Travel Newsletter: 9 December 2022
Where I'm At: Manila, Philippines. Travel reads: Malé, San Diego-Tijuana, walking New York, walking from Argentina to Alaska, airport codes, and more.
Greetings from Manila! It’s my first time here since 2012, and my first time back in the Philippines since a random business trip to Davao in 2013. It’s good to be back.
On my first trip here I did an “introduction to the Philippines” trip by island-hopping several islands. The beaches and mountains are calling my name again, but they will have to wait. This time I am here to report on the expanding metro system and other infrastructure projects in Manila on behalf of my site at Future Southeast Asia.
Travel reads
• Welcome to Malé: The side of the Maldives you don’t see on Instagram
• The Vanishing US / Mexico border
“How San Diego and Tijuana are building bridges over the border wall.” By
at The Missive.• 13 stranded strangers went on a road trip. Here's what happened
• Sick of his office job, Matt started walking. He hasn’t stopped for 11 years
“Matt Green’s mission is to stroll down every street in the five boroughs of New York City. He’s almost finished. Or has he?”
This puts my walk down one (long) street in New York to shame. New York is a city I would never tire of walking around, so I get this quest. I’ve thought about doing this for District 3 in Saigon, which has a high proportion of colonial-era villas.
• The maddening mess of airport codes! [YouTube]
I’ve always enjoyed the CGP Grey cartoon videos, so now that there is a travel-themed video I can share it here.
• It's official: Croatia will be joining the Schengen zone but Romania and Bulgaria denied membership
• How to find the best walking tours in any city you visit
• Melburnian Rachel Davey becomes the first Australian woman to visit every nation in the world
🚆Train travel
• Rail journey of the month: Lisbon to Vigo via Porto, past dunes, rivers and the Atlantic
• Laos-China Railway unveils ticket reservation app on first anniversary
An online ticketing system is finally being set up for the Laos-China Railway. It will apparently be ready this month, so I will post it when it is live.
✈️ Air travel
• Final Boeing 747 rollout for ‘Queen of the Skies’
• A new hydrogen plane can fly halfway around the world without refueling
There is also ZEROe by Airbus, which plan to develop the world’s first zero-emission commercial aircraft by 2035.
• Google reveals top trending flight searches of 2022
Ho Chi Minh City is #2! I thought there were more tourists around, but not that many!
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
I haven't been back to the PI since 2013, when Typhoon Haiyan kicked my butt! Did you miss it on your first trip?