The Shay Rebellion | Christopher Shay

Saving Dhaka’s heritage

by Christopher Shay

From the back of a rickshaw in the busy streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, Taimur Islam shook his head and pointed to an old residential building being torn down. “There’s goes another one,” he said. “It never stops.

Islam, an architect, is the head of the Urban Study Group, a small band of architects founded in 2004 that are campaigning to save the cultural heritage of Puran Dhaka, the most historic area in the city. The group has documented some 3,000 heritage buildings in Puran Dhaka, most of which have fallen into disrepair and are in danger of destruction. With about 700,000 inhabitants, the 24-sq-mile area is one of the most densely populated parts of an already packed city.

“It’s dirty. It’s messy. It’s crowded,” Islam said about Puran Dhaka, but that is part of its charm. Read the rest of this entry »

Has Bangladesh’s Elite Police Force Gone Too Far?

by Christopher Shay / Dhaka

On March 27, Bangladeshi doctors amputated the leg of Limon Hossain, a 16-year-old student, four days after he was shot during a raid by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Bangladesh’s elite security force. Almost everyday since, Hossain’s name has made headlines in Bangladesh, becoming a symbol of accusations that the governments paramilitary force acts as judge, jury and executioner in its official mission to clean up this south Asian nation of crime and corruption. “RAB is misusing their power,” Hossain says. “They are killing people.” Read the rest of this entry »

What’s Your Workout: Climbing the World’s Seven Summits

by Christopher Shay

The Executive

On her first mountaineering experience, Anita Jensen, commercial director for Skagen Designs in Hong Kong, got lost, threw up from exhaustion and lost nearly six kilograms over seven days. Read the rest of this entry »

Ocean Park Unveils Latest Attraction

by Christopher Shay

Hong Kong theme parks are locked in a race to build attractions as they compete for visitors amid rising competition in the region.

The latest splash: A 500-square-meter Amazon exhibit, unveiled by Ocean Park on Tuesday, that features a jungle raft ride, an aviary and live animals, including a now-pregnant anaconda and two capybaras, the world’s largest rodent. In perhaps a gesture meant for competing theme parks, Allan Zeman, chairman of Ocean Park, opened the new attraction, called the Rainforest, wearing Amazon war paint along with a blue headdress and a grass skirt. Read the rest of this entry »

One Glass, Seven Layers of Tea

by Christopher Shay

Bangladeshis will travel hours to the sleepy town of Srimongol, in Bangladesh’s northeast, just for a cup of Romesh Ram Gour’s famous tea. In a country of avid tea drinkers, Mr. Gour is the inventor behind a seven-layer tea which, he claims, no one else has been able to replicate. Copycats in the region have succeeded in creating five-layer teas, but none have been able to unlock the secret to Mr. Gour’s rainbow brew. Read the rest of this entry »

What’s Your Workout: Enter the Dragon Boat

by Christopher Shay

The Executive

Christine Ho had been practicing Thai boxing for five years when she hit a plateau and started “getting bored.” In search of a new physical challenge, the 39-year-old director of custom publishing at Hearst Magazines Hong Kong (and former editor-in-chief of Elle Hong Kong)  signed up for dragon boat racing, the ancient Chinese traditional sport. The native Hong Konger had watched Dragon Boat Festival races in the past and knew about the sport’s intensity.

“I’m fascinated by all things powerful,” she says. Read the rest of this entry »

What’s Your Workout: Losing Half His Weight

by Christopher Shay

The Exec

When Patrick Gorta traveled to Virginia to surprise his parents for Thanksgiving in 2009, they opened the door and didn’t recognize him. He had lost more than 36 kilograms since they had seen him six months earlier. Read the rest of this entry »

What’s Your Workout: Dangling From Hoops and Ropes

by Christopher Shay

The Executive

James Barrett, a quantitative equities researcher for  Royal Bank of Scotland, wears women’s tights to work out. After buying them from the Ladies’ Market in Mong Kok, he stitches the seams by hand, reinforcing them so they don’t rip as he flips, spins and swings through the air like a member of the circus troupe Cirque du Soleil.

“A lot of the guys don’t understand why a bloke would do this sort of thing,” he says. Read the rest of this entry »

Weighing Whether to Buy a Vacation Home

by Christopher Shay

With an increasing range of options–from managed resorts in the Maldives to a self-owned bungalow in Bali–deciding what type of vacation home to own, and what investment risks to take, is becoming a more complicated process.

Stephen Chan, a doctor in Hong Hong, learned the hard way. In 2004 he put a 10% down payment on a villa in Koh Samui, Thailand. The deal: He would cede control of the home design and the rental revenue to developers; in exchange, he was promised a 12.5% return for eight years, a month’s use of the villa and would have management of his home taken care of when he was not there.

“It’s difficult to get double-digit returns, let alone one that gives you a Thai villa for a month a year,” he says. “It seemed too good to be true.” Read the rest of this entry »

What’s Your Workout: Fighting to Stay Fit

by Christopher Shay

The Exec

Wearing a tight, black T-shirt with a skull decal to the office, Dean Thompson doesn’t look like your average CEO. Tattooed on his massive right forearm are the Latin words nihil timendum est, or, There is nothing to be afraid of. Read the rest of this entry »