Word: archipelagos
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...dappled beaches to which they are bound. From above, the country's coral-fringed lagoons in the Indian Ocean look computer-generated: arrayed in turquoise pods, they stretch over an azure expanse that would span from Rome to Budapest. Ibn Battuta, the 14th century Arab explorer, hailed the archipelago as "one of the wonders of the world." Ever since, the Maldives has enchanted shipwrecked sailors, Hollywood celebrities and Russian oligarchs fortunate enough to wash up by its shores. Yet beneath this outsiders' vision of paradise lurks a more troubled reality - one shaped by 30 years of a suffocating dictatorship that...
...Swelling Sea As if all that was not enough, the archipelago nation faces a more elemental challenge. It could find itself submerged, its fragile coastline and coral reefs facing extinction as sea levels swell. "We are sitting on a time bomb," says Abdul Azeez, a leading Maldivian environmentalist. For a nation of so small a size (the Maldives' population is less than 400,000), the new government's task is monumental. "It is as if, in the same country, both Saddam Hussein was toppled and the Berlin Wall fell," says Ahmed Naseer, a painter and dissident who lived in exile...
...Temple Tree resort, www.templetree.com.my, in Malaysia's Langkawi archipelago, purring cats are ready to trail you everywhere. If you allow it, a friendly four-legged fur ball will curl up at the foot of your bed, or rest on your shoulder as you make yourself a cup of tea. And if you get really attached, you can sponsor the little cutie for as little as $14 a month. Australian resort owner Narelle McMurtrie's 15-year-old animal shelter, the Langkawi Animal Shelter & Sanctuary Foundation, has grown so enormous - yielding, at last count, 130 dogs and 150 cats - that...
...decision is just the latest religious controversy to make headlines in Indonesia in recent months. About 90% of the sprawling archipelago is Muslim - the world's largest Islamic population - but significant Hindu, Christian and animist communities live in places like Bali, Sulawesi and Papua. Despite the country's constitutional commitment to freedom of faith, religious minorities have complained in recent years of a creeping Islamization that they believe has strained Indonesia's social fabric...
...town to do it. The beaches near Cartagena tend to be grimy and raucous. Escape by boat instead, from the town's historic port (you can't miss the old, touristy galleon whose three masts are visible from much of the Old Town) to the Islas del Rosario, an archipelago about 30 miles (1 hour) off the coast. The islands offer proper beaches - though none quite lives up to the postcard-perfect white stretches for which the Caribbean is famous - with snorkeling, scuba-diving and a range of restaurants. I snuck onto the Sofitel's private island for a luxurious...