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 unfortunatelt the museum operates on a guided tour basis only, no freely walking around, and it appeared closed. So never mind, and 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! (Sometimes being in-person works better than sending an email...) The job was rather interesting: teach ESL part-time 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. 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......
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