We’ve made our way from the Nordics to beautiful Vienna to vibrant Bangkok. It’s one of our favorite cities in the world - there’s always so much happening, the food discovery is never ending and the hospitality sector just has way more experience than almost any other country. It’s a family favorite for us. So we’re recovering from our jetlag before we head home in two days. The last 3 days of this 53 day trip are on the calmer side of life. We have blisters from all the city walking we’ve been doing, my New Balance shoe soles are worn out and one of our suitcases has now lost a wheel. I’ll be back with a mega-round-up-of-lessons-the-world-taught-us in the last of this series.
As part of art as a habit and not just a hobby - here’s a little sketch I made for my daughter today - it’s the O.G. big palace in Vienna.
For now, here are your finds:
- CLIMATE $$ Spending extended periods of time in Europe shows you that climate chatter - awareness, debate, anxiety, tech, policy - all of it is in the air at all times. That’s not so true in Asia, but it is the continent that will suffer from it more than most others. But Asia is following the money - green financing to be specific. Thailand plans to sell as much as $1.1 billion of baht-denominated (around 29M USD) sustainability-linked bonds in the fourth quarter, in what looks set to be the first such offering from an Asian government.
- PRIDE GAP It’s Pride month starting tomorrow - parades and celebrations are in full swing in Bangkok. I’ve always thought of Thailand as a safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community - but like all things in life, it’s not that black and white. While discrimination still exists, the country will soon be the first country in ASEAN to legalize same-sex marriage. And only the second in Asia (after Taiwan)
- SCAM-NET Many don’t know that Myanmar is a big hub for scams. So is Laos. These usually happen in large “scam camps” - and are usually based in border towns. Once such town was on the Thai-Myanmar border. And Thailand just pulled the plug on the internet there. The world is more encoiled than we ever imagine.
- SOFT POWER HARD PUNCH Outside of K-Pop, Thai food is probably one of the greatest examples of soft power around the world. Now, Thailand thinks it can do the same with their national martial art - Muay Thai.
- CAPITAL MOVE Thailand may have to consider relocating its capital Bangkok because of rising sea levels. This is bonkers on multiple levels - the fact that the scale of change is this intense, and that the response is this difficult. One of the biggest lessons from this trip for me personally has been to lean a lot more into climate action. Keep Bangkok afloat please!