Word: burma
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...CURIOUS CAPITAL In 2005, in a bizarre and abrupt shift, Burma's military leadership moved the capital from its longtime home in coastal Rangoon to a far-flung jungle outpost called Naypyidaw. On March 27, in celebration of Armed Forces Day, junta head General Than Shwe unveiled the city to foreign reporters, surveying his new digs via the open sun roof of his Mercedes limo. Pastel buildings? Check. Eight-lane highway? Check. Vibrant new city for a nation of 47 million? Not yet. Those in Rangoon who still have a choice haven't budged...
...RAJA LAUT: With a name meaning "king of the seas" in Malay, Raja Laut is an ironwood schooner that plies the waters of peninsular Malaysia, Thailand and Burma. Its six beautiful cabins accommodate up to 12 guests, who are waited on by a multiracial crew that could have stepped out of the pages of Conrad's Lord Jim (indeed, literature buffs can follow in the great author's wake, voyaging through Borneo, Brunei and Sarawak on an itinerary based on his travels). Trips can include spectacular diving, visiting deserted islands with steep karst formations worthy of a James Bond movie...
...ROAD TO MANDALAY: Mucking in with 100 other passengers may not be your idea of a quiet time, but the nice thing about cruises on the Orient Express' Road to Mandalay in Burma is that they include many side trips, so you can escape most of the crowd if you want to. Guided pagoda tours, market hopping and a train ride into the Kachin jungle are among the offerings. Alternatively, while the other guests are on excursions, you can simply sit on a deck chair, cocktail in hand, and take in the stunning riverscape. The four-night cruise to Mandalay...
...story ends badly for Zafar and Delhi. After a bitter siege, the British retake the capital, the citizens are massacred, and the old Emperor is exiled to Burma, where he dies, neglected and forgotten. Yet despite his flaws-Zafar was indecisive and easily manipulated by bad advisers-he still emerges as something of a hero in Dalrymple's narrative. Throughout the British siege, he obstinately refuses to alienate the Hindus by giving in to demands of Muslim fanatics among the rebels...
...leading Thai university estimated that between 1999 and 2002, 2.8 million Thais participated in the sex business - this in a country whose entire population is 65 million. Roughly 800,000 of those sex workers were underage; most came from poor farming households in Thailand, as well as nearby Burma, Laos, Cambodia and China. Some came willingly to escape a life in the rice paddies. Others, of course, were sold into the business. Did I mention? Prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand, although you wouldn't know it to walk the streets of Bangkok...