Lucky Woman
2007 was the year my best friend and I decided to do a mini-tour of Asia: four countries in two weeks sounded perfect. In retrospect, however, trying to tour Bangkok in one day was probably not the best idea I’ve ever had. Perhaps it might have helped if Maggie and I had more of a plan than “Let’s see a temple and go to a market”. Or if we could speak more Thai than “Thank you.” Maybe then we would have had a proper tour instead of trying to break some kind of speed record. But we had a copy of The Lonely Planet; surely, we thought, that was really all we needed.
Good to be Home
Photo by the author
21 Aug 2006 6:14 AM - SO GOOD TO BE HOME.
A 5-star prison
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—A five-star room with a view, and what a sight—a full overhead of Malaysia’s most notorious prison, gallows and all.
A few floors down and I’d be locking eyeballs with the tower guard.
But wait! Don’t leave, this is no ghastly travel article. It gets better, almost inspirational. You can show it to the entire family, for goodness sake.
The question: Can a brand new five-star hotel and a nasty old hard-core prison live happily-ever-after, side by side?
That’s not exactly what the Berjaya Group had in mind in 2003 when it spent $1.3-billion U.S. to construct its Times Square Hotel & Convention Center in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. The infamous Pudu Prison across the street, which had housed the worst of the worst criminals for over 100 years, had been closed since 1996 and was operating as a museum and tourist attraction, something like Alcatraz.
Now, five-star hotels and museums are a nice fit, even prison museums. So for a few years visitors would tour the old penitentiary with its tiny cells and shoebox-size windows, the dreaded rattan caning area…even the death house and hangman’s platform.
But then the bottom dropped out of the museum business while crime showed an unhealthy increase, much like in this part of the world. So in 2005 the Old Pudu Museum became Pudu Prison again, and the Times Square Hotel now had prisoners instead of paintings across the street.
There goes the neighborhood—right? Wrong. The hotel’s occupancy rate rose higher than ever and many guests are now asking for rooms with a view of the prison instead of Kuala Lumpur’s city center and its dazzling twin towers.
“We used to sell those rooms only after we were filled,” said Julian Arthur, a guest relations officer. “Now they’re in demand. People always seem to want something different, something they can go home and talk about.”
The strange fascination wasn’t limited to room selection. The hotel’s main dining area sprawls from the east to the west (prison) side and the latter was usually filled first each morning with everyone, including me, vying for a window table.
One morning a long line of prisoners in their orange jumpsuits were led single file from one wing to another. Most everyone left their breakfasts to watch the procession. Little wonder why two of the hottest TV shows this season are “Prison Break” and “Lockup.”
I decided to have a closer look at our sinister neighbor the next morning. The exterior walls of the prison were covered with murals painted by the more gifted inmates—obviously under heavy guard– back in 1996 when the prison was being closed.
I approached the main gate and to my astonishment, it was slightly ajar, so I edged in sideways. Now I was in a small area, much like a foyer, facing another walled-off section that contained a small window. I started to walk towards the window when I heard a man’s voice say something indiscernible, turned and saw a uniformed guard in a booth.
He spoke a little English and told me there were about 400 prisoners being held for various crimes, that the death house and gallows were still there but that all executions were now taking place at another interior prison in the middle of nowhere.
Then he asked me, politely but firmly, to leave. While I was taking some exterior photos, I heard another voice inside and the steel gate was sealed.
Back at the hotel that afternoon I stopped in the lounge, where the windows also face Pudu. Some newly-arrived guests entered, walked towards the glass and one man half-shouted in English, “Look, it’s a prison!”
Being an old hand at this sort of thing, I just smiled and kept looking out the window.
Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men
Photo: Flickr/Gino Ginelli
Scandal rocked the Senegalese capital earlier this month when a local gossip magazine published photos of happy men purportedly celebrating a gay wedding at a local restaurant. Several men pictured in the photo were rounded up and jailed. The principals have apparently gone into hiding since publication of the pictures, as homosexuality here can not only be punished with a jail sentence of between one and five years and payment of up to $3000 in fines, but they are considered to be behaving in a way that is ‘against nature’ and the laws of Islam.
Reunification Day in Berlin: An Experience for Americans
Photo by the author
As a citizen of a country newly vulnerable and flirting with the idea of world domination, spending this last October 3rd, Reunification Day, in Berlin was a profound experience. The throngs milling around Brandenburg Gate and basking on the steps of the re-built Reichstag, looked and felt like the Fourth of July, but for these people history is far more immediate and powerful.
Inked in Paradise: A Guide to Getting the Ever-lasting Tattoo Souvenir
Photo: Flickr/denizencitizen
Getting tattooed on vacation can be one way to capture your adventure literally in the flesh. Some areas of the world are renowned for their skill and contribution to the history of tattoos, which is why so many are drawn to the idea of getting tattooed in an exotic locale. In an effort to keep your tattoo souvenir from becoming the mistake of a lifetime, whether it’s a western-style tattoo by gun or a traditional tatau style by bamboo instruments that you’re seeking, I’ll detail some of the basic dos and don’ts of getting tattooed abroad.
The Road to Hellas
Photo:Flickr/Jesmyn
The Greek approach to parking - anytime, anywhere, absolutely any angle - causes such congestion that we weren’t surprised when the bus from Thessaloniki to Halkidiki was late. In fact, at forty minutes past its due time, it was pretty near embalmed. Barely had we three clambered on board than our driver, Stavros, took off. His foot through the floor way with an accelerator and non-stop rants about the shortcomings of other road users, combined with the conductor’s incessant huffing, confirmed that this was one seriously overdue bus.
Buddha Story
Photo: Xiandu Qiu
What I am going to describe to you is the discovery of another world, experiencing a culture miles from the westernized society.
Let’s go green and keep it clean
Photo: Flickr/Smurfie77
Do you recycle? I know I do, so when it comes to traveling I like to check out my options in eco-friendly traveling. It is a fact, traveling has an impact on the environment. I was very happy to discover Eco Traveling, a place filled with great articles about alternative and traditional ways of traveling around the globe. It seems that the demand for eco-tourism is rising drastically. Even resorts are looking into how they could make their resort eco-friendly, which means it will keep the nature as natural as possible, without affecting it. If you’re looking into ecotraveling, you can find really good guidelines at Ecotour.
Stockholm
Photo:Flickr/Karamanis
As snow descends - Stockholm half heartedly awaiting Spring - I wander up Fleminggatan, a broad street of commerce, cafes and occasional bars, where, of the two hair salons I pass - my hair, incidentally, being split ended and in need of address - men on crimson seats have their eyebrows sculptured. These are not peacocks in their twenties but gentlemen of vintage. I curiously watch at such attention to detail, and, not waiting for eyeliner to be applied, commence to Wagner loving Inger’s cute, snug, place, that, for the next five nights, I‘d call home.
