Travelfish #365: The Ubud Writer and Reader Festival

Everywhere is on the way to somewhere Hi everyone, I’m fresh back from four days at the Ubud Writer and Reader Festival, with a new pile of reading I just have to find the time to get through—at least they’re not all travel books! [Cloudy scenes on the way to Sin Ho. Photo: Stuart McDonald] Cloudy scenes on the way to Sin Ho. Photo: Stuart McDonald Coming this week are the rest of the updates for the Vietnam scooter trip along with updates for a few towns on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Yes, batteries are recharged! Next Tuesday, I’m off to the Cambodian coast. If you’re heading to Thailand for the first time, you may enjoy another newsletter we have called “Welcome to Thailand”. It starts with a series of daily emails, each covering an introductory aspect of Thailand. Then it switches to a weekly (Tuesday) instalment, each recommending a destination or attraction in Thailand that you may not have heard of. The newsletter is very much aimed at people new to Thailand, so if that is you, you can sign up here. All subscribers also get a complimentary PDF itinerary for Southern Thailand. [Sign up here](. Good travels, Stuart, Sam and the Travelfish crew Support Travelfish! If you'd like to chip in (if you haven’t already) for using the site, we'd love you to sign up for a year-long subscription for just A$35. [See more here](. Event The Ubud Writer and Reader Festival Last week I took a four day break from writing about motorbiking Vietnam’s Northwest Loop and food in eastern Peninsular Malaysia to attend the [Ubud Writers and Readers Festival]( here in Bali. It was my first time attending the entire event and while I expected it to be a literary festival it was so much more than that. Being held in Indonesia, the festival had an Indonesian focus, but the sessions (the main programme provided a choice of 69 spread across four days) encompassed a full gamut of interests. Yes, there were writing workshops and plenty of literary content, but there was also politics, culture, mental health, religion and environmental speakers and panels in plentiful supply. Like the topics, the speakers were of many nationalities, including plenty of local talent (with interpreters when required), which really added value to the event. The attendees, while still Australian-heavy (“everyone here looks like my mother” quipped one Australian journalist to me), also included plenty of Indonesians and attendees from the rest of ASEAN and beyond. For those who like to chinwag, there were plenty of social events to better get to know the people you kept seeing across the same sessions. Highlights for me included the following: Indonesian poet Setyawan Samad from Maluku reading his poetry inspired by the water he so frequently travels over, on the eight hour boat trip from his home to Ambon. Balinese photographer Rudi Waisnawa talking about his work documenting the deplorable state of mental health care in Bali and, on the same panel, Kate Richards on Madness: A Memoir. Many tears from both the audience and panel in this one! Andreas Harsono talking about conservative creep, politics and much more in an Indonesian context. UK journalist Jonathan Miller on the murderous regime of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines. Then with a focus more outside the region: Rhik Samadder on his poignant memoir I Never Said I Loved You, while Akala delivered an absolutely spellbinding talk on race and class in the UK. These are but a few of the sessions I attended. Almost all were excellent and informative in equal measure, and in the process I met a whole bunch of interesting people. I also had the opportunity to interview Australian journalist Erin Cook for a side-project I’m working on. Erin’s newsletter, Dari Mulut Ke Mulut, is a paid Southeast Asia newswrap. If you have a solid interest in the region, [it is absolutely worth your money](. So overall the festival was fab! So why am I writing about this in a travel newsletter you may ask. I guess because reading, learning and meeting others can so enrich your travels. Not a single session did I leave without learning something (even if it was just that individual audience questions should be time limited!). There are plenty of similar festivals across the region each year, and while the UWRF was not cheap (my four-day pass cost me a bit over A$400), there are others that are more affordable. So next time you’re planning a trip to the region, do some digging to see what festivals and events will be on in the turf you’re passing through. It need not be an enormous festival like this [UWRF]( but there are plenty of cultural hubs, similar to Ubud, with events of this kind. Pencil one or two in, you’ll almost certainly learn a thing or three, and meet some locals in the process. Win win. Good travels Stuart Premium members only: Book a round the world with [roundtheworldflights.com]( (must travel from the UK via Asia, Australia, New Zealand AND the Americas) and get £30pp off your trip. Offer valid for departures to December 2019. Log in to the Member Centre on Travelfish now for your coupon code and [start designing your own round the world trip »]( Ten things worth reading Fresh wave of foreign 'invaders' perplexes Vietnamese "It's difficult to imagine a better example of the costs of unregulated development than Sapa. Thoughtlessly ugly towers, broken pavements, aggressive taxi drivers and near-endless shops selling identical souvenirs have combined to create [an intolerable tourist pit, bereft of appeal]( Yes, I was not a fan! For one Indonesian fisher, saving caught turtles is a moral challenge “After the turtles have been cared for, Yusnaini says, [the healthiest thing for them is to be released]( but it’s difficult to ensure that they are released in waters deep enough and remote enough such that they won’t become trapped again. Fuel to power a motorboat past fishing waters is expensive, and half the year on this Sulawesi coast facing the vast Banda Sea is defined by strong westward winds.” Dark tourism: three ghost tours in Southeast Asia where history, beliefs and horror combine to offer spine-tingling thrills “Many Thais are too fearful, or too respectful of the spirit realm, to go on these outings. They [do not want to stir up any paranormal trouble]( that might bring them back luck. ” Family joins Cambodia search for British backpacker Amelia Bambridge “Friends reported her "out-of-character" disappearance after she did not return to the hostel and [her belongings were found on a beach]( Ryan Harris, who had been travelling with her, has described.” Mandarin was never our mother tongue. Here’s why this matters “Plainly speaking, the language that commands the most respect is [the language that demonstrates the most might]( We nicked this one off Erin Cook’s regional email news wrap Plan to permanently pedestrianize nine streets around Hoan Kiem Lake grows clearer “Hanoi’s walking street are a huge tourist draw and are also highly popular with Vietnamese. And In a claustrophobic city where cramped houses huddle shoulder-to-shoulder and roads resemble battlegrounds, [walking streets provide a rare breathing space]( for people used to clamor.” World War Two veterans: Loyal to the last “Growing up in colonial Burma as a Christian with English heritage, David had advantages that other Burmese didn’t, but after independence, this flipped. With the government and military led by firebrands of the anti-colonial movement, a man who venerated Britain and its empire found himself adrift, [his privileges worth little]( Drawing on the past “Roeun is one of the few surviving artists of the 1960’s ‘golden age’ for Khmer comics. Along with many of his peers, [his first comics were given to him by his French teacher](. Roeun fondly recalls his art tutor Madame Greck and how she introduced him to comics.” My own private Iceland A very, very ... very long read on [overtourism in an Icelandic context](. Eddie Hara: the punk uncle of Indonesian contemporary art “Eddie Hara is today known first and foremost in the art world for the [irreverence and playfulness of his work]( (not to speak of his trendy colourful outfits). For him, entertainment and fun are important aspects of art, as they have the power to lift the viewer from his daily preoccupations.” Something to read I Shot the Buddha (A Dr Siri Paiboun Mystery) What we love about Cotterill’s books isn’t so much their plots, though these do move along at a clip to keep you turning the page well after you promised yourself you’d turn the light out. We love even more the comprehensive portrait he paints of Vientiane in the 1970s—[it’s all very realistic rather than overly romanticised]( how he gives full agency to an array of colourful Vientiane characters. Travel shot [Best explored under your own steam. Photo: Stuart McDonald] Best explored under your own steam. Photo: Stuart McDonald Till next time [Sam and Stuart.] That’s it from us for now. As usual, enjoy the site’s new additions and drop us a line if there’s something in particular you’d like us to cover in Southeast Asia. Travel light! Stuart, Sam & the Travelfish team [( You're receiving the Travelfish newsletter because you signed up at Travelfish.org. Not interested anymore? [Unsubscribe Instantly](. Make sure you're getting our emails! If you're a Gmail user and would prefer your Travelfish newsletter in your Primary in-box rather than Promotions, just drag this email from the Promotions tab to the Primary tab, and click "yes" when it asks if you want to do that for all of our emails. Better still, [read this newsletter online.]( [Disclosure]( | [Privacy]( | [Unsubscribe]( We want travellers to love Southeast Asia as much as we do. 9 robinson close, hornsby heights, nsw 2077, AUSTRALIA [Unsubscribe]( | [Change Subscriber Options](