MAZE IN MANY WAYS
SMOKERS who flout a smoking ban on 20 of Thailand’s most famous tourist beaches will face a $ 3000 fine or up to a year in prison, Thai authorities have said.
The ban, which comes into force next month, follows a clean- up of nearly 140,000 cigarette butts from a 2.5km stretch of the famed Patong beach in Phuket island province.
Its introduction coincides with Thailand’s peak tourist season and will be enforced in visitor hot spots including Krabi, Koh Samui, Pattaya, Phuket and Phang Nga.
Smokers will have to use designated areas with proper waste disposal for cigarette butts.
Those caught lighting up on the beach could face jail or a $ 3000 fine. VISITORS to Rome’s Colosseum can now see the structure as poor Romans once did — minus the wild animals, gladiators and Christian martyrs.
The top floors of the amphitheatre, which housed seats for the plebeian class, have opened for the first time in 40 years. The newly renovated fifth floor of the nearly 2000year- old amphitheatre used to house the cheapest seats on the top tiers, high up and far from the action, and were used by poor plebeians, ancient Rome’s lowest social class.
The plebeian area is now open to small groups and offers visitors the chance to observe the iconic structure from a 40m- high perch. It also offers views of other nearby historical sites such as the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill. THE 77- year- old man did not speak a word of English and my Burmese vocabulary was limited to thank you.
Somehow, though, we were able to connect over an open fire in his tiny home in the mountains outside Pindaya, Myanmar.
I had just finished trekking through the nearby jungle when my local guide told me we were stopping for lunch at the man’s home. Wearing the traditional Burmese sarong known as a longyi, he asked me – or, more accurately, gestured to me – to write my name and nationality in his paper notebook beside the previous European visitors.
He in turn wrote down his name in beautiful Burmese script on a torn sheet of paper.
I asked my guide, who knew limited English, to help me translate it, but even my guide could not help.
Instead, I had the man repeat his name over and over until I phonetically spelled it out in English. U Kah Poh.
The experience might have been frustrating for some people, but I enjoyed every minute of it.
Just a few days before this encounter, I had left a network of friends in Cambodia I had made over the previous six months in order to travel on my own for a few weeks before returning home.
I was exhausted, secondguessing my life decisions and wondering if I had it in me to travel on my own for several weeks.
Then I arrived in Myanmar, a country I had wanted to visit since a nominally civilian government came into power a few years ago after decades of military rule.
After flying into the largest city of Yangon, I took another flight to the airport in Heho and then made the one- hour drive to Pindaya, a town located in Myanmar’s Shan State, which is known for its limestone caves that include more than 8000 carvings and images of Buddha.
Big, small, cracked, shiny, every imaginable type of statue is crammed into the cave that is open to the public. Visitors take a lift up to the Shwe Oo Min Pagoda and navigate the cave like a maze, making sure not to get stuck in a dead end.
I later hopped back on my bicycle and rode through town before heading to Pone Taloke Lake, where I sat and reflected on the fact that despite the challenges of navigating a new place and an unknown language, the people I met in Pindaya were friendly, accommodating and eager to help.