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Sarah Rooney
For Sarah Rooney's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 22, 2002
Author takes a trip into darkness
THE SHORE BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL: A Report from Inside Burma's Opium Kingdom, by Hideyuki Takano. Kotan Publishing, 2002, 264 pp., $23.95 (cloth) "The Shore Beyond Good and Evil" is a book about a little-known region called Wa. "The name 'Wa' is not indicated on maps," writes author Hideyuki Takano. "Yet, despite its anonymity, perhaps no other place on earth wields such an effect over the world." Just what is so influential about this 10,360 sq. km, semiautonomous territory in eastern Myanmar (Burma), bordering China? The answer is simple: The cool, dry climate of Wa State is ideal for the cultivation of a particularly valuable plant called papaver somniferum, better known as opium poppy, which is refined and smuggled around the globe as the lethally addictive drug heroin. Located in the heart of the Golden Triangle, Wa State is responsible for an astounding 40 percent of the world's opium.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 11, 2002
Going where the wild things are
BEYOND THE LAST VILLAGE: A Journey of Discovery in Asia's Forbidden Wilderness, by Alan Rabinowitz. Aurum Press, 2002, 300 pp., 19.99 British pounds (cloth) Marco Polo went to Myanmar in the 13th century and saw jungles teeming with wild beasts and unicorns. Centuries later, during British colonial times, Myanmar was renowned for its spectacular game hunting reserves. Today, however, widespread deforestation under the current military regime is destroying wildlife habitat. National parks account for a measly 1 percent of the country's total land area. And as for Marco Polo's "unicorn," the rhinoceros has all but vanished from what was once its stronghold in Asia. In short, the future of Myanmar's wildlife looks bleak. "Beyond the Last Village" chronicles one conservationist's search for hope in the country's remaining wilderness.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 21, 2002
The search for Mr. Purrfect
OF CATS AND KINGS, by Clare de Vries. Bloomsbury, 2002, 308 pp., $14.95 (cloth) In her first book, "I & Claudius," British writer Clare de Vries went on a tour of the United States with an unusual traveling companion: a dashing chocolate-brown Burmese cat called Claudius. De Vries and Claudius lived together for some 20 years. When he died, she decided to find a replacement, as a series of failed relationships with men had led her to believe "it is far wiser to get a cat to love."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 9, 2002
Where death stalks the forest, for man and beast
THE SUNDERBANS, India -- Sumitra Mondal felt uneasy from the moment her husband refused to eat a proper breakfast. Her spouse, Patiram, was a fisherman and they lived with their three children in a thatched mud hut in the Sunderbans, a vast mangrove swamp in eastern India. On that crisp December morning Patiram was feeling lucky and thought he might bring home a bountiful catch of fish. He wanted to wait until the evening to eat properly when the whole family could feast together.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 8, 2002
Behind the scenes with Phnom Penh's 'orange girls'
PHNOM PENH -- In central Phnom Penh, at one end of a semiderelict building, is a tiny lean-to shack. Its walls are made of scavenged wood planks and its roof of corrugated iron. The ground around it is a swamp of sewage and mud due to the daily monsoon rains. To get to the shack, you have to hop along a desultory path of discarded bricks.
COMMUNITY
Oct 30, 2001
Hosts with the most, ma'am, at your service
BANGKOK -- Bangkok may be the sex capital of the world for men, but what do Thai women do for kicks? It's Saturday night and I am in an underground parking garage in central Bangkok trying to find out. It is damp and somewhat desolate, but across the ill-lit tarmac I see a promising neon sign that reads "Lady Club." A nondescript door opens to reveal a lavish entranceway with heavy drapes and a thick, red carpet. Ornate vases of fake flowers sit in scarlet-red alcoves. A smartly-dressed Thai man appears suddenly from around a corner and greets me with a slight bow. "How many men would you like tonight?" he asks.
LIFE / Travel
Apr 24, 2001
A tale of two Thai tribes
BAHN BOON YEUN, Phrae Province, Thailand -- Small, wild-haired figures in ragged clothes move barefoot through the moonlit mango grove. Some carry archaic muskets as long as spears, others squat beside soot-stained shacks murmuring to each other in the darkness. Inside a big wooden house at the heart of this forgotten valley, Eugene Long is bathed in a brilliant pool of fluorescent light. His wife has just baked apple pie and he's getting ready to tuck in.
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 21, 2001
Tiny birds and dwindling treasure
BANGKOK -- Imagine for a moment that you are an edible-nest swiftlet. You are a dusky bird, tiny enough to fit in the palm of a hand. In southern Thailand, where you live, you soar above the turquoise waters and jungle-clad islands of the Andaman Sea. You build your nests inside island caves hidden by wave-battered cliffs. You do this because it is what edible-nest swiftlets have been doing for thousands of years.

Longform

High-end tourism is becoming more about the kinds of experiences that Japan's lesser-known places can provide.
Can Japan lure the jet-set class off the beaten path?