Stuart McDonald

Couchfish: Bali to Leeds Day 28: Kazarman to Osh Some thoughts on homestays & guesthouses, mountains, cold wind, samsa, and sleeping bags. www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

On the way back to Bali and there isn’t a single jogger on the flight. Weird.

The only place to eat in Singapore I’ll queue up for. So good.

My people. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07...

Couchfish: Bali to Leeds Day 27: Song Kul to Kazarman “....ridges tumble from the east & west, tapering to a plain that melts into an ambiguous fade of ochres and dust ... brought back into focus by another soaring snow-capped range marking Tajikistan beyond.” www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Travelfish #574 The Submerged Temples Edition A wrap on interesting stuff I’ve come across online, this week leading with a sad piece from Hard Stories about what Laos is giving up as it continues to try to turns itself into a giant AAA battery. Well worth a read. www.travelfish.org/newsletter/n...

Mad Max Jembrana style.

Couchfish: Bali to Leeds Day 26: Some shepherd’s hut to Song Kul “That our yurt had a small stove for warmth was a blessing, and that it was fuelled with yak poo didn’t bother me in the least—if there had been some fresh stuff about, I’d have buried myself in it.” www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Couchfish: Bali to Leeds Day 25: Kochkor to some shepherd’s hut How not to ride a horse, tourism thoughts & Thai beaches www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Couchfish: Bali to Leeds Day 24: Bishkek to Kochkor On old maps, tall towers, the Lord of the Rings, and more. www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

“Organised trekking done well often presents as a seamless affair, but much like tourism as a whole, this is a façade, nothing but the front-of-stage presentation. Today we learn more about what’s actually involved in putting on a Kyrgyzstan edition of the show.” www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

AI is awesome, chapter I forget. www.propublica.org/article/goog...

Travelfish #573 The Screen Time Edition A wrap on interesting Southeast Asia travel, sustainable tourism, environmental stuff and more, that I’ve come across over the last week. www.travelfish.org/newsletter/n...

Outside … and where we are …. Because World Cup.

Good morning.

Couchfish: Bali to Leeds Day 22: Bishkek Yurt resorts, horse sausage, spruce forests, and market shopping www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Couchfish: Bali to Leeds Day 21: Almaty to Bishkek Major logistical issues, Peter the Russian, and a Canadian a long way from home. www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Couchfish: Bali to Leeds Day 20: Almaty A day on the metro “When Almaty’s metro opened on 18 April 2015, the first commuters were greeted with the almost century-old aesthetics, values, ideals and aspirations of a colonial power that no longer existed.” www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Bali to Leeds Day 19: Almaty Famine, cemeteries, traveller tales www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Bali to Leeds Day 18: Alashankou to Almaty Part 2 “Regardless of the cause, I wake with a start, properly this time, & while still laying down, I open my eyes & see my couchette door is wide open. Sitting opposite me is a complete stranger, staring at me intently.” www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Couchfish: Bali to Leeds Day 17: Alashankou to Almaty Fun times with immigration. www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Bali to Leeds Day 16: Turpan to Alashankou “... the centuries of desert winds since its cessation have sculpted the remains into an eerily beautiful tableau—Yarghul’s slate is one never to be wiped clean, even if the ever-depositing loess will one day bury it.” www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Couchfish: Bali to Leeds Day 15: Xi’an to Turpan “Further west still the earth turns to black sand—and the landscape is death.” www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Bali to Leeds Day 14: Kunming to Xi’an “My father, he never flew, and my daughter, when she grows up, unless she goes outside China, neither will she.” www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Great piece by @marisakabas.bsky.social “You may not like AI, they preach, but because of choices we are making for you, life will be increasingly unlivable without it.” www.thehandbasket.co/p/hating-ai-...

Couchfish: Bali to Leeds Day 13: Luang Prabang to Kunming Thought on boat trips, food, and how not to buy a metro ticket in Kunming www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Travelfish #570 The Bears And Caves Edition A wrap on interesting travel, Southeast Asia, and other random stuff I’ve come across over the last week, plus a few brief thoughts on the changes afoot online. www.travelfish.org/newsletter/n...

Bali to Leeds Day 12: Luang Prabang Some thoughts of temples and alms giving www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Bali to Leeds Day 11: Luang Prabang A few hours chatting with a hotelier in Luang Prabang, Laos. www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Change your user agent to OpenAI’s ( GPTBot/1.0; +https://openai.com/gptbot ) for a cleaner Google experience. What OpenAI sees is to the left.

Bali to Leeds Day 10: Vang Vieng Some thoughts on The Academy, a training hotel and restaurant in Vang Vieng Laos, that’s doing some great work trying to make travel less bad. www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Bali to Leeds Day 9: Vientiane “The transition from the train station I just left to the bus station I’ve just arrived at is like changing planets … backwards.” www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Bali to Leeds Day 8: Bangkok to Vientiane “One introduces me to another who’s also catching the train to Laos, tho she’s catching it the night after me. We’re introduced as if we’re some form of alien species—or kindred spirits—because we’re travelling by train.” www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Bali to Leeds Day 7: Padang Besar to Bangkok “Below deck, our steel wheels clickety-clack-thunk-ka-thunk-clickety-clack on the high-carbon hot-rolled steel veins that lead to the Thai capital.” www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

A year ago I left Bali to travel overland to Leeds in the UK, here’s day 6. “Like much of tourism itself, the entire project was a colonial fabrication, designed to satisfy a foreign fever dream of the “Islamic East”, then layered atop the foreign land.’ www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

A year ago I left Bali to travel overland to Leeds in the UK and I’ve finally gotten around to writing about the trip, here’s day 5. “I’m a travel writer, not a railway engineer, and I’m a huge advocate of rail investment, but I don’t get the vision at play here.” www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

A year ago I left Bali to travel overland to Leeds in the UK and I’ve finally gotten around to writing about the trip, here’s day 4. “...take my word for it, if you thought the online hotel booking scene was a debacle, the railway industry is holding your beer.” www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Travelfish #568 The Three Conversations Edition A wrap on interesting travel, Southeast Asia, sustainable tourism, AI, and other random stuff I’ve come across over the last week. Bonus three life lessons from three conversations. www.travelfish.org/newsletter/n...

Bali to Leeds day 3: “These sort of small nudges, be it the local walks or suggesting train travel may be small steps in isolation, but there’s a cumulative power to them that I think is really easy to under-estimate.” www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

Bali to Leeds day 2: “Yet as I arrive at the station the following morning—much as it seems the talking heads would have it—I’m clearly the only foreigner on the train.” www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

A year ago today I left Bali to travel overland to Leeds in the UK and I’ve finally gotten around to writing about the trip, starting with, well, day 1. www.travelfish.org/couchfish/ne...

One last cà phê sữa đá.

Almost there.

Travelfish #567 The Broken Bike Not Broken Ankle Edition A wrap on Southeast Asia/travel/sustainable tourism stuff I’ve come across over the last week + some thoughts on why travelling in Vietnam is such a riot + how I tried to dent some stone stairs with my head www.travelfish.org/newsletter/n...

Morning

World Cup edition banh mi. Breakfast of champions, Nha Trang.

New hotel. First room didn’t have a window, so I complained. Got upgraded.

Tourists I tell ya

You want chilli? Phan Rang edition.

Thrilled to discover Vietnam’s newly baked airline, Banh Mi Airlines.