Mae Sot gets connected
Nok Air links Mae Sot on the Thai border to two Myanmar cities - Mawlamyine and Yangon - with the introduction of two new routes.
The Mae Sot-Mawlamyine route will start from September 1 while Mae Sot-Yangon flight is scheduled to commence operations in October. Tucked away in the country's southeast, Mawlamyine is the capital of Mon State and is famous for the Golden Rock at Mt Kyaiktiyo. Yangon, of course, is former capital of Myanmar and a gateway to Myanmar's investment and economic opportunities. For times and ticketing, visit www.NokAir.com.
~News courtesy of The Nation~
Bridging Bangkok and Nay Pyi Taw
It will soon be possible to travel directly from Bangkok and Nay Pyi Taw with AirAsia introducing a daily flight between the two capitals from October 28.
The new scheduled flight was confirmed by Tony Fernandes, Group CEO of AirAsia, during the World Economic Forum on East Asia 2013 in Myanmar. The new service, which the airline claims will make ASEAN more accessible, is in answer to the high demand for Myanmar travel. The flight schedule will be released at a later date. Visit www.airasia.com.
~News courtesy of The Nation~
Myanmar to revive 'Death Railway'
An elegant cemetery in strife-torn southeast Myanmar has long stood as a lonely testament to the fate of thousands of prisoners of war who died building Japan's "Death Railway".
Visitors look at a tourist train as it crosses a railway bridge over the river Kwai, built during World War II, in Kanchanaburi. About 13,000 prisoners of war -- many captured in Singapore, the Malay Peninsula and what was then the Dutch East Indies -- died during construction of the railway, along with up to 100,000 civilians, mostly forced labour. (AFP Photo)
As the fast-changing nation now opens to the world, a reformist regime is considering rebuilding a stretch of the notorious World War II track to attract tourists and help develop border areas, where memories of the line have been eclipsed by conflict and poverty under decades of junta rule.
Local gardeners pluck weeds and tend flowers between neat lines of graves at the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery in Mon state for some 3,000 Allied troops who died building the line between Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand.
"After seeing this cemetery people do not want to see war. There should not be war in the whole world," gardener Myat Soe told AFP.
"Because the soldiers died the way they did the world remembers them with sorrow. Dying fighting is honourable, but dying like this is very sad."
Many epitaphs at the site, funded by the Britain-based Commonwealth War Graves Commission, are a heart wrenching testament of how bewilderingly distant the country then called Burma was for the families of those killed.
"We were not there to clasp your hand, you passed away without a last good-bye," reads the epitaph for 26-year-old Lance Serjeant Harry Dawes, of the Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire), who died in September 1943.
Exhaustion, starvation, disease and torture were the chief causes of fatalities among those impelled by the invading Japanese to gouge a rail route through dense jungle and solid rock between October 1942 and December 1943.
About 13,000 prisoners of war -- many captured in Singapore, the Malay Peninsula and what was then the Dutch East Indies -- died during construction, along with up to 100,000 civilians, mostly forced labour from the region.
Robert Goodwin, an Australian veteran who worked on the infamous "Hellfire Pass" cutting on the Thai side of the border, said the men's relentless toil involved hacking through rock almost completely by hand.
"Every day that we worked, if anyone seemed to be slowing up they'd be belted with not just hands or pickaxes but with wire whips, with anything they could lay their hands on. The Japanese were cruel by anybody's standards."
On the Thai side, hordes of foreign visitors flock to see the track and bridge made famous by the film "The Bridge Over the River Kwai", and to ride on a stretch of the line still in operation.
The town of Kanchanaburi, a popular destination about three hours drive from the capital Bangkok, generated tourism revenue of over 2.4 billion baht last year, according to Thai officials.
That fact is not lost on Myanmar authorities keen to encourage development in the southeast of their country -- a region emerging from isolation after years of civil war.
Ceasefire deals were reached last year between local ethnic Karen and Mon rebels under a new quasi-civilian government which took power two years ago after decades of harsh military rule ended.
Surveys have now begun to trace the route from Thanbyuzayat to Three Pagodas Pass at the Thai border, according to an official from Myanmar Railways, who asked not to be named.
"This is primarily for tourism. If we can connect the railway track on the Thai side, it will help tourism develop," he said.
Phyoe Wai Yar Zar, of the Myanmar Tourism Board, said there is "huge potential" to develop tourism around the "Death Railway" in Myanmar.
But he said efforts should not only be "focused on the past" and should also showcase the heritage of the local ethnic minority population.
"I believe we shouldn't invent the wheel again. What has been done in another part of the region shouldn't be done again in Myanmar," he said.
There are, however, doubts about the feasibility of restoring the railway.
Rebuilding the track would make "little economic sense" because a hydropower dam on the Thai side blocks the original route, according to Rod Beattie, a historian who runs Kanchanaburi's Thailand-Burma Railway Centre.
The 420 kilometre (260 mile) line linking the Thai and Myanmar railway systems was aimed at resupplying the Japanese army as it fought British colonial forces and their allies.
It fell into disuse after the war ended in 1945 and much of the track was reclaimed by the jungle.
Myanmar was soon embroiled with its own internal strife as independence in 1948 heralded civil wars in ethnic areas.
In Thanbyuzayat there is little sign of remembrance beyond the gates of the cemetery.
An old locomotive and a last scrap of track on the outskirts of town acts as a memorial, but the rails have been swallowed by weeds and a huddle of statues depicting emaciated prisoners has been vandalised, smashed almost beyond recognition.
The railway has become a legend for local children, a group of whom eagerly led a visiting AFP journalist through the shady corridors of a rubber plantation to proudly display an anonymous mound of earth they were convinced marked the old route.
Gardener Myat Soe is encouraging local youths to understand the history behind the cemetery and said a planned museum would also help raise awareness.
"As long as the world exists, this cemetery will be a symbol of a tragic time," he said.
He recalled a 90-year-old Australian veteran who made the difficult journey to the cemetery two years ago to visit the grave of a friend.
"As soon as he arrived, he put down his bag beside the grave, saluted and burst into tears. It was the saddest thing I had seen in the nine years I have worked here. I cried beside him."
~News courtesy of Bangkok Post~
New bus service to Mae Sot from Samut Sakhon
A new public bus route was launched on Wednesday to help migrant workers returning home to Myanmar travel from Samut Sakhon to Mae Sot on the border.
A new public bus service begins running between Samut Sakhon and Mae Sot district, Tak. (Photo by Pawat Laopaisarntaksin)
Sawit Kaewvan, secretary general of the State Enterprises Workers Relations Confederation of Thailand (SERC), said the 54-seat bus travels directly between Mahachai in Samut Sakhon's Muang district and Mae Sot district in Tak.
It was a cheap, convenient alternative for the many migrant workers employed in factories in Samut Sakhon.
On average, about 200 people a day catch a bus from Bangkok's Mor Chit station bound for Mae Sot. This number swells during Songkran and other long holidays, said Mr Sawit.
Only one bus a day was planned for the Mahachai-Mae Sot service at first, to test its viability.
The service would be of benefit not only to migrants in Samut Sakhon but also neighbouring provinces such as Petchaburi, Ratchaburi and Prachuap Khiri Khan, said Mr Sawit.
If migrants in Ranong were interested in a direct route to Myanmar, then maybe it could be worked out with the Transport Company later on, he added.
Wuthichart Kalayanamitra, president of Transport Co, said the new Mahachai-Mae Sot route was the result of collaboration between the SERC and Transport Co. If it proved propular it would be continued.
Transport Co was also negotiating with Myanmar to open two cross-border routes, between Mae Sot-Myawaddy and Chiang Rai-Keng Tung in Myanmar, said Mr Wuttichart.
He hoped agreement could be reached on one of the two routes this year.
He said the bus on the new Mahachai route was relatively new and should provide both safe passage, comfort and convenience for travellers.
Maung Maung, 30, a worker at a Charoen Pokphand affiliate, arrived to by buy five tickets, for himself and family members, for Wednesday 8pm departure.
He said the big bus was not only cheaper but safer and more convenient.
The other options were a shuttle bus service from Mahachai to Mae Sot, which cost about 600 baht a person. The new public bus costs 500 baht. The VIP bus from Mor Chit to Mae Sot costs 666 baht and normal buses 333 baht and 428 baht.
"It is awkward for us if we have a lot of stuff carry back home. The shuttle bus operators do not want us unless we rent the whole vehicle.
"And if we travel to Mor Chit, the ticket maybe be cheaper but it is time-consuming and very tiring, especially with children," said Maung Maung, who has been working in Thailand for five years and returned home twice.
Sein Htay, adviser to the Migrant Workers' Rights Network (MWRN), said the 54-seat public bus was a welcome alternative for migrants. The shuttle buses had been involved in some accidents.
With the public bus launched, competition should also result in better service, said Mr Sein Htay.
Importantly, migrants could now travel with some dignity as they would face only one or two checkpoints along the way, and officials would get on a bus to check their documents. When traveling on the shuttle bus or by pickup truck they had to get off the vehicle for checks at five or six stops, or even more, said Mr Sein Htay.
"Some are also harassed and humiliated, as if migrants are mere objects for discrimination even of they carry proper documents," he said.
The new bus service is the result of collaboration between the SERC, MWRN and the Transport Company, which is a state enterprise.
Migrant rights activist Andy Hall, who is facing two lawsuits due to his research on the plight of workers at a canned fruit juice producer in Prachuap Khiri Khan, also took part in the launch of the bus service on Wednesday morning.
Mr Hall said on his Twitter page that he he'd had a "productive" meeting with British Ambassador to Thailand Mark Kent.
He said the ambassador made clear the embassy's support and commitment to his personal safety and for his many years of work on behalf of migrants in Thailand.
～News courtesy of Bangkok Post～
Nok Air unveils Myanmar routes
Nok Air plans to operate two new routes from Tak's Mae Sot district to Myanmar in preparation for the establishment of the Mae Sot special economic zone and the Asean Economic Community (AEC).
Nok Air’s fourth B737-800, named Nok Naanfah, joins the fleet in July 2012. (Fiile photo)
Nok Air board director Somchainuek Engtrakul and chief executive Patee Sarasin on Sunday led 20 airline executives to board a Nok Air survey flight from Mae Sot to Myanmar's Mawlamyine (formerly Moulmein) ahead of the airline's plan to operate services on that route.
The budget airline also plans to introduce flights between Mae Sot and Yangon.
The move follows a recent agreement between Thailand and Myanmar to permanently open the Mae Sot border checkpoint to boost cross-border trade and tourism. It also aims to capitalise on the 2015 launch of the AEC.
~News courtesy of Bangkok Post~
