ferry tickets in Vietnam.
According to local media, there will be an official app to buy tickets at the end of the year.
Travel reads
• Europe's remote, lost-in-time villages
• Visiting Canada’s $50 million 1980s ghost town
• Tiny African kingdom has skiing as Europe sweats summer heat
• 50 Top Pizza Asia – Pacific 2022
Long gone are the days when you couldn’t get a good pizza in Asia (though I still encounter people who try and tell me that I should only eat local food). Sure, if I’m in Bangkok for a week there will be no room for pizza. If I am there for a month or two, I will go crazy with the international fare.
It should be no surprise that Tokyo has so many good pizzerias, and I have had enough good pizzas in Bangkok to not be surprised there are 5 places listed. On my last visit to Bangkok I went to a local friend’s birthday party at what is the 5th best pizzeria in Asia-Pacific.
What I am most surprised about is that Melbourne has so many listings, including the #1! I am such a creature of habit when I go back to Melbourne that I just go to my old local place. I need to get out more when I go back (and any Melbourne friends reading, let me know how it is).
• Snoozing in flower beds? Behold the bears of summer
“A photographer spends two months in the Canadian Arctic and reveals a softer side of the world’s largest terrestrial predator.”
• Travel resumes to Easter Island, albeit under strict protocols
• 75 years after Partition: These maps show how the British split India
• This small Japanese town is a vintage vending machine paradise
🚆Train travel
• Forget Brad Pitt. The bullet train is the real star
It has low ratings, but I will go and see this if only to get a bit of a Tokyo/Japan train travel fix.
• Sightseeing train fueled by ramen soup, cooking oil steams ahead in Japanese town
✈️ Air travel
• 20 years at 30,000 feet: A flight attendant answers readers’ questions
• What the 'golden age' of flying was really like
• My mates at Minaal are doing a series on defunct airlines - Busted Airlines #4: AtlasGlobal
• I was at Changi Airport this week and I still love it.
The Airbnb discourse continues
• People share more of their most twisted Airbnb tales
• Is the Airbnb backlash fair?
To be fair on Airbnb, I’ve booked 3 places on Booking/Agoda that have since closed down during the pandemic. The combination of so many places closing down and online travel agencies laying off staff has meant lots of outdated listings.
Digital nomads
• Eight best African cities for digital nomads
• Digital nomads in Mexico City is the scandal of the week:
- Overtourism: As digital nomads flock to Mexico City, locals face rising rents
- Digital Nomads: See why Mexicans are fed up with them
- Are gringos ruining Mexico City?
The Nomadic Notes Travel Newsletter is a weekly newsletter of the best travel reads and interesting travel news from around the web, and random ramblings by the editor.
- James Clark