simon43

A busy day today, as I flew from Yangon up to Heho airport, the nearest airport to Inle Lake. As expected Yangon domestic terminal had no 'Westerners' and the ATR72 prop plane to Heho was full. The flight was only about 1 hour, but if you travel by coach, then with the many police checks, the trip takes perhaps 10-12 hours. Not for old me!! I took a taxi from the airport to my prebooked lodgings in Nyaung Shwe, the nearest town to Inle Lake. I always only book the first night at hotels, in case there is something not ok with the hotel. That was the case here, where the fastest internet from their wi-fi was not even 2 MB/sec. Additionally, although the hotel was in the town, none of my 3 mobile network SIMs produced anything more than a whisper of a signal! So I wandered over to Sweet Inn, right by the bridge over the canal that runs down to the lake, and therefore close to all amenities. I had stayed at Sweet Inn some years ago and remembered the friendly owner and the fast internet. I was not disappointed. 19 MB/sec wi-fi internet and a cracking signal from Atom mobile network as a back-up! The owner appeared, remembered me and provided his best room at $7 a night :) He mentioned that since the military coup, he had only had 2 western customers (in 5 years). As a result of lack of income, his hotel needed a touch of paint (that's an under-statement!). But it was the same as the other hotels in town. Yes, they had Burmese from Taunggyi who come to visit, but that's it. I was able to teach my online lessons without any problems, and the electricity in the town was cut at about 8pm (the hotel has no generator). However, I always come well-prepared with a car battery charger and 12v/220v inverter. The hotel owner has an old car battery that he will bring tomorrow, so I'll hopefully not have to buy one. Enjoying a cold Yoma beer... here's a view across from the hotel to the nearby temple. I do need to print out more of my A3 vocabulary posters, but the sole printer in town only stocks standard 60 gram A3 paper, no card. I predicted this. So I need to buy white paper glue, some strong scissors and corrugated packing cardboard to strengthen the posters if printed on 60 gram paper. That's a job for Friday :)

With all the recent news about the graffiti artist Banksy, I took this photo a few years ago in Luang Prabang, painted on the side of an old house. Banksy or not? :)

The 'Do not travel' warnings from many 'western' countries is really because they don't want criticism if one of their citizens is killed or injured or arrested etc in Myanmar. I've been teaching off and on in Myanmar since 2012, with my most recent job in Mandalay ending just before the earthquake in 2025. In all those years, I have never felt in any danger, wherever I've traveled in Myanmar. This is simply because the police and military will not let foreigners travel to any region they deem to be dangerous. Therefore the possibility of a foreigner getting injured or killed is absolutely minimal. Unlike Laos, (where the local police arrested me twice and deported me from the country 3 months ago, due to my 100% legal ham radio activities), I have never felt at any risk of arrest by the Burmese authorities. I refrain of course from making any comment about politics or religion, and never discuss these topics with any person in Myanmar. I have been followed many times by the police, (especially in Naypyitaw), but was assured that it was for my own safety lol. Since my reason for being in Myanmar is purely for educational purposes, I feel that I have nothing to hide. Anyway, I'll fly up to Shan State tomorrow. I'm told that foreigners can no longer rent motorbikes, which would be annoying since one of the orphanages that I support is about 10km from my hotel. So perhaps a bicycle can be rented. We'll see :) Also, as an afterthought, your medical insurance would probably be invalid if you are taken ill or have an accident etc, since you're traveling in a region 'outlawed' by your country's travel advice. For this reason, I ride my motorbike VERY carefully when in Myanmar! I have been taken ill when in Myanmar (a flare-up of my lung illness Bronchiectasis that I've had for yonks), but I was able to get back to Bangkok for treatment under my own steam.

Today is my last day in Yangon before I fly up to Heho Airport, gateway airport to Shan State. As previously mentioned, I opted to fly, rather than taking the coach for a couple of reasons: I'm getting old and can't hack a 12-hour coach journey. Also, the coach companies often require an FRC form, which is only issued to those on business or social visas. I plan to stay in Taunggyi and Inle Lake region for a couple of weeks, since there are a number of orphanages and monastery schools that I've supported (in a small way) for many years, with school books etc. I went for a walk in Yangon this morning, and took a photo in Lamadaw/Lattha of where I used to live when I first came to Yangon as a teacher. To be frank, the infrastructure of Yangon hasn't changed much, except for the new Dala bridge and Yangon hospital building. But (IMHO), Yangon HAS changed. Not the city, not the buildings but the people. I noticed that no-one wanted to be in my videos. They turned away or stepped out of shot. I quickly realised that it's no longer ok to video people, and that's why you'll find no videos that feature local citizens in my short videos on my Facebook channel. It's sad, but the events over the past few years have changed people in Myanmar... .. and as usual, in my morning walk from 10th Street down to Sule Pagoda and back, not a single 'Western' person to be seen....

A sunny Tuesday, and after a good breakfast at my hotel, I took a long walk from Latha up to Shwe Dagon Pagoda, but not to visit vthe pagoda (I've visited many times previously), but to visit the newly-opened Myanmar space Museum, located in the old planetarium building in the People's Park. 1,000 kyat entrance fee for locals, 5,000 kyat for foreigners, but unfortunately the museum operates on a guided tour basis only, no freely walking around, and it appeared closed. My interest in the space museum is because I am/was a space scientist for many years, and still do educational space projects, especially in collaboration with the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos). Recently, 2 young students at a school in Yangon became the first Myanmar students to have their space-theme drawings transmitted back to Earth by a Russian cubesat, all arranged through my contacts with Roscosmos. They received personal certificates for this project. However, the Myanmar Space Museum is part of the recently-formed Myanmar Space Agency, which is backed by the military government, AND collaborates with Roscosmos. So I have to be careful with my educational space projects not to have them associated with the military government. My efforts in radio and space comms saw me recently arrested and deported from the country of Laos, (despite not breaking any law...). In a possible attempt to get arrested in Myanmar(!), I have brought with me my weather satellite receiving antenna and equipment, and will use this on the hills above Inle Lake perhaps next week to receive weather maps from a Russian satellite. Watch this space (while I watch outer space)! I took a walk past Happy World, a pleasant park and boating lake, which has a rusting kids' funfair as well. 13 years ago, I took my grade 2 class to Happy World, and it was falling to bits then (the funfair, not the class!). I walked back towards Sule Pagoda, stopping off at my old school (Alba) to informally see the new headmaster, who then offered me a job on the spot! (Sometimes being in-person works better than sending an email, or was it sheer desperation at the lack of 'whitey' teachers....) The job was rather interesting: teach ESL part-time only at the weekend to government school students who attend weekend classes to improve their English. So minimum hours teaching, no teaching on weekdays, accommodation provided by the school, and the most important thing - a business visa, which would mean that not only can I legally stay in Myanmar all the time (ie no 28 day tourist visa), but I can easily pop up to Mandalay, Inle Lake etc during the weekdays, since my evening online teaching is possible from any location with internet. I guess most teachers are searching for full-time employment, but I'm looking for part-time, minimal hours, just to get my business visa. Well, let's see if this comes to fruition. I walked back to my hotel, stopping to take a photo of colourful fruit and flowers. What strikes me about Yangon is how little it seems to have changed, even back to the times of George Orwell no doubt. The same street sellers and smells of spices The pedalos slowly moving their buxom female passengers The shouts of street sellers The red betalnut stains and with my day's long walk from Lattha to Schwe Dagon Pagoda and back again, stopping for a cold drink at Junction City, again - not a single 'western' tourist was seen......

Nope - it's the fault of the other NATO countries who failed to stand up to Trump and reign him in much earlier than the current events, including events like Gaza. He got the upper hand, the other NATO countries made small talk and whimpering, and now Iran and China and Russia realise that most NATO countries are utter wimps to be walked over...

I hate it when the pilot and copilot are blind drunk......

IMHO, this whole situation has arisen because no EU NATO allies dared to intervene in Trumps actions, long before the fighting actually started. They simply let him get on with it, rather than forceably demanding that all NATO countries sit down and work out a plan for how to deal with Iran that involved all NATO countries, not just Trump doing what he wants. I guess a number of NATO countries have already surrendered to Islam and are happy to be Iran's bitch...... Now the USA finds itself in trouble, because Iran seems to be stronger than it estimated. The NATO alliance is broken, with Trump wanting to defeat Iran, other NATO countries trying to remain neutral, (which goes totally against the purpose of NATO - an attack on one is an attack on all), and other NATO countries happily greasing their sphincters .... What a total cluster...........

Although the exact cause of death is not yet known, many elderly people (of any nationality), die after slips and falls on wet bathroom floors. Best to walk very carefully, hold onto firm supporting objects, put down those sticky rubber non-slip mats etc.

By refusing to support Trump, these EU countries have clearly demonstrated that they have capitulated to Islamic terrorists...

Monday morning, and I had a Zoom interview with a school in Mandalay. The hotel internet is not very reliable, so after the interview I head off to buy Sim #3 from MPT mobile network. I walked 20 minutes from my hotel in Latha to Junction Centre, located the MPT shop with some difficulty, and bought a Sim card and data pack for 25,000 kyat, about $6 USD. I walked back to my hotel to teach some more lessons, taking a photo of the busy road near Bogyote Augn San Market. In the journey from my hotel to the upmarket Junction City centre and back again, I did not see a single 'western' person.....

One of the problems living in Myanmar is the internet. Apart from blocking social media websites and making VPN use illegal, everyday usage can be frustrating. I knew this from living here before :) So today I went to the phone shop and bought SIM card data packs for 2 different mobile networks. (This is not unusual for me in any country - I have the same arrangement in Cambodia, 'joining' the data connection from those 2 mobile networks with my hotel wi-fi using Speedify software). But I forgot that nowadays the military thinks Speedy is being used purely as a VPN system to access social media, (whereas I use it for speeding up internet connections, and don't need a VPN service. So Speedify runs like a snail on my Zoom lessons.... Tracking down the problem identified that if I switch off Speedify, then my hotel wi-fi connection using Zoom jumps up from 2 MB'sec to 18 MB/sec or more, and Zoom is not a service blocked by the military - phew! But whatsApp and Facebook are blocked, so I have to use an 'obscure' (ie the military haven't cottoned on to the IP address!) VPN service for that connection :)

So I finally made it back to Yangon :) A sign of the times is that the plane was about 95% Burmese citizens - only 4 people (including myaself queued at the 'foreigners' immigration desk at Yangon Airport, and the other 3 were Chinese.... For me, it's a memory lane experience, seeing where I used to live in Latha/Lamadaw 13 years ago. To be honest, nothing much seems to have chnaged, with one very visible exception - the new Dala Bridge.

I've started my journey back to Myanmar, at Suvanabhumi Airport right now. I decided to document my journey (and the background to why I'm making this journey) in a series of short YouTube videos, which I've also posted on my Facebook channels. http://www.youtube.com/@simonfrancisluttrell5818 Since I know many people don't use FB, here is a link to my YT channel and the videos which are currently numbered 1 to 7, although I'll try to add further videos each day of my trip. If anyone really wants to understand why I do this work in Myanmar, I suggest you watch the latest video #7, which is from 'the heart', with more than a few tears :) I'll be in Yangon tomorrow, so out with the camera....

It seemed to make a pretty good effort to detail my life achievements, failings and endeavours...... except that it decided that I passed away more than a year ago!!

[quote] ... What planet are you living on? 250mg ampule of Testoviron costs ฿235 at my pharmacy. You're getting taken to the cleaners. ... [/quote] Correct! Hence the growth of "men's health" clinics in Bangkok and Pattaya, who provide the initial blood tests etc (which mainstream doctors might not be knowledgable about), and then charge a fortune to provide the actual medication! The solution is to pay for the initial health check, then take the medication prescription to a pharmacy....

Drag the ambassador out of the Iranian embassy and flog him within an inch of his life (I'll volunteer to be the guy with the whip...)

I was diagnosed with low testosterone in my late teens. It's a genetic thing - my father also had low T. In the 1990's I had T slow release tabs place under the skin near my kidneys. It seemed to work and I fathered 4 kids :) In later years in Thailand I self-injected testosterone a few times each week, (after having had blood tests and medical consultancy etc). I had no problems to self-administer these injections and I certainly felt more 'alive'. Around 2023 I stopped the injections because I had suspected prostate cancer, and testosterone can encourage cancer cell growth. Happily, the cancer scare turned out to be benign calcium stones in my prostate. I'm coming to Bangkok this Aturday. Perhaps I should purchase some more T ampoules again to give myself more energy at almost 67 years old. Doe anyone know a shop to purchase Bayer or similar T ampoules in Bangkok? I'm not bothered about sexual libido, since I keep any apparent romantic approaches from females at arm's length - why on Earth would a pretty female be interested in a 66 year old guy if not for $$$ lol?

As they say, 'necessity is the mother of invention'. I think the Burmese people are the most inventive when it comes to day-to-day living and devices. Bring them a washing machine with a burnt out motor and they will manually (and labouriously) rewind that motor with old wire from some other electrical equipment so that the washing machine is usuable again. An old motor that was unrepairable provided magnets that I could use in my Science lessons. My teaching assistant cannibalised an old fluorescent light to salvage the bimetallic thermal switch for other experiments. We grew plants on the school roof to use in coloured water experiments (to demonstrate how water moves up the stem to the flower, leafs etc.) So many challenges - so running my computer etc from a car battery and inverter is no longer a challenge :)

I also take a solar panel controller unit, in case I have to purchase a solar panel (usually unnecessary since I can recharge my car battery from the mains electricity when it's available.) Over the years, I have minimised my electricity energy consumption, just the fridge, laptop, mobile phones and LED lights. I don't usually need air-con nor even a fan, since I choose my accommodation to be well-shaded by trees (the latter are also useful to hang my ham radio antennas from, as an 'advertisement' to the local police that I'm possibly a spy.....)

I heard (honest! 3rd party knowledge only), that the park is a notorious gay pick-up and action area.... I suspect that GG will enjoy this demonstration of sexual diversity!

Ah, the wonders of mains grid electricity and the occasional outage. Consider yourselfs lucky! I'm off to Myanmar on Saturday and amongst the items in my luggage that I always take is this assembly: The supply of mains grid electricity in Myanmar has been hugely insufficient for yonks, and daily power outages are the norm. In rural locations, (where I'm heading), generators are in short supply, or the hotel can't afford the diesel fuel. So if one really needs a supply of 'the juice', one has to improvise. I teach online every evening for about 3 hours, and my laptop battery won't be able to provide power for that length of time, including powering 3 separate mobile phones and an LED light array clipped to my laptop. The 3 mobile phones are used to ensure internet stability - Wi-fi from the hotel and SIMs from 3 different mobile networks, all connected together using Speedify software. If the preferred internet sources goes 'down' or too slow, the software will automatically share or switch to a working network in an instant, without dropping the connection. What's not shown, (because I buy this locally), is a sturdy 12 volt car battery that is charged up by that lethal-looking battery charger when there is mains grid power available. A fully-charged car battery can supplly my laptop with enough juice for perhaps 24 hours or more. I 'abandon' the battery on my return by plane, since transporting car batteries isn't permitted, (and it's too heavy for me to lug around anyway!).

Having now based my self in Cambodia (next week ????!), I find most females can speak good to very good English. They've made the effort, since most foreigners speak no Khmer (and won't make an effort to learn it). I profess to only knowing 1 word of Khmer (bong!!). I can speak Thai, Lao, French and Burmese (some of these languages I can speak and read very well, others more basic). I should make an effort to learn some Khmer for politeness sake, but my old brain is currently struggling with practicing 'I need to buy a car battery because my hotel has no generator' in Burmese language....... Although Siem Reap has its own share of total 'slappers' and loser barang in Pub Street, I find most Khmer females very friendly and approachable and intelligent, able to discuss topics and not just say 'up to you..'. Most are physcially pretty as well :)

So Iran now is now attacking countries which are not involved nor taken sides in this conflict. I wonder what their justification will be...

Rubbish! I consider myself a decent person, but I'm neither shocked nor deeply affected. I don't hear you wokies making a fuss about the many thousands of civilians killed in Myanmar. Speak up about them and I might start giving Gaza more thought.