/ 4 September 2005

No toilets, no takers at prison hotel

A Malaysian prison is offering adventurous travellers the chance to experience the joys of prison life — right down to the food and lack of toilets.

Johor Baru prison, Malaysia’s oldest, has been turned into a visitor’s centre and is offering an overnight package for 50 ringgit (about R81). But so far there haven’t been any takers.

“Each visitor will be given a cell with a mattress and a blanket but no pillow, and they will eat prison food,” Abdul Wahab Kassim, a senior prison department official, told the New Straits Times newspaper.

He said the overnight stays will “give an insight into prison life”.

Asked why no one has yet tried the deal, he blamed a lack of publicity. — AFP