News Extra: November 2024

The Future Southeast Asia Newsletter features transport and urban development news in Southeast Asia, edited by James Clark.

News Extra features news editorials exclusively for paying subscribers of Future Southeast Asia.

Greetings from Nha Trang, Vietnam. I was here earlier this year (here is my trip report) so I'm just here to catch up on work before getting the next bus. I started this trip in Hanoi, and I have been to Danang, Hoi An, and Hue so far. I will have a trip report for subscribers for Hoi An and Hue soon.

I'm now making my way south, and I will be going to Da Lat (Central Highlands), Phan Thiet (South Central Coast), and Ho Chi Minh City. 

There have been more updates about the HCMC Metro opening, and they are saying it will open on 22 December, so I will be timing my travels to be back in Ho Chi Minh City by then.

Site news and travel plans

It's time to make some changes at Future Southeast Asia. My current publishing schedule is to post one article a week at futuresoutheastasia.com, a weekly news round-up on the email newsletter, and a monthly article for paid subscribers on the newsletter.

As some of you know, I also run a travel website at Nomadic Notes. This site complements Future Southeast Asia with transport guides that I use as a reference for Future Southeast Asia. 

I've been wondering how to manage the two sites, as splitting my time between the two means I don't go all in on either. I will be putting more time into Future Southeast Asia.

Going forward, I will be posting more editorial articles and trip reports via the newsletter. These will be for paid subscribers with a minimum of two a month.

News Extra

Why I'm not using AI or outsourcing for research

I recently put together a Cambodia airports page. My general rule is to not make a fact page if there is already a good Wiki page. In this case, the Cambodia Wiki was missing an airport and didn't have an update on replacement and defunct airports.

 I was initially hopeful that AI could do some research and make lists for me. Listicles are an easy way to bring traffic if you find a popular searched-for term. The dream is to get a machine to spit out hundreds of listicles a day, press publish, and watch advertising dollars roll in. So simple! The reality is much different.

 I tried making lists as an experiment at Nomadic Notes. I asked ChatGPT to make a list of the 50 largest islands in Thailand, ordered by size in square km. I knew what the top three were, and it automatically got that wrong, and then the rest was a jumbled list with islands being repeated.

I have also thought about outsourcing research tasks on several occasions. Doing a seemingly mundane task of listing airports might be something that productivity gurus would say to outsource. For me though, the value is in becoming familiar with everything to know about the subject. I want to be an authority on transport and urban development in Southeast Asia, and that involves mundane research.

If I had outsourced the Cambodia airports list, they may not have picked up that there is an airport being built on Koh Rong (there isn't a Wiki page for that project). There is also a new airport proposed in Mondulkiri but at a different location to the defunct airport.

Not many people would know where Mondulkiri is, let alone visit it (unless you are Travelfish), and I couldn't place it on the map until now.

By doing the list myself, I physically pinned the airports on a Google Map, I also looked at the airport map to see if any of the airports were near proposed railways.

Lastly, research is fun for me. It's like when travel AI start-ups are selling their latest travel planning tool by saying that they take the pain out of travel planning. Part of the joy of travel is travel planning. I want to discover things for myself, and researching something I am interested in isn’t painful.

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