Why is Backpacker Philippines Twice the Cost of Thailand?

Ivan Around Town is a Filipino blogger in Manila who covers much of the tourism section in his country, with a much appreciated touch towards the backpacker approach to travel, and for this I must thank him.

The Philippines is another struggling nation trying to atract more foreign tourists and so it's strange that the completely political controlled Philippines Tourism Authority would ignore their most important source of present and future high-spending tourists: today's backpackers. They come back. They get richer. They later spend their money in a country where they once had some experiences. It would be smart to understand the importance of the backpackers. They will be back.

And why in the Philippines most budget backpackers tourist destinations and guesthouses overpriced? I've seen it, during my research trips for Moon Publications. It's a fact: the Philippiens should be priced the same as Thailand, but the Philippines for the backpacker is twice the cost the Thailand.

Bangkok's Lebua Hotel and Rasri Bualert: Another Day, Another Controversy

Lebua Hotel seems to thrive on controversy. The hotel is now involved in a lawsuit with the general manager of The Oriental over a message Kurt sent to his managers to escort Lebua spys out of his hallowed property.

Last year, Lebua sponsored a very expensive dinner for very rich people, and they will repeat the gaudy display with a touch of humility again next month.

Not everybody is please with the Lebua for their background, nasty temperament toward their more venerable neighbors, and their insatiable appetite for publicity, no matter good or bad. And most of it is bad.

The International Herald Tribune had this to say about their upcoming feast.

Bangkok's Lebua hotel, which is organizing the dinner, is no stranger to publicity - or to Michelin-starred chefs. Last year, it put on a decadent feast billed as the meal of a lifetime for $25,000 a head. Six three-star Michelin chefs were flown in from Europe to cook the 10-course meal, each plate paired with a rare vintage wine.

On April 5, the Lebua is offering another 10-course spread, this time for free. The hotel has invited 50 of its biggest-spending customers to the dinner prepared - it hopes - by three top-ranked Michelin-starred chefs.

There is one twist. Before dinner, guests will be jetted to a poor village in northern Thailand to spend the afternoon soaking up the sights of poverty. The dinner and full-day excursion will cost the hotel $300,000.

The Electric Newspaper goes over some of the lawsuit filed by Lebua Hotel against the general manager of The Oriental.

IT'S a battle of the stars. Bangkok's five-star hotels, that is. With back-stabbing, snubbing and animosity worthy of a TV soap opera, Bangkok's famed Oriental hotel is now embroiled in a defamation suit filed by a competitor.

The lawsuit, filed on 17 Jan, highlighted the nastiness behind the scenes at some of the world's top luxury establishments. News of the spat was made public yesterday after The Oriental's general manager appeared at the Bangkok Criminal Court for a preliminary hearing.

Mr Kurt Wachtveitl, the general manager, is accused of defaming Bangkok's lebua hotel in an internal memo warning that the competitor was on the prowl for qualified hotel staff. The lawsuit is a first for Thailand's hotel industry and stands to harm the reputation of hotels across the country, the Thai Hotels Association said.

According to The Nation, Thai Hotels Association president Chanin Thonawanik was quoted as saying: 'What will the world think of Thailand when the world's best hotel is involved in a lawsuit? 'This is (a) first in Thai hotel history and will certainly damage our reputation.'

In the memo dated 30 Nov 2006, Mr Wachtveitl accused the lebua of poaching 26 employees from The Peninsula Hotel, another five-star competitor, and expressed concern that The Oriental could be targeted next. 'Effective immediately, no management members from lebua ... are allowed at The Oriental,' the memo signed by Mr Wachtveitl and sent by e-mail to department heads said, according to the court complaint. The memo added: 'Should you come across any of their management members in the hotel, please make sure they are escorted out of our premises immediately.'

The Nation reported that the lebua has filed two complaints, including a criminal case accusing The Oriental of forwarding the memo to general managers at nine other Bangkok hotels.

The International Herald Tribune also reported on the messy lawsuit by upstart Lebua against Thailand's most historic hotel.

Bangkok's famed Oriental hotel is embroiled in a defamation suit filed by a competitor, highlighting the back-stabbing and animosity that thrives behind the scenes at some of the world's top luxury establishments.

The lawsuit was filed Jan. 17 but only made public Tuesday, a day after The Oriental's general manager appeared at the Bangkok Criminal Court for a preliminary hearing. Kurt Wachtveitl, the general manager, is accused of defaming Bangkok's lebua hotel in an internal memo warning that the competitor was on the prowl for qualified hotel staff.

The lawsuit is a first for Thailand's hotel industry and stands to harm the reputation of hotels across the country, the Thai Hotels Association said. The Oriental consistently ranks among the best in the world in surveys. In the memo dated Nov. 30, 2006, Wachtveitl said the lebua poached 26 employees from The Peninsula Hotel, another 5-star competitor, in two months and expressed concern that The Oriental could be targeted next.

But Chris Baker, guest columnist at New Mandala really gets down to the details of what's going on, but leaves much unanswered. So who is this Rasi Bualert?

The principal owner of lebua is the family of Rasi Bualert. She always gets tagged as “arms dealer” which seems a bit unfair. Too narrow. Their real estate empire went spectacularly bankrupt after 1997, but they kept going by refusing to repay their creditors. Last June, the Supreme Court ruled that they had to repay 10 billion baht to Bangkok Bank, but I don’t know whether they complied. Their biggest debt was to Krung Thai. The Bualert acquired the building now housing lebua from the developer and architect Rangsan Torsuwan after he was charged with masterminding the attempted murder of the chief judge of the Supreme Court.

The Nation has some background on Rasi Bualert financial problems a few years ago.

Bangkok Bank has filed a bankruptcy suit against high-flying businesswoman Rasri Bualert and her associates for failing to honour debts totalling almost Bt10 billion. Nine other defendants named in the lawsuit are D Five Co, Charoen West Enterprise, Royal Charoen Krung, Kongchai Bualert, Anand Chanthrakul, Sa-nguansri Dejpornthewan, Parichart Puchatham, General Sawat Phatchuenjai and General Prathuang Wongchan.

The Bankruptcy Court has agreed to hear the case and scheduled June 22 for the first hearing. In its court filing, Bangkok Bank charged that D Five and Charoen West Enterprise had borrowed money from its branches, with the other defendants acting as guarantors. The total debt, principal plus interest, owed to the bank is Bt9.72 billion. The bank said it had asked the defendants to settle the debt but had not received any payment. It believes the defendants now have more debts than assets, making them liable to bankruptcy proceedings.

The New York Times also mentions Rasri Bualert and her financial shenanigans, along with other Thai millionaires who refuse to repay their debts and somehow stay in business to the present day.

Workers are, for example, putting the finishing touches on the 63-story Royal Charoen Krung Tower. Promoted as Southeast Asia's largest building, the tower, a 3.6-million- square-foot monolith with residential time-share and commercial space, looms over the pharmacies and jewelry shops around it.

First scheduled to open in 1996, the Royal Charoen Krung fell behind schedule in part because Rangsan Torsuwan, the flamboyant architect who designed and owned it, was forced to sell it.

The buyer was Rasri Bualert, a real estate tycoon and Thailand's only female arms dealer. Ms. Rasri helped pay for the project with a loan from the government-run Krung Thai Bank, a loan that is now among the nonperforming loans that account for at least 60 percent of the bank's overall portfolio. Last year, auditors from PricewaterhouseCoopers, reporting that the bank had weak lending standards, singled out the loan as a glaring example.

Ms. Rasri declined to be interviewed for this article. Krung Thai officials did not return phone calls.

Laos: Xiengkok, Mongla, Nam Fa, Jakune and Trekking Only for the Serious

I once trekked from Mae Hong Son into Burma on a seven-day adventure to visit the military headquarters of the Karenni people, who just happened to be celebrating their cultural week during my visit, but it doesn't really compare to a Laos trek taken a few years ago by Lao Bumpkin. If you're looking for something completely unique to do on your next visit to Southeast Asia, read the link for more ideas on a trekking agency and some background on this remote region in a still remote country.

This is real adventure.

The wildlife survey down the river by Wildside was the first known instance of outsiders entering the area. I don’t know if they were able to find any takers for their proposed 7 day raft trip. In 04 a mixed group of kayakers including Japanese and Lao nationals also paddled down the river. The rapids are rated at class IV, not too difficult for experienced kayakers, but not the kind of thing for the inexperienced. What they did do was document the variety of large mamals living in the valley.

Beginning in the dry season of 06 Tui the manager of the tourism office in Muang Long started to take trekkers over the mountains on guided walks into the valley. He first took a pair of unknown hikers, then his friend Somjit took a very fast lone Scandinavian guy. Early in the dry season of 06/07 I hiked in with one of Tui’s students, Si Phan guiding me. Later in February 07 Tui hiked in for a second time with a trio of Italians. Even though the Italians were young fit twenty some things they didn’t reach Mongla on the second day until late in the evening. Just after that I too took my second hike, my guide this time was Somjit also his second walk into the valley.

Lao Bumpkin Goes Trekking in Laos

The Thai Elephant as Self-Portrait Artist

Elephants in Thailand have been painting abstract images for some time, but now they've moved on to self portraits and landscapes that resemble Picasso in his blue period, or Van Gogh slightly before he lost his mind and sliced off his ear. This talented fellow comes from Chiang Mai, and is so artistically inclined that he now longer needs to work the tourists and drunks on Soi Cowboy.



YouTube Clip of the Thai Elephant as a Young Artist

North Korea Video Tour

North Korea is actually open for tourism, but you'll need to sign up with a group tour and then pay big bucks. Bring along your video camera, and perhaps you'll capture your tour as recently posted by the Vice Guide. Neil Woodburn at Gadling also went to North Korea and provided an outstanding series of essays and videos of the closed country.

Getting into North Korea was one of the hardest and weirdest processes VBS has ever dealt with. After we went back and forth with their representatives for months, they finally said they were going to allow 16 journalists into the country to cover the Arirang Mass Games in Pyongyang. Then, ten days before we were supposed to go, they said, “No, nobody can come.” Then they said, “OK, OK, you can come. But only as tourists.” We had no idea what that was supposed to mean. They already knew we were journalists, and over there if you get caught being a journalist when you’re supposed to be a tourist you go to jail. We don’t like jail. And we’re willing to bet we’d hate jail in North Korea.

But we went for it. The first leg of the trip was a flight into northern China. At the airport the North Korean consulate took our passports and all of our money, then brought us to a restaurant. We were sitting there with our tour group, and suddenly all the other diners left and these women came out and started singing North Korean nationalist songs. We were thinking, “Look, we were just on a plane for 20 hours. We’re jet-lagged. Can we just go to bed?” but this guy with our group who was from the LA Times told us, “Everyone in here besides us is secret police. If you don’t act excited then you’re not going to get your visa.” So we got drunk and jumped up onstage and sang songs with the girls. The next day we got our visas. A lot of people we had gone with didn’t get theirs. That was our first hint at just what a freaky, freaky trip we were embarking on.

VBS TV Video of North Korea

Bangkok Dangerous 2008

Bangkok Dangerous, starring Nicolas Cage to be released this fall, is a remake of the original Pang Brothers film from 2000. Generally, American remakes of great Asian films don't turn out very well, but with the original directors onboard, and Nicholas doing his nutcase act, this might be a winner.

Here's a short YouTube clip with all the necessary ingredients: strippers on Soi Cowboy, a transvestite review, fast motorcycles, Thai boxing, big guns,and a targeted politician who looks like a slightly older and plumper Abhisit.



YouTube Clip of the upcoming Bangkok Dangerous

Phuket Stories

What's going on in Phuket this week? The local Phuket Gazette has an update, and it's mostly drug busts and new CCTV cameras to keep an eye on people. Something about a motorcycle thief and an ice bust. And a memorial for a murdered tourist. Any comment would be superfluous, as Trink would say.

Phuket Police Seize 10K Speed Pills

Phuket Police Nab Motorcycle Thief

Phuket Police Arrest Ice Dealer at Big C

Phuket Auto Plate Auction Nets 14M

Patong Police Expand CCTV Surveillance Cameras

Swedish Murder Victim Memorial at Mai Khao Beach Phuket Attended by 50

Malaysia: Pussycat Dolls Fined

Pussycat Dolls took their family friendly girlie show to Malaysia, and what do they get for their efforts? Major fines. I doubt that any of the accusations are true (flashing pussies in KL?), but perhaps they'll show up on YouTube.

In the meantime girls, try burkas.

ALL-girl US pop group the Pussycat Dolls have been fined for a gig in Malaysia that displayed more than their singing talents. The group has been fined $3400 for a show in the capital Kuala Lumpur in which the group let it all hang out - literally.

During the routine Carmit Bachar flashed a breast and Ashley Roberts - wearing a very short pair of shorts - was accused of a different kind of flashing that would have done Britney Spears proud. The group was fined for performing "sexually suggestive" routines.

Under laws in the strict Muslim country, a female performer must be covered from her shoulders to her knees. Jumping, shouting or throwing of objects onstage or at the audience are all also banned. Last year Gwen Stefani's concert in Malaysia was picketed by protesters amid fears her act would corrupt the nation's youth.

Adelaide Now

Woodstock? In Seoul?

I'm fairly skeptical about this concert planned for May, but if it actually takes place, I expect every expat-former-hippie in Southeast Asia to make tracks to Seoul.

Woodstock, the legendary music festival from 1968, will be revived in Korea with a participant from the original event, Neil Young.

The festival in Seoul will open in front of the DMZ, will move to Jamsil. It brings together singers from the 1960s and 1970s, including Rod Stewart, a Hall of Famer in 1994, Don McLean, Judy Collins, Janis Ian and Melanie Safka-Schekeryk. Also on stage will be Linda Ronstadt, the Alan Parsons Project, Janis Ian, the Brothers Four, Donovan and Crystal Gayle. The organizer said Elton John is another possible participant.

JoonAng Daily

Indonesia: Jakarta's Jalan Jaksa Going Upscale?

Jalan Jaksa in Jakarta has been the backpackers center since the early 1970s when Bill Dalton stayed in one of the hovels and worked on the first edition of his Indonesia Handbook. It's still the center of Jakarta's small backpacking universe, and where local expat bloggers sometimes like to get together for a beer, but it seems that major changes are on the horizon. Like a shopping center.

Big deal. The neighborhood will probably continue to support guesthouses and attract the limited number of international backpackers, who will then do their beer and banana pancake shopping at the new complex.

Last month I had a chat with an expat on Jalan Jaksa who told me he’d seen plans to develop the famous little street, including a huge hypermarket on its corner with Jalan Wahid Hasyim.

I should state at this point that the talk occurred during my once-a-week afternoon visit, when - contrary to wishful thinking among hostiles - I have three or four beers and head for home before nightfall. So it was a clear-headed chat, not one of those rambling discourses that ensue as the night rolls towards chucking-out time.

Has anyone else heard of this proposed development? It would change the character of Jaksa, which is one of the few places in town where non-rich bules can enjoy a beer at a reasonable price. A Carrefour-type emporium would have a knock-on effect, bring in glossy catering outlets and quite possibly squeeze the little cafes out of business. Even now, there is a quite posh hotel under construction at the far end. Doesn’t Jakarta have enough such plush institutions- let’s leave Jaksa for the back-packing kids to save their pennies at.

Indonesia Matters

Jollibee TV Show in the Philippines

If you've been to the Philippines, then you probably know about the chain of fast-food restaurants called Jollibee. They are everywhere and one of the few Filipino food enterprises which has held their own, and often won, against the international chains such as McDonalds and Pizza Hut.

Now, any self-respecting Filipino will tell you that Jollibee food is crap, but I have news for you: their pork based burgers beat McDonalds any day of the week, and their outlets are clean, and the service is great. And so, I think it's good news that Jollibee will soon have a TV show with the characters pictured above.

My second favorite fast food outlet in the Philippines is KFC. Last places goes to those places that serve "native" Filipino food.

This summer school break, children can start enjoying the company of Jollibee and friends not just in their favorite fast-food stores, but on television, too. The brand that gave Filipino children the Jollibee Kids Meal, Jollibee Kiddie Party, Jollibee Kids Club and MaAga ang Pasko sa Jollibee, as well as their favorite spaghetti, fried chicken, sandwiches and desserts brings forth another innovation they will surely love— Jollitown, the new kids’ show on GMA7 featuring the fun and insightful adventures of Jollibee, Yum, Hetty, Popo and Twirlie. Each week, the five friends interact with the children who live with them in Jollitown through stories and music that those watching at home can also sing and dance to.

Manila MetBlogs

Blaming Mass Tourism

Lao Songtao by Stuart Towns

Oh no, another article lamenting the decline of once-untouched forgotten paradises in Southeast Asia, this time focusing on Luang Prabang in Laos, Pai in northern Thailand, and Siem Reap in Cambodia. And yes, once again blaming Lonely Planet and Joe Cummings for the increase in tourism, new hotels, and too many banana pancake cafes.

Get over it. Telling the present generation of travelers "you should have seen it when" is just irritating and self indulgent, and deprives the new arrivals seeing these places with fresh eyes. It still looks like paradise to them, so please don't spoil their show with your know-it-all comments.

Yes, Southeast Asia has changed dramatically over the last few decades, but such is the pace of tourism progress around the world. And most of the locals don't resent the arrivals of tourists or modern amenities such as schools, paved roads, hospitals, clean water, and all the other "evils" of advancing civilization.

It's the author of this article who should examine his attitude and opinions, and not the travel writers such as myself and Joe Cummings, who didn't "spoil" these untouched paradises, and don't regret that once impoverished regions are now enjoying the benefits of cash flow and tourism. Luang Prabang and Pai are still beautiful places, and Siem Reap hasn't been ruined, just changing.

Maybe the package groups and top-rung vacationists, with their high-maintenance demands, leave a bigger footprint than backpackers. But in Asia, backpackers have served as the industry's reconnaissance teams, penetrating rural hinterlands to colonize idyllic spots and pave the way for upmarket travelers. The banana pancake circuit it's called, after one of their requisite staples.

Take Pai, a village embedded in an expansive, mountain-encircled valley of northern Thailand. It used to be a great escape into an easygoing, exotic world, with tribal settlements scattered in the hills — until the global migratory tribe appeared in droves, dragging its own culture along.

Bamboo and thatch tourist huts hug the meandering Pai River as far as the eye can see, gobbling up rice paddies and clambering up hillsides on its left bank. On the right bank, high-priced resorts have begun to mushroom.

The short downtown strip is jammed with Apple Pai and nine other Internet cafes, video and tattoo parlors, bars, yoga and cooking classes, countless trinket shops and an eatery featuring bagels and cream cheese.

There's even an English-language newspaper, published by Joe Cummings, an author of those Bibles of shoestring travel, the Lonely Planet guides, which probably did more than anything to put Pai on the circuit. In a wicked daydream, I condemn Joe to eating nothing but banana pancakes and lugging a 500-pound backpack through all eternity.

USA Today

Thailand and International Drug Patents

Will the Thai government go ahead and break international patents to import medicines used in the fight against AIDs and cancer? A final decision hasn't yet been made by the latest government, but it's going to be a major firestorm if they proceed with their plans to save some money, and badly piss off the world's pharmaceutical companies, who will then bring enormous pressure on the US and European nations to downgrade the trading status of Thailand.

It's one thing to rip off tourists when they visit your national parks and museums with specially inflated "tourist" prices, but something else when you do it on an international scale.

When it comes to public health, Thailand's former government leaders would like the world to think that they're a collection of 21st-century Robin Hoods. Last year, the unelected military-backed government gave Thailand's state-run pharmaceutical firm, the Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO), permission to manufacture generic versions of drugs that fight heart disease and AIDS, even though the medicines were still patented by Western firms.

Robbing the rich to give to the poor, right?

Not really. Sick Thai citizens have yet to see any benefits and the move has set a dangerous precedent that will stifle medical innovation and endanger the health of millions.

Thai officials broke the patents by using "compulsory licenses," a legal maneuver afforded to poor countries by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the event of a public health crisis. If a local government can't afford a pertinent patented drug, it can issue a compulsory license to produce it before the patent has expired.

But these provisions were never intended to be used by countries that could afford the medicines but are simply choosing to pay less in order to make other purchases - like tanks for example.

Last year, for instance, Bangkok spent $9 million on pay raises for military leaders. Since 2006, the nation has increased its defense budget by over 30 percent.

The reality is that the former military government officials used compulsory licenses to pursue their own economic development. Their scheme is just protectionism by a different name - and world governments and trade bodies should see it for what it is.

Giving the GPO permission to manufacture patented drugs is part of the Thai government's plan to establish itself as a globally competitive producer of generics. Of course, there is nothing wrong with the government wanting to encourage its own industry - but not when that's done at the expense of patients and other countries who abide by both the letter and the spirit of the law.

So far, the gambit has proven quite lucrative. In 2005, Thailand's GPO reaped $35 million in profits by copying medicines. Only 2 percent of that went toward research and development.

Belleville News Democrat

Are the Thai Police Organized Crime?

Nick Cheesman (pictured above) is Awzar Thi, the pen name of a member of the Asian Human Rights Commission with over 15 years of experience as an advocate of human rights and the rule of law in Thailand and Burma. His Rule of Lords blog can be read at http://ratchasima.net.

Nick recently wrote another scathing article about the state of the Thai police, and it's a dozy, a real keeper, a great source of background about one of Thailand's most serious problems.

Next up, I hope Nick writes an equally information article about the connection between the Thai police and the Thai military, and their ongoing political connections and quest to control the underground sources of income in the country. And the upcoming second "war on drugs" and which group will come out ahead in that virtuous struggle.

In a nutshell, the Thai military is affiliated with the former military government, while the police are tied to Thaksin and Samak. There is no love lost between the military and the police, and both seek to control major sources of income in the underground economy. That means drugs, prostitution, border politics, stolen cars, etc.

According to the United Nations, the Royal Thai Police are organized criminals. That, at least, is the inference to be drawn from looking at its Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which was adopted in 2001 and which defines an organized crime group as involving at least three people acting in concert over a period of time "with the aim of committing one or more serious crimes or offences… in order to obtain… a financial or other material benefit."

Thailand's police did not become an organized crime gang by accident. The modern force was from the beginning intended both as a criminal and political agency, monopolizing the drug trade and murdering or detaining opponents, including other police. It quickly became unstoppable as, historian Thak Chaloemtiara notes, while people whispered about its crimes "investigation was impossible, for the crimes were committed by the police themselves."

Its heyday as an unsurpassed crime venture may have been in the 1950s, but until now the police force remains beyond the law and answerable unto itself. The institutional features of its criminality, including the routine use of force and self-financing of individual officers and stations, speak to how incidents of the sort described above are organized, not haphazard.

These conditions present persons interested in improving the work of the police with profound and peculiar difficulties. For some three decades there has been talk of reform, and a few attempts, including one by the interim prime minister of the recent military government. But all have failed, in the same way that attempts to turn any other organized crime group into a legitimate enterprise against the will of its members could not possibly do otherwise.

UPI Asia Online

Karachi Port Tower

Pakistan isn't a place where imaginative, modern architecture immediately comes to mind, but the Karachi tower pictured above has apparently been approved and construction will start this year on the 78-story building just outside the country's primary port city. Nothing really revolutionary about the design, but still surprising that a country with so many internal problems and economic woes can get it together enough to pull off such an ambitious enterprise.

Construction is soon to start on Aedas’ new landmark scheme in Mai Kolachi, Pakistan. Plans for a landmark waterside development at Mai Kolachi adjacent to the Port of Karachi in Pakistan have been received and are currently being evaluated following the implementation of Aedas’ international competition-winning design for a mixed-use scheme. Endorsed in 2007 by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, the development will command an iconic presence and provide a recognisable beacon to Pakistan’s principal city of Karachi and the country’s largest sea port.

World Architecture News

Laughing Thai Police

Stress is bad, and so the Bangkok police have started a new campaign to fight the problem, including mandatory laughing sessions. But many of the cops seem less than thrilled with their exercises.



Live Link of Laughing Cops in Bangkok

The King of Thailand Returns Home 1950

What was it like in 1950 when the King of Thailand returned to his home country after living abroad in Switzerland? Time magazine had a reporter on the scene in Bangkok, as the King sailed up the Chao Phraya and took his first acts of gratitude at Wat Phra Keo. Bangkok Dan at Absolutely Bangkok found this story link, and it's well worth a long and slow read for those inclined to somehow picture Bangkok in year 1950.

Time Magazine on the Return of the Thai King in 1950

Nepal Tourism Arrivals are Shockingly Low

Kathmandu Smoker by Carl Parkes
Tourism seems to be returning to Nepal after almost a decade of problems with a Maoist insurgency and a wacky royal family that almost completely disappeared in a rampage by the crown prince, thanks to too much pot and his love of deadly weapons. And so tourism is slowly returning to the wonderful land of Nepal, but I was shocked and surprised to read of the actual number of foreigners who arrived in Kathmandu via air. Sure, a few intrepid backpackers come into the country by bus, but really this is it.

Thailand gets 13 million foreign visitors per year; Phillipines gets about five million. Fisherman's Wharf here in my home town of San Francisco gets almost 20 million vsitors per year. It's the second most popular tourist site in America. But what would a fascinating country like Nepal draw annually in foreign tourist visitors?

In fact, it was hardly the only reappearance to celebrate. All over Kathmandu that week, from trekking agencies to curry houses, some almost equally prized specimens were leaving tracks after years of scarcity: foreign travelers. According to the Nepal Tourism Board, December capped a banner year, with air arrivals up 27 percent over the 2006 total. Overall, 2007 welcomed some 360,000 foreign air travelers to the country, making it the most successful year for tourism since 2000.

New York Times Travel

Shanghai Slaughterhouse Converted into Shopping Complex

The 1933 building constructed as a slaughterhouse in Shanghai, has been converted into a complex of shops, artists enclaves, and living spaces, as reported over the last year by Shanghaiist and updated recently by WAN. My only experience with old-world Chinese abbatoir buildings was the place west of Central in Hong Kong, where the intricasies of killing chickens could be observed at close range. I think that place was also upgraded and cleaned up.

World Architecture News

Philippine Religious Cult Suprema de la Iglesia del Ciudad Mistica de Dios

Another Filipino Catholic religious cult you might want to join. The photos are borrowed from my Sari Sari Store, but the other stuff I found on Google. This religious cult is a few hours south of Manila, on the slopes of Mt. Banahaw, which has become in Filipino folklore some kind of mystical place, like Mt. Shasta here in California where I live. I'm suspicious about people that create create religious/mystical/cosmic cults and go off to scenic places to peddle their wares, but I guess there's a market. And Filipinos, whatever else, are prone to superstition and the sway of religious fervor.

The Final Xinjiang Blogger

How many bloggers do you know from Xinjiang? Probably, not many, and so it's sad to report that the only famous blogger from Xinjiang has given up on his remote province and moved to Beijing for more money. Isn't that the story of the world? You find paradise and then they put up a parking lot.

Thus, it is with great sadness and a tinge of relief that I announce today my imminent departure from Xinjiang for the smog-shrouded "paradise on Earth" that is Beijing. (At least, that's what my Chinese friends tell me.) The short reason for the change of scene is that I've got a new job, but the longer explanation would have to include my sense of boredom after having spent three years in a small, clean city in the middle of nowhere. It's an interesting nowhere with wonderful people and exotic sights and smells, but still... I've had my fill for now.

I've heard rumors that Beijing is plagued by congestion, pollution, hordes of idiotic expats, and countless blog-writing competitors, yet endowed with art, music, and supermarkets full of cheese. I'm looking forward to seeing for myself and meeting all 20 million or so of my soon-to-be fellow Beijingers.

The Opposite End of China

Philippines and the English Language

English has been the primary means of communicating between dozens of Filipino languages and dialects ever since the Americans arrived and instituted English as the "language of instruction" in all Filipino schools in the early 1900s. And for more than 60 years, Filipinos learned English as they moved through their schools and into the universities. That tradition was stopped over a decade ago, by Manila politicians who saw English as a form of outdated colonialism and not suited to the modern vision of the Philippines.

And so, for the last decade or longer, Filipinos are not required to study in English or learn the English language, and the communication skills of many Filipinos has declined. A pity, since English, for better or for worse, is the international language, and the Filipinos had a head start on the language.

It seems that everyone is going to town over the misplaced English repartees given by Janina San Miguel in the question-and-answer portion of the [beauty] competition, but won just the same the Binibining Pilipinas-World title last Saturday, March 8. She should not be faulted. As the judges saw it, the 17 year-old beauty contestant admitted her inadequacy in expressing in the English language but courageously made a go at it.

It was not the first time the coliseum crowd and TV audience witnessed a similar futile attempt of contestants in the Binibining Pilipinas competition to get their English messages across to the judges panel.

In the 1974 pageant, a candidate who was a receptionist of a Makati advertising agency was asked by the male host what she thought of the Bagong Lipunan [New Society of Fedinand Marcos]. Adjusting herself and giving a feint smile, she stuttered:

"Well, you know ... as a matter of fact ... nevertheless ..." She never finished her answer when she noticed that the audience was already in stitches! Also in the mid-1970s, a famous body-builder and fitness instructor set up a gym somewhere in the Escolta area and called his workout place, System Tom Ortega. It was patronized by movie stars and society ladies.

A contestant was complimented by the male host of her slim figure. "What is your secret?" "Well," she answered, "I do Systomor." A pageant entry in the early 1990s was asked as to whom a debt of gratitude she owed as endorser and supporter in her joining the competition. She stammered: "I am thankful to my parents, especially my mother and my father."

Incidentally, in all Miss Universe pageants and other similar international beauty contests where the average number of hopefuls is 100, only 20 percent of them speak English.

Topix

Thailand's First Bluegrass Music Festival

The Tonic Rays are Not Bluegrass
Cowboy culture has long been popular in Thailand, where the ideal of being free and on the range is something quite attractive to Thai people. You'll see cowboy bars everywhere, always noted by buffalo horns mounted outside the entrance. American country and western music is popular, but Thai bands also do their own interpretations, often based on the raw and earthy rhythms of Issan.

That's Joe Cummings and his band above, and they don't do bluegrass, as far as I know.

And so it seems only logical that Thailand would finally have a bluegrass festival, up in the idyllic highlands of Pak Chong, near the turnoff to a national park. Will the wild elephants be invited?

Country Bluegrass and Cowboy Thai

Doggie Diner in Seoul

Koreans may love their dog stew, but the elite restaurateurs who prepare the hallowed feast don't always follow the strict rules of high Korean cleanliness, and the government intends to get everybody in line with the new rules. Only the purest doggie stock must be used for the soup; utensils should be washed in warm water; dogs should be killed with hygienic dog killing tools. Good for the Koreans, and I'll be sure to patronize Doggie Diner next time I'm passing through Seoul.

The Seoul metropolitan government will ask the central government to include dogs in the legal definition of livestock, in a bid to ensure hygienic butchery and processing of what some Koreans regard as a delicacy. A Seoul official said there are 528 canine meat restaurants in Seoul, temporarily rising to 600 in the summer, when people traditionally eat dog stew as a health booster. Therefore, including dogs in livestock is necessary to protect public health.

Chosun

Guru Magazine in Bangkok

Guru magazine's founder (pictured above) has finally decided that a website might extend readership beyond the opium dens of Bangkok, and he's allowed some of his slaves/employees to blog about their experiences trying to find enlightenment in the City of Angels. Unfortunately, the web designers still think Flash is God, so expect hurdles to jump and moving things to dodge. The BK link below is less pretentious.

Guru Magazine in Bangkok

BK Magazine

Habitat for Humanity Goes to Thailand

Habitat for Humanity goes around the world, building new homes for people in need. Although it's been several years since the tsunami devastated the villages in Thailand north of Phuket, there's still plenty of villagers who need some help getting their lives together, and so the students at Merrimack have decided to do something. Great idea, kids, and I wish you well. Just look out for the spicy som tam.

Della Russo, 18, is one of 13 students headed to southern Thailand for a month this summer to build houses with the organization Habitat for Humanity. She said she wanted the kind of experience she couldn't get being raised in Hampton, N.H., and in the familiar setting of her college.

"I hope I can relate to them," said Della Russo, who has never traveled outside of the United States. "I can teach them and they can teach me." Her older sister, Lauren, said their grandparents don't support the trip and don't understand why they would want to travel so far away to a place so different. Lauren Della Russo, 19, said those differences are why she wants to go.

"I want to be engulfed in the culture," she said. "I want to understand their struggles." The students will spend three weeks in Phang Nga, a rural town on the western coast, where they hope to build at least three houses. The last week will be a chance to see the rest of the country and, they hope, hop on an elephant for a ride.

Erica Christensen, 21, organized the trip because she said she always wanted to get involved with Habitat for Humanity, an organization that pairs families in need of housing with volunteers who can help them build their homes. Habitat for Humanity does work locally and on a national scale through Global Village. Christensen, of Acton, chose Thailand because many people are still struggling from a tsunami that devastated the region in December 2004.

Meaghan Sullivan, 21, said people seem to have forgotten the tsunami and the destruction it brought to Thailand.

Eagle Tribune

YouTube Nominees (yes, Chocolate Rain)

You've probably seen the clips of a few winners of the recent YouTube popularity contest, and were amazed by the quirky "Chocolate Rain" song by a young black man from Chicago, but it's more fun to look at the list of nominees and decide for yourself.

YouTube Winner Nominees for 2007

New Website for Phnom Penh Post

The leading English language newspaper in Cambodia has recently launched their updated website, and dropped the "exclusive content" angle aka what the New York Times tried last year. That's good. The design is attractive if somewhat standard, but I spotted several spelling mistakes and the "insider" looks aren't really insider at all...just standard coverage. And, of course, the lede is something about marketing Cambodian brides to Koreans.

In 2004, the South Korean embassy in Phnom Penh issued 72 marriage visas to Cambodian women. By 2007, that figure had leapt to 1,759. A further 160 marriage visas were issued in the first month of 2008 alone, according to embassy statistics.

Monika – not her real name – is one of a several former brides of Korean men featuring in the IOM report “The Marriage Brokering System from Cambodia to Korea,” a copy of which was obtained by the Post. The issue of young Cambodian women quitting the Kingdom for the South Korean heartland is worrying even the upper echelons of Cambodia’s political leadership.

On March 13, Prime Minister Hun Sen told high-ranking police officials at the Ministry of Interior’s annual congress that “the question to address now is the emerging mail-order bride business in Cambodia.” He then ordered a crackdown on South Korean marriage agencies like Chanthin, which has now been closed down.

Chanthin was registered with the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Economy and Finance and opened in September 2006. The agency was neither legal nor illegal as the existence of marriage agencies is not covered by existing legislation.

However, official matchmaking agencies such as Chanthin – which provides language lessons and stringently adheres to what rules there are in this shadowy sector – may not be the major problem. IOM’s new report suggests that “the vast majority of [Korean-Cambodian] marriages occur through an informal and exploitative broker-arranged process.”

The report explains how Korean men looking for a Cambodian bride can contact one of many – the exact number has not been established – marriage agents operating here. The agents recruit suitable women who are invited to meet with the broker and told to bring photos of themselves for scrutiny by potential husbands. Korean men have begun to come to Cambodia on what the IOM report calls “marriage tours.” Such tours often last a mere four days, during which time the man gets married.

Phnom Penh Post

Another (minor) Scandal in the Philippines

The Philippines, of course, has their scandals, and most of them are of no interest to Western visitors, but the latest tirade may be of some amusement, since it involves a gay Aussie and his Filipino lover, a bogus restaurant venture in Greenbelt, and the Aussie blog that reveals everything about the financial scam, plus notes on drugs, sex, and political connections about the high-society of Manila.

DJ Montano and I were lovers for almost a year and for five months of that, I was in Australia making and sending him money for our Portuguese restaurant called Bonza, in the new Greenbelt phase which is yet to becompleted.

The owner Antonio was kept away from me. And now I know why. Any meeting that we were to have have to discuss progress, was cancelled at the last minute due to Antonio's 'schedule'. Antonio does, not or has never known about me, or the money that is helping to open his establishment. But he will know soon enough. As will every person attached to the money that has been taken from me in the name of their business's, by DJ Montano. I have found out that DJ actually used part of my money to pay off a debt of his own making that his family was being threatened over.

The Talented Mr. Montano

Last Supper Posts

For Easter Sunday, a few of the great Last Supper images found at Culture Popped

A Real Live Thai Ghost Story

Thais are a surprisingly superstitious race of people, not due to their Buddhist beliefs, but rather the older Hindu traditions that predated the arrival of Buddhism; the belief in animist gods, spirits with the sun and moon and stars, fear of the unseen dead, evil powers in doorways and old haunted trees. This may sound ridiculous to most Westerners, but most Thais firmly believe in the reality of unseen spirits, animist hauntings, and ghosts...which sometime return at the most inappropriate times.

Monks and guests who attended a funeral rite at Wat Lam Nao in Bang Khan district were thrown into a panic yesterday when the woman thought to be dead, and who they were praying for, appeared before them.

The sight of Duangkae Sudchu, the woman who was supposed to be in the coffin, sent many attending the rite sprinting from the scene. It took some convincing by Mrs Duangkae before they realised that she was still alive and the body in the coffin was someone else. Buntham Sudchu, the mother of Mrs Duangkae, said that her 30-year-old daughter had disappeared without trace on March 4.

On March 18, Mrs Buntham said she was informed that the body of a murdered woman had been found in Chalerm Prakiat district and the body had been taken to Wat Kuan Mai Daeng in Thung Song district. Mrs Buntham went to the temple to see if it was her daughter's body. On seeing the corpse, she said she believed the body was her daughter as there was a scar on the right hand which looked similar to her daughter's.

Mrs Buntham said she claimed the body and took it back to Wat Lam Nao where funeral rites had continued for two days. Mrs Buntham said that while she was at the temple yesterday afternoon, Mrs Duangkae returned home before coming to the temple. ''Family members at the house were shocked to see her, thinking she was a ghost,'' Mrs Buntham said.

Manas Pengsut, the Bang Khan district chief, took Duangkae to the district office to record what happened and to confirm that she was not dead. He said the incident became the talk of the local community. ''If Mrs Duangkae had descended on them at night, people would have been even more frightened,'' said Mr Manas. Mrs Duangkae said she had some personal problems and felt unhappy so she went to stay with her friend in Thung Song for a while and left her two children in the care of her mother.

She said she missed her two children and decided to return home to be with them. Pol Lt-Col Niwat Kongduang, of Chalerm Prakiat police station, said he asked the Siam Ruam Jai Thai foundation to move the dead body to Wat Kuan Mai Daeng in Thung Song so relatives could identify and claim the body.

Bangkok Post

Another Elephant Story from Thailand

This elephant story from Pattaya turned out well, since nobody was hurt, but whenever you feed the elephants in Thailand in tourist resorts, it's best to remember they remain wild animals and don't appreciate it when you play with their food. Still, the image of an elephant charging out into the ocean is one of those only-in-Thailand moments.

An elephant entertaining tourists on the beach during the afternoon of March 8 suddenly became enraged and injured a woman tourist before running into the sea.

Officers from Banglamung Police Station and rescue workers from Sawang Boriboon Foundation were called out to the scene of the incident, in front of the Jae Juk restaurant in Naklua. They found an unconsciousness woman named Ms Porn-Uma Pasukmuang, age 24, a resident of Nakhon Srithammarat. Her face was black and blue. The officers transferred her to Bangkok Pattaya Hospital for treatment.

The elephant was standing in the sea 30 meters away from the scene. Police contacted the sea rescue unit to closely follow the elephant with a rubber raft, obstructing the animal so it would not go into deeper water. After about an hour the elephant had calmed down, and allowed its mahout to place a chain around its ankle.

The mahout, 35-year-old Yai Chanla from Surin stated that he had brought the two-year-old elephant named James from Surin to display at Nong Nooch Tropical Garden. However, there was not yet any work there for them, so he brought the elephant to sell sugar cane to tourists on the beach at the Jae Juk restaurant. Normally, said Yai, the elephant was playful and had never injured anyone.

Ms Oraya Pasukmuang, 28, the injured woman’s sister stated that she had come for a vacation to Pattaya with four members of her family, and they had a meal at the Jae Juk restaurant. While they were waiting to pay their bill, a mahout came to sell sugar cane and bananas. Her sister bought one plastic bag of sugar cane, and intended to give it to the elephant, but the bag fell to the ground. She bent down to pick it up, and the elephant believed that she was grabbing its food. It first struck Porn-Uma, causing her to fall to the ground, and then tried to crush her. The mahout stayed close to the animal but couldn’t control it

Pattaya Mail

Museum Le Mayeur in Sanur, Bali

Barrie over at Indonesia Logue has been doing a great job covering all things Indonesian, including a recent post about a badly neglected and rarely visited museum at Sanur Beach in Bali. The place is poorly maintained, and often closed, but if you're lucky, somebody will unlock the door and allow you to view the art of one of Bali's most famous expat painters. Many of the paintings are of his Balinese wife, who maintained the residence long after the Belgium's death in 1958.

The Museum Le Mayeur in Sanur is definitely a must-see place in Bali for the simple reason that some of Belgian artist Andrien Jean Le Mayeur’s finest paintings of his lovely wife Ni Pollok, who often modeled for him, are housed here. Located just steps away from Sanur Beach, the museum is flanked by the Grand Bali Beach Hotel to the south and Pura Dalem (Temple of the Dead) and the Diwangkara Hotel on the north.

The museum features a good variety of the artist’s paintings in both oil and water colors. Most of his paintings are of his wife Ni Pollok or other young Balinese women in various states of repose or doing traditional crafts such as weaving. La Mayeur’s works capture the natural beauty of Bali and its culture long ago. With each brush stroke the viewer can envision the passion he had for his art and his wife Ni Pollok.

Besides paintings, the museum also has many household items on display including an elegantly carved octagonal teakwood table, elaborately carved cupboards, vases, and many more. There are also several decorative plates and ceramics according to Michele Cempaka. The museum was originally Le Mayeur’s home, but as his fame grew, high ranking authorities including former President Soekarno, former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and many others came to visit him.

In 1956 the Indonesian minister of education and culture visited Le Mayeur as well, and was so impressed by Le Mayeur’s paintings that he asked Le Mayeur if he would consider allowing his home to be preserved as an official museum. Le Mayeur agreed and began to produce even more paintings which he wanted to be included in his collection of work.

Indonesia Logue

Banned Internet Websites Images

Internet websites, blogs, and YouTube posts are banned around the world by governments and even the service providers themselves, but have ever wondered what you see when you reach such a banned site? Nothing much in the style department, but I've found a three-page series that collects such images from China, Thailand, Pakistan, Turkey, and YouTube.

Blocked Internet Pages Gallery

Bear Rescue Center in Cambodia

Bears aren't an animal I associate with Cambodia, but the endangered animals now have new hope at a wildlife rescue center some 40 km south of Phnom Penh. The "aw so cute" factor is off the top, but at least this Aussie outfit will perhaps discourage the use of bear bile and bear claws being boiled up into soup, prized by old guys who think such exotic delicacies might improve their libidos. I'd say just give these geezers their Viagra, and stop this shameful trade.

Wildlife conservationists in Cambodia on Wednesday opened Asia's first centre to preserve local bear populations, under severe threat from poachers and exotic pet traders.

The Bear Discovery Centre hopes to promote awareness of the plight of Asia's bears, said Mary Hutton, chairwoman and founder of the Australia-based Free the Bears Fund Inc (FTB). "It is so important because not so many bears are left in the wild," Hutton told AFP, saying their population was declining, although it is impossible to know how many bears remain.

The Asiatic black bear and Sun bear, both found throughout the region, are considered vulnerable according to the World Conservation Union's Red List of threatened species. "There are not as many as there should be, and the Sun bears are on their way to becoming an endangered species," Hutton said, adding that there are currently 88 bears at Cambodia's Phnom Tamao Zoo, where the centre is based.

According to the FTB, which says it has rescued more than 100 bears from the wildlife trade in Cambodia, the animals are hunted in large numbers throughout Southeast Asia to feed growing demand for their parts to be used in restaurants. More than 14,000 bears are also thought to be kept on farms in China and Vietnam where their bile is extracted and used for traditional medicine. "This is a cruel and unnecessary practice, which should be replaced by modern medicine," FTB said.

Yahoo News

Motorcycle Journey from Siem Reap to Preah Vihear

Almost all visitors to the famed Cambodian temple on the Thai/Cambodian border arrive from Sisaket on the Thai side, but some folks think it's good fun to spend several days on the back of a rented motorcycle, dodging horrible roads, and certainly hurting like hell to make the arduous journey from Siem Reap to Preah Vihear. I mentioned a Bangkok Post letter last month that described such a journey, and today I found another brave soul who describes the ordeal over at Matador Trips.

Whoever coined the term ‘dancing roads’ to describe Cambodia’s unmaintained thoroughfares was a master euphemist. Backpackers have supposedly made it to Preah Vihear via moped, but ruts a foot deep or more swallow tires to their axles and destroy shock absorbers. There’s a fine line between adventurous and crazy: don’t attempt this trip on anything less than a dirtbike (or a 4×4 if you have a bigger group).

Long days of riding will exhaust you, and it just takes one bad move to send you flying over the handlebars. With the nearest medical facilities hundreds of kilometers away in Siem Reap or Phnom Penh, this is best avoided.

Unless you’re an experienced rider, hire a driver who knows what he’s doing. Whatever you do, don’t attempt this trip in the rainy season. Depending on your budget, you have a few options for finding a driver and bike in Siem Reap. Hidden Cambodia is a western run outfit, and will set you up with safety gear, guides, and bikes…all at premium prices. Rates range from USD 155 to USD 185 per person/per day depending on the number of travelers.

On a tighter budget, consider Chaioffroadtrip. Chai is a safe driver, and you won’t meet a more friendly or honest Cambodian. Chai quotes USD 80 per person per day on his website. All of the above prices include bike, driver, gas, food, accommodation, and admission fees. Another option is to watch for locals riding around Siem Reap or Anlong Veng on dirtbikes. Most are amenable to negotiating impromptu trips for the right price.

Matador Trips

Ostriches? In Vietnam?

When you think of Vietnam, the first animal you think of is.... Ostriches are not high on the list of endangered animals in Vietnam, in fact, they are now being raised on farms for their meat and hides which are fashioned into purses and boots, sold in the shops and markets of Saigon and Hanoi. I'm not sure if you can visit this ostrich ranch northwest of Hanoi, but it might be worth a try. And the boots are probably cheaper than in Bangkok.

Vietnam has rapidly developed in numerous sectors over the last decade and perhaps one of the most surprising industries to take off is ostrich farming! The two-toed flightless bird has become a highly popular farm animal and signs are it will continue to grow.

Three years ago, Pham Xuan An from Luong Tai District in Bac Ninh province, 35km east of Hanoi, began raising ostriches. Hitherto his family had concentrated on raising mainly domestic fowl and pigs from year to year but admits he’s delighted that he has changed.

He started off with 20 baby ostriches, each three months old and since then his 3.5-ha farm has raised 140 ostriches. An ostrich will weigh 110 kg on average by the time it’s eight months old and the farm will pocket around VND1.4 million for the meat as well as the leather. This makes the ostrich more profitable than other farm animals such as ducks, pigs or cows. Ostriches also adapt well to tough climates, grow fast and don’t easily fall ill. Furthermore farmers need just a modest amount of investment capital as breeding facilities for ostriches are plain and simple.
Now plenty of families such as An’s have cottoned onto the “ostrich industry”, especially after pilot programmes on how to raise ostriches proved effective in Central Vietnam.

The man who can take credit for sowing the seeds of the ostrich industry in Vietnam is Nguyen Cong Tan, the former deputy prime minister. In 1995, after a visiting Africa, Tan requested that the Thuy Phuong Poultry Research Centre (PRC), which operates under the National Livestock Institute, import 100 ostrich eggs from Zimbabwe.

Phung Duc Tien, the director of PRC which is based in Tu Liem district of Hanoi recalls: “It was a real challenge for us to deal with a brand new species. We weren’t even sure if ostriches would come out when the eggs hatched!” In the end 100 eggs produced 38 ostrich chicks. Two years afterwards, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development approved a project on building an ostrich research base in Ba Vi district of Ha Tay province. Then in 1998, PRC imported 150 breeding ostriches from Australia, which laid the ground for developing a new livestock species in Vietnam.

Initially given the lack of experience on raising ostriches, a number of PRC officials had a few run-ins with the ostrich that resulted in more than one broken arm! But over time awareness of quality nutrition, breeding, healthcare and accommodation conditions for ostriches has developed.

Nhandan News

Google Maps Screws up Indonesia: Djakarta?

Google Maps may be a great resource for travelers, but their maps of Indonesia seem to be derived from old Dutch-era maps, and their spelling of contemporary Indonesian towns is nothing short of pitiful. Djarkarta? And check their spellings of Surabaya and many other towns and cities on Java and Bali. Indonesians may be insulted, but I'm just disappointed that Google Maps didn't hire someone competent to edit their Indonesian maps.

This is Google Maps’ view of East Java. It’s an improvement on not too long ago, when the dot for Malang was bigger than the dot for Surabaya - now they’ve gotten onto equal terms, so moving in the right direction.


Indonesia Matters

Easter Day Crucifixion in the Phillipines: A Tourism Ploy?

Ah yes, Easter. Bunnies and Easter eggs. Going down to your twice-yearly church visit. Getting nailed to the cross. Not just the main guy, but Catholics in the Philippines volunteer to have themselves nailed up to a cross in an annual spectacle that attracts thousands of spectators, both religious devotees and foreign tourists who come to see one of the world's most sadistic rituals. Right up there with the Hindus piercing themselves for Thaipusam (Singapore and KL), and Muslims whipping themselves in a bloody parade ritual.

But is it God or tourism? Catholic officials in the Philippines are concerned that the Easter ritual has become more of a tourist spectacle than an authentic religious symbol. And what would Jesus say?

Archbishop Paciano Aniceto appealed yesterday to the faithful not to make use of their devotion for tourism purposes. The San Fernando, Pampanga, archbishop particularly appealed to penitents who submit themselves to crucifixion on Good Friday, an event which draws thousands of tourists, local and foreign, in Barangay Cutud, San Fernando City.

"There are penitents who personally see me explaining their devotion and I tell them not to do it for show," Aniceto said in an interview aired over Catholic-run Radio Veritas 846. He said there are those who believe that by submitting themselves to crucifixion or flagellation, they’ll be able to receive blessings or favor from God.

"I told them, time and again, to take time to thank God for the blessings and never to use their devotion for tourism purposes," he said. The popularity of the yearly event in Cutud among tourists prompted a Catholic priest to go there last year to observe the happening. "I want to know what this crucifixion is about. I want to know why some people would whip their backs and have themselves pierced by nails on a cross," Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) spokesman Msgr. Pedro Quitorio said. "Is it being done as pledge to God or to attract tourists?"

Quitorio, who posed as an ordinary visitor during the Cutud visit, said he was able to satisfy his curiosity after touring nine barangays in Cutud. He declined to judge the people whom he saw crucified. "It’s hard to tell, I can’t judge them. Those who have an organizer are surely doing it for business. But I also met some who had none and are doing it as a devotion," Quitorio said.

A video of Quitorio’s Cutud shots may be accessed in YouTube under the title "gentle crusader."

A Catholic archbishop urged Filipinos not to turn Holy Week into a circus with flagellation and crucifixion rites, while the health secretary said yesterday those who join the rituals should get tetanus shots to avoid infection. Pilgrims were flocking to villages where penitents gather every Good Friday to lash their backs with bamboo sticks or have themselves nailed to wooden crosses to re-enact Jesus Christ’s sufferings.

While devotees see them as a way to atone for sins or fulfill vows for an answered prayer, the Lenten rituals are opposed by religious leaders in the Philippines, Southeast Asia’s largest predominantly Roman Catholic nation. On Wednesday, Archbishop Paciano B. Aniceto of the City of San Fernando in Pampanga urged devotees not to turn Holy Week into a "circus."

Yesterday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque advised penitents to get tetanus shots and sterilize the nails used for the crucifixions to avoid infection. "Our emergency rooms are always open for them to be taken care of," he said.

Manila Bulletin

Zoran Island, Phuket

Zoran Island might just be a fantastical dream by a wealthy entrepreneur, who wanted to build an artificial island east of Phuket. I first posted an exerpt from Phuket Magazine, but with further research, it turns out this is an old story, and largely discredited on Thai Visa forum. It's rare that I get fooled, but I took down the original post as soon as I realized the Zoran Island story was bogus, but the link had already been published at Technorati, so I'm reposting with the same subject line.

Won't get fooled again with a bogus email from some PR firm. But it happens.

If the person who edits the Technorati Thailand posts is reading this (I'm sure you are), please contact me via email, so I can alert you to corrections such as the original post. thanks.

Google Search for "Zoran Island"

Thai Visa Forum Discussion about Zoran Island

The Phuket Magazine Story about Zoran Island

Private Islands Blog

Phuket Gazette Story about Zoran Island from May 2007

Thai Transsexuals in the Thai Army

Thailand is well know for it's transsexuals (ladyboys or kathoey), but did you know they not only work the bars at Nana Plaza, but also join the Thai army? While trannies and even gays can't join the U.S. armed forces unless they keep their mouths shut, it seems the Thai army appreciates their efforts and contributions so much that they've been give special status. So next time you encounter the Thai army conducting training exercises in Bangkok, give her a smile.

Thai army to introduce 'third category' for transsexuals

Thailand's military will stop branding transsexual conscripts as mentally disturbed, and will list them in a new "third category" as neither male nor female, a senior officer said Wednesday.

Thai men are required to report for the draft once they turn 21. Under the current system, transsexuals are rejected as suffering from "a mental disorder." Gay rights groups complained that the label penalises transsexuals for the rest of their lives, because men are required to prove if they have completed their national service when they apply for jobs or bank loans.

When transsexuals submit their military rejection forms declaring they have a mental disorder, they are automatically disqualified from many jobs and mortgages.

Lieutenant General Somkiat Suthivai-yakij, head of the defence ministry's Reserve Command Department, said the military would immediately stop using the "mental disorder" label. The military is trying to find a new word for a "third category" that is neither male nor female, that would not discriminate against transsexuals, he said.

Until the army decides on the new category, transsexual conscripts will be turned away with a form saying they have an illness that cannot be cured within 30 days. "It's a temporary measure to deal with the problem as the defence and interior ministries work on a permanent solution," Gen Somkiat told AFP.

To qualify for the third category, transsexuals will have to report for the draft for three years in a row to prove they are really trying to live as women, he added. The annual draft takes place in April, and transsexuals make up less than one percent of the conscripts each year, Gen Somkiat said.

MediaCorp Today Online

Bangkok's Cultural Centre is a Bitch to Find

The Thailand Cultural Centre in Bangkok may be the largest performing arts center in the country, but people have been complaining about finding the place since it's construction in 1987. The underground MRT has a stop called "Thailand Cultural Centre" but it's still a 20-minute walk, and people are confused. A letter today in the Bangkok Post pleads for some help.

Lost trying to get to the Cultural Centre

Now that Governor Apirak has some time on his hands, may I suggest that he embark on a mini-project? Let him betake himself to the Thailand Cultural Centre's metro station (on an evening when there is a performance at the Cultural Centre itself).

At the station exit he should try hard to empathise with the Thai, farang or tourist who is heading for the Cultural Centre for the first time. He can do this by asking himself: just where is the Cultural Centre?

No sign will send him in the right direction. He will spot a number of bothered and bewildered culture vultures wading through acres of rubbish spilling from bags deposited everywhere by food vendors; ladies in distress as their heels fall victim to the shamefully uneven pavement. And still they have no idea, as they wander around like headless chickens, whether or not they are going in the right direction for the TCC.

Would it be asking too much for the BMA to erect signs at the subway station pointing to the Cultural Centre? Might some thought be given to the creation of a pavement fit for humans to walk upon from the metro station to the TCC? On performance evenings, could a traffic policeman aid concert-goers in their attempt to cross the road towards the TCC?

The Thailand Cultural Centre building is, I understand, a superb gift from the people of Japan to the people of Thailand. The subway is a wonderful example of German engineering prowess. Could you, Mr Apirak, please ensure (when you return from leave, of course) that the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority's contribution to the experience of a visit to the Thailand Cultural Centre be a contribution worthy of the Thai people? And not the scandalous abomination that obtains as I write?

Bangkok Post

Los Angeles Times on Bangkok Transport

A journalist at the Los Angeles Times thinks the Skytrain will connect Bangkok International Airport, BIA, aka Suvarnabumi, aka Suwanabhuimpol, aka Cobra Swamp, to downtown Silom by the end of the year, or early next. Spano, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn.

There are just two Skytrain lines (and, for now, no access to the international airport, although that's expected by the end of this year or early next), but many stops are near major hotels and tourist sites.

Los Angeles Times

A Jewish Synagogue in Shanghai

Jewish life in Shanghai reached its zenith during the rise of Hitler, when thousands of frightened Jews fled Germany and headed to the relatively free zone of Shanghai, setting up various enterprises which eventually come to influence many of the success stories of Asia. When the communists advanced, the Jewish diaspora headed elsewhere, but their days are signified by the synagogue pictured above. And now, they are somewhat back in business, as pointed out today in Shanghaiist.

The temple above is fascinating on many levels, the architectural style which seems prison-like to this observer, the fact that it remains closed to the public most of the year, but Chinese government officials only allow it to celebrate a limited number of days.

No, I'm not Jewish, but was raised as a Mormon by Mormon parents, both from Utah. But as a longtime resident of the Bay Area, and open to intelligent, vivacious, and difficult women, I've been involved longtime with Jewish women. I know something about the Jews; my Dad almost married a Jew when he was living in Philadelphia and curiously asked me several times what I would have thought if he had married his Jewish girlfriend. No problem, Dad, but my Mormon mom is still wonderful in my book. After all, she was the one who first asked me if I believed the old Bible story about the world being born in seven days.

Every once in a blue moon the local government is kind enough to open the doors of the Ohel Rachel synagogue and let Shanghai's ever-growing (or, more accurately, re-emerging) Jewish community celebrate their holidays in a proper temple. Tomorrow Shanghai residents will once again have the chance to step inside the more elegant of the city's two remaining synagogues and celebrate the Purim holiday. Although more commonly associated with dressing up in silly costumes and eating hamentashen, tomorrow's festivities will include a traditional Moroccan meal, perhaps in honor of Ohel Rachel's Sephardic heritage.

The first Jewish synagogue in Shanghai, Ohel Rachel was built in 1920 under the auspices of Sir Jacob Sassoon from the legendary Iraqi Jewish family of business moguls/opium traders/real estate tycoons. He built the temple in order to honor his wife Rachel's memory, but failed to live long enough to see its completion. Following the foundation of the PRC, the temple was quickly abandoned and served as a government storage facility for a number of years. In 1998 the temple was spruced up for a visit by then first lady Hillary Clinton. In the time since, the temple is usually open for three holidays a year, but the government has for largely unknown reasons yet to allow regular services to be held here.

Shanghaiist

Gadling Gets Political (finally)

Bhaktapur Guys by Carl Parkes

Gadling is one of those corporate-owned (AOL) travel websites that generally churns out useful but bland stories about what's happening in the world of travel, and we all know how boring travel can be without a dose of political controversy. At least that's my opinion. And so it was with great surprise that I just found this short but highly informative story by relatively new correspondent Jerry Guo, who has not only been providing the best standard travel stuff, but apparently has a fine sense of political action. Way to go Jerry, and I hope those old, creaky AOL editors, with one foot in the grave, and their hands firmly in the Republican clutch, allow you to wrote some more fire with political content. Gadling needs it; so does WorldHum.

Even Shakespeare would have been hard-pressed to imagine a royal tragedy of this scale: ten members of the Nepalese royal family killed, including the king and queen, at a dinner party over a petty argument. The killer was not an aspiring dictator or a slighted nobody-it was the crown prince. As horrific as this scene is to imagine, it is by no means particularly remarkable in a country with problems as big as its postcard mountains.

There was the bloody decade-long civil war, which ended in 2006; the reigning king's rule by martial law the year before that; the thousands of Maoist rebels held at UN camps around the country; and let's not forget the mass strikes that frequently bring the country to a halt (the most recent on Feb. 19th in Kathmandu, the capital).

But come this April-if everything goes right-Nepal may get a do-over. That's when the 260-year-old ruling monarchy is scheduled to be abolished and replaced by a government elected by the people. The national elections could solve many of the problems that strikes, rebellions, and attempted coups have not. At the same time, it marks the end of a historic institution and a king who many still believe to be a reincarnation of Vishnu, the Hindu god. This will no doubt be a watershed year.

Gadling

Chinese and Thai YouTube Censorship: How They Do It

Exactly how the governments of China and Thailand censor YouTube videos has been a mystery until recently, when OpenNet Initiative looked at the code and found the lines where censorship can be forced. YouTube is now banned in China to prevent citizens from reading about the events in Tibet, while Thailand goes after videos of the royal family and Buddhism.

I'm going after videos of furry midgets.

YouTomb, a project of the MIT Free Culture group that studies takedown notices by the video-sharing website YouTube, has identified a mechanism used by Google to restrict video content in specific countries. This appears to be the method YouTube is using to filter videos on behalf of governments and private actors that request it.

A growing number of countries have instituted mostly short-lived blocks against YouTube for containing culturally or politically sensitive content, including Brazil, China, Morocco, Syria, Thailand and Turkey. On February 22, 2008, Pakistani ISPs were ordered to partially block YouTube reportedly in reaction to a video making fun of the Prophet Muhammad, and ended up disrupting access to the entire site for users around the world for up to a few hours. In some cases, YouTube has blocked the identified offending video(s) in that country in order to have the block lifted.

In the course of investigating the opaque process of take downs, the team noticed an unusual flag in the XML data attached to official video clips uploaded by the National Basketball Association (NBA). They noted that some of the NBA videos have flags [media :restriction type=”country” relationship=”deny”>CN] indicating that they are coded to be restricted from viewing in China. Further investigation showed that Yao Ming-related videos also carry the restriction flag. However, the mechanism for flagging was not described in the API documentation from Google and a quick look into the upload panel of a standard Youtube account did not show a way for users to code this flag. The team also checked a director level account and still could not find a way to create these restrictions. At this point, the Youtomb team hypothesized that content could be easily censored using this mechanism despite lack of concrete evidence of the practice, and began searching specific keywords and videos provided by the ONI team.

In April 2007, the Thai government blocked YouTube after it initially refused to comply with demands to remove a video intended to offend King Bhumibol Adulyadej. In Thailand, the crime of lese majeste—defaming, insulting or threatening the royal family–is punishable by up to 15 years imprisonment. In August, the Thai Ministry of Information Communications and Technology (MICT) agreed to lift the ban after YouTube agreed to prevent some of these lese majeste videos from being accessed through Thai ISPs.

OpenNet Initiative

Thai Government to "Hack and Crack" Foreign Websites

Thai Buddhist Monk Blesses Auspicious Licence Plates

More news on censorship in Thailand. Now, the Thai government will start hacking international websites to censor and erase any content they find offense, in their opinion, to the Thai people. The first target appears to be websites that sell Buddha goods such as t-shirts with cheeky logos, but they'll probably soon go after Cafe Press for their Buddha items. To see more possible targets, try Google with "Buddha +dog," and ignore the websites about the question whether Buddha might have been a dog, or vice versa.

Maybe they should do something about Thai monks (pictured above) who sell their blessings to "auspicious" licence plates.

The Information and Communications Technology Ministry is to ‘hack and crack' foreign websites deemed offensive to Thailand's revered institutions.

A March 15 report in Krungthep Turakij newspaper (www.bangkokbiznews.com) quoted a source at the ICT that the ministry could pursue legal proceedings only with websites registered in Thailand, and is now planning a ‘hack and crack' programme to hack offensive websites hosted abroad and delete their contents, because the legal process would take too long.

"This approach may be somewhat illegal, but sometimes it might be worth it, if [the websites] are really unacceptable," the source said.

One website registered abroad has been found to advertise merchandise including calendars, dolls, bags, hats, glasses, watches, trousers and underwear, all with a logo of the Buddha meditating on a lotus, with the face of a dog. It was reported to have upset many Buddhists.

On March 14, ICT Minister Mun Patanotai said that he had called a meeting of investigators from the Department of Special Investigation, and Crime Suppression Division, and the ‘ICT cops'. ICT Minister's Secretary Sarawuth Petchpanomporn was assigned to coordinate the collection of evidence and ask the courts to block websites and prosecute owners who, if inside the country, are subject to fines and imprisonment under the 2007 Computer Crime Act.

If the offence is committed abroad, the Minister admitted that there were difficulties. However, the Ministry has so far asked for cooperation from the authorities in each country or website administrators themselves, who have cooperated in solving the problems or delete offensive material, particularly concerning Thailand's ‘supreme institution'.

"The ministry has 30 so-called ICT cops, so it is difficult to keep a thorough watch. We still have to rely on net surfers or webmasters to help, to solve the problem or notify the ministry of any irregularities," Man said.

Acting Director Booncherd Kittitharangkul of the Office of National Buddhism's Technology Centre said that on hearing the news he felt uneasy, and believed that it upset all Buddhists across the country.

The Technology Centre has found that the website has its server in California, USA, and the centre has twice asked the ICT Ministry in writing to shut down the website, but it is still online. The centre has also asked the Foreign Ministry's Information Department to address the problem through diplomatic means.

"If within one month the problem is still not solved, I will ask for cooperation from ‘internet cop' Pol Col Yanapol Yangyuen, Commander of Office of Technology and Information Cases under the Department of Special Investigation, to shut it down," said Booncherd. He added that his centre has cooperated with relevant agencies in shutting down 5 similar websites which made commercial use of Buddhist symbols.

Prachatai

How to Circumspect Censored Videos in Thailand

Censorship has once again reared it's ugly head in Thailand, as websites, blogs, movies, forums, and YouTube videos are blocked within the country. But help is at hand, as a highly respected news agency has provided advice on how to see those pesky videos the government thinks you can't handle. It's called Not the Nation on How to Circumvent Censorship in Thailand. Illegal, so keep it clean kids.

Don’t Try This At Home: NTN’s Non-Guide To Circumventing Censorship. The following steps should NOT be taken by those attempting to bypass the Ministry of Communication and Information’s blocking of websites

It is ILLEGAL to use this guide to quickly and easily access the world of free information on the internet. NTN provides this information in the public interest as a clear example of what not to do, right now.

DO NOT log onto to www.torproject.org

DO NOT download the latest package on this page: http://torproject.org/download.html.en.

DO NOT open the file, which will automatically install all the software you need.

DO NOT notice that a small icon now appears in your system tray, shaped like a small onion.

DO NOT right-click the onion and select “Start” from the pop-up menu.

DO NOT use the same menu to select “Message List” to see the Tor system slowly develop an anonymizing network.

Once its tells you “A circuit has been built” DO NOT then enjoy safe, censorship-free surfing to banned sites such as YouTube and MindightUniversity.

For even greater convenience, DO NOT download Mozilla Firefox, a superior web browser program available free at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/ , and DO NOT then download an add-on called “Tor Button” here at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2275 that allows you to switch Tor on and off easily while browsing.

If you do successfully download Tor, DO NOT keep a copy of the downloaded installation file which can be easily emailed as an attachment to all your friends or distributed on a CD-ROM or flash keychain drive.

If the Tor download page is blocked, DO NOT seek out other similar services and software such as these: http://freenetproject.org/ or http://www.freehaven.net/ or http://marabunta.laotracara.com/english.php.

If these services are not available, DO NOT do a Google Search for “anonymizer” or anonymity networks” and DO NOT learn more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Anonymity_networks.

And while you’re at it, DO NOT use Bit Torrent to download massive amounts of free CD-quality music or high-definition, full-length, titillating pornography.
Obey all laws and guidelines from the Ministry of Communications Information.

And to check out if the advise above really works, here's a few YouTube videos:

One
Two
Three
Four
Five

Travel Happy Travel Website Search Engine

Wanna search multiple websites and blogs to find information about a particular destination in Southeast Asia? Travel Happy has done a meld with Google search and a selection of travel forums that specialize in Southeast Asia. I did a search for "Pai" in northern Thailand, and the early results show that the most information on that place comes from Thai-Blogs. Not Fodor's, Frommer's, Lonely Planet, Moon Publications, Avalon Travel Publishing.

Moon Publications and Avalon Travel Publishing aren't even considered in this internet collection of important sites, since publisher Bill Newlin has proven himself an internet idiot. Avalon Travel Publishing, Moon Publications, and Bill Newlin: a sad failure in the internet travel world.

Travel Happy

An American in North Korea

The WSJ has a story about the young, bored, confused, and drinking too much American GI who fled his post in South Korea and walked into the welcoming arms of the North Korean government. He thought he would be immediately deported to Russia, then sent back to the US, and charged with simple desertion, and then carry on with his life. It didn't quite work out that way. Charles (Chuck) Robert Jenkins spent 40 years in North Korea, and he's written a book about his experiences.

Can a deserter, a seeming traitor and a star in a propaganda film produced by a Communist dictatorship also be, in the end, an American patriot? That is one of the questions posed by the life of Charles Robert Jenkins, the author of "The Reluctant Communist."

Uneducated, dirt poor, from rural North Carolina, Mr. Jenkins joined the U.S. Army in 1958 and rose to the rank of sergeant within three years. He was soon sent to South Korea, where he was assigned to patrols along the demilitarized zone and regularly came under hostile fire. Depressed and drinking heavily, he started searching for a way home. The scheme he cooked up: Cross into North Korea, get handed over to the Russians and then repatriated to the U.S. At most he would face the sanction of a court-martial.

But there was a hitch. "I did not understand," Mr. Jenkins writes, "that the country I was seeking temporary refuge in was literally a giant, demented prison; once someone goes there, they almost never get out." Mr. Jenkins was to spend the next four decades in North Korea. His memoir, written with the help of Jim Frederick, a Time magazine senior editor, is the story of his life in that bizarre and barbaric land.

Wall Street Journal on the new book by Jenkins in North Korea

Singapore Arrests Political Radicals; Islamic Terrorist Still on the Lam

Mas Selamat, accused but not charged Islamic terrorist (thanks ISA), is still limping around Singapore, and the government can't seem to find the guy, but when a few political dissidents show up at a public park to protest rising consumer prices, the Singapore police are out in force. Way to go, guys. Why don't you just rattan cain this Chee character and send him off to your maximum security prison on Whitley Road? But lock the bathroom windows. At least LKY said it was "complacency" so now every other politician in the country could repeat the phrase.

Singapore's most vocal opposition leader and several others were arrested on Saturday after protesting against soaring prices in the city-state outside of parliament house. Sporting red T-shirts, the Singapore Democratic Party group led by Chee Soon Juan hoisted placards and shouted slogans. The shirts said "Tak Boleh Tahan," Malay for "Cannot Take It."

Witnesses said about six of the protesters were arrested by police while trying to stage a rally outside a nearby mall where they noted the annual inflation rate hit a 25-year high of 6.6 per cent in January.

Protests are rare in the city-state, where outside gatherings of more than four people outside are banned without a police permit. The government says the prohibition is necessary to maintain public order and safety.

Juan, who was been repeatedly arrested for attempts to hold similar outdoor protests, was declared bankrupt after failing to pay 500,000 Singapore dollars (340,000 US dollars) in libel damages awarded to Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong in February 2006.

Bankrupts are prohibited from running in elections. Singapore's parliament is dominated by the ruling People's Action Party with only two opposition members.

Earth Times

Singapore Eye Boredom

Singapore's newest attraction is a ferris wheel called the "Singapore Eye." The message: Singapore is watching you. Kuala Lumpur has a ferris wheel, as well as London, Bangkok thinks it should jump in the race, and then there's the local Carny managed by speed freaks and heroin addicts.

What's the fetish with slow moving tin boxes where you can look over the city views and pay $20 for a view you could probably get for free from any of a dozen hotel top-floor restaurants, not deal with crowds, lack of seating, bad odors, and being trapped in a metal box with no escape? The allure escapes me.

Corporations are rushing to offer journalists complimentary tickets to take The Singapore Eye for a spin, but it seems like those who have taken it have complained that it was a boring thirty minutes ride.

One journalist highlighted that he was stuck in the container for 30 mins without water or food and by the time he touched down, he could have drank the whole Singapore river dry. Those with heavy bladder also didn’t have an enjoyable time on the Singapore Eye. Another journalist who took photos while seating the Singapore Eye described his album in Facebook as “Singapore Flyer–a boring way to fly“.

The Media Slut

Jakartass Rants

Jakartass, the Jakarta blogger who prefers to remain anonymous, rather than have Indonesia authorities raid his Jakartass Towers and haul away his expensive computer equipment and high-speed DSL equipment that keeps him connected the world, while he battles with evil owners of English language schools who vacation in Batam and buy up Spitzer-priced hookers. And he's mad about a few things in the country that he now calls home, and I don't blame him. Without IndCoup, where are we going to get our sexy photos of Indonesian babes? And without Jakartass, where are we going to learn about the important issues of the largest Indonesian country in the world?

I wish Indonesia had more bloggers like Jakartass, then maybe we would learn about Sukarno's fetish for Marilyn Monroe.

Actually, I can't really be bothered to rant. So much of life is ho-hum, been there - seen that, that it hardly seems worth pointing out the lack of get up and go in this country.

It's easy to complain about the lack of toilet paper at Soekarno-Hatta airport but this pales into insignificance when today's Jakarta Post carries the following headlines:

1. Goals set for sanitation could take RI 200 years
2. Lead by example, SBY tells summit*

Thinking of toilet paper, there is a university in Jakarta which has stopped supplying it because students use too much. This is the same cheapskate university which promises its students expatriate lecturers, but uses Indonesians with foreign qualifications. This is not to belittle those lecturers but to point out the false promises which are used to justify high fees from the parents of the students. This education institute also fails to fulfil legal manpower requirements and is facing legal judgments - note the pluralisation - against it.

Last Wednesday I got back to Jakartass Towers around 5pm, to be told that the electricity had been off since midday. It stayed off until 8 and was caused by ... "a fire" ... "a flood" ... and two "don't knows". We ate takeaways and I moaned at the domestic staff for not filling the bak mandis after, or while, taking a bath. I was stinking mad. What's more, I missed American Idol.

Our power cut was not a rotational one apparently, but a problem with the infrastructure. It is well-known that Indonesia does not generate enough electricity wattage to suit everyone's wastage, so various initiatives are dreamt up.

Jakartass Rants

Burma: King Thibaw Speaks via Taw Paya

Maymayo is a lovely old British-era hilltown some five hours from Mandalay, depending on how many times your old Burmese truck transport breaks down and the driver/mechanic needs to rebuilt the blown transmission. I took a photograph of the monastery kid monks there, which was used on the cover of the first edition of my Southeast Asia Handbook from Moon Publications.

It's also the home of the last grandson of King Thibaw, the final royal leader of Burma before the British took over. He's 84 and still angry and outspoken about the terrible ravages inflicted on his country by the military junta that has ruled what once was one of Asia's most economically successful countries. An enlightening interview, first posted by AP, but I found it on Gulf News. Go figure.

I think he looks a bit like Bill Murray.

Taw Paya is the sole surviving grandson of the former Burma’s last monarch, King Thibaw, exiled to India by the British in 1885. The blue blood flowing in his veins does not make him immune to recrimination, but it certainly helps.
“People are still respectful of the royal blood,” he said in the sitting room of his red-brick colonial-style villa, built in 1947, the year before the southeast Asian nation claimed its independence from Britain. A woolly hat is pulled low over his forehead and his jacket is buttoned up to the neck to ward off the early morning chill of Pyin U Lwin, a hill-station popular with British officers seeking escape from the sweat and dust of Myanmar’s central plains.

There is little else to cover his disdain for the 46 years of unbroken army rule that have transformed Myanmar from the rice bowl of Asia into a deeply impoverished international pariah. “There’s nothing good in Burma any more,” he said, recalling the apparent Golden Age of early independence in which food was cheap and plentiful—in stark contrast to the galloping inflation and deepening poverty that sparked September’s monk-led protests.

“How will it change? That’s the big question,” he said. “Nobody knows how to unravel the trouble we’re in. There’s no answer as long as these chaps are in power. We have to hope for change, but I don’t think it’ll be realised while we’re alive.”

Andy Brouwer Visits Wat Nokor

While this blog may seem obsessed with Thailand, it's only because Thailand seems to consistently produce the most interesting and varied stories within Southeast Asia. Surprisingly, Cambodia is now in the second place, the country that inspires the most offbeat, culturally attractive, and socially challenging stories I find on the net. Indonesia should be second on this list, but it's not really generating stories I feel would be of great interest to the readers of the blog, and that's a pity.

Check the blogrolls on the right and you'll see that Thailand has an overwhelming number of blogs or websites that I think are worth visiting or putting in your RSS reader. Not much for Cambodia, but that deficit is made up for by the excellent and consistent posts from Andy Brouwer, who works in the travel industry in Phnom Penh, and so has good reason to wander around the country visiting the more remote locations. He's interested in architecture and old temples (same as me) and speaks enough Khmer to ask the old monks to unlock doors to photograph rarely seen interiors. And his photography is surprisingly good, especially with his flash shots that aren't terribly washed out...something that has always been a problem with my photography.

And so, today, I salute Andy Brouwer and his great site about all things Cambodia.

Saturday, March 15, 2008
Wat Nokor's Preah Noreay
The impressive Preah Noreay statue at Wat Nokor's eastern entrance

In concluding my look at the Wat Nokor complex near Kompong Cham, the 13th century temple has a wealth of carvings as well as statues for the visitor to admire. This eight-arm statue represents Preah Noreay, a Hindu goddess who is said to bestow fertility on childless women, and can be found at the eastern entrance to the temple. The statue is a mix of original sandstone and concrete additions, with the eight hands each holding an item of special significance. Its a cross between Shiva and Lokeshvara and is similar to a statue that used to reside at Tonle Bati before it was moved to the National Museum. Below is a closer look at the chest of the statue containing numerous smaller versions of Buddha.

Andy Brouwer

Restaurant Menu from Thailand

Racism may be frowned upon here in the U.S., but in most of Asia racism is alive and well and often seen in advertisements, such as the menu above, which was photographed in Chiang Dao in northern Thailand. Anyone remember Darkie Toothpaste?

Flickr Image of Cafe Menu in Chiang Dao

2Bangkok's Ron Morris Needs a Dentist

Ron Morris, as chief dictator at 2Bangkok, is Thailand's most powerful and ruthless blogger, making millions off his websites while ordering his armies of servants to serve his every need. If Ron's so rich and powerful, and now a major TV star on Thai TV, why doesn't he get his teeth fixed?

Ron is actually my friend, and the only Bangkok blogger who responded to my announcement a few years ago that I was coming to Bangkok and would like to meet some local bloggers. It was a fair exchange; Ron took me out to some place called Nana Namplex and I got him into a few media meals at the Nikko. And so I've now got a new Facebook account, and noticed that Ron has posted a new, very secret website where he reveals the secrets of his internet success and how you can make millions blogging about Thailand. Worth a look.

The Secret World of Ron Morris

Find Your Bule Husband

Bugil's Girls

Over the years, I've heard about dozens of websites where you'll find Thai and Filipino girls looking for a Western boyfriend or husband, but this is the first time I've seen one from Indonesia. So if you'd rather make some contacts in advance, rather than trying your luck at Bugil's or another nightclub in Jakarta, then this might be the place.

Hi, I am Andre, the founder of this dating and matrimonial website. I bet you are wondering how this website works. Well, first of all, I would like the interested ladies to email my colleague, Paul Krenz (nasakom (at) gmail /dot/ com), with their biodata and photograph. Then I will post it here for other Western gentlemen to read.

This site will be much more professional than those other dating websites where anyone can post a profile, such as those scammers/spammers who try to steal your money or identity (e.g. the Nigerian scam). We won't ever allow that to happen here, God-willing. Only serious people desiring a long term relationship and marriage can post here. Paul and I are clever enough to prevent them from posting, so don't worry about them.

Men are free to post ads too, but please remember, this site is not for playboys (lelaki buaya), so don't try to bother these ladies if you are one of them, ok? Thank you very much and enjoy your stay here.

Find Your Bule Husband

Elephants Frolicking in the Snow

What happens when it snows on the zoo animals in Ontario, Canada? The jaguars aren't too happy about the cold white stuff, but the elephants seem to be having a wonderful time, rolling around in the fluff and making the largest snowballs I've ever seen.



LiveLeak Video of Elephant Frolicking in the Snow

MapJack Beats Google Street View...at Least in Chiang Mai

Looks like Google Street View finally has some competition from an upstart company here in San Francisco called MapJack. I've been hearing about MapJack for a few weeks, and finally had a chance to look at their streetviews of Chiang Mai, and I am impressed. Razor sharp images, seamless pano stitching, zoom capability, and somehow they managed to make busy Chiang Mai look like a deserted city. Hey! Where are all the crazy tuk tuks?

The Chiang Mai page starts at Wat Chiang Man in the center of the old city, but it's easy to move around town. I found Daret's Guesthouse (no backpackers in sight) near the Tapae Gate, and Burger King near the Night Market. And the only traffic jam I spotted was on the bridge across the Ping River.

There's a strong competitor to Google Street View out there. While it doesn't cover as much ground as Google Maps does, it looks much better, has better features and it's more pleasant to use.

MapJack will feel familiar to users of other mapping sites with street-level imagery. You're presented with a split-screen page -- the street view is on the top and an overhead map of the city is on the bottom. Blue dots on the overhead map show you all of the locations where MapJack has collected street-level imagery. You drag your place marker (a little Playmobil-looking guy named Jack) around on the map and the street view image refreshes.

Now about those street-level images -- wow. They're crystal clear. Much cleaner and more detailed that Google's Street View images. The photo stitching is better, as well.

You can navigate around by hopping from blue dot to blue dot on the screen and dragging the map to change direction, or you can use keyboard shortcuts. Click on the 8-point star in the lower left corner to bring up controls for sharpness, brightness, and image quality.

MapJack makes this odd claim on its About page: "What others have done with NASA budgets and Star Wars-like equipment, we've done on a shoestring budget, along with a few trips to Radio Shack."

The privately held San Francisco-based company launched its service last year. Right now, it only covers San Francisco and (strangely) Chiang Mai, Thailand. I wish I could read Thai, because it's possible to zoom right in and read the print on storefront signs, vending machines and bumper stickers. That's hot like jungle curry.

Wired

Girls at Thai Auto Show

Since when have sexy young girls been used to sell cars? Must be a new trend. A few days ago I posted pics of big-nosed girls at a car show in Singapore, so with great pleasure I present for your viewing pleasure the fine young girls of Bangkok, selling something or another. Yeah, it must be those cars. Did you notice the cars?

Datedir with Thai Girls Pics Thailand Motorshow

Alison the Archaeologist in Cambodia

Just found another interesting blog from Cambodia, an American student who will be doing archaeological stuff until November 2008, and making oddball travels around the country from her base in Phnom Penh. She's got a good eye for the offbeat, and has an artistic appreciation, so this blog will be one to watch. Check her story about the silversmiths of Cambodia for some insight into yet another dying craft in Southeast Asia.

My name is Alison and I am a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Anthropology. I am in Cambodia until about November 2008 to work on my PhD research in archaeology. My time here is being financially supported by a Fulbright IIE grant and a grant from the Center for Khmer Studies.

I started this blog to share my experience with my friends and family back home. I am married and have one dog.

Alison in Cambodia

Legendary Thai Rock Guitarist Lam Morrison

Lam Morrison will be celebrating 50 years of rock guitar with an upcoming performance at his nightclub in Pattaya, bringing in Hendrix and Deep Purple fans for a rare celebration of Thailand's original rocker. Lam, the Keith Richards of Thailand, got his start in the early 1970s playing heavy metal favorites to American GIs stationed at Ubon during the Vietnam War, then moved to Europe and America where continued doing covers and some original tunes. He's been fairly lowkey over the last few decades, so this might be a special occasion to see the master in action.

Celebrate 50 Years of Rock with Thailand’s Premiere Rock Star Lam Morrison

Lam Morrison will celebrate 50 Years of Guitar Playing Sunday, 30 March 2008, with a gala gig at Pattaya’s only real rock n roll club, The Lam Morrison House of Rock. Lam will host and headline a celebration, which is being planned to feature many of Bangkok and Pattaya’s best guitarists. The Guest of Honor, with his iconic machine gun-shaped guitar, will dazzle and wow an invited audience of local and regional dignitaries.

Open every night 9.00pm till late, with Lam on stage just after midnight , The Lam Morrison’s House of Rock is in South Pattaya just off Walking Street on funky Soi Marine.

Thailand’s most audacious guitarist began playing guitar when he was 13 years old (self-taught on a beat up acoustic while he tended the rice fields and the buffalo). Now, at 63, Pi Lam, The Ajaan, teaches master classes in his often three-hour nighty spectacles at his South Pattaya namesake club. Longtime devotees are amazed at his newfound vigor, stamina and reclaimed virtuosity.

From the great generation that produced Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Keith Richards, Lam Morrison, their Thai brother, arose from Issarn’s rice paddies. When the US troops brought their rock n roll records to Ubon Ratchatani while conducting America’s “Secret War” (see Air America), a young Lam avidly listened, eagerly learned and quickly formed Thailand’s first real rock band, VIP.

VIP toured all the US bases during the Viet Nam War. playing reasonable facsimiles of hits from The Stones, Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Canned Heat, Cream and The Doors (Lam jokingly refers to Jim Morrison as his brother). After the war, Lam emigrated to Germany, where in a guitar duel (much reported at the time) he was dubbed “The Guitar King,” a moniker that he still defines. He joined and formed bands, touring Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France and then over to North America and finally on to Austalia.

With the help of Richie Blackmore of Deep Purple, in the early 80’s he signed to EMI Records. His debut album, Night in Bangkok, sold a cool million in Thailand. This was before there was Grammy Records or national distribution or even real record stores — basically, rock had been banned for years. His albums were sold at truck stops and gas stations. And a million were sold.

Since those glory days, Lam Morrison has been a rock n roll gypsy and South East Asia’s best kept secret. He has spent the last two decades criss-crossing Thailand, from the restive south the golden north, occasionally stopping for residencies (Bangkok’s Rock Pub, Pattaya/s Blues Factory). He has shared stages with all of Thailand’s heirs to the throne from Micro to Olarn, from Ad Carabao to Sek Loso, two Thai music heroes who revere Lam Morrison as Thailand’s Guitar King. He often returned to Europe and toured with such greats as Deep Purple and UFO and Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow.

Recently, he settled in Pattaya, but remained an enigma: You didn’t find Lam Morrison, Lam Morrison found you. He was a legend caught in brief flashes at bars up and down Walking Street, often just missed and more talked about than experienced.

The opening of The Lam Morrison House of Rock, as well as Lam’s mid/late-life reinvigoration, now means that the secret of Thailand’s guitar master is on nightly display for all to discover for the first time. Or savor for the Nth time.

The Lam Morrison House of Rock invites all to join them in celebrating Lam Morrison’s 50th Anniversary of Playing Guitar on Sunday, 30 March 2008, 9pm until late.

Lam Morrison's Rock Club in Pattaya

Moon Author Bill Weir; A Bicycle Nut in Asia

Bill Weir is one of the original Moon authors and the man who almost singlehandedly saved Moon Publications when he proposed a guide to Arizona to Bill Dalton, and it sold like hotcakes, helping to offset the dismal sales of Indonesia Handbook and other early titles. Weir was unceremoniously dropped from Moon several years ago, but contines his passion to cycle around Asia, months and months at a time. He usually starts in Bangkok, then cycles through Vietnam or Laos, before heading into the remote hinterlands of China, Tibet and India. And rather than his email newsletters, he's finally got a website where he'll keep everybody up to date with his feats of endurance.

Bill Weir -- Crazy Guy on a Bike

Indonesian Gamelan: A Dying Tradition?

Sundanese Boys by Carl Parkes

Indonesian gamelan is one of the world's great musical traditions, but kids these days are more interested in Western rock and the gamelan orchestras are slowly dying off. Gamelan is still going strong on Bali, thanks to the tourism industry, and gamelan can still be enjoyed in the royal courts of Yogyakarta, but gamelan seems to be best thriving in America and Europe, as pointed out last month in an article in the International Herald Tribune.

Though gamelan music is still played throughout Indonesia - its collaborative rhythms can be heard at most traditional ceremonies and serenely wafting out of Bali's meeting houses - its popularity is dwindling among the next generation of Indonesians, who are more easily lured by Western rock.

But in early February, a performance in Jakarta by the Icelandic pop star Björk highlighted another trend, however slight, that might offer hope of the music's survival.

Björk has used gamelan instruments in a number of her songs, most famously in her 1993 recording "One Day," and has performed with Balinese gamelan orchestras several times since. Several contemporary composers have incorporated gamelan into their works, including Philip Glass, Steve Reich and the late Lou Harrison.

It can also be found in the American rock scene. Art-rock bands like King Crimson and The Residents adapted gamelan's layered, interlocking rhythms for Western instruments. Gamelan is heard in the soundtrack to the American television series Battlestar Galactica.

Perhaps more significantly, some schools in the United States and Europe now offer gamelan courses. Britain even includes it in its national music curriculum for primary and secondary education.

"They are doing all kinds of interesting community education projects with gamelan in Great Britain," Suyenaga said. "It is interesting and very sad that gamelan is used to teach basic musical concepts in Great Britain, whereas in Indonesian schools our children are exposed only to Western music and scales. The national curriculum here pays little attention to the incredible richness of traditional culture."

The Southeast Asia Archaeological News Blog

The SEAANB is a bit on the academic side, but they've got a RSS feed and so it's easy to keep up to date with news about archaeology in the region. Best of all for us non-scientists is the Wednesday Rojak, which lists a handful of good links to websites and blogs; a place to find those articles you missed about Angkor, Borobudur, and the more obscure digs in Vietnam and Java. Alison in Cambodia is a good find, and I've put her blog in my Bloglines RSS account.

Missing last week’s edition of rojak means that I’m back this week with a a double load of links. A lot of goodies from the web this time round covering music, history, silversmithing and Khmer boats!

Traveller Shantanu shows us the Siamese Wonders in Bangkok

The Gamelan, a gong ensemble found all over the Malay world may be one of those traditions fading away in an increasingly modernizing Indonesia. Read about it in the International Herald Tribune, Is Indonesia’s native music fading?

stgabriel08 spends his birthday in Borobudur and Prambanan

Julien comments on a recent article about how tourist visits to archaeological caves can severely degrade the site in Archaeology and the Public: A Complicated Relationship?

Alison in Cambodia visits the 17th century Cambodian capital of Oudong and some Khmer Silversmiths

Gary Arndt reflects on iconic architecture in Borobudur, Icon of Indonesia

There’s some exciting research about to be undertaken in The Boats of Angkor…

In Krabi, Liz chances upon a most unusual tribute to an archaeological find in Krabi’s Manus Borarn

The National University of Singapore’s Department of History has a blog about the History of Muslim Southeast Asia

A. Ghani Ismail posts a four-part series on Origin of the Malay and Asli

In this series of weekly rojaks (published on Wednesdays) I’ll feature other sites in the blogosphere that are related to Southeast Asia and archaeology in general. Got a recommendation for the next Wednesday rojak? Email me!

The Southeast Asia Archaeology News Blog

Muslims for Peace to Demonstrate in Bangkok

Muslims for Peace will be protesting the Mohammed cartoon images from Denmark and an upcoming documentary produced by a right-wing politician in that country, this Wednesday. A good time is guaranteed for all.

A group of Muslims, who call themselves Muslims for Peace, are preparing a demonstration in Bangkok on Wednesday the 12th of March to urge Muslims in Thailand to boycott Danish products. This happens after the group held a meeting on Wednesday March 5th, announcing the upcoming demonstration.

The demonstration is planned to begin at Lumphini Park in Bangkok at 08.00 am. and continue on to the Danish embassy in Bangkok. The Danish embassy is aware of the demonstration and has made contact to the embassy’s clients to urge them to stay away from the embassy at the time of the demonstration. The local police are also aware of the demonstration. Muslims for Peace held a similar demonstration in 2006 in regards to the Danish Muhammad cartoon crisis.

ScanAsia

Note: The Muslims for Peace has a counterpoint website, with photos of violence in southern Thailand, it's here.

UPDATE: The protest has taken place, and here's a peaceful photo of the Muslims for Peace:

Thailand's Enormous Counterfeit Industry

Counterfeits, fakes, and knock offs are common in Asia, but China and Thailand seem to be the worst offenders, as shown by the fake Ferrari above. It was displayed recently in Brussels by the Authentics Foundation to call attention to the ripoffs, and the professionalism of the counterfeiters in Thailand. What's next? A fake Rolex?

But the cancer of cheating and getting something for nothing is not limited to the Ferrari makers, or the software and DVD merchants in Panthip Plaza, it goes right to the top of the Thai government. The Thai economy has been roaring for many years, and the Thai government now finds itself with an abundance of cash. What to do with some $100B? Spend about $25-30M per year to purchase legal copyrighted pharmaceuticals and help out cancer patients? Nah, it's easier just to break copyrights and steal from big pharma. I'm no fan of big pharma, but if the Thai government insists on breaking patents, then the powerful pharma lobbyists are going to downgrade Thailand to pariah status, and the losers will be the poor shrimp farmers and textile workers.

A Google Search has more links.

A fake Ferrari sports car made in Thailand has become the centrepiece of an exhibition in Brussels warning against the dangers of pirated goods. The Ferrari P4 - of which only three were made, in 1967 - was made in a back street factory in Thailand and is powered by a Subaru engine.

The Authentics Foundation has used the car to warn against the growing tide of counterfeit goods. It says pirated medicines and food pose a real threat to human health. Today, they are into electronics, they are into medicine, they are into food said Authentics Foundation president Timothy P Trainer.

"I think this all maybe started with the DVDs and music being pirated and it has just exploded, basically, into something quite different," said model Yasmin Le Bon, an anti-counterfeit campaigner.

BBC News

Bali: A Budget Destination for the Dollar Denominated

Balinese Gamelan Player by Carl Parkes

Lombok Cattle Market Guys by Carl Parkes

When it comes to bargain destinations, Southeast Asia is still a remarkable value, especially when compared to Europe for Americans on a devastated dollar. But I hadn't understood why Bali is now such a bargain for the international traveler, until I read the explanation by Jack Daniels at Bali Discovery. Investigative journalism at it's best, Jack.

Looking for a Dollar Bargain – Visit Bali! Why Bali Remains an Island of Outstanding Value for Americans, Japanese, European, Australians and British Travelers.

While much of the international economic news over the past few months offers little cause for cheer, the little noticed story is that Bali remains an island offering unparalleled value to travelers who purchase their travel in Pounds, Euros, Yens, Australian dollars and the Yankee dollar!

Bali, A Dollar Based Travel Product

Due to a unique peculiarity of Indonesian economic policy that renders the Rupiah technically "non-exportable" - virtually all hotels, villas, attractions, and tours sold operating in Bali are denominated in U.S. dollars. Contracts with Bali travel operators are almost universally written in dollars, a fact reflected in the fact that travel sites from Bali are generally quoted in dollars.

As an unexpected "benefit" of the failing fortunes of the U.S. dollar, Bali's place as an affordable destination for dollar earners and a real bargain for a whole host of other currencies has been preserved.

Consider the following:

• U.S. Dollars - Prices for Bali travel products continue to be priced in dollars, increasing only slightly despite the overall improved business climate on Bali, but remaining relatively stable overall against the U.S. dollar. Conclusion: Americans traveling across the Pacific will continue to find Bali an amicable value-for-dollar destination.

• Euros - With the Euro currently trading at record highs of US$1.537 against one U.S. Dollar, the Euro has appreciated against the dollar by almost +40% since January 2004. The same reason that sees Europeans flying across the Atlantic to do their shopping in the U.S.A., should also see Europeans coming to Bali for their next holiday.

• Great Britain Pounds - It currently takes slightly more than US$2.00 to purchase a British quid. This is a +25.63% increase in the value of the Pound since January 2004. It's also a tangible bonus for U.K. travelers destined for Bali and paying for their travel in U.S. Dollars.

• Australian Dollars - Plagued for many years with a weak Australian dollar that made Bali one of the few affordable overseas holiday destinations, antipodean travelers have seen their currency improve a whopping +54.9% against the U.S. dollar since January 2004. With the Australian dollar trading at AU$0.9296 to one U.S. dollars and buying around Rp. 8,436 – Bali has become even more affordable to its near neighbors from Down Under.

• Japanese Yen - Similarly, the Japanese Yen is currently trading at +16.39% more than it did in January 2004 with ¥102 buying one U.S. dollar. Japan retains its role as Bali's leading overseas market, a dominance likely to only improve as people with a "¥en" to travel take advantage of their buying power in Bali.

Bali Discovery

Expats in Thailand

Not all farangs who live in Thailand are derelicts, wastrels, running from the law, lunatics, parole violators, running from the IRS, dope fiends or alcoholics, political refugees, psychos, or frustrated novelists. Just most of them. Check the criminal photos above. If you'd like to know more about foreigners living in Thailand, you can read the Expats in Thailand page, but it seems that few of the more twisted farangs have agreed to an interview here. Pity.

Here you'll find the interviews we've done with expats who are living in Thailand. You will find out how they did it and you will learn the reasons why they love living in Thailand. It's the land of the smiles is what people say about Thailand. The people are very friendly and the living standard is very good if you compare it to other Asian countries.

Expat Interviews -- The Thailand Page

Bangkok Girl by Jordan Clark

I'm a big fan of Daniel at Absolutely Bangkok, so when he recommends a documentary called Bangkok Girl, by filmmaker Jordan Clark, and goes to the effort to post all the YouTube links, then I'm going to have a look. Anyone who has spent time in Thailand and met the girls, working or not, will be deeply moved by this portrait of a young girl named Pla who finds herself caught in a web beyond her control, but maintains her sense of humor and mai pen rai despite her life on the edge. If time is short, see the final chapter.

Sometimes images say more than Bangkok Dan’s words. Watch Bangkok Girl, a remarkably accomplished, beautifully photographed and intimate debut documentary by director Jordan Clark that puts a human face on the devastating social issue that is the sad fate of too many impoverished girls in Thailand.

The documentary provides a glimpse of Thailand’s sex tourism told through the experiences of a 19-year-old bar girl named Pla. Working in the bars since the age of thirteen, Pla has managed to avoid selling her body for sex, a remarkable discovery, given her surroundings that sadly cannot last.

En route to the film’s startling conclusion, you are given a true understanding of why and how she ended up in her current environment and wonder if she will ever escape.

It may appear that the film maker, who is closer than close to Pla, has a penchant for melodrama, poking Pla to spill out her life story and at the end, she is more than willing to comply with his offer. And in the process, inviting us to a small corner of life in Bangkok. Some also speculate that the producer paid Pla for her contribution hence opening up a portal of opportunity for her to fabricate “gloomy” stories to hype up the drama - that is entirely untrue and unfounded, the producers of the documentary assure.

Absolutely Bangkok on the Documentary Bangkok Girl

Swan Lake by the Great Chinese Acrobat Circus

Time for some culture! This wonderful YouTube clip shows the "Great Chinese Acrobat Circus" performing Swan Lake at a German venue. While it's more about the acrobatics than the ballet, it's a beautiful work of art, and would do wonders to get the fading ballet audiences back into the seats. There's a curious warm up act, but stay tuned for the acrobat/ballet number that follows.



YouTube -- Swan Lake by the Great Chinese Acrobat Circus

Preah Vihear by John Vink

The Khmer temple of Preah Vihear has been in the news lately, due to it's magnificent but unfortunate location on the Thai/Cambodian border. The temple was legally awarded to Cambodia in 1962, but it's almost impossible to reach from the Cambodian side, so almost all visitors arrive from Thailand. Magnum photographer John Vink recently visited the temple and posted a few images on his website, including one of the viewpoint that emphasizes the amazing cliffside location. But you can't save images from his site, (some kind of technological wizardry), so I've included the sample above.

I visited Preah Vihear (aka Preah Viharn) many years ago on a TAT press trip, and was delighted to see the infamous lintel which depicts Vishnu churning the sea of milk, which was stolen several decades ago and sent off to a museum in Chicago, then returned to the temple and remounted in it's original position. A few weeks ago, I spotted a letter to the editor in the Bangkok Post that described the hellish journey from Phnom Penh to Preah Vihear. Read The Backroad to Preah Vihear.

Built between the 10th and the 11th century, this Angkorian temple dedicated to Shiva lies on a cliff along the disputed border between Cambodia and Thailand, although a 1962 ruling of the International Court of The Hague specifies that the temple indeed lies in Cambodian territory. The recent attempt by Cambodia to have the complex being recognised by UNESCO as World Heritage, sparked a renewed claim by Thailand to modify the border. The first visit of the new Thai PM Mr. Samak Sundaravey to Cambodia seems to have calmed things down. Meanwhile tourism is booming, nearly exclusively through the easier access from the Thai side, and some days up to 300 visitors visit the site.

John Vink at the Preah Vihear World Heritage Site

Bangkok Temple Quiz

I just wandered over to the website where a German fellow sells old prints of Asia, including the two above. But where exactly are these temples? The first is labeled Bangkok in 1878, but I've never seen anything like these structures. Any guesses? The second is called Watt Chang (yes, Watt), but I think it's Wat Arun, the so-called "Temple of the Dawn." The antique print website is a great place to waste some serious time, and the prices are more than fair at about 25-35 euros per print, shipping extra.

Antique Prints -- The Mysterious Bangkok Temples in 1878

Antique Prints -- The Asia Page

Thailand: Mass Murder over John Denver Karaoke

I've always enjoy the sweet singing of John Denver getting high in Colorado, and once saw him skiing in Aspen when I spent a winter as a ski bum in that town, but I really wouldn't want to hear him yodeling at full volume night after night. And so I sympathize with the poor Thai citizen who couldn't stand his neighbors playing John Denver, night after night, at full volume, everybody drunk as a skunk, doctors or not. And so he blew them away. Good for him.

A gunman in Thailand shot-dead eight neighbours, including his brother-in-law, after tiring of their karaoke versions of popular songs, including John Denver’s Country Roads. Weenus Chumkamnerd, 52, put his gun to the head of a respected female doctor and seven of her guests as they partied at her home in Songkhla Province, South Thailand.

"When I began shooting nobody pleaded for his life because they were all drunk," he said after his arrest. He said he was so furious with their awful singing that he did not notice he had murdered his own brother-in-law. "I warned these people about their noisy karaoke parties. I said if they carried on I would go down and shoot them. I had told them if I couldn’t talk sense into them I would come back and finish them off," he added.

Mr Chumkamnerd, who works as a rubber tapper, was arrested after going on the run after his killing spree in the townn of Hat Yai, near the Malaysian border. The doctor who was hosting the party, Dr Suthathip Thammachart, 36, was the director of a local hospital who was due this month to get an award for her services to medicine.

One of the revellers survived by playing dead, convincing the gunman that he too had been killed. When he realised he had shot his brother-in-law, Boontip Desaro, Mr Chumkamnerd said he was filled with remorse. He got his son to take Boontip to hospital, but he was already dead. A neighbour said that the karaoke group normally sang Thai pop and southern Thai ballads, but one particular western tune could be heard often - John Denver’s ‘Country Roads’. Country Roads is a hugely popular song in south east Asia andthe neighbour said the revellers had been singing it over and over again.

Telegraph

Beijing Olympics: Cat Lovers to Boycott?

Cat lovers are upset that Chinese authorities in Beijing have been gathering up stray cats and sending them off to certain death in cat prisons on the outskirts of the city. Animal activists are threatening to boycott the Beijing Olympics if government officials continue the slaughter of innocent animals, as reported in the Daily Mail.

Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games. Hundreds of cats a day are being rounded and crammed into cages so small they cannot even turn around.

Then they are trucked to what animal welfare groups describe as death camps on the edges of the city. The cull comes in the wake of a government campaign warning of the diseases cats carry and ordering residents to help clear the streets of them.

Bai Ling has a Blog

Bai Ling has a blog where she talks about her recent arrest at LAX for forgetting to pay for some items, and I salute her. Why don't all Hollywood types have blogs? What's the harm? It's great fun to post stuff and defend yourself. And I appreciate the recent post by Werewolf's Lair with photos of the interior of his new pad on Sukumvit. Why not?

Bai Ling talks about her arrest at LAX

Photography from Absolutely Bangkok

The amazing photography of Daniel Kestenholz. You may know him as the guy behind Absolutely Bangkok, as the author of some of the best news analysis you'll read about Thailand. He's also the guy who frets about the demise of his local pizza joint on Sukumvit. But did you know he's a great photographer, and has been granted permission to photograph Aung San Suu Kyi and the King of Thailand?

Daniel has long been involved in political writing about issues in Timor, Indonesia, Burma and most recently Thailand on assignment with a Catholic newspaper and a outlet in Austria, so he's got the screed to get into the inner circle and take those photos we only dream about. Yes, he's Swiss, writes English like a prince, works as an attorney, and seems to be an all around nice guy. I'm sure he faces that existential question: if you have to choose your life, what would you be? A journalist, photographer, or attorney?

PBase Photo Gallery: Cyberholz Photography

Helicopter Rescue in Afghanistan

An incredible photo of a helicopter rescue in Afghanistan. The Cellar

The Great Burma Walk: Portland to New York

Burma is a country that has been brutalized, spit on by the generals, abused in every possible fashion, yet the world just looks and wonders. The UN representative Gambari has been mocked and shunned; Aung San Suu Kyi can't run in the upcoming elections; Thailand wants the natural gas more than human rights; America talks and talks but won't take action. But two Burmese freedom fighters are now walking across America, from Portland to New York, to bring worldwide attention to the shameful plight of the Burmese people. Are you concerned? Send them money. Got a room? Help them out. They are now in the state of Washington, but coming soon to a town near you.

I wanted to share with you the courageous and amazing efforts of Athein and Zaw, two Burmese refugees, former Burmese students, and former ABSDF members. On March 1st, 2008 Athein and Zaw stepped out from Portland, OR on a journey to New York, to raise awareness about the crisis in Burma. They will walk over 3,000 miles to present a petition to the UN on August 8, 2008, the 20th anniversary of the 8-8-88 protests in Burma. They are on foot walking 25-30 miles a day holding two flags, one the flag of United States of America and the other the flag of National League of Democracy's (Burmese opposition political party) flag.

I ask you to please do whatever you can to help support their efforts, weather donating funds, talking about their efforts to everyone you know, walking with them, providing them food and shelter, joining their Facebook group and inviting all of your friends to join or simply forwarding this email to everyone on your email address list. Here are the two websites where you can find more information and learn about this courageous and amazing efforts by two men doing what they can to help save the lives of millions: Official website: http://88portland.wordpress.com/ or their Facebook group site: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8522122953 .

You can also contact me as well for more information. I hope you do what is right by taking the few simple suggested steps to do your part to help save the lives of the innocent, those who are in desperate need of our voice. Lets not turn away from this courageous effort, instead lets help embrace it and do all that you can to help in anyway you can to end the daily horrific conflict our fellow human beings are enduring. Athein and Zaw are my heroes, the scarifies they have made for the good of others, giving themselves to save lives of those whom they do not even know...... Let us all pray for their safe journey. I thank you for all of your efforts in advance.

Ko Htike

The Great Burma Walk: Portland to New York

Stuff White People Like: Asian Girls

Not much you don't know here, but Stuff White People Like has a post on Asian women, and it proved to be wildly popular with the commenters: over 1100 to date. The post itself is short and sweet, but you'll enjoy looking at the comments which range from somewhat intelligent to completely bonkers.

95% of white males have at one point in their lives, experienced yellow fever. Many factors have contributed to this phenomenon such as guilt from head taxes, internment camps, dropping the Nuclear bomb and the Viet Nam War . This exchange works both ways as asian girls have a tendency to go for white guys. (White girls never go for asian guys. Bruce Lee and Paul Kariya’s dad are the only recorded instances in modern history). Asian girls often to do this to get back at their strict traditional fathers. There is also the option of dating black guys, but they know deep down that this would give their non-english speaking grandmother(s) a heart attack.

White men love asian women so much that they will go to extremes such as stating that Sandra Oh is sexy, teaching English in Asia, playing in a coed volleyball league, or attending institutions such as UBC or UCLA (please note that both schools’ colors of “blue” and “yellow” are intentional also the “A” in “UCLA” stand for “Asian” while the “B” in “UBC” stands for “Billion” try and figure out what the rest of the letters stand for). Another factor that draws white guys to asian women is that white women are jealous of them.

Take for instance the fact that asian women well into their 30s and 40s retain teen / college girl looks without the help of botox, yoga or a trendy diet (future posts). Asian women also avoid key white women characteristics such as having a mid life crisis, divorce, and hobbies that don’t involve taking care of the children (also future posts). Should white guy / asian girl marry, they produce hybrids that are atheistically pleasing, but are very annoying. This practice is also a means by which white people can catch up to the asian peoples in the population race, as most of the hybrids often act white rather than asian.

Stuff White People Like: Asian Girls

Packed Prisons in Thailand

Doing time in prison anywhere in the world is a drag, but doing prison time in Thailand is a Kafkaesque experience, as shown by the photo above of prisoners packed in like rats. Is this humane? Many of these kids were caught up in the world of speed, either using or dealing, but is this the solution? Putting people in jails and prisons for the use of drugs solves nothing; voluntary rehabilitation is the answer. America has lost it's way and it looks like Thailand is sure to follow.

This is a rare photograph that gives you a good idea of how overcrowded prisons are in Thailand. Unlike their American or European counterparts, Thai prisoners live in open rooms with no beds or furniture of any kind. They aren't even given any bedding. Sheets can be bought and some people stuff these with old clothes in order to make pillows. Each cell is about four metres by seven metres. On each side, people are lying side by side with their feet facing the middle. Then, down the center of the cell, there are two rows of other prisoners. There are on average at least 50 prisoners in this one cell. There isn't enough room for all of them to lie on their back. New prisoners are only allocated another room to lie on their side. They are packed in so tightly that they cannot turn over. If they have any money, they can bribe the cell boss to let them lie on their backs. But, there isn't enough room for them to all do that.

The prisoners have already eaten and showered by 3.30 p.m. and then they are taken up to their cells. There are only two fans so you can imagine with so many people in the cell that it heats up quickly and the smell from sweaty bodies becomes overpowering. The squat toilet is at the far end of the cell. This has a low wall about two feet high. Imagine what it would be like if you needed to answer the call of nature during the night and had to clamber over all these bodies. At least the lights are kept on all the time. But then, that is also a curse because it makes it difficult to sleep. The prisoners are locked in here for 14 hours per day. They are not allowed to bring any food up to the cells. If you have enough money, you can bribe the cell boss and prison guards to allow you to be transferred to another cell. But, they are all much the same as each other.

It wasn't always like this. Since the government declared an anti drug policy in 1998, the prison population increased greatly. In fact, 60% of the prison population today are there due to narcotic offences. In the past, property crime was the biggest offence. But now, that is only 19%. As a result, Thailand has one of the highest ratio of prisoners to population in the world. The following is a chart of prison population over the last ten years. At present, there are 139 prisons around the Thailand with 245,033 sq.m. of sleeping space. The Department of Corrections stipulates that each prisoner should have 2.25 sq.m. each. That would mean a maximum prison population of 108,904 prisoners. The statistics show how badly the prisons are overcrowded.

Thai-Blogs

Moving Upscale

I've moved from the lovely Kinney Hotel in the lovely Tenderloin to the even lovelier Harcourt Hotel in so-called "Lower Nob Hill." Nice room on the 4th floor, wifi comes in well from the manager's office downstairs near the community room, regular TV (no cable yet) with two PBS channels, and a landline phone at 415-673-7721. Ask for room #421.

That's my room on the right side, second from the top.

Up From the Deep for more Tenderloin photos and background on the hotels.

The "Golden Triangle" is now the "Ice Triangle"

Kids in Thailand don't do opium or heroin. It's just a downer to nod out in your local nightclub. But speed is different. Teenagers and young adults in Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia aren't interested in junk, they crave the long lasting rush of speed, aka yaba, the "crazy drug." And so the former heroin merchants of the Golden Triangle, where Thailand intersects with Laos and Burma, have turned their economic engines toward the modern drug of choice. It ain't the Golden Triangle, as in the Man with the Golden Arm, it's the Ice Triangle.

The notorious Golden Triangle is no longer just a land of brightly colored poppy fields, opium-smoking hill tribes and heroin labs hidden in the jungle. A global US State Department report released last week said that poppy cultivation had indeed decreased in the area in 2006-7, but surveys by the United States and the United Nations found indications that drug gangs had replaced opium cultivation with the manufacture and trafficking of synthetic drugs, such as amphetamine-type stimulants, crystal methamphetamine and Ketamine.

Observers have also noted that Burma’s sector of the Golden Triangle is producing not only narcotics, but is also heavily involved in the trade of other contraband—everything from endangered wildlife to cheap counterfeit pharmaceuticals and pirated CDs. It also plays host to a number of casinos catering to gamblers from neighboring countries.

At the governmental level, Burma is actively engaged with its neighbors China, India, and Thailand in efforts to control drug trafficking. Thailand has contributed over US $1.6 million to support an opium crop substitution and infrastructure project in southeastern Shan State. In 2007, Thailand assigned an officer from the Office of Narcotics Control Board to its mission in Rangoon. Burma-China cross border law enforcement cooperation has increased significantly, resulting in several successful operations and the handover of several Chinese fugitives who had fled to Burma.

The drugs, however, continue to flow across Burma’s borders in all directions. A sharp increase in the production and export of synthetic drugs has prompted some to start referring to the Golden Triangle as the “Ice Triangle.” According to a US report, drug gangs based in the Burma-China and Burma-Thailand border areas, many of whose members are ethnic Chinese, produce several hundred million methamphetamine tablets annually for markets in Thailand, China, and India, as well as for onward distribution beyond the region.

The Irrawaddy

Visa Runs in Thailand

Visas for Thailand can be both simple and complex depending on how long you intend to stay in the country. Visitors intending to hang out less than a month don't need a visa, but will be given an entry stamp on arrival good for 30 days. Travelers who want more time should obtain a proper Thai visa from a Thai embassy, which gives 60 days and can be extended once for another 30 days. Then what? Ajarn.com is the best source of information, but the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree readers also provide some commentary that quickly sums up the solution.

I am from the USA. I arrived with a 60 day visa, obtained in the USA. Once my sixty days are up, I plan to, well, make a visa run. I have no desire to stay or visit neighboring countries other than for this errand.

First Qs: How many times can I get a 30 day stamp at the border? Three no matter what, even this ends up being more than 90 days within the 180 days? (what confuses me is the new regulation of 90 days stay in 180 days). It seems to me talking talking to people they still make the old run for the border every 30 days no problem.

Second Qs: Can I, as an option, go to a Thai embassy in Laos or Cambodia (needs to be neighbor) and get a multiple entry visa or even just another 60 day visa before, during or after I have made the visa run every 30 days for awhile? Or even just do this instead of traditional 30 day stamps.

Third Qs: If I run into difficulty at the border (bribe, questioning, etc.) it's best just to look clean with 10000baht in hand and say nothing else, right?

Fourth Qs: It also seems to me that old and young/old ex-pats, who don't have 1yr visas are still doing the same old visa runs. How can they still do this with new regulations? Because they are "grandfathered in" or something like that? Do they know something I don't? A wink or a tip toward immigration workers?

Right now, I understand that the rules say only 90 days within 180 day period, OR three visa runs for 30 day stamp no matter if I now have a 60 day visa or 30 day visa on arrival. Three stamps, along with original visa whether it be 30 or 60, are permitted even though this technically exceeds the 90/180 day rule?

Sorry for the complicated way of asking, but this is Thailand, and straight questions never get straight answers, correct?

Lonely Planet Thorn Tree Thailand Branch

Vietnam: Golf and the Ho Chi Minh Trail

People who have never golfed think the game is ridiculous, while those who have submitted to the most psychological of all sports think differently. Or think different, as Apple would say. Golf is an addictive sport, which I played quite a bit back in high school and college, and once managed to shoot in the high 70s. So golf in Vietnam seems quite natural to me, as pointed out today in New York Times travel section. The writer needs to decide: is it Da Lat or Dalat?

Talking about Vietnam, Smithsonian Magazine features a very long article about recent efforts to upgrade the old Ho Chi Minh trail into a highway.

The project, started in 2000 and scheduled to take 20 years to complete, is turning much of the old trail into the Ho Chi Minh Highway, a paved multilane artery that will eventually run 1,980 miles from the Chinese border to the tip of the Mekong Delta. The transformation of trail to highway struck me as an apt metaphor for Vietnam's own journey from war to peace, especially since many of the young workers building the new road are the sons and daughters of soldiers who fought, and often died, on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

John McCain at the Hanoi Hilton

I like John McCain. I really do. While I'm not going to vote Republican in the next election, and support both Hillary and Barack, John has always been the outsider not afraid to take on the larger powers. Without Romney or Huckabee in the race, McCain will give the Republicans a fighting chance in the next election.

Yahoo News has the story below about McCain tourism at the Hanoi Hilton, where he spent over five years as a POW, but the photos was taken from Chim is Bored (can't find his link). The images are funky, but you'll get the idea.

In the prison everyone calls the "Hanoi Hilton," artifacts in glass cabinets and black-and-white photographs on the walls recall the historic link between Republican presidential candidate John McCain and Vietnam.

Vietnamese are mostly reticent about their views on U.S. politics, but they know the story very well of U.S. Navy pilot John McCain's plane being shot down in 1967 over Hanoi and how he was dragged out of a lake to spend 5- years as a prisoner of war.

The Hoa Lo prison, dubbed the "Hanoi Hilton" by the Americans, is now a museum and was visited by Senator McCain in 2000. Most of the complex was torn down a few years ago to make way for an apartment and office tower complex. McCain and other veterans such as Democratic Senator John Kerry were instrumental in helping the U.S. government establish diplomatic relations in 1995 with their former enemies, 20 years after the end of the Vietnam War.

"He conducted activities that had a positive impact on bringing the two nations closer," said retired Colonel Nguyen Van Phuong, 81, who headed a Vietnamese delegation in 1973 that negotiated with the U.S. on the repatriation of American prisoners of war, including McCain.

"That is a point that Vietnamese people who follow current affairs do recognize," the graying, uniformed Phuong said in an interview in his modest house along a narrow lane in Hanoi.

McCain clinched the Republican presidential nomination, U.S. media projected on Tuesday, capturing enough support nationwide to be the party's candidate in the November election.

At the prison whose entrance still bears the words "Maison Centrale" from the 1899-1954 period it was used by French colonial rulers to imprison Vietnamese independence fighters, tourists pull up regularly in buses to walk around.

The flight suit and other gear worn by McCain when he was shot down on October 26, 1967 is propped up in a glass cabinet with a caption that has recently been updated.

Stuff Asian People Like

Stuff Asian People Like may not be as funny as Stuff White People Like, but there's some good laughs buried amid the cliches. My guess is that Asians will find this site funnier than Westerners.

While we’re two posts removed from “Flied Lice,” it’s only proper to recommend a place to test out your newfound language skills. For that reason, this Sunday’s article is about Asian Buffets. Asians love a bargain whenever it may come around. However, bargains are very hard to come by in one of the wealthiest nations in the world. That is why asians go to buffets. At a buffet, asians not only get one bargain, but a multitude of bargains. So much so, that asians will return from a buffet and continue to reap the fruits of the labor days after.

When looking for a buffet, asians aren’t very picky. They never mind that they’re probably paying 12$ for soup and salad because they can realistically “eat as much as they can eat.” This is very important because when asians see something that is virtually “unlimited,” it is instantaneously a bargain. No questions asked.

Sometimes, the dominant asian bargaining trait kicks in, and Asians will even heckle the turkey carver into giving them larger portions. To properly go to an asian buffet, starve yourself the day of the feast. Proceed to bring at least 5 ziplock baggies. It does not matter what brand they are. Then, bring a list of common foods with R or L consonant sounds in the beginning or the end of the word (ie. fried, rabbit, lettuce, frog…) and create innovative ways to say them to the waiters. They most likely know what you’re trying to do because they’ve probably heard it before, but they won’t care. You’re learning their language, you’ve already paid, and you’re at their buffet. This is all that matters.

Singapore Girls at the IT Show

Zachary Chan at the HardwareZone went down to the Singapore IT show and snapped a few pictures of the girls, most of which seem to have oversized noses. And Asians sometimes complain about the size of Westerners. Noses, that is.

Funny Thai TV Ad

I seem to be on a roll with advertising in Thailand, so here's a short YouTube clip of a Thai TV ad for......I won't spoil the ending, but it's hilarious. I doubt this one would fly in the States, but almost anything goes in Thailand.



YouTube Clip of Thai TV Ad

Escaped Singapore Islamic Terrorist Photo Updated

Talking Cock helps all of Singapore with his images of escaped Islamic terrorist Mas Selamat. Apparently he's still in Singapore and hiding under some bushes near Newton Circus.

OK, we know we normally only update on Monday, but this is a national emergency. The Great Singapore Search is still on, and people have been circulating pictures of escaped terrorist Mas Alamak Kastari so that members of the public can help to spot him. But not say we say what, the pictures (below) are not very helpful leh: Almost the same, what! I mean, this guy is smart enough to escape ISD HQ, you think he wen go and find some more powerful disguise, meh?

In our one and only contribution to national security, TalkingCock.com brings you a handy guide to help spot Mas Alamak which you can print out and keep inside your wallet, just in case… Click here to see it!

Asia Times Online also has some fun with the case, along with a touch of paranoia.

Renowned for its strict and tight government controls, Singapore's Orwellian reputation took a hit on February 27 when terror suspect Mas Selamat Kastari escaped from the island state's Whitley Road Detention Center.

The escape, and the government's subsequent handling of the manhunt, have called the island nation's terror-fighting credentials into question. Mas Selamat is the alleged leader of the Singapore cell of the regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which is believed to have links with al-Qaeda.

According to government sources, Mas Selamat had in early 2002 planned for a commercial plane from Bangkok to be hijacked and crashed into Singapore's Changi Airport, in apparent imitation of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Prior to that, in 2001, Mas Selamat and his JI associates had also allegedly planned to plant bombs at a train station, the US Embassy, the American Club and other targets, as well as poison Singapore's water system.

The main target of the US's "war on terror" in Southeast Asia, JI is believed to operate across at least three countries in the region - Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The radical group stands accused of orchestrating a number of terror attacks, including the 2002 Bali blast in Indonesia which killed 202 people.

The group is also believed to have links and share training facilities with Islamist rebels active in the southern Philippines, including the allegedly al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf. While many JI operatives have in recent years been apprehended by their respective governments, no country, including the United States, has declared victory over the underground network.

Mas Selamat was a particularly high-value detainee. His involvement in Islamic militant activities dates to 1990, when he first joined the Darul Islam, an Indonesia-based radical movement considered by many as the forerunner of JI.

According to the International Crisis Group (ICG), by 1992 Mas Selamat was a member of the religious council of JI's Singapore cell. He traveled to Afghanistan for military training in 1993, and again in 1998, to observe the Taliban's austere and strict fundamentalist rule, of which the ICG reports he was "deeply impressed".

Not to be outdone on the humor front, Asia Sentinel chimes in with their own conspiracy theories.

Missing 170 hours … and counting. If this were the US TV series Without a Trace, the FBI sleuths would long ago have been sacked and replaced over the astonishing disappearance of Mas Selamat Kastari, the putative jihadi terrorist. But this is the hermetically sealed island of Singapore, where leaders take much credit and little blame and where no one likes to question official versions of events – which as in other closed systems causes people to harbour inner doubts about the truth of anything they are told.

A full week after Kastari limped out at 4 pm from its most closely guarded prison, the Whitley Road Detention Center via a toilet window during a family visit, he is still at large. Is he hiding out among accomplices in Singapore itself? Has he made it across the strait to Indonesia and the safety of fellow Jemaah Islamiyah activists? Or across the Causeway, evading the dogs and dragnets the Malaysians set for him? Could it be that despite his limp he managed to swim the Johor Strait?

Although the Whitley center is replete with cameras recording every movement inside and out, there is no explanation of how Kastari could have escaped from under the noses of the Gurkha guards during a brief toilet visit, and then got hastily away from the jail. It is not in teeming downtown Singapore, where even a Malay with a limp might vanish into the crowds. Even that seems unlikely, since Malays make up only 13 percent of the Singaporean population, and they are not exactly hard to spot among the majority Chinese.

Was this a stunning solo effort worthy of Houdini himself? Or did the impoverished JI, which had only a few thousand dollars for the Bali bombing in 2002, have enough cash to bribe squeaky-clean Singaporeans or the Gurkha protectors of their top leaders and prisoners?

Or maybe he is not hiding out anywhere but dead already, having been encouraged to escape into the hands of persons unknown who were only too happy to see him “disappeared.” Or could he have been dispatched to Guantanamo for further processing at the hands of the experts at waterboarding and other forms of non-torture? Or been “rendered” to some other jurisdiction – though who would want him, given that he is a Singaporean citizen and thus the city-state’s ultimate responsibility and not known to have committed crimes elsewhere?

Or maybe he was a US agent all along and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who visited Indonesia last week, decided he had served his purpose and he could be returned to society with a new identity.

Or maybe the Singaporeans have taken a leaf out of the British book when they were dealing with communist insurgency in the 1950s. Did he sing enough about his JI pals that he has earned his release, a new identity and a fat bank account to start a new life, as did some former communist terrorists who acquired new names and became respected, wealthy businessmen? Or was he allowed to escape so that he could rejoin his JI colleagues with the promise that he would be a mole inside the organization – assuming anyone believed his escape story.

Or maybe he is The Man Who Never Was, a bogeyman dreamed up by Singaporean intelligence to frighten the population into believing that JI plots were all around. There have been enough other invented plots to give some plausibility to such creations. But in that case, why the public “escape,” which has caused such loss of face, rather than letting the mirage die a natural death?

In the absence of facts, any number of theories, conspiratorial or not, is being bandied about in an amazing outpouring on the Internet, which the authorities appear powerless to stem.

I've got my own theory. The terrorist is actually Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects, who after giving his story to the police, limps away and then breaks into a brisk walk to his waiting limo. The mystery of Kaiser Soyze has finally been solved.

Don't Feed the Crocs

The Daily Mail reminds everyone: don't mess with the crocodiles. Didn't this guy hear about the tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo?

Mr Mashiah, 27, just managed to jump clear on his small fishing boat - as these pictures taken by a friend in another boat show - and escaped with nothing more than a case of severe embarrassment.

"I saw this crocodile and thought I'd tease it a bit with a small piece of bait, just to get it in quite close to me for the picture," he said. "I was playing around, pointing at it, laughing - when it suddenly jumped up at me. I didn't realise crocs were so aggressive."

His antics drew a typically forthright response from Australians writing to the local paper. One said: "What the bloody hell did you expect? That the croc would jump up, put his arm around your neck and smile for the camera?" Another wrote: "What a dimwit. Considering you still have both hands, use one of them to slap yourself!"

Sky Kingdom: The Teapot Cult of Malaysia

The "Teapot Cult" story has reached it's conclusion, and it ain't pretty. I've mentioned this case several times in the past as an example of the Islamic control in multicultural Malaysia, and assumed I'd never hear about the case again, but Andrew Drummond has apparently moved on from Pai and turned his attention to this case. The Telegraph has more.

A member of a persecuted sect nicknamed ‘The Teapot Cult’ yesterday began a two year jail sentence in Malaysia for renouncing Islam yesterday.

The 57-yr-old woman Kamariah Ali was sentenced in an Islamic Shariah court after she refused to respond to a judge’s Islamic greeting. Muhammad Abdullah a judge of the Islamic Shariah High Court in Kuala Terengganu jailing 57-yr-old Kamariah Ali said the court not convinced that the accused had repented and was willing to abandon any teachings contrary to Islam.

Andrew Drummond

The Counterfeit Museum in Bangkok

Bangkok is much more than just temples and nightlife, foodstalls and river trips, as shown by this unusual attraction maintained by a law firm that specializes in the prosecution of counterfeiters, along with more mundane matters such as corporate mergers and resort development. Call for reservations, then be amazed at the ingenuity of Thai entrepreneurs.

At the outset, the collection consisted of approximately 100 items which were separated into four categories: clothing, leather goods, electronics and toiletries. However, with new items gathered on a continuing basis from raids overseen by the firm, plus samples of the genuine goods which the firm obtains, the collection has rapidly grown. At present, the museum has approximately fifteen hundred pieces of infringing trademark and copyrighted goods, making it the largest one of its kind in Thailand. The collection now covers more than 20 categories of goods which, in addition to the four mentioned above, include footwear, perfumes, watches, household appliances and equipment, sound systems, car and machine parts, decorative ornaments, foods, drugs, alcohol, chemical products and stationery.

The Museum of Counterfeit Goods has received much interest, and at least four major foreign television broadcasting companies (CNN, BBC, Australian and Danish National Television) have featured the museum in their documentaries concerning the counterfeit situation in Thailand. Many local and international newspapers and magazines have also published articles on the Tilleke & Gibbins museum. The U.S. based Journal of Commerce, for example, has featured the museum on its front page.

Tilleka and Gibbons Museum of Counterfeit Goods

Snake Marriage in Cambodia

Most of the oddball stories I find coming from Southeast Asia are from Thailand, but Cambodia is a close second, as shown by this bizarre tale of snake marriage in Phnom Penh. The wedding reception feast of live chickens was a nice touch, but sadly, no photos available, so it's the Cambodian snake kid above.

A pair of pythons have been married in Cambodia after the happy couple went on a hunger strike until they were delivered from living in sin, police and local media said on Wednesday.

Python pair "Increasing Fortune Friday," so named because he slithered into Secretary of State for the Defence Ministry Neang Phat's villa on a Friday in January, and his mate, "Lucky Saturday," who joined him a day later, have been joined in holy matrimony, Kien Svay police chief Pha Samet said by telephone.

"I have no details because I was too busy to join the reception, but I can confirm they got married yesterday," said the police chief. A guest estimated the happy couple to each be about 2-metres long.

The secretary was perplexed about why the snakes refused to eat since they arrived at his home, but then spirits appeared to him in a dream and advised that the serpentine lovers wished to comply with Cambodia's controversial 2006 monogamy law, according to Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper.

The law outlaws adultery and extra-marital relationships. "The process of the wedding ran exactly as the wedding of a human couple," the paper quoted Phat as saying - except, perhaps, for the reception buffet of live chickens. After the ceremony, which took place about 12km outside the capital, the pythons almost immediately consented to eat, the paper reported.

IOL

A Visit to Naypyidaw: The New Capital of Burma

Most visitors to Burma head to Mandalay, Bagan and Inle Lake after a quick look at Yangon, but adventurous types may want to jump off the bus in Pyinmana and hire a driver for a ride up to the new capital city of Naypyidaw. That's exactly what Lonely Planet writer Robert Reid did, and as far as I know, he's the first Western tourist to see the exotic sights of this controversial place.

Inspired by my hassle–free itinerary across central Burma, I jumped off a Taungoo–Mandalay bus when I passed nearby Pyinmana in late December. Just to see what would happen. "Naypyidaw?" the first motorbike guy at the Pyinmana bus stop repeated when I asked. "Yes, 3000 kyat", or about $2.50. I hadn't expected such a quick offer. He propped my suitcase between his knees and the handlebars and we took off onto a road that looked nothing like the entrance I expected.

No one seemed to be watching when my motorbike taxi and I pulled into a $65 hotel in the two–mile long "hotel district" on the road toward a small, new airport. Unlike the $10 family guesthouses I stayed in elsewhere in Burma, no one greeted me. I walked my bag up the lobby steps. Inside, a pudgy official wearing a longyi and giant turquoise ribbon on his white button–up shirt sat on a wicker sofa by a Christmas tree.

The next day, I had the bulk of a day to look around before hopping on an evening bus to Meiktila. With no clue where to go or what to see, I found another motorbike taxi guy and suggested going to some typical Burmese destinations: "a pagoda, a market and a teashop." I soon learned that getting anywhere means passing a lot of nothing. Outside the hotel, we passed unused bus stops and a couple locals ignoring sidewalks and walking down empty six–lane roads. A nearby sign plopped into an empty field read "Mitsubishi Showroom: Coming Soon!" A mile west, we reached the ghost–like "shopping district," with 185 matching, pillared storefronts standing like cubist Monticellos in rose–pink and sky–blue. "Only five stores open," my Burmese–speaking driver told me using various hand gestures, meaning 180 were empty.

Perceptive Travel

Worldfilmbkk?

What's this? A mirror site for The Nation?

Bangkok's Advertising Industry

Advert-Eyes features a handful of sample ads from Thailand, but I didn't find them very creative. I'm sure that Ron at 2Bangkok, or somebody else, has a better site for the great advertising from that country. Hello, Ron, Steve, Richard? How about Werewolf or Smitty?

Chris Coles: Artist in Bangkok

Bangkok's best known expat artist is Chris Coles, who sees the people and places with an unsettling eye and vivid personality not unlike many others who fled their monotonous home countries for the vibrant societies of the East.

The website of Chris Coles features his art, videos, samples of his shows around the world, and a short bio page with a self portrait and credits for his film work. Too bad about that Geena Davis movie, Chris. Chris Coles YouTube site is also great fun, and is appropriately named "Bangkok Nightlife."

Bangkok's Political Pundits

When I need to relax in the evening with an informative blog about Thailand, I often curl up with the mysterious Bangkok Dan at his Absolutely Bangkok website and read his old posts, including this classic about the important news journalists in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Dan prefers to remain anonymous, but his name dropping indicates he's been in the field for many years and probably knows many of the people mentioned in the article below. He's also a beer fan, so all right in my book.

The Absolutely Bangkok Archive is the place to go for quick links to his stories.

There is a vast, highly organized underground railroad of information running through this country, feeding the public the information everybody knows, but nobody finds in any newspaper. Information you never read about in newspapers and magazines. Information you never hear about in radio and TV. But every Thai knows about it.

Foreigners generally have no access to this wealth of undercurrent information that is flowing through the Thai undergrounds. Which, for foreigners, automatically leads to the feeling that the longer you stay in Thailand, the less you understand. As clear-cut information is sparse. The more you see of it, the less you can make of it.

What brings us finally to the topic of the post: Why it makes sense to ask the advice of political pundits, whose calling it is to ponder over Thai politics. Their experience and analysis help to not lose your way through the meanders of Bangkok’s political labyrinths.

A favorite in this métier is Shawn W. Crispin, the Asia Times Online’s Southeast Asia editor.

Crispin rose to fame with that story in the meanwhile succumbed Far Eastern Economic Review FEER. A story, for which Crispin – together with Rodney Tasker – had paid with much unwanted attention. Crispin though is known for his excellent sources with no clouds over his integrity. Hence for Thailand other priorities count.

Crispin seems to be aware of political drifts and rumors in Thailand before they even start. He knows to pull some strings even highly placed Thais are unaware of.

Crispin now and then writes about stuff no Thai dares to write about. He doesn’t seem to be too much concerned about it. Well, you’d call it a Jester’s license earned the hard way. Back then he was threatened with expulsion, even prison. What made him a kind of untouchable.

Much fresher in the trade, but not less well connected, is the Asia Sentinel’s Thailand desk. Some stories they print make even BangkokDan’s hardened face go pink.

The Asia Sentinel is a newer, mostly courageous, never sloppy portal about Asia and her politics. Its three founders are all longtime Asia initiates. They impose no writing formulas to their writers, they solely edit for clarity, brevity and accuracy, which gives the Sentinel’s pieces that kind of free-spirited drift. And being an Internet news site allows to publish stories much longer and detailed than even the honorable long-winded New York Times would ever print them.

A truly anonymous, nevertheless proven and never tired voice about the inside outs of Thai politics remains Bangkok Pundit, a - self-quotation - “person who works in Southeast Asia and spends a large amount of time in Thailand.”

Bangkok Pundit gives the impression of standing on steady ground when elaborating about Thai truisms. He deliberately hides his name and face, but his knife-sharp insights for me at least are credentials enough.

Of much more real flesh and blood is the Inter Press Service’s Thailand correspondent Marwaan Macan-Markar, who even under his real name does not shy away from the dangerous.

Macan-Marker tracks down stories you never thought they’d existed. He’s the constantly traveling voice of the castaways and the downtrodden, exposing their misery through captivating feature stories.

Much more hands on - what brings us to the Thai side of things - is The Nation’s editor Tulsathit Taptim.

If Chuan Leekpai’s tongue is said to be a honey coated razor blade, then Tulsathit’s tongue is a honey soaked arsenal of machetes. He shines with sharpness, wit, sarcasm (a rarity amongst Thais) and 360 degree approaches.

Sometimes Tulsathit gives slightly in to The Nation’s tendency of being too emotional when simple reasoning would be the call of the day. His thoughtful, provocative elaborations though mostly hit the nails on the heads.

I know, we mainly hear from The Nation’s more public faces Suthichai Yoon and his brother, Thepchai Yong. Tulsathit’s voice though is the one to listen to.

Competitor Bangkok Post unfortunately doesn’t have any household names left. The Post’s „Inside Politics“ was the core piece to tell us about the behind-the-scenes. But as the Post had already failed us during the Thaksin days, it has finally become a too-easy-to-digest advertising paper which shies away from any direct engagement with critical issues.

Absolutely Bangkok by Dan

Terrorist Escape in Singapore: Is the Opposition Responsible?

A suspected Islamic terrorist escapes from a high-security facility in Singapore, by climbing out the bathroom window and limping into the woods, and the citizens are up in arms. How in the world did this character escape from one of the world's most tightly controlled societies? Lucky Tan at Diary of a Singaporean Mind has a theory: the opposition did it.

Terrorist Mas Selamat was detained under the ISA (Internal Security Act) without trial for our safety.

Coincidentally, "Selamat" means "safety" in Malay. Under the ISA, Selamat was held in Whitley Road Detention Centre the same detention center that held those highly dangerous political detainees e.g. the Marxist Conspirators, Said Zahari fortunately none of these political detainees escaped to endanger our beloved govt. If we had sent him for trial, he would have been held in Changi Prison where the toilets have no windows.

The big question now on everyone's mind is "Where is Mas Selamat?"...He was in all our nightmares yesterday night but where is he physically?

I have an important message for those who blame our esteemed Minister Wong Kan Seng for this incident. I put the blame squarely on the members of the Opposition. Here's why:

WKS as minister cannot possibly know the detention center that well - you expect minister to inspect every toilet there? You expect the minister to train every guard? He has already apologised and taken responsibility. However, the members of the Opposition are the ones I blame for this mess.

A number Opposition members have been detained under the ISA and know this detention center inside out. They probably are familiar with the toilet used by Mas Selamat and the security flaws in the detention center - the redoctrination that purges them of harmful thoughts can temporarily increase the urge to escape. Knowing that the govt was detaining terrorist there, why didn't they point out the possible ways of escape to the govt? ...I don't think the Opposition has any valid reasons for denying responsibility for the escape, many have been detained there over the years and they spend more time there than almost anyone else.

Diary of a Singaporean Mind

Bali Discovery Celebrates 10 Years

Jack Daniels (see Santa above) at Bali Discovery celebrates 10 years of publishing his free weekly newsletter about happenings on the island, with the slightest bit of snark and fun tidbits such as the video of the corrupt cop shaking down some tourists. And if the tourism news gets a bit dull at times, there's always the possibility that nutcase Mark Austin may rear his ugly head.

Ten years, nearly 600 editions and over 10,000 pages of articles later, Bali Update should necessarily pause and reflect on its evolution during what has been a most eventful decade in the history of Bali's tourism.

Born in 1998 as Indonesia weathered the political upheaval of a historic change of regime, smoke clouds from Sumatran forest fires and region-wide economic collapse, - the Bali Update has grown remarkably from the original simple email shared with a small group of colleagues providing a "local view" on developments that we felt were ignored under reported by the international media. Over the past ten years a system of shared emails has evolved into a newsletter now sent every Monday to nearly 20,000 subscribers.

Bali Discovery

Fly Air Bagan

I can't find any news on this crumpled plane, but the photos are dated 20 Feburary as posted at Ko-Htike.