Travel Newsletter: 16 December 2022

Where I’m At: Manila, Philippines. Travel Reads: Bhutan, flamingos in India, train journeys through Japan, and more travel reads.

Greetings from Manila! This week I moved from the old area of Malate to the new city of Makati. There are 16 cities and 1 municipality that comprise Metro Manila, and Makati is one of those cities. The number of skyscrapers here would be enough for most normal cities, but this is replicated in several other cities within this city.

[The City of Pasig, viewed from the city of Makati (via @nomadicnotes..]

I’ve met two friends here this week who used to live in Saigon. It was good to catch up and get more city intel. I also had a food quest of going to Jollibee for the first time. Ever since I saw Bourdain go to Jollibee I figured I should go as well. There are branches in Saigon and Dubai (to name two places I could have visited), but I wanted my first time to be in Manila.

[Me and Jollibee Bee (sung to the tune of Me and Bobby McGee).]

My main mission in Manila is to report on the future urban rail transit system and regional railway. The Southern Luzon regional railway is being reconstructed, which I have summarised here.

Travel reads

• See the relentless beauty of Bhutan—a kingdom that takes happiness seriously, and the country that doesn't want you to visit

• Photos of the annual Flamingos Festival at Pulicat Lake in India

• Experience the storytelling power of street art in Kaunas, Lithuania

• Why are travel podcasts so boring? By

Talking Travel Writing

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The problem with podcasts is that there are so many podcasts, but I only have a few hours a week when my ears are available to listen to talking. I tried working while listening to podcasts, and that just distracts me. In fact, can’t even listen to music while I work as that is also a distraction (ambient cafe background noise is ok).

I used to listen to podcasts all the time, but they were mainly online business podcasts. These days I just check in on my friends’ podcasts like TMBA Podcast when there is a topic I want to listen to. I went through the travel podcast category a while ago and none jumped out at me. Maybe I have enough travel in my life, which is why I rarely watch travel on Youtube. And do destination podcasts count as travel? In that case, I also listen to podcasts like Bangkok Podcast when there is a subject of interest for me.

• Airbnb is running riot in small-town America

🚆Train travel

• 9 whimsical and wonderful train journeys through Japan

This article and more are featured in my latest edition of Japan Rail News.

• Canada's train that takes hitchhikers

• The best new European train journeys for 2023

Glad to see that Rijeka in Croatia made this list.

• They met on a European sleeper train. They've been married for nearly 30 years

✈️ Air travel

• Airlines still have dress codes for passengers. Why?

• Etihad Airways’ first female pilot offers inspiration in a breakthrough career

• On this day in 1955 the De Havilland Comet 3 touched down In Honolulu on its promotional world tour

I’ve been staying at a hotel that celebrates Manila’s role as a stop in the days of round-the-world air travel. This also got me thinking about air travel in the Philippines, so I have been down all kinds of air travel rabbit holes this week while I am supposed to be researching rail travel. I will write about this hotel and air travel soon.

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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