Disqus - Latest Comments for stuart at Travelfish

Re: The Backpacker Bubble

stuart at Travelfish — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 21:37:04 -0000

It's amusing that the author picks on banana pancakes in particular... I guess I'd rather be teleported by a banana pancake beam than a muesli and yoghurt beam...

Re: Step Away From the Lonely Planet: A Requiem for Travel Guidebooks

stuart at Travelfish — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:58:05 -0000

Good story, but to quote Mark Twain, "The rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated"...

I'd agree that some people certainly don't need a guidebook and the information is sometimes better online. But I wouldn't agree they're a "vestigial reminder" of an era now passed.

For many, guidebooks are ideal. For those on short trips, those who are not internet savvy (or don't have countless hours to research online), those who crave a more "authorative voice" than what may be found online -- to name a few off the top of my head.

Sure for others, the internet is an ideal medium, and it's the one we're trying to tap into at Travelfish, but the internet is far from the perfect solution. Fraud, advertorial copy and just plain bad information are major issues on many travel websites. Simultaneously, readers often demand/expect more from a website because of the perception that it is all as fresh as the coconut that fell from the tree -- the reality is a good deal more complex, and while you may think that "it really isn’t that hard to get information once you are at a location", rest assured it isn't always quite as easy as you may think!

Each medium has pros and cons and a keen traveller, looking to get the most out of a trip, would be well served to leverage the knowledge out of both.

Re: Stealing posts from me?

stuart at Travelfish — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:42:25 -0000

They're grabbing your content to provide content they can try and monetise through Adsense. I wouldn't bother contacting the site owner directly, instead just file a DMCA request with Google and they'll cancel their Adsense account. You can get more info on DMCAs here:

http://www.google.com/dmca.html

It's a siple one page fax you need to send. In the past (I file these oh too regularly!) it has taken Google around 4-5 weeks to turn them around, so you need to be patient, but the problem does go away... until the next site does it of course!

Great blog BTW, some terrific Cambodia snaps.

Re: Video of the Week – The Evolution of a Thai Beach

stuart at Travelfish — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 07:59:25 -0000

Phi Phi had an incredible, once only opportunity, to reinvent itself out of the tragedy of the tsunami -- unfortunately it didn't.

On the video though, the important quote out of the above I thought was:
"Part of it simply that people come and go, they're not staying as long as they used to ... and now people come for a week and it's just another place and they're not attached to the place"

There's the problem.

Re: Video of the Week – The Evolution of a Thai Beach

stuart at Travelfish — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 08:03:42 -0000

Sorry, and also meant to say the Thai speaker in the vid (he's actually speaking English, but it's captioned -- odd) really nails it.

Re: Video of the Week – The Evolution of a Thai Beach

stuart at Travelfish — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:48:19 -0000

Ahhh it's called a tourist visa - valid for two months -- and extendable for another month. Available at Thai embassies and consulates worldwide.