Travel Newsletter: Melbourne in March
Istanbul's car-free islands, travels in troubled Lebanon, get a taste of local life in the Maldives.
Welcome to the Nomadic Notes Travel Newsletter, where I curate the best travel reads of the week.
It’s my last week back in Australia for this trip. I have been staying outside of Melbourne and commuting in a couple of times a week. After doing admin stuff I haven’t had much time for leisure and meetups. Next time I will have to rent a room for a month in the city centre.
I go back to Vietnam next week, and the plan for Nomadic Notes is to get updated on the blog before I start travelling again.
Travel reads
• Adalar: Explore the Ottoman past on Istanbul's car-free islands
• Travels in troubled Lebanon (2024)
• Couchfish: Why you take golf clubs to the moon
“Some thoughts on AI and travel.”
• Hitchhiking was once common in Australia and abroad. What changed?
• How I visited 10 UNESCO sites in 3 weeks in Japan
• A Japanese festival of fire and spirits
“During Setsubun celebrations in Kyoto, demons and bad luck are banished as people prepare for the start of the new year.”
• 13 best things to do in Kuwait
• Get a taste of local life in the Maldives with these community-led tourism initiatives
• I saw this in my news feed which put me in the mood for returning to Vietnam:
"One of the great joys of life is riding a scooter through Vietnam, to be part of this mysterious, thrilling, beautiful choreography. Thousands upon thousands of people — families, friends, lovers — each an individual story glimpsed for a second or two in passing, sliding alongside, pouring like a torrent through the city. A flowing, gorgeous thing."
–Anthony Bourdain (via Friends of Anthony Bourdain)
🛏️ Accommodation
• Stay in a special Tokyo Metro train room at a hotel with a front seat to the railways
✈️ Air travel
• How an airplane toilet works at 40,000 feet: The extraordinary science behind everyday flying
…
[Melbourne (@nomadicnotes).]
James Clark
Hi! New follower here and fellow travelers :) We were in Vietnam a few years ago for the first time in Hoi An and fell in love. Also huge Bourdain fans. Best of luck in your travels and look forward to reading about Melbourne. Australia is the last continent we need to visit to get all 7 :)
Let’s not forget any airlines are offering the opportunity to prebook standard meals now
Whilst I can see the impossibility of labelling the special meals with seat numbers surely it would be possible to put the passengers name on the box. I believe that the crew also get a manifest before take off with passenger names (certainly do in business class as often addressed by name) and I am sure some clever computer boffin could come up with a way of adding preorder note.
Charging is ridiculous and sure 100+ special meals is a problem someone needs to apply brain and come up with a sensible solution.