Until two decades ago, most inhabitants of Bang Kra Jao were farmers. Around that time, some of the narrow canals were covered with elevated concrete pathways. Now the pathways total more than 20 kilometres, enabling people to commute to the urban jungle
* Saving and selling water—The Nation
Water markets perhaps will seem less a California fad and more a commonsense solution as more developing countries adopt them. A World Bank study issued last year, Markets in Tradeable Water Rights, described systems in Chile, India, Jordan and Mexico. Peru is in the process of reforming water laws to permit tradeability and Pakistan has markets despite the lack of law. Chilean farmers' associations have been contracting to sell water to urban users since 1976.
* Who needs an iPod?—Forbes (US)
In Japan, digital music players haven't had a chance against the phone companies. Last year, mobile-phone downloads accounted for 91% of the country's $278 million in digital-music sales, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. In Korea the breakdown has been running 58% mobile to 42% online, according to the federation, but probably more than one-third of the online downloads were destined for a mobile phone.
* Ships, planes, fashion and fun: Nishita Shah keeps a high profile—Forbes Asia
Kirit joined in 1975, when the head office still consisted of just his father, five employees and one of the city's few telex machines. He took over in 1979, after his father had a stroke, and launched an enormous expansion, fueled by the new affluence of the Middle East and the more well-off parts of Africa. He expanded beyond rice to other commodities and traveled for months at a time. "The merchant who used to order 50 tons of rice now had a market for 500 tons," he recalls. "Then they needed edible oil. They'd want maize, sugar, pineapple. I'd say, 'You need uniforms. There are all these construction workers, they need gumboots.' Then they'd need steel, timber, bitumen, asphalt, cement."
* Bangkok by Night: three lively neighborhoods—TravelAge West
Thais take their food, fun, music, drinking, dancing and conviviality very seriously. Nightlife venues run into the thousands. So don't conclude that the following glimpse of three very different neighborhoods is in any way exhaustive. The surface has been barely nicked. What can be said is that these are three long-running neighborhoods that will deliver sanuk (fun) wanderings and meetings with ordinary, chatty Thai ...
