Vientiane trip report

The dream train to Lake Toba, lessons learned from 30,000 feet, every country without flying (or going home), AI travel, and more travel reads.

Hello from Hua Hin. I’m about to wrap up my 1-month stay here, which is the longest I’ve been in one place for a while. I rented a room in Saigon for 6 weeks at the start of the year, but that was punctuated by an international visa run.

I have two train trips coming up next week, with a railway conference in the middle. The monthly newsletter for Southeast Asia Railways will go out next week as well, so subscribe if that interests you.

I am sporadically posting my travel notes in chronological order at Nomadic Notes, and this week I am up to Vientiane, which was from this time last year.

Latest posts at Nomadic Notes

• Notes on Vientiane: Riding the new railway and the gravitational pull of China

Travel reads

• Siantar – Parapat Railway: The missing link for the Medan – Lake Toba Railway

I put together this fact sheet on a proposed railway that could help shift tourism in Indonesia beyond Bali.

• Home is a window seat: Full essay

“On the lessons I’ve learned from 30,000 feet.”

Beautiful words and illustrations by

Candace Rose Rardon

.

• How does the “most beautiful hotel in the world” get demolished?

• Singapore win! Asia’s official capital of cool

“People have been anticipating the cultural renaissance of this snoozy island nation for nearly 15 years. Is it finally here?”

• If you happen to be in Singapore soon, then check out this exhibition:

Now Boarding: Experiencing Singapore through Travel, 1800s – 2000s

It includes a split-flap display, which are becoming harder to find in airports now.

The exhibition is from 27 May 2023 to 19 Nov 2023.

• Danish traveller Thor Pedersen completes 10-year round-the-world journey without flying

I have been following his journey ever since he got stuck in Hong Kong. Congrats, Thor!

• Meet the family letting an AI chatbot plan a 6-month trip around the world with their one-year-old daughter

Interesting as an early experiment as travel planning by AI will become more common. I have been testing ChatGPT on places I am familiar with, and I wouldn’t let it blindly plan for me yet. ChatGPT is at least better than the utter garbage that Google Bard produces.

• Everyone, it seems, is cruising to Antarctica

• Half-empty a year ago, cruises are now packed like sardines

• The ‘Caribbean of Europe’ – in Albania

• A world in three islands on the Mediterranean

• Want to move to South America? Uruguay has just introduced a digital nomad visa

---

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