Ep 274: Will Indonesia Build a High-Speed Railway to Bali, What is the 'Cosmic Turtle' & When Will Long Thanh Airport Open?: South East Asia's Top Travel Mega-Projects in 2025 in Review

Will Indonesia build a high-speed railway to Bali? Why Is 19 December a vital date in Vietnam? What is the ‘Cosmic Turtle’? When will the first passengers touch down at Long Thanh Airport? And will Thailand’s “Three Airports High-Speed Train” ever take to the tracks? This week, Gary welcomes back James Clark, Founder of the Future South East Asia newsletter, to discuss the politics, financing, construction and traveller benefits of 2025’s biggest and boldest travel and transport mega-projects across the region. Some of these are newly announced, some are nearing completion, and others remain works in progress. All form part of South East Asia’s ongoing infrastructure build-up to handle enlarged travel capacity in future. The journey takes us by narrow-body planes and bullet trains from North Bali to Phnom Penh, the Malaysia-Singapore border to Bac Ninh province in Vietnam and Bangkok to Borneo. And there’s much more to watch out for in 2026!