Friday, June 12, 2015

When Traveling the World honor local customs to stay alive and out of jail

Photo
Lindsey Peterson of Canada, center right, and Dylan Snel of the Netherlands, center left, arriving at a courthouse in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, on Friday. Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
HONG KONG — Four Westerners who stripped atop Malaysia’s highest peak pleaded guilty on Friday to public obscenity and were due to be deported, their lawyer said.
The four were fined about $1,300 apiece and received three-day jail sentences, which they had already served, said the lawyer, Ronny Cham. They were scheduled to take the first flight Saturday morning out of the city of Kota Kinabalu, he said. They had faced possible jail terms of up to three months.
Their case received international attention after some local officials said that by removing their clothes on Mount Kinabalu, which is considered sacred by many who live near it, the foreigners had helped cause a deadly earthquake last week.
Eleanor Hawkins, a 24-year-old British woman; Dylan Snel, a 23-year-old Dutch man; and Lindsey Peterson, 23, and his sister Danielle Peterson, 22, of Canada were part of a group who split off from a larger party of trekkers on the mountain last month. They removed their clothes and took photos, despite requests from a guide that they not do so.
Their act provoked local anger after the guide reported the episode. But the outrage grew after a magnitude-6.0 earthquake on June 5 that killed 18 people on the mountain.
Online, many Malaysians denounced the behavior of the foreign visitors. Some officials in Sabah, the Malaysian state on the island of Borneo where Kinabalu is, said they agreed with local sentiment that the earthquake was linked to the visitors’ display.
Six other members of the group were sought by the police but were believed to have left the country.
Emil Kaminski, who is believed to be a member of the group that undressed, posted a video online in which he mocked the assertion that their actions had anything to do with the earthquake as foolishly unscientific.

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  1. 4 Tourists Plead Guilty to Obscenity for Posing...

    www.nytimes.com/2015/06/13/world/asia/4-accused-of...
    Jun 11, 2015 · HONG KONG — Four Westerners who stripped atop Malaysia’s highest peak pleaded guilty on Friday to public obscenity and were due to be deported, their ... 

    1. 4 Tourists Plead Guilty to Obscenity for Posing...

      www.nytimes.com/2015/06/13/world/asia/4-accused-of...
      Jun 11, 2015 · HONG KONG — Four Westerners who stripped atop Malaysia’s highest peak pleaded guilty on Friday to public obscenity and were due to be deported, their ...
    2. Mount Kinabalu naked photo accused plead guilty -...

      www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-33105999Cached
      Jun 11, 2015 · Four tourists, including a British woman, who posed naked on a sacred mountain in Malaysia enter guilty pleas in court.

Foreign mores and rules might seem ridiculous to a westerner, but you are not in your home country and often you can be murdered right there or held in jail and tortured for years for things that seem ridiculous to you. They are not westerners and if you offend their sensibilities in some way you could just wind up dead or in jail the rest of your lives. Get real!

Foreign travel can be both exciting and deadly in the same breath. IF you don't fully understand this you shouldn't be traveling worldwide.

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