Visitors no longer able to see the world’s most expensive toilet (except on video)

by Josh Lew on

When Lam Sai-Wing’s Hong Kong-based jewelry business, 3D Gold, took off more than a decade ago, he made a rather unusual investment. He built the “Hall of Gold” in one of his showrooms. This unusual and extremely expensive structure was made of six tons of gold. The furnishings included a fully working solid gold toilet.

As gold prices rose, Lam began dismantling the hall, melting down the gold and selling it to finance his company’s expansion into mainland China. He never parted with the toilet, which is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most expensive toilet. Here’s what it looked like:

But, visitors to Hong Kong won’t be seeing it any time soon. Lam died unexpected earlier this year and his company has become engulfed in scandal after five executives, including his own widow, were accused of stealing nearly $23 million worth of gold bars from the company vault. Public trading of the company has stopped and what remains of the Hall of Gold has been closed to the public indefinitely.

[Via Time’s China Blog]

Invasion of the Bag Snatchers in Phnom Penh

by Josh Lew on

If you’ve been to a backpacker ghetto anywhere in the world, you’ve seen them. For fear of having their belongings snatched, they guard their bags carefully. Perhaps wearing their rucksacks in the front and wrapping an arm around it for extra security. That might seem like overdoing it. After all, who is going to rob a backpack with a bunch of smelly clothes and out of date edition of Lonely Planet?

But the ease with which a practiced thief can snatch a bag is surprising. All two thieves on a motorcycle, perhaps with a razor blade, need to do is slice a strap or grab a purse or camera and pull hard. Then it’s bye-bye dirty clothes (or camera or passport or cash).

Bag snatching is on the rise in southeast Asian cities like Phnom Penh. It has always been a problem, but things are especially bad now that inflation has put the economy into a downward spin. Some thieves have completely abandoned the timeless art of bag snatching, and instead simply knock their victims off their motorbikes and make off with the loot before the unfortunate rider(s) can recover. Looks like it might take more than wearing your pack in the front to avoid a nasty situation these days. But that’s all part of the fun of travel, isn’t it?

Source