Great stuff Stuart and i very much look forward to reading your future contributions. This is certainly to be encouraged and you certainly have my support
I have always headed straight for the food markets and local restaurants not for ethical reasons just I love the food. I don’t think I have ever knowingly or willingly eaten at anything else as never crave western food. I have been taken by Thai friends to some of these new coffee chains that are cropping up and certainly enjoy the coffee but having long boycotted Starbucks in the west walking past these places is not hard. Luckily there are more local coffee shops opening up.
Now I would love more homestay recommendations they can be hard to find but staying with a local family can be really rewarding especially if stop a few days - never really understood those who stop just the one night go out in the evening for drinks and hardly even interact with their hosts. As someone who frequents the budget end of hotels then most of the ones I say will be locally owned
Slow travel is something I strongly believe in my philosophy has always been to stay at least 3 or 4 nights if I like the place and perhaps a week but then every now and then I will get the first train or bus out. I would rather make several visits to a country than try and do the whole country in one trip
I am afraid though there are times when an internal flight tempts me these days especially if the alternative is a long ferry trip. Old age is getting to me
Thanks Alistair, Yeah the food bit is absolutely the easiest bit for me. The main challenge, at least from a research point of view, is going to make it work time-wise, but will see how the Vietnam trip works out in Jan—that’s where I plan to test a lot of this stuff out. Thanks for your support!
That's great. That will make our own attempts at ethical travel much more successful when we can get that info and be reminded to think about it. I’d love to get more information on how to travel without flying, once youkve done that initial flight. And all those extra little things we can learn from spending more time in fewer places, which is how I prefer to travel these days. Have a good time in Hue, one of my favourite places. I hope to get there next year too.
The how not to fly once you have arrived is very much down to your planed itinerary and the time you have for the trip. On mainland SEA it is quite easy as long as you don’t want to hop straight from say Siem Reap to Malaysia and not stopping in Thailand. However if you take Indonesia and work your way through the islands then getting back to pick up your flight home might well be a flight as backtracking would be a waste
Yeah, Indonesia and, I assume, The Philippines are the two tricky ones—plus Sabah and Sarawak from peninsular Malaysia. Agree, plenty comes down to sensible itinerary planning, something I touched on a bit in some of the rethinking travel pieces.
I do tend to travel for a few months at a time ( I’m retired) so can travel slowly.) I spent the last decade travelling in China where it’s easy to stay on the ground and before that in Vietnam where I found there was always a bus, and the back of a motorbike. Planning a trip for next year I’m wondering how I can get from Bangkok to Vietnam without an overland route being too complicated or difficult. Probably Bangkok will just be a stopover. I think China has spoilt me because the transport is good and rarely difficult to organise.
There’s some good routes, like the ones Alastair has suggested, or through northeast Thailand on the train to Ubon Ratchathani, then some of Laos and into central Vietnam around Hue. I’m thinking of returning home to Bali overland from Hue in Vietnam simply as a proof of purpose, but yeah, a lot of miles!
Like your thoughts and agree that we all have to take as much personal responsibility as possible to lessen impact - I will be keen to follow your journey and hope this thinking broadens!
Bravo, Stuart! What a lot of thought has gone into the future of couch and travel fish. I’m sure it will produce interesting results - more power to your pen I mean laptop!
Great stuff Stuart and i very much look forward to reading your future contributions. This is certainly to be encouraged and you certainly have my support
I have always headed straight for the food markets and local restaurants not for ethical reasons just I love the food. I don’t think I have ever knowingly or willingly eaten at anything else as never crave western food. I have been taken by Thai friends to some of these new coffee chains that are cropping up and certainly enjoy the coffee but having long boycotted Starbucks in the west walking past these places is not hard. Luckily there are more local coffee shops opening up.
Now I would love more homestay recommendations they can be hard to find but staying with a local family can be really rewarding especially if stop a few days - never really understood those who stop just the one night go out in the evening for drinks and hardly even interact with their hosts. As someone who frequents the budget end of hotels then most of the ones I say will be locally owned
Slow travel is something I strongly believe in my philosophy has always been to stay at least 3 or 4 nights if I like the place and perhaps a week but then every now and then I will get the first train or bus out. I would rather make several visits to a country than try and do the whole country in one trip
I am afraid though there are times when an internal flight tempts me these days especially if the alternative is a long ferry trip. Old age is getting to me
100% support even if now and then I transgress
Thanks Alistair, Yeah the food bit is absolutely the easiest bit for me. The main challenge, at least from a research point of view, is going to make it work time-wise, but will see how the Vietnam trip works out in Jan—that’s where I plan to test a lot of this stuff out. Thanks for your support!
I'm all in on this idea and support it 100%. Great to see change...real, practical change. Up the subscription price, it's worth it
Cheers—now I just have to pull it off!
👏👏👏
That's great. That will make our own attempts at ethical travel much more successful when we can get that info and be reminded to think about it. I’d love to get more information on how to travel without flying, once youkve done that initial flight. And all those extra little things we can learn from spending more time in fewer places, which is how I prefer to travel these days. Have a good time in Hue, one of my favourite places. I hope to get there next year too.
The how not to fly once you have arrived is very much down to your planed itinerary and the time you have for the trip. On mainland SEA it is quite easy as long as you don’t want to hop straight from say Siem Reap to Malaysia and not stopping in Thailand. However if you take Indonesia and work your way through the islands then getting back to pick up your flight home might well be a flight as backtracking would be a waste
Yeah, Indonesia and, I assume, The Philippines are the two tricky ones—plus Sabah and Sarawak from peninsular Malaysia. Agree, plenty comes down to sensible itinerary planning, something I touched on a bit in some of the rethinking travel pieces.
I do tend to travel for a few months at a time ( I’m retired) so can travel slowly.) I spent the last decade travelling in China where it’s easy to stay on the ground and before that in Vietnam where I found there was always a bus, and the back of a motorbike. Planning a trip for next year I’m wondering how I can get from Bangkok to Vietnam without an overland route being too complicated or difficult. Probably Bangkok will just be a stopover. I think China has spoilt me because the transport is good and rarely difficult to organise.
How quickly do you want to do the trip and would you want to stop en route plenty of options to HCMC
Via Trat,Koh kong ,Phnom Penh
Via Trat Koh kong Kampot ha tien,
Via Aranyaphatet Siem Reap, Phnom Penh
All easy but need to buy transport separately
All depends on what you want to see and do on the way but the above three are. Straight forward
There’s some good routes, like the ones Alastair has suggested, or through northeast Thailand on the train to Ubon Ratchathani, then some of Laos and into central Vietnam around Hue. I’m thinking of returning home to Bali overland from Hue in Vietnam simply as a proof of purpose, but yeah, a lot of miles!
Thanks. Yes I can’t wait to get there. I plan to EAT EVERYTHING!
Thank you Stuart. For your on going efforts. To encourage us all to think of consequences. I’ve appreciated your integrity with Travel/Couch Fish.
Travel on. Travel well.
Thanks Lani
Like your thoughts and agree that we all have to take as much personal responsibility as possible to lessen impact - I will be keen to follow your journey and hope this thinking broadens!
Thanks—interesting times!
Bravo, Stuart! What a lot of thought has gone into the future of couch and travel fish. I’m sure it will produce interesting results - more power to your pen I mean laptop!
Thanks Keren!
These all sound like thoughtful and well thought out changes. Congrats on being so forward thinking!
Cheers