In Burma a frustrated quiet
The News Review:
- In Burma a frustrated quiet
- Sporting News – Your expert source for MLB Baseball NFL Football…
- Hostel market heats up in South Beach
- Bangkok museum director arrested during Seattle trip
- World Traveler’s Luxury Deals
- Thousands killed in China earthquake
- Fiji: Much more than our fair share – 13 May 2008 – NZ Herald: Travel…
In Burma a frustrated quiet
Christian Science Monitor – May 13, 2008
Residents here in Myawaddy say they expect greater flows of people in coming weeks and months. But even in eastern Burma this new wave of refugees is finding food shortages and skyrocketing prices as sellers profiteer from panic. The Thai government has long wanted to expand and pave the Asian Highway all the way across to the Indian border as they have upgraded roads from Thailand deep into Cambodia and Laos. Instead drivers say the Asian Highway is a narrow sliver of dirt or chipped pavement that only allows one-way flow of traffic to go down the mountain one day and up the next. Armed soldiers at checkpoints every couple of miles outside Myawaddy turn back foreigners and arrest or fine Burmese without travel permits. “I could get 20 years in jail for taking people illegally” says a driver who recently bought a Toyota from Thailand. He charges passengers at least 5000 kyat or about $6 for a one-way trip… Hit with rising fuel prices people keep motorbikes inside. Lacking work young males play billiards on street-side tables while women with cheeks smeared in thanaka bark watch TV or crowd around shops with public phones trying to contact relatives. New construction projects such as the Starlight Hotel remain unfinished. Myint said the cost of an egg in Myawaddy has doubled since the cyclone. “It’s very bad now” he says. “Next year there will be no rice at all growing in Irrawaddy division. We can’t trust to get rice from Yangon authority.
Sporting News – Your expert source for MLB Baseball NFL Football…
SportingNews.com – May 13, 2008
Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana of Thailand were making their way through thick black smoke to exit their hotel when they heard someone calling for them. “After we got out of the room we made some noise: ‘Is somebody still here?”‘ Sanchai said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “She called ‘This way! this way!”‘ The twins who have won two titles on the ATP tour and expect to play at the French pen later this month entered the room and found Arnold Ker’s wife and son. “First she wanted to use the blanket to go out the window” Sanchai said.
Hostel market heats up in South Beach
USA Today – May 13, 2008
But that’s fine with her since she is saving a ton of money every night. Simon who is from Germany used to stay in four-star hotels until she found out about hostels which offer low-price lodging and the chance to make new friends. “It started with I wanted to travel around the world as much as possible” said Simon who declined to give her age. “I asked what is it all about? They said a hostel is where you save first of all a lot of money where you meet a lot of people international from all over. With its Art Deco buildings bikini-clad women and late-night party scene experts say South Beach is becoming a hot tourist destination for young travelers looking to spend less money on where they are going to sleep and more on sightseeing… stayed at Tropics Hotel & Hostel with her brother and a friend but said she would feel “very uncomfortable sharing a space with complete strangers” especially when she had to get dressed. But for the experienced backpacker who has seen it all hostels are a great way to travel on a budget. Xain Coslow 22 from regon has stayed in over 40 hostels in the past two years in places such as Thailand Costa Rica and San Francisco. He is now at the Jazz Hostel on South Beach. “People hear hostel and they think horror movie or they think of a cramped little space. But in reality though it’s like meeting a bunch of friends pretty much” he said. Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Bangkok museum director arrested during Seattle trip
Seattle Times – May 13, 2008
But she was interesting” Lavely said. “And we were very happy she had come. It’s a long way from Thailand. To have it end under these circumstances is really quite shocking. The UW symposium continued Saturday with other scheduled speakers and events. Lavely announced to guests that Brown was “unable to attend. Brown is the first person to be arrested in an ongoing probe into looted artifacts.
World Traveler’s Luxury Deals
Forbes – May 13, 2008
But a trip like this also means spending much of the time in your hotel room waiting for the rain to stop. For many the desire for a valuable vacation outweighs the allure of huge off-season savings. But it doesn’t have to. The smartest travelers are finding both.
Thousands killed in China earthquake
Tehran Times – May 13, 2008
A chemical plant collapsed in Shifang city to the northeast of the quake’s epicenter burying hundreds of people and sending more than 80 tons of toxic liquid ammonia leaking from the site state media reported. The earthquake sent thousands of people rushing out of buildings and into the streets hundreds of miles away in Beijing and Shanghai. The temblor was felt as far away as Pakistan Vietnam and Thailand. The quake posed a challenge to a government already grappling with discontent over high inflation and a widespread uprising among Tibetans in western China while trying to prepare for the Beijing lympics this August. It hit about 60 miles northwest of Chengdu in the middle of the afternoon when classrooms and office towers were full. There were several smaller aftershocks the U… ?The floor was moving underneath me. ?In Fuyang 660 miles to the east chandeliers in the lobby of the Buckingham Palace Hotel swayed. ?We’ve never felt anything like this our whole lives? said a hotel employee surnamed Zhu. Patients at the Fuyang People’s No. 1 Hospital were evacuated. An hour after the quake a half-dozen patients in blue-striped pajamas stood outside the hospital. ne was laying on a hospital bed in the parking lot.
Fiji: Much more than our fair share – 13 May 2008 – NZ Herald: Travel…
New Zealand Herald – May 13, 2008
We were off for seven nights at the Shangri-La Fijian Resort and I didn’t want my children aged 4 and 6 taking such luxury for granted. In a huge complex such as the Shangri-La – with its swimming pools tennis courts state-of-the-art gym manicured golf course and abundant restaurants – it’s very easy to stay within the confines of the hotel and think that the fake-but-fun fire lighting ceremony is real Fiji. The Fijians the kids met at the hotel even the man with the insecticide pack on his back all smiled and greeted us with “Bula” as if they didn’t have a care in the world. Yet the local Fiji Times newspaper reported families were facing starvation and root crops were being stolen straight out of the ground. The toy exercise was designed to plant the seed of empathy in my own children for less privileged youngsters.
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