Word: islanders
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Most make for the island of Don Det, where accommodation is cheap and plentiful, but very basic. At Mr. B's Sunset Bungalows, tel: (856-30) 534 5109, a few dollars a night gets you a basic cabin with a double bed, mosquito net and porch hanging over the water. Many of the cabins on Don Det are owned by farmers capitalizing on the island's burgeoning tourist trade, so don't be surprised to find pigs and chickens wandering the grounds, or a farm dog curled up on your porch in the morning. (See TIME's Global Adviser...
...paddy fields. Stop off at the bakery on Don Det's northern tip, run by an Australian pastry chef, for a simple breakfast of cinnamon rolls or focaccia bread (and don't forget, at some point during your stay, to try the best pumpkin burger on an island full of imitators). You could then cross the bridge over to Don Khon to explore the remnants of an old French railway, walk one mile (1.5 km) to Somphamit Falls to see rapids crash through the jagged gorge, then hire a longtail boat to take you to see the endangered freshwater Irrawaddy...
Once back on Don Det, head over to Mr. Vong's, on the island's south, and dine on the local specialty of mok pa - minced fish, steamed in banana leaves with the addition of glutinous rice and coconut milk, giving it a very soft consistency. The island's limited electricity supply - lights go out by 11 p.m. at the latest - puts curbs on nightlife. But you could always take a few bottles of Beer Lao back to your cabin and enjoy them by candlelight while the waves roll...
Sensibly, the screenwriters and Nair aren't coy about Earhart's likely fate. There are no absurd conspiracy theories involving the Japanese or suggestions of her making safe landing on some deserted island - just communication blunders and furrowed brows (a Swank specialty), and then she and the plane are gone, vanished in the typical way of small planes running out of fuel over a vast ocean. It's not even particularly sad until Nair rolls the documentary footage of the real Earhart. There, grainy and distant, is the "ghost of aviation," as Joni Mitchell called her in the 1976 song...
...dubbed by Australians as the Indonesian Solution, and many are unhappy that Indonesia is doing Rudd's dirty work. Following a personal plea from Rudd last month, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono gave the Oceanic Viking the green light to disembark in Indonesia. It was taken to Bintan Island, where an Australian-funded detention center was awaiting the refugees. But on its arrival, Ismeth Abdullah, the area governor, told the press that his province was not "a dumping ground" for the asylum seekers and would not allow the ship to off-load. He later said that the island would accept...