If you are an eco-tourism enthusiast, here is another good news for you.
A leading property developer in the Kingdom, Chamreun Sambath Construction Co Ltd, has announced that it is working on another massive eco-tourism project, this time in Kampong Speu province.
The new project, which is called KC Adventure/Agricultural Resort Basedth, will sit on more than 100 hectares of land in Kampong Speu’s Basedth district, Dr Alexander Evengroen, CEO of Chamreun Sambath Construction Co Ltd, said in an interview yesterday.
Just like with their eco-tourism project in Kampot province, Mr Evengroen said their Kampong Speu venture will benefit the Cambodian people and the Kingdom’s tourism industry. Chamreun Sambath Construction Co Ltd is separately working on a multi-million-dollar adventure Resort in Kampot’s Chhouk district. “We want to give back to the people while growing Cambodia’s tourism industry,” he said.
According to him, their latest venture will feature a Cambodian history museum, fruit farms, cattle farms, special islands, restaurants, solar park, guesthouses, hotel, hobbit homes, cable carts, flower gardens, nature hiking trails, watersports facilities, coffee shop, sky tower, fish ponds, car park, clubhouse, resort, pavilion and cottages, among others. “What is unique about this place is that visitors will also learn about the beauty of Cambodian history while enjoying the scenery,” he pointed out.
Mr Evengroen said Basedth district is an excellent choice for such project. According to many tourism experts, Kampong Speu, with its mountains, forests, and national parks, is among several provinces in Cambodia that hold vast potential for eco-tourism development.
“The location is green and fresh, with stunning views and mountains within and in the background. It is also easy to reach and ready for development,” he stressed.
“We are developing more than 100 hectares and might expand in the future,” he added.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the company's collapse was "very sad news for staff and holidaymakers".
He urged holidaymakers to be "understanding with staff" amid the "enormous" task of bringing people home.
Mr Shapps has announced that the government and CAA has hired dozens of charter planes to fly customers home free of charge.
The emergency operation, codenamed Operation Matterhorn, is aiming to bring home Britons currently on holiday with the firm.
On Sunday, empty aircraft had already started to be flown overseas, ready to bring British tourists home on Monday.
One of the world's best known holiday brands, the business was founded in 1841 in Leicestershire by cabinet-maker Thomas Cook.
How will holidaymakers get home?
All
customers currently abroad with Thomas Cook who are booked to return to
the UK over the next two weeks will be brought home "as close as
possible" to their booked return date, the Department for Transport
(DfT) has said.
Customers will be brought home to the UK on special free flights or booked onto another scheduled airline at no extra cost.
The DfT added that a "small number" of passengers may need to book their own flight home and reclaim the costs.
Customers
have been urged not to cut short their holiday or go to the airport
without checking the website for more information about their return
journey.
The CAA is also contacting hotels accommodating Thomas
Cook customers, who have booked as part of a package, to tell them that
the cost of their accommodation will be covered by the government,
through the Air Travel Trust Fund and Air Travel Organiser's Licence
scheme (Atol).
The CAA said in a statement: "All Thomas Cook bookings, including flights and holidays, have now been cancelled.
"We know that a company with such long-standing history ceasing
trading will be very distressing for its customers and employees and our
thoughts are with everyone affected by this news."
Tim Johnson,
policy director of the CAA, told BBC News it has chartered "more than
40" aircraft, which are already in position, to bring passengers home.
He
urged customers in the UK who were due to travel not to go to the
airport "because very sadly your flight has been cancelled".
Mr
Johnson added: "For those who have not yet started their holiday, we
will be publishing details of how they can claim a refund on the
website, no later than next Monday."
Business Secretary Andrea
Leadsom has said she will write to the Insolvency Service urging them to
"fast-track" their investigation into the circumstances surrounding
Thomas Cook going into liquidation.
The DfT said the investigation will also consider the conduct of the directors.
Travel expert Simon Calder told BBC News that planes at Manchester
airport have already begun to be impounded following news of the
collapse.
"Shortly after midnight, we saw the airport putting a
notice of detention on some Thomas Cook aircraft because of unpaid
airport bills," he said.
What went wrong?
Thomas
Cook had secured a £900m rescue deal led by its largest shareholder
Chinese firm Fosun in August, but a recent demand from its lending banks
to raise a further £200m in contingency funding had put the deal in
doubt.
Fosun said in a statement it was "disappointed" following news of the collapse.
It
added: "Fosun confirms that its position remained unchanged throughout
the process, but unfortunately other factors have changed.
"We extend our deepest sympathy to all those affected by this outcome."
The
holiday company had spent all Sunday in talks with lenders trying to
secure the additional funding and salvage the deal, but to no avail.
It had also asked the government for financial aid, a solution also urged by Labour and union groups.
Customers
on a package holiday have Atol protection - a fund paid for through
industry levies - which will cover the cost of their holiday and
repatriation.
Thomas Cook has blamed a series of issues for its
problems including political unrest in holiday destinations such as
Turkey, last summer's prolonged heatwave and customers delaying booking
holidays because of Brexit.
But the firm has also faced fierce competition from online travel agents and low-cost airlines.
In addition, many holidaymakers are putting together their own holidays and not using travel agents.
What are your rights?
If you are on a package holiday you are covered by the Atol scheme.
The scheme will pay for your accommodation abroad, although you may have to move to a different hotel or apartment.
Atol will also pay to have you brought home if the airline is no longer operating.
If you have holiday booked in the future you will also be refunded by the scheme.
If
you have booked a flight-only deal you will need to apply to your
travel insurance company or credit card and debit card provider to seek a
refund.
When Monarch Airlines collapsed in 2017, the government
organised to bring home all the stranded passengers, whether they were
covered by Atol or not.
Are
you a Thomas Cook customer or member of staff? If you've been affected
by the issues raised here, you can get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:
Unable to adapt to the move online as smaller, nimbler travel
companies thrive, Thomas Cook, the household name in international
travel, is close to financial collapse. And the collapse could leave up
to 150,000 British tourists stranded overseas.
The iconic British
travel giant Thomas Cook say they’ve failed to find any further private
investment to stave off collapse and now relies on an unlikely
government bailout. The group is blaming “Brexit uncertainty” as the
major problem with their current malaise.
The operator announced
they needed £200 million (US$250 million) – in addition to the
£900-million rescue deal secured last month – or else face
administration, which could potentially trigger Britain’s largest
repatriation since World War II – customers who are currently overseas.
A source close to the negotiations told AFP the company had failed to
find the £200 million from private investors and would collapse unless
the government intervened. Without another bailout by its Chinese major
shareholder Fosun, the brand’s financial options are few.
But
ministers are unlikely to step in due to worries about the pioneering
operator’s longer-term viability leaving it teetering on the brink of
collapse and stranding up to 150,000 British holidaymakers abroad.
“We
will know by tomorrow if agreement is reached,” the source told AFP.
The firm’s shareholders and creditors are scheduled to meet from 9 am
(0800 GMT) on Sunday morning, followed by a meeting of the board of
directors in the afternoon.
The Transport Salaried Staffs Association, which represents workers at the company, called on the government to rescue the firm.
“It is incumbent upon the government to act if required and save this
iconic cornerstone of the British high street and the thousands of jobs
that go with it,” said TSSA General Secretary, Manuel Cortes.
“The company must be rescued no matter what.”
Two
years ago, the collapse of Monarch Airlines prompted the British
government to take emergency action to return 110,000 stranded
passengers, costing taxpayers some £60 million on hiring planes.
The government at the time described it as Britain’s “biggest-ever peacetime repatriation”.
Thousands
of workers could also lose their jobs, with the 178 year old company
employing about 22,000 staff worldwide, including 9,000 in Britain.
Chinese
peer Fosun, which was already the biggest shareholder in Thomas Cook,
agreed last month to inject £450 million into the business. In return,
the Hong Kong-listed conglomerate acquired a 75% stake in Thomas Cook’s
tour operating division and 25% of its airline unit.
Creditors and
banks agreed to inject another £450 million under the recapitalisation
plan announced in August, converting their debt in exchange for a 75%
stake in the airline and 25 percent of the tour operating unit.
Thomas
Cook in May revealed that first-half losses widened on a major
write-down, caused in part by Brexit uncertainty that delayed summer
holiday bookings. The group, which has around 600 stores across the UK,
has also come under pressure from fierce online competition.
More industry and NGO groups are lining up with criticism or calls
for abolishment of the embattled TM30 and TM28 immigration forms. Most
of the criticisms focus on the draconian nature of the forms, confusion
around interpretation and the problems with inconsistent implementation.
Trade
and commerce organisations are saying it flies in the face of the
government’s wishes for Thailand to be a place to invest in and conduct
business.
Now, the European Association of Business and Commerce
is recommending to the Thai government to completely do away with the
TM30.
“And, as an immediate step towards achieving that, remove from its scope many categories of foreigners.”
They say the same applies to the related TM28 form as well. “The TM30 process has been in the news due to its inconvenience,
questions about its value and usefulness, the questions it raises about
commitment to ‘ease of doing business’ and the recent, almost
inexplicable crackdown via an old law much of which has been dormant for
decades.”
“The TM30 form and process in effect requires landlords
to report on the location and movement of foreigners who are their
tenants. Hotels have the same obligation but for foreign tourists
staying in hotels, it is not noticed by those tourists as the hotel uses
the TM6 arrival card information from their foreign guests.”
“Section
38 of the Immigration Act (which is the basis of TM30) has been around
since 1979, but was not enforced until since late March 2019. It is
being enforced inconsistently with various local interpretations. TM.28
(supported by s. 37 of the Immigration Act) is an often overlapping
obligation on foreigners to report.”
The submission has been made to Dr. Kobsak Pootrakool, Deputy Secretary‐General to the Prime Minister for Political Affairs.
U.S. cable news channel CNN has listed the 400-year-old Hoi An Town in central Vietnam among “the most picturesque” in Asia.
The UNESCO heritage site in Quang Nam Province ranks fourth in the list of 13 most beautiful towns in Asia, behind another UNESCO site, George Town in Malaysia, the beautiful river town of Zhouzhuang in China and Japan’s Yufuin.
Hoi An, which used to be the busiest trading port in Southeast Asia in the 16th century and was famous for ceramics and high-quality silk, is now "a heaven for photographers, foodies and architecture lovers", CNN said.
"Thanks to centuries as an important trade hub, the narrow streets of Hoi An ancient town feature rows and rows of charming mustard-hued merchant houses though many have since been transformed into low-key restaurants, bars, design boutiques and tailors' shops."
For many, Hoi An is not just a collection of 16th century houses for which the former port town has been recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site. A cuisine particular to the town, influenced by many different cultures including Japan, China and Portugal, is a major part of its attraction too.
.
Don’t miss the array of delicious food experiences, from banh mi, a Vietnamese single-serving baguette filled with various savory ingredients, at the famous Banh Mi Phuong Restaurant (2B Phan Chau Trinh) that has been praised by bloggers and foreign media for several years now. Anthony Bourdain referred to the banh mi here as "the world's best", CNN said.
"Foodies can also enjoy local staples like herb-covered rice rolls, white rose dumplings and fresh seafood at Ms Ly’s café."
.
.
Famous towns in Southeast Asia appearing on the CNN list also include Vigan in the Philippines, Luang Prabang in Laos, Kampot in Cambodia, Kota Gede in Indonesia, and Phuket Old Town in Thailand.
Hoi An has been earning one laurel after another this year including topping this year’s tourism hotspot listing by New York-based magazine Travel + Leisure.
On July 16 Google Doodle featured an image of Hoi An with symbols of Chua Cau (Pagoda Bridge) and colorful lanterns, the first Vietnamese destination to be honored thus.
The number of foreign visitors to Hoi An skyrocketed by 90 percent last year to 3.7 million.
The Ministry of Tourism on Wednesday proposed the creation of an
aviation association in a meeting with the State Secretariat of Civil
Aviation and five airlines.
Tourism Minister Thong Khon said having an association for the
industry will facilitate dialogue among all actors and help them find
solutions to the challenges the industry faces.
“The association
will play a significant role in finding solutions and will help the
industry develop smoothly,” the minister said during the meeting, which
included representatives of the national flag carrier, Cambodia Angkor
Air.
Flight delays and cancellations, problems that beset the local aviation industry, were also discussed in the meeting.
Ministry
spokesperson Top Sopheak told Khmer Times yesterday that the ministry’s
proposal has had a positive reception among players in the industry.
“SSCA will look into the possibility of forming the association,” he said.
SSCA’s spokesperson Sin Chan Sereyvutha could not be reached for comment yesterday.
According to SSCA, the Kingdom’s three international airports handled 29,705 flights in the first six months of the year.
Come January, the Everest region is set to become a no-plastic zone.
After scrambling for years to deal with the piles of waste in the Everest region, which has gained notoriety as the ‘world’s highest garbage dump’, the local authority has endorsed a plan to declare the whole area a ‘no plastic’ zone from the next year.
The Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality in Solukhumbu district has decided that starting January 1, 2020, it will impose a ban on the use of plastic bags, bottles and other plastic items, citing their adverse effects on human health, especially in the whole Everest region.
The rural municipality, passing its policies and programmes for the current fiscal year, decided that the use of plastic bags less than 30 microns will be prohibited in the Everest region, according to Ganesh Ghimire, chief administrative officer at the local authority.
With the new rule, even bottled drinks will be barred from the area. Now onwards, all the bottled beverages will have to be taken in cans only.
“Over the years, plastic has created havoc in a region that is fragile and home to the world’s tallest peaks,” Ghimire told the Post. “As the number of tourists visiting the area went up, the Everest region was flooded with plastics. The initiative is taken to rid the region of plastics.”
Once the rule comes into force, no one—locals or tourists—will be allowed to use and carry plastic bags, and plastic bottles inside the rural municipality, according to Ghimire.
“We will only allow canned drinks because cans are not as hazardous for the environment like plastic. Locals can also recycle cans,” Ghimire said. “It was necessary to impose such a strict ban because the region was plastered with plastic and other items made of plastic.”
The Everest region has long been struggling to manage solid waste that visitors to the region bring along every year. Hundreds of mountaineers, Sherpas, guides and other high altitude porters en route to Everest leave behind tonnes of both biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes that include empty oxygen canisters, bottles, ropes, kitchen waste, and faecal matter, polluting the area and the settlements downstream.
The government rule for every climber to bring back at least 8 kgs of garbage—the amount of trash estimated to be produced by one climber on average—has remained mostly ineffective.
Earlier this year, a 45-day ‘Everest Cleaning Campaign’, led by the rural municipality and supported by various governmental and non-governmental agencies, had brought down nearly 11,000 kgs of garbage from the world’s tallest peak. Plastic in various forms and sizes was the major item in the collected trash.
The campaign, which was one of the most ambitious clean-up projects on Everest, had cost over Rs25million.
“Besides disturbing the local environment, we have to spend a huge amount of money clearing this trash every year,” said Ghimire.
As a replacement for plastic bags, the local authority will distribute five alternative bags free of cost to each resident in the rural municipality with approximately 2,000 households.
The local authority fears that with the opening of a road that connects Kharikhola in ward-1 of the rural municipality with Chaurikharka in ward-3 would exacerbate plastic pollution.
According to the rural municipality’s estimate, nearly 150,000 tourists use the route. The number is predicted to go up to 500,000 next year.
“More tourists on the route will mean more plastics in the region,” Ghimire said. “Before we face an unprecedented amount of plastic in future, this is the right time to prohibit plastics here.”
Vietnam’s north-south railway is listed by the British travel guide, Lonely Planet, as one of 10 world’s ‘most amazing’ train journeys for 2019.
The Reunification Express, known as the Thong Nhat Railway, traverses more than 1,726 kilometers (1,072 miles) between Hanoi and Saigon, the country’s two biggest cities, in two days.
"There is no more atmospheric way to haul into Vietnam’s twin metropolises. And there’s no better way of exploring all the glories in between," Lonely Planet said.
The journey allows passengers to sit and enjoy romantic scenery and rural landscapes along coastal towns in the central region including the former imperial capital of Hue, the Da Nang City Port which was initially built in the French colonial time and the ancient town of Hoi An.
.
.
The other train journeys Lonely Planet lists are the California Zephyr in the U.S., Baikal–Amur Mainline in Russia, China’s Beijing to Lhasa Express, and the TranzAlpine in New Zealand.
The north-south rail has been deteriorating after decades of use since being built by the French in the 1930s. Rail transport is rapidly losing popularity given the rise of cheap air travel.
Vietnam’s aviation industry has been growing at the third fastest pace in the Asia-Pacific, according to the International Air Transport Association.
The railways carried 9.4 million passengers last year, down 3.5 percent from 2017, according to government data.
Some companies have been trying to revive the romance of train travel, offering first-class trips with attached restaurant cars like the five-star services launched in 2017 from Saigon to the coastal resort town of Nha Trang and from Hanoi to the northern highlands town of Sa Pa.
Russian news agency Sputnik recently included the north-south rail among world’s 10 most beautiful.
Last year travel publisher Rough Guides named it as one of the most scenic in Asia, where one can watch buffalos grazing in rice paddies, fishermen casting their nets in the sea, deserted white beaches, and lush rainforests.
According to Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the number of Indonesian
travelers exploring the archipelago in 2018 increased by 12.37 percent
year-on-year
Aware of this rising trend in travel, ride-hailing app Grab
reintroduced a campaign that shows its commitment to serving as the
ultimate travel companion.
Grab Indonesia managing director Neneng Goenadi said in a press
conference in late July that Grab aimed to ensure that users experienced
smooth, convenient and safe travels.
“As an everyday super-app […], Grab wants to provide essential
services to assist users in their daily life [by] providing easy and
safe services with a relevant hyperlocal approach,” Neneng said.
She went on to say that the company supported the country’s Wonderful
Indonesia tourism campaign as well by offering services that helped
holidaymakers explore the archipelago more conveniently.
Available in 224 cities across Indonesia, Grab is already known for
its GrabCar and GrabBike services, but with the different personalities
of travelers in mind, the company has expanded its repertoire.
GrabCar Plus, for instance, offers five-star drivers whose cars are
also in prime condition. There is also the GrabCar 6-Seater option for
small groups of travelers that can take up to 80 kilograms of baggage,
GrabCar Airport that can be easily ordered in 14 airports across
Indonesia and GrabRent that allows users to book a dedicated car for two
to 12 hours.
Meanwhile, GrabNow is a service that enables users to hail a vacant GrabBike and enter their destination afterward.
Neneng further explained a service called GrabGerak, which is a
GrabCar dedicated to disabled passengers and offers cars that are
wheelchair-friendly and drivers who have been trained to help the
disabled.
Similar hyperlocal services are available in Medan, North Sumatra, with the GrabBetor that provides access to betor (motorcycle pedicab) and GrabBentor in Gorontalo, North Sulawesi, for sidecar motorcycles.
Neneng added that there would also be GrabAndong in Yogyakarta for users to book horse carriages.
More than a platform for travelers to book land transportation, Grab
also makes it possible for users to book plane tickets and hotel rooms
through the app, not to mention food and movie tickets from CGV and
Cinemaxx in some Indonesian cities.
Meanwhile, to ensure safety, drivers are required to post selfies,
including ones in which they move their heads, every day before signing
on to work.
For British travellers, an expedition to Son Doong in Vietnam, the world’s largest cave, is among the greatest adventures they would like to undertake.
British TV channel Dave, a panel of travel experts and editors of U.K. tabloid Daily Mail polled 2,000 people aged 40 or under earlier this week for a survey of ‘greatest adventures around the world and across the U.K.’
Of them, 24 percent said they want to explore Son Doong Cave in the central province of Quang Binh, dubbed Vietnam’s ‘Kingdom of Caves,’ putting it fifth in the top 20 adventure list.
Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa, topped the list (37 percent), followed by trekking along the Inca trail in Peru (35 percent), rafting in the Grand Canyon in the U.S. (31 percent) and descending into Thrihnukagigur volcano in the U.K. (29 percent).
The rest of the top 10 also included dog sledding to witness the aurora borealis in Norway, kayaking in Arctic fjords in Denmark, climbing to the Everest Base Camp in Nepal, cruising the Antarctic, and cage diving with sharks in South Africa.
.
Howard Limbert, a former head of the British Caving Association, and his wife Deb spent nearly 13 years surveying caves in Vietnam since the early 1990s. In 2009 they concluded their initial exploration and declared Son Doong the world's largest cave.
.
.
Son Doong opened to tourists in 2013 and the five kilometer-long system, which is 150 meters high and 200 meters wide, contains at least 150 individual caves, a dense subterranean jungle and several underground rivers.
Due to limited space, registration for Son Doong tours must be made well in advance. According to Oxalis, now the only company licensed to take tourists to the cave, only 300 slots are available this year.
A four-day expedition costs $3,000, and there are buses running from Hanoi to Dong Hoi, the capital town of Quang Binh, and then to the park.
The Quang Binh government recently increased the number of tourists allowed to visit the cave in a year from 640 to 900.
The tour is growing in popularity, and with Son Doong getting prominent coverage from the National Geographic, CNN and Good Morning America, Phong Nha-Ke Bang has become the go-to destination in Vietnam for adventurous travelers
We’ll start with Songkran because that’s the start
of the Thai new year. It’s held on April 13. Having already blown most
of the budget on fireworks for the western new year on January 1 and the
Chinese New Year festivities, this time they use water as a means of
‘purification’, saying goodbye to the country’s hot season and welcoming
the monsoonal rains. It involves a lot of water. In the past it was a
gentle festival held at temples washing Buddha images.
It’s meant to be like this…
.
.
Fireworks, colour, smoke, noise, costumes, absence of occupational
health and safety. That could describe any of the many, many festivals
held around Thailand each year. Different regions, different festivals.
Some reflect an ancient culture and a rich history, other make
absolutely no sense but we enjoy them anyway. We’ll go through some of
the main ones and a few you’ll NEVER see anywhere else in the world.
But it’s actually like this!
.
.
Somehow it’s morphed into a huge water fight, in some places, running
over many days up to week (in Chiang Mai and parts of Pattaya).
Ladeling water gently onto Buddha statues has been replaced by all-out
water fights, loud music, foam and a party that has no rules.
If
you’re outside during Songkran, especially in the main tourist zones,
you WILL get splashed, probably drenched. The more the authorities try
and play down the fun in Songkran the more tourists arrive each year
determined to party in an event that’s somewhere between a video-game
and the last half of ‘Titanic’.
And that’s just ONE festival!
.
.
The Vegetarian Festival, principally held in Phuket
with it’s Chinese heritage, is an assault on all your senses. Parades
are held around the island by various community groups with participants
wearing white and followed up by either one or many mah-song. These
mah-song have been ‘possessed’ by a spirit and display tourettes-like
ticks, grunts and choreography that suggests their claims may indeed be
true. If it’s all an act, it’s a very convincing one because, apart from
all the cavorting down the street, they also have their cheeks and
other parts of their body pierced – not by an earring or something tame
like that – we’re talking spears, swords, petrol pumps, guns. It’s
insane! These days there’s an ambulance following behind and probably
more mah-song succumb to blood loss than is ever reported.
.
.
Phi ta khon (or Ghost Festival) is held in the Dan
Sai district of north-eastern Thailand (near the Lao border) each year
and usually follows a parade of people dressed up in rags with ghost
masks.
Phi Ta Khon is the name given to a group of celebrations
held over three days in the province of Loei. The most striking is the
first day, the Ghost Festival itself, when the town residents invite the
protection of the river spirit Phra U-Pakut, and then parade wearing the ghosts masks made of husks and coconut leaves.
But they also carry with them large phallic axes which are meant to reflect… oh, Google it.
In Esan and around the Laos border areas there are many rocket
festivals each year around May to June. Probably the biggest is the Yasothon Bun Bang Fai Rocket Festival.
Imagine groups building their own rocket with the winner able to fire
their rocket to the highest altitude. Like Songkran, the idea is to
welcome in the forthcoming wet season (by piercing the sky to encourage
rain).
The rockets used to be made out of bamboo but are more
likely to be constructed out of PVC pipes these days and powered by
‘black powder’ which is regulated by certain rules (we doubt this
claim!!). So there’s gun powder, loud music, alcohol and men in
competition to fire home-made rockets high into the Esan sky – what
could possible go wrong?! Some of the rockets reach heights of several
kilometres and can travel a lot further down range.
Chinese New Year is big in China and it’s also huge in
Thailand. Partly because there are many ethnic Thai-Chinese born in
Thailand but also because there are so many Chinese visiting the Kingdom
these days. The Chinese New Year festivities stretch from shopping
centre sales to regional street parades to ceremonies for families and
businesses.
.
.
For a Buddhist country, Christmas is ironically
enthusiastically celebrated. It involves presents, eating, celebrations,
coloured lights and people spending money so it was always going to fly
in Thailand. Thais remain completely bemused by Santa Claus, ‘baby
Jesus’ and Christmas carols but, commercially, they’ve certainly
embraced it now.
I have never seen better decorations or a
celebration of Christmas than I have in Bangkok. My best Christmas
moment was when I found a statue of Santa Claus nailed to a cross – a
slight cultural faux pas where they’d confused Easter and Christmas and
come up with a perfectly ‘Thai’ Christmas decoration.
Thailand’s Sri Thep Historical Park in Phetchabun may lose the
chance to become a World Heritage Site if the government allows an oil
company to build a drilling hole nearby, according to Wison Kosotanon,
president of the Phetchabun Culture Council.
His warning came after a company, ECO Orient Resources (Thailand),
called earlier this week for a public hearing process in order to
prepare an Environment Impact Assessment report. The company plans to
build the drilling hole near the 1,300 year-old Khao Kwang Nok Stupa
located inside the park.
“The new drilling hole is too close – just over 100 metres to the
historical stupa – it will be harmful to our heritage and will lose us
the chance to get the recognition as a World Heritage Site by Unesco,”
Wison explained.
Opinion is divided over the company’s application – at the first
public hearing, many culture experts and local officials opposed its
construction and claimed they had concerns about the cultural and
environmental impacts it would have, but some villagers supported it in
the hope it might provide them with employment.
Anan Choochote, director of the Culture Ministry’s Fine Arts
Department, has assigned his archaeological teams to study the merits of
the company’s application.
“Our officers are studying its impact. If there is harm to our
heritage, we will work with other governmental agencies to stop the
project,” Anan said. “We are now gathering more information and we will
submit it to Unesco later this year.”
The proposal for Sri Thep to be listed as a World Heritage Site is
expected to be approved by the cabinet and the National Committee on the
World Heritage Commission Convention on March 8.
Anan added that Sri Thep Historical Park had been listed as a
national archaeological site since 1935 and also dates back some 2,500
years like prehistoric Ban Chiang. Therefore, he said, it also warranted
being listed as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).
Ban Chiang, an archeological site in Nong Han District, Udon Thani
Province, has been on the Unesco World Heritage list since 1992.
.
.
Following the Phetchabun Culture Council’s controversial opposition
to the drilling project, ECO Orient Resources may postpone the second
round of public hearings currently due to be held in April.
“As the result of the objection raised at the public hearing, senior
officials at our head office will carefully study whether the firm
should hold a second round of public hearings or drop it,” said company
spokesman Navin Panphan.
The film has been drilling for oil in Sri Thep for more than a decade
but the latest plan to build a new hole near the stupa has raised
concerns on cultural, environmental and tourism grounds.
Thai Airways International on Wednesday
announced the cancellation of all flights to and from Pakistan and
Europe after Pakistan closed its airspace amid rising tensions with
India.
The flights cancelled on Wednesday
night were TG341 and TG342 on the Bangkok-Karachi-Bangkok route, the
TG345 and TG 346 Bangkok-Lahore-Bangkok flights and TG349 and TG350
Bangkok-Islamabad-Bangkok flights.
THAI also cancelled fights to Europe that fly over Pakistan airspace,
namely Bangkok-London (TG916), Bangkok-Moscow (TG974) and
Bangkok-Phuket-Frankfurt (TG926).
.
Booking your Flight, Hotel or Resort now
Due to safety concerns, the airline has also cancelled all 11 flights
from Bangkok to Europe for passengers checking in on Wednesday night and
early Thursday morning. The cancelled flights are: Bangkok-Frankfurt,
Bangkok –London, Bangkok –Munich, Bangkok- Paris, Bangkok – Brussels,
Bangkok- Milan, Bangkok-Vienna, Bangkok-Stockholm, Bangkok-Zurich,
Bangkok-Copenhagen and Bangkok-Oslo.
Inbound flights from the above European cities, including Rome, were also cancelled for Wednesday.
THAI said it was closely monitoring the situation and plans to re-route its flights.
Passengers can call THAI at +662 356 1111 24 hours or visit www.thaiairways.com for updates on the flight schedule.
THAI passengers who hold tickets on routes affected by flight
cancellation may change their itinerary. Fees and charges will be
exempted, and conditions apply.
THAI operates flights to three destinations in Pakistan: one flight per
day to Karachi and Lahore and four flights per week to Islamabad on
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.
All flights have now returned to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Two Thais have been arrested over fake visa stamps being used at a foreign employment agency in Nonthaburi, northern Bangkok, yesterday.
The Immigration Bureau reports that the Nonthaburi Immigration Office was notified of the allegedly fake visa stamps.
Lt Gen Surachate Hakparn led a team of officials to search CBS World Company, a foreign worker employment agency. Officers arrested two suspects, a Thai man 60 year old Surawut Sintawacheewa and a 42 year old Burmese woman name Namfon.
Police have also seized 489 passports and 29 fake visa stamps.
The pair confessed that they have been providing fake stamps for more than 10 years.
Each year, Koh Paen residents built a seasonal, kilometre-long bamboo bridge for cars and pedestrians to cross the Mekong when the water levels were too low for a ferry.
Connecting the island of Koh Paen to Kampong Cham city in Kampong Cham province is a giant 779m concrete bridge, opened in March last year, able to carry loads of 20 to 30 tonnes across the Mekong river.
Is it functional? Perhaps. Does it have any charm? Absolutely not.
But 2km south down the Mekong used to sit another bridge fulfilling a similar function, less robust and practical, but exuding an antiquated charm by anyone’s estimation.
Each year, for decades, the island residents of Koh Paen built a seasonal, kilometre-long (1,000m) bamboo bridge for cars and pedestrians to cross the Mekong when the water levels were too low for a ferry. And each year, when the rains swelled the river, the elements would tear it down again.
For local residents, the bridge was a backdrop to daily life since they can remember – only disrupted between 1973 and 1986 with the civil war and emergence of the Khmer Rouge – though the specific history of the bridge remains hard to pinpoint.
Prior to 1973, the bridge was owned collectively by a company established by 14 villagers from the island, according to 74-year-old Nai Seang, speaking to The Post back in 2017. She joined the company in 1964, purchasing two shares for 7,000 riel (approximately $1,500 after adjusting for inflation).
Back then, the bridge was only a foot and bicycle bridge built from locally sourced bamboo, with a 1 riel toll for pedestrians, or 2 riel for a bike (equivalent to $0.19 and $0.37 today, respectively). As the youngest in the company when she joined at the age of 22, she was the sole surviving member.
.
The bamboo bridge also serves as a major tourist attraction for both local and international visitors.
“The knowledge would be passed down from one generation of builders to the next,” she said. While Seang says she never asked the older members of the company about the bridge’s history, she remembers it when she was an infant, which indicates that it dates back to at least the 1940s.
That the bridge has become a tourist attraction was a strange curiosity for Seang. “I did not know the bridge has become such a tourist attraction. I was very young when I bought my shares, and to me it was just a thing that helps people cross the river, and a business,” she says.
But back in March last year, as the concrete monolith neared completion, for the first time in decades the residents of Koh Paen decided against building their bridge as a river crossing for vehicles.
Yung Oun, the owner of the old bamboo bridge, told The Post that it served as a major tourist attraction in the province, for both local and international visitors, so the loss of the bamboo bridge signalled a loss of money for the area too.
To avoid this, last year enterprising locals decided to keep the tradition alive on a smaller scale by building a tourist friendly, pedestrian only bridge as a replacement.
.
. “Last year, our new bridge was only 700 metres. This year, we will construct it up to 800 metres,” said 60-year-old Bun Dara, a former Institute of Technology of Cambodia engineer and owner of the new bamboo bridge.
The bridge, built using more than 20,000 bamboo sticks, was officially opened on December 1. It is open from dawn to dusk, including weekends and holidays.
“On a normal day, I see about 30 to 50 people walking across the bridge,” said Dara.
To cross the bridge, pedestrians cost 2,000 riel, a motorbike costs 5,000 riel, a vehicle or tuk-tuk costs 10,000 riel and a larger vehicle costs 20,000 riel.
Tangkahan village near Mount Leuser in North Sumatra and Pemuteran
village in Bali are two of many villages in Indonesia that offer unique
ecotourism attractions.
They can set an example for other villages across the country to
develop sustainable tourism as envisaged by the government during a
United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) meeting recently.
Tourists could enjoy ecotourism activities in Tangkahan such as
jungle trekking and elephant riding, said Valerina Daniel, the head of
the Tourism Ministry’s sustainable tourism acceleration team.
“In this village, people who used to be illegal loggers are now part
of developing the tourism village by offering packages to tourists,
which helps to preserve the forests,” she said in Jakarta recently.
Tourists visiting Pemuteran, which is known as a fishing village
where residents are active in marine conservation, can go diving and
snorkeling while participating in activities like coral conservation and
feeding turtles.
Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said after the UNWTO meeting that the
ministry wanted to create 2,000 tourism villages by the end of this
year, an increase from the 1,734 created last year.
.
.
The program, managed in conjunction with the Villages, Disadvantaged
Regions and Transmigration Ministry, is part of the government’s
commitment to accelerate sustainable tourism.
According to UNWTO guidelines released in 2005, sustainable tourism
should take full account of its current and future economic, social and
environmental impact while addressing the needs of visitors, the
industry, environment and host community.
Meanwhile, Tourism Minister Regulation No. 14/2016 stipulates that
sustainable tourism should empower local communities, preserve culture
and conserve the environment.
Valerina said the development of tourism villages would be focused
around the 10 priority destinations, or 10 New Balis, adding that the
development was a sustainable tourism model that suited Indonesia, which
has 75,000 villages across the archipelago.
“There are many villages in Indonesia and a village is the smallest
instrument where we can directly empower the community by developing its
potential while preserving its culture and environment based on the
sustainable tourism principle,” she said.
He added that the development of the homestays and villages could be
funded by state-owned enterprises’ corporate social responsibility (CSR)
programs.
Another financing option would be using low-interest rate loans from
banks with long-term maturity so that local players can thrive, Arief
said.
He added that the government would also establish more Sustainable
Tourism Observatories (STOs) in seven locations, adding to the five
existing STOs so far. The STOs monitor research and give recommendations
to the local government on how to develop sustainable tourism.
The sustainable tourism program was a positive move for Indonesia,
although it had yet to become the umbrella policy for general tourism
development in the country, said Muhammad Baiquni, a tourism expert at
Gadjah Mada University’s Center of Tourism Studies.
“The sustainable tourism concept could be a good balancer for
Indonesia’s tourism, which still tends to be quantity oriented instead
of quality oriented,” added Baiquni.
He, however, reminded the government to make sure that village
tourism had a positive impact on society, culture and the environment,
as well as putting local communities first so that sustainable tourism
could be achieved.
“Are the villagers benefitting and sovereign on their own land? Does
tourism in the villages make their environment and socioeconomic
situation better? All of these must be assessed.”
Baiquni suggested that the government should focus on creating
tourism villages that were of high standards and sustainable, rather
than setting a specific target for homestays and villages.
Thai passport holders have visa-free access to 75 countries, ranking
68th globally in the 2019 Henley Passport Index. Japan ranks first,
with visa-free access to as many as 190 countries, while Afghanistan and
Iraq are at the bottom with visa-free access to just 30 nations.
The seasonal mass of seaweed that was washed up onto Patong Beach over
the last week is a natural phenomenon. A spokesperson for the Phuket
Marine Biological Centre says that the seaweed isn’t harmful although
it can smell bad as it starts to rot in the daytime sun. The seaweed
first started coming ashore back on January 10.
The seaweed on Patong Beach has forced the Patong municipality into action and a big clean-up operation has been underway.
.
.
Officials had a backhoe and industrial equipment
on the beach yesterday and today removing the offending seaweed from the
popular tourist beach. Municipal employees were also removing much of
the material by hand. They were out in force last week as well when the
first clumps landed on the shores of Patong Beach.
The Phuket Marine Biological Centre says the
seaweed is a seasonal phenomenon and nothing to be worried about. They
say that wave action has removed some of the seaweed from the seafloor
off the Patong coastline and dumped it on the beach.
Swimmers and tourists didn’t seem to mind the seaweed and have been swimming and enjoying the beach anyway.
