100 Places You Will Never Visit (24 page)

The result of this ongoing stalemate is an area that is effectively closed off to the outside world and kept in stasis. The economy is wretched, and has little prospect of securing significant investment while Indian, Pakistani and separatist forces continue to slug it out. It has been estimated that in the worst periods of fighting, the territory has suffered as many as 400,000 rounds of shelling in a month. Indo-Pakistani relations in the new century have hardly been warm and, with both nations boasting nuclear arsenals, the stakes surrounding Kashmir have never been higher. As with the majority of modern wars, it is the civilian population that pays the heaviest price, forced to live in a virtual no-man’s-land.

1 UNEASY PEACE An Indian soldier surveys the scene along the Line of Control at Baraf Post, some 165 kilometers (100 miles) north of Srinagar. Even in quiet times, an uneasy tension prevails along the disputed border, heightened by the knowledge that both India and Pakistan have nuclear arsenals.

81 Temple Vaults

Sree Padmanabhaswamy

LOCATION Thiruvananthapuram District, Kerala, India

NEAREST POPULATION HUB Thiruvananthapuram

SECRECY OVERVIEW High-security location: sight of a treasure horde worth billions.

Southern India’s Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple was built in the 18th century. When in 2011 its vaults were opened for the first time in over a century, they were found to contain gold, silver and jewels with an estimated value of over US$15 billion. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a portion of this new-found wealth was immediately spent on improving the temple’s security.

The enormous Thiruvananthapuram temple, dedicated to the Hindu god Lord Vishnu, was built by the rulers of the Travancore kingdom (which joined with Cochin in the 20th century to become modern-day Kerala). Its construction included six large, granite vaults into which offerings to Vishnu were deposited over the course of several hundred years.

After Indian independence in 1947, the temple remained under the control of a trust administered by descendants of the Travancore dynasty. However, concerns over their capability to protect the temple and its contents saw the Supreme Court appoint an independent panel to audit its wealth and make suitable security arrangements in 2011. It is believed that several of the underground chambers had been sealed for at least 130 years.

Some of the vaults offered up more treasure than others, but few had expected the amount and extent of valuables that would be revealed. The trove included solid gold idols, a gold chain said to weigh more than 3 kilograms (6.5 lb), antique diamonds by the handful and even two coconut shells covered in beaten gold and adorned with rubies and emeralds.

Overnight, the temple became the wealthiest in the state, prompting a review of its hitherto low-key security. Where previously the temple had a force of some 50 guards to ensure its safe day-to-day running and oversee crowd control, it now has an additional 250 police officers patrolling the area on the lookout for intruders. Moves have been made toward installing state-of-the-art locking systems in the vaults, while windows and doors have been fitted with toughened glass and steel bars. In addition, hidden surveillance cameras have been installed, along with metal detectors, X-ray scanners and vibration-sensitive alarm systems.

Perhaps inevitably, though, the discovery of these riches prompted an immediate dispute as to who owned the wealth, with some proclaiming that it should be used for the public good.

82 North Sentinel Island

LOCATION Andaman Islands, Bay of Bengal

NEAREST POPULATION HUB Port Blair, Great Andaman

SECRECY OVERVIEW Access restricted: a remote island whose people reject contact with the outside world.

North Sentinel Island, which covers only 72 square kilometers (28 sq miles), has an indigenous population of somewhere between 50 and 400 Sentinelese, a dark-skinned and short-statured people and one of the last groups on earth to have resisted contact with the modern world. Jealously protective of their isolation, any attempt by outsiders to land on the island is likely to result in a hail of arrows.

North Sentinel lies to the west of the southern tip of South Andaman Island and is one of 572 islands in an 800-kilometer (500-mile) arc. Here, the Sentinelese live as hunter-gatherers and do not seem to have developed any forms of agriculture. Their diet includes fruits, nuts, tubers, fish, wild pigs, honey and the eggs of seagulls and turtles. Their language is significantly different to any of the other tongues spoken in the island group, leading academics to conclude that they have avoided contact even with relatively near neighbors for several millennia. The island lacks any natural harbors and is surrounded by uncharted coral reefs that have largely kept out visitors as well as keeping in the Sentinelese, whose own rudimentary boats are suited only to calm lagoons.

In 1880, Maurice Portman, an administrator in the British Raj, led the first known expedition to North Sentinel. After a few days of exploration, Portman and his team captured six natives (two adults and four children), whom they took back to Port Blair, the administrative capital of the Andamans. However, the enterprise ended in disaster when the adults died from illness. The orphaned children were dispatched home loaded with presents—scant compensation for their loss.

Tentative attempts from the 1960s to make contact with the Sentinelese met with limited success. Incidents such as the one in 1974 when a visiting documentary crew was attacked and the director suffered an arrow to the thigh were not uncommon. After many years of regular landings and gift offerings, the first recorded friendly contact was made in 1991.

However, similar schemes with other native peoples of the islands (including the Great Andamanese and the Jarawa) had ended disastrously when those populations were decimated by exposure to common but unfamiliar diseases. Under pressure from groups arguing that the Sentinelese should not be forced into contact, the government gave up on its contact program in 1996.

1 UNWELCOME VISIT A tribesman greets an approaching helicopter with traditional Sentinelese hospitality in 2004. The aircraft, belonging to the Indian Coast Guard, flew over the island to gauge conditions following the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami. North Sentinel emerged in miraculously good health.

83 Naypyidaw

LOCATION Between the Bago Yoma and Shan Yoma mountain ranges, Burma

NEAREST POPULATION HUB Pyinmana

SECRECY OVERVIEW Access restricted: recently-established capital of the Burmese government.

In 2006, Naypyidaw, which roughly translates as “abode of the kings,” was declared the new capital city of Burma (also known as Myanmar). The decision by the insular Burmese administration to shift the capital to a dusty and isolated backwater some 320 km (200 miles) from its predecessor, Yangon (Rangoon), remains one shrouded in mystery.

The new capital, which consists of eight distinct townships, covers an area of approximately 7,000 square kilometers (2,700 sq miles) and now boasts a population approaching 1 million. Building started in earnest in 2002, and the process of moving the country’s main administrative institutions from Yangon to the site began in late 2005.

In fact, it began specifically at 6:37 a.m. on the November 6, a moment that had been designated as one of particular astrological importance by advisers to the country’s de facto military leader, General Than Shwe. It had been hoped that the move would largely be finished by the early months of 2006, but such was the lack of infrastructure in Naypyidaw that many government officials and civil servants chose not to relocate their families, hence delaying the overall process.

It is a city designed so that everybody within it knows their place. There is a special zone for commercial vendors, and an entire district (off-limits to casual civilians) given over to the military. Apartments are designated on the basis of seniority and marital status. Even the roofs are color-coded, indicating the government department in which the occupants work. It is also alleged that government employees are not permitted private telephone lines, but must instead use public phones. A select band of senior officials are put up in mansions and there is a presidential palace. There are also unconfirmed reports of a warren of underground tunnels and bunkers.

The city’s first significant public display came on March 27, 2006—Armed Forces Day commemorating Burma’s stand in 1945 against its Japanese occupation. After a spectacular military display involving 12,000 personnel, it was on this day that the city had its naming ceremony and was formally recognized as the country’s capital. Tellingly, footage of the metropolis was restricted to what was on show at the parade ground.

Why the government opted for a change in capital is subject to much debate. The official line is that Yangon was simply too overcrowded and congested for a government planning future expansion. In addition, Naypyidaw has a central location and might become a stabilizing influence on one of the country’s more turbulent regions.

GOLDEN PAGODA Naypyidaw’s Uppatasanti Pagoda (also known as the Peace Pagoda) is one of the city’s most impressive landmarks. Opened in 2009, it stands almost 100 meters (330 ft) tall and closely echoes the Shwedagon Pagoda in the former capital, Yangon. It houses a tooth of the Buddha, donated by Burmese military leader General Than Shwe.

It is also true that Burma has something of a history when it comes to changing its seat of government. The capital moved from Amarapura to Mandalay (another purpose-built capital) in 1859, and then on again to Yangon (or Rangoon, as it was then better known) after the British conquest in 1885. It may well be that Nyapyidaw represented a chance for the country’s autocratic leader, Than Shwe, to leave his great legacy.

Others believe the move is symbolic of a government that has longed looked inward. Yangon, situated on the coast, is by no means an impenetrable fortress. With the Burmese administration having eschewed closer relations with the outside world, it has been speculated that Naypyidaw offers better hope of defense against any external attack. Crucially, it also seems to lessen the chance of an internal uprising. Where Yangon is a thriving city that saw the government side-by-side with its people, it is far harder to imagine a revolution in the sanitized and almost otherworldly atmosphere of Naypyidaw, Some observers, though, believe the government may have overplayed its hand, and by distancing itself physically (as well as psychologically) from the population it dominates, it has actually increased the prospect of a civil uprising in the future. In a country where the leading pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has spent much of her adult life in prison or under house arrest, only time will tell.

What is certain is that the rulers of Burma have long operated away from the scrutiny of the international community. Now they have a new capital where foreigners require permission even to visit, and to which travel agents are nervous even to sell train tickets.

1 SHOW OF STRENGTH The annual military parade in the capital each March 27—Armed Forces Day—is a chance for Burma’s ruling regime to put on a display of might for the domestic and international audience. This picture was taken in 2007, a year to the day after Naypyidaw’s naming ceremony.

2 LONE RIDER A policeman cruises down Naypyidaw’s vast Yazahdani Road. After some early hiccups, the city now boasts an impressive infrastructure yet remains oddly devoid of the atmosphere usually associated with a capital city claiming a population of a million.

84 Bang Kwang Central Prison

LOCATION On the Chao Phraya River, Nonthaburi Province, Thailand

NEAREST POPULATION HUB Bangkok

SECRECY OVERVIEW High-security location: one of the most notorious prisons in the world.

Located a few miles north of downtown Bangkok, the Bang Kwang Central Prison is known ironically as “the Bangkok Hilton.” Built in the 1930s, it is a maximum security facility that has regularly attracted concern from international observers. Its inmates are all men facing death sentences or serving long spells of incarceration (typically at least 25 years).

Many of the prison’s inmates have been convicted of drugs offenses, and there is a small but significant population of foreigners. Punishments for drugs crimes are notably harsh in Thailand, which has taken a hard line to fight the illegal drug trade that blights Asia’s “Golden Triangle” (of which the country is a part along with Burma, Laos and Vietnam). Those on death row are generally given only two hours’ notice before being executed by lethal injection.

The prison is chronically overcrowded (there are in excess of 8,000 inmates, several thousand more than it was designed for) and understaffed, with an inmate-to-guard ratio approaching 50 to 1. Up to 30 prisoners may share a single cell, sleeping on cold floors without bedding. A bare bulb shines all night, and there is an open toilet in the corner of each cell. Sustenance comes via a daily bowl of rice in a grim (and usually protein-free) broth.

Prisoners are said to be required to wear leg irons for at least the first few months after arriving at the institution, although Bang Kwang officials have denied this in the past. Meanwhile, prisoners who have the misfortune to end up in the infirmary (and serious illness as a result of poor hygiene and malnutrition is common) are shackled to their beds. At visiting time, prisoners sit on long benches facing their visitors, but separated by two fences 1 meter (40 in) apart so that normal communication is virtually impossible. International prison watchdogs regularly highlight the attendant risks to inmates’ psychological well-being.

85 Gobi Desert unidentified structures

LOCATION Borders of Gansu Province and Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China

NEAREST POPULATION HUB Dunhuang, Gansu Province

SECRECY OVERVIEW Operations classified: mysterious features found in satellite images.

During the course of 2011, satellite imaging across a remote stretch of the Gobi desert lying near the center of a network of Chinese research facilities, revealed a curious array of objects and structures. Several theories as to their true nature and purpose have rapidly emerged, some of which are more plausible than others—but a conclusive explanation has yet to be found.