Travel Newsletter: 26 January 2024
The state of travel in 2024, Yemen, Batu Caves, Bourdain on a train, the window (shade) seat, and more travel reads.
Welcome to the Nomadic Notes Travel Newsletter, where I curate the best travel reads of the week.
Travel reads
“A deep-dive analysis into the landscape of travel right now—from trending prices to trending places to how people are thinking about travel in 2024.”
• Falling domestic fares and an A.I. arms race: what travelers can expect in 2024
“At the start of what promises to be a very busy year, we look ahead at what you’re likely to encounter.”
• Yemen: enchanting, complex, and much misunderstood
• 2023 letter by Dan Wang
Dan Wang has become known for posting these yearly updates. Sometimes he only posts once a year on his website. These updates include travel reports, so I include the letter in this travel newsletter. I also included it because he was another walker on the Walk and Talk I featured last month.
“Do my travel plans make me a terrible person?”
• Escalator to be built at Batu Caves this year, no more aching legs!
If you have been to KL then you are probably familiar with the colourful steps at Batu Caves. I didn’t know that there used to be a funicular next to the stairs.
• How street art hunts in Malaysia’s George Town reveal Penang’s rich history
• A mountain of rubbish: Japan introduces visitor cap at Mount Fuji to crack down on pollution
• Tiny Australian town turns into 'little Nepal' for Liam Neeson. How taken is everyone?
• Tomonoura: A historic coastal village away from the crowds in Japan
• Casting light on relief map shading
“In 1927, geologist Albert Heim clashed with cartographers at the Federal Office of Topography as he was convinced that their relief maps of Switzerland were depicted in the wrong light. Heim believed that the light source on maps should correspond to natural sunshine.”
On travel writing
• When travel writing crosses into fiction
• In Hanoi
“On the perils of travel writing.”
🚆Train travel
• A new meme format is doing the rounds called Anthony Bourdain on a train. I made my own here.
Subscribe to the Southeast Asia Railways Newsletter here.
• This week I also started a micro niche site: balirailway.com. If the railway happens then I figure I could get in at the start with a website. I have started a newsletter for that site, and you can sign up here. This will be infrequently updated unless construction actually starts happening.
• This overnight train from Vienna to Venice is affordable and charming — here's my full review
✈️ Air travel
“Watching the world go by from 40,000 feet is more than it’s cracked up to be.”
“Inside the business of air miles.”
…
James Clark – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
I guess those stairs are a good idea for disabled folks. But everyone else should walk to the top of Batu Caves!