Day-to-day life in Myanmar

[simon43]

I'm living and teaching back in Myanmar again (I'm in the city of Mandalay again, where I note that the nearest fighting is only 13km away).  \

 

Anyway, I won't comment about the political situation, but I'll maybe post about my day-to-day experiences 🙂

 

So I'm teaching Science at an 'international' school in the city.  As I'm a scientist, and as I've been teaching science previously in Myanmar, the job is very easy and enjoyable.  In my first few days of class, many of my young students asked me my age (I'm going on 66 years old). I gave them a quiz a=25, b=45, c=65, d = 85 years old.  The majority of my students chose 45 years old!!  So they have already qualified for top marks in whatever exam they fail LoL...

 

I took a yellow tuk-tuk to the local Ocean shopping centre (neither tuk-tuks nor shopping centre existed 8 years ago when I was last a teacher in Mandalay).

 

Outside the shopping centre were 20 very large advertising billboards.  3 of them had adverts for clothes and food shops.  The other 17 had adverts for pre-schools, schools, colleges and universities.....

 

At the weekend, I walked once around Mandalay fort, (about 8km all the way round), and then up the hundreds of steps to the top of Mandalay Hill (see my photo).  When I used to do this walk 8 years ago, both sides of the steps were crowded with locals selling trinkets etc for the many foreign tourists.  Today, not a single seller and the only foreigner I saw during my walk around the fort and up/down the steps was myself....

 

 

 

 

[soi3eddie]

Sad for the Burmese people. I was in Yangon last year and saw no tourists. The Burmese people are struggling financially and for freedom. Of course, in conflict areas it's even worse. Now I see a number of travel YouTubers going to Myanmar and making clickbait headings such as "travelling Myanmar in 2024 is tough", "Journey into Myanmar's conflict zone" and "Entering Asia's most dangerous country". Not sure what to make of it having travelled the country extensively in the past. 

[chiang mai]

I look forward to reading more about this, thanks Simon.

[simon43]

Although Mandalay is close to the 'front line', the city is reasonably quiet and safe.  Yes, there are armed police and soldiers, and the road passing the Chinese consulate is blocked off and guarded, after someone chucked a bomb at the building! 

 

Electricity power cuts happen several times a day, but that was also the case many years ago.  For me, one noticeable difference from my first visits many years ago are the large number of solar panel arrays mounted to completely cover the roofs of many buildings. Buildings always had diesel generators, but now solar power is much in evidence.  That's annoying for me, because the solar controller units generate harmonic radio signals that interfere with my reception of UHF/VHF satellite signals 🙂.  Of course, my ham radio transmitter is safely locked up in Thailand.... I will ask the military to renew my Burmese ham radio licence, but the chance of that happening is... er .... fecking unlikely!

 

I'm watched the various YouTube vloggers, and some of those videos are quite interesting and others are fear-mongering.  I note that the UK Foreign Office gives advice to the effect of "don't go there, and if you are there, then get out whilst you still have the chance..."

Edited Thursday at 10:27 AM by simon43

[Ben Zioner]

6 minutes ago, simon43 said:

Although Mandalay is close to the 'front line', the city is reasonably quiet and safe.  Yes, there are armed police and soldiers, and the road passing the Chinese consulate is blocked off and guarded, after someone chucked a bomb at the building! 

 

Electricity power cuts happen several times a day, but that was also the case many years ago.  For me, one noticeable difference from my first visits many years ago are the large number of solar panel arrays mounted to completely cover the roofs of many buildings. Buildings always had diesel generators, but now solar power is much in evidence.  That's annoying for me, because the solar controller units generate harmonic radio signals that interfere with my reception of UHF/VHF satellite signals 🙂.  Of course, my ham radio transmitter is safely locked up in Thailand.... I will ask the military to renew my Burmese ham radio licence, but the chance of that happening is... er .... fecking unlikely!

 

I'm watched the various YouTube vloggers, and some of those videos are quite interesting and others are fear-mongering.  I note that the UK Foreign Office gives advice to the effect of "don't go there, and if you are there, then get out whilst you still have the chance..."

Any tourists left in this marvellous city? Stayed there in 1986.... 

[Keeps]

Please excuse my ignorance but what is the latest situation regarding Aung San Suu Kyi? How is she now regarded by the general masses? Is she under house arrest? Is she still 'active'?

 

I can only assume with your background, you are probably best placed to comment.

[simon43]

1 hour ago, Ben Zioner said:

Any tourists left in this marvellous city? Stayed there in 1986.... 

The only foreigners that I've seen are a few teachers... no tourists

 

@Keeps - she is still in prison, and has been since February 2021.  She is still highly regarded and respected by the Burman majority ethnic group, less so by other ethnic groups who historically have been seeking autonomy for their regions for many decades.  Being in prison and incommunicado, no word or comments are ever heard from her.

Edited Thursday at 12:22 PM by simon43

[jori123]

Burma is OK, but damned boring, beer is ok though

[simon43]

6 hours ago, jori123 said:

Burma is OK, but damned boring, beer is ok though

Well, any country is what you make it 🙂  Looking for loose women, ladyboys?  You're probably in the wrong country.  Looking for culture, unspoilt nature, Buddhist temples etc?  Come on over!

 

As for the beer, if you're referring to 'Myanmar Beer', it's good but absolutely not flavour of the month (or year), since its company profits go to the military.  Most bars no longer sell it....

[chiang mai]

What is your personal risk level or that of any foreigner in say Mandalay these days?

[spidermike007]

I'm quite fond of the Burmese people during my trips to Burma I found them to be quite lovely and what they're having to do indoor at this point in time is horrific. 

 

When the Burmese army says they are uninterested in politics, that is total BS. They are power hungry thugs. Utter pigs and despots. The nasty billionaire generals are thieves, robbing the people of their gems, their timber, their minerals and selling heroin for the sake of amassing wealth. And supported by extremist Buddhist monks against the minorities. Broken men. With their recent overthrow, they have self revoked the right to consume oxygen. May the #myanmaryouth prevail! May the dinosaurs be pushed out. They are a terrorist army.

 

Hooray to the Burmese people, may they bring utter misery to the junta, and the thieves that are controlling Burma, stealing their treasure, and inflicting misery on their people.

 

These corrupt, thieving, Burmese Army generals, are mafia goons who are finally getting what they deserve. They are terrorists, slaughtering their own people. 

[Hummin]

How is the food and prices? How do you transfer money in the Burma? Any Atm there? 

 

If visiting a beach destination, where whould you go? Of course budget friendly for decent standard and service. 

 

thank you for creating something else than the lately trend on this forum. Utterly boring and sad development and standard

[simon43]

Thanks for the kind comments everyone.  I'll add my replies at the bottom of this post 🙂

 

Today (Friday), I only had 2 science lessons in the morning to teach. (My school employs me on an hourly basis, so I don't have to stay on the premises if I have no lessons to teach).

 

Therefore, after completing my teaching obligations, I jumped into a yellow taxi to visit a colour print shop.  8 years ago when I last taught in Mandalay, these little taxis didn't exist.  I think they have been imported from India.  Now there are hundred of them all over the city.

 

 

At the colour print shop I needed to initiate some printing for my educational charity >> large A2 size vocabularly posters and sets of A-Z flash cards.  A flashcard set (A6 size) will cost me about $10 USD and each poster will cost about $7 USD.  The actual exchange rate is highly variable - anything between 2,000 - 5,000 kyat to $1 USD. I don't have to pay in USD, so the converted rate is just for my own information.  But the price is certainly more expensive than my previous visits.  Posters and cards are printed on heavy vinyl paper, and that's where the cost comes in.  To provide alphabet sets and poster sets for each school will cost me about $50 per school, and there are many schools.... I might invest in an A2 printer if it works out cheaper!  Here's one of the vocab posters that I designed.  The code number against each fruit can be entered into the free Android app that I wrote some years ago, and the student can then listen to my dulcit tones pronouncing the word correctly.

 

Next I walked up the dusty streets to check out a hotel as a possible long-term location to stay.  The monthly rate for a room, as quoted on the internet was about $600, (my school will pay 50% of that fee).  However, the hotel reception quoted me the ludicrous price of $1,100 USD for a small room per month.  I declined their offer!

 

Outside the hotel was a rather nice mobile petrol station 🙂

 

 

Feeling hot, I took another taxi to CityMart, where I ordered Shan Noodles.  This tasty dish is very easy to remember to say in Burmese.  It's "Shan Kao Sway", which sounds just like the Thai words for white rice!

Once around the busy Citymart to buy my food and home again in a tuk-tuk taxi.  Throughout my 3 hour trip, not a single foreigner was seen....

 

No chance of this happening anytime soon 😞

 

 

@Hummin - you can only transfer money in using Western Union (it's always been like this for yonks). My local currency was running low, so with some trepidation I put my Payoneer debit card into a local bank ATM (hoping that it wouldn't 'eat' it).  Lucky for me, it all worked fine and spat out 3 million kyat, about $100 USD.

 

The decent beach on the west coast is currently the scene of heavy fighting!  Here it is in more peaceful days.  But many of the hotels are owned by the military.  It took me about 4 days riding my off-road motorbike to reach this beach from Naypyitaw a few years ago (the road wasn't very good!).  So I'd give it a miss in the future...

 

 

Food prices have definitely increased since my last visit.  Hardly surprising, considering the inflation rate and difficulty to source goods...

 

@ChiangMai, the personal risk level is very low.  Of course, anger that the local people feel is not directed towards foreigners.  The risk is simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I make wide detours around police checkpoints/boxes, in case someone decides to start shooting!

 

Edited 18 hours ago by simon43

[soi3eddie]

22 hours ago, Hummin said:

How do you transfer money in the Burma? Any Atm there? 

 

When in Yangon (March 2023) there were quite a few ATMs. In the airport was a line of 3 or 4 modern ATMs from Myanmar banks. My WISE card would not work in any of them, however my Thai Kbank ATM/Debit card worked fine. I was also able to use my UK MBNA credit card (WISE didn't work) in a couple of western style restauarants in the city (to preserve local cash).

 

Edited 4 hours ago by soi3eddie

[Hummin]

1 minute ago, soi3eddie said:

 

When in Yangon (March 2023) there were quite a few ATMs. In the airport was a line of 3 or 4 modern ATMs from Myanmar banks. My WISE card would not work in any of them, however my Thai Kbank ATM/Debit card worked fine. I was also able to use my UK MBNA credit card in a couple of western style restauarants in the city (to preserve local cash).

 

 

For me, the only reason would be to go on a almost untuched location for snorkeling and diving. Still can go on these live onboard boats who do operate in the south. Island hopping is maybe not the time 

[chiang mai]

1 minute ago, soi3eddie said:

 

When in Yangon (March 2023) there were quite a few ATMs. In the airport was a line of 3 or 4 modern ATMs from Myanmar banks. My WISE card would not work in any of them, however my Thai Kbank ATM/Debit card worked fine. I was also able to use my UK MBNA credit card in a couple of western style restauarants in the city (to preserve local cash).

 

I read an article explaining how the junta was obtaining foreign currency by forcing expatriate Burmese to exchange foreign currency at punitive exchange rates. The banks are complicit and compounding the situation by diverting foreign currency to the government, this helps their war effort and allows them to buy things their own currency cannot. 

[Walker88]

Like some of the other posters, I have a lot of experience with the country. Burmese is one of the languages I speak, as well as read and write. I had funded the building of a few rural schools years ago with my earnings from my Wall Street days, and I did a few other things such as try to enhance medical care, which has always been abysmal. Back then it was SLORC/SPDC in charge, but a few of the generals were not only aware of what I was doing, they also gave me a 'pass' and stood ready to assist me if any lower level mil types tried to extract 'tributes' from me. Some of those generals had the foresight, or maybe naive hope, that their own days were numbered and that democracy was inevitable. A few of them eventually ran afoul of their fascist colleagues and were jailed, so my 'get out of jail free' card evaporated, and I had to be more cautious. For a while I had free rein of the entire country, even areas where foreigners were not permitted to go. I used to have to take a few soldiers as 'security', as I was told some areas were full of 'dacoits' or bandits. I never had any problem, and though in some places I was a fascination (owing to my height and blue eyes), I was never in any danger.

 

I was there for some of the country's previous major events, such as the 2007 Saffron Revolution and the 2008 devastation by the cyclone Nargis, that killed 180,000, mostly in the lower Ayewaddy Delta areas. I remember during the Saffron Revolution, folks gunned down in front of my hotel, where there were only two guests, the other being Magnum photographer James Natchwey.

 

As the OP may know, even when the military decided to take their ill-gotten gains and step down, they wrote a new Constitution that had a provision where the Tatmadaw could retake power "at any time for any reason". That was supposedly the justification used in the coup from a few years ago. Like in Thailand, the powers that be had also stacked the deck in the nascent Parliament, with most members being appointed by the army rather than facing a popular vote.

 

Those things set the stage for what has happened, as many mid-level military officers, seeing the wealth accumulated by previous leaders like Than Shwe and Maung Aye, had been waiting their chance to move up the ranks and steal from the national trough. The short period of democracy derailed their plans, but not their ambitions, and it was just a few short years before they made their move.

 

Junta rule is different this time, because the people have chosen to rise up, especially in the ethnic majority areas such as Kachin State, Karen State and a few others. Absent junta support from China, Russia and Singapore, plus natural gas sales to Thailand, the junta might already have fallen. As is, it controls just the major urban areas and their surroundings. The Burmese people are astonishingly brave.

 

One can only hope this junta has an expiration date, and the lovely people of the country will once again get to enjoy freedom and some degree of prosperity. I suspect its future is something like the nations of the former Yugoslavia or maybe as associated as the UAE, where individual ethnic areas have a good deal of autonomy, but maybe there is a common central government.

[kevozman1]

You have more guts than me... I have this nostalgia bug of Thailand 20 years ago that I think Myanmar would maybe realize, but it's just too risky. Not sure if i'm sensible or becoming cowardly as I get a bit older. From travelers I have heard Yangon is ok, but most of the country is risky. What is your assessment Simon? I do recollect you posting many years ago that you had enough of Thailand and was planning to move to Myanmar. Good to see you are still around and followed through with your plan.

[KhunLA]

Great stuff, thanks.  You like to hop  around.  I thought I moved around a bit, state to state when in USA, but you're constantly on the move, country to country  

 

Keep it coming, as nice to get real info from real people there. 

 

No tourist ... BLISS, though sucks for the locals.

[simon43]

[quote]

...

What is your assessment Simon? I do recollect you posting many years ago that you had enough of Thailand and was planning to move to Myanmar.

...

[/quote]

 

Well, checking where I've been living since 2012, I note that the majority of my time has been spent living and teaching in Myanmar, followed by Laos and then Thailand. I've been a teacher in Yangon several times, Mandalay several times, then Naypyitaw and Mahlaign (spelling?).

 

Myanmar is never my idea of a retirement or leisure destination!  I go there to help with student education.  The lack of decent amenities, hospitals, retirement visas etc rules it off my list.  My plan is still to eventually retire in the Philippines (index-linked UK pension), but I find that I do not feel ready to retire.

 

It's National Day on Monday next, so the amount of anti-junta activity will probably increase.

 

Yonks ago, , I established a very small enterprise called Xtrer (XTRER), whose modus-operandi was to generate small but regular amounts of money for under-privileged families living in developing countries. "A little xtrer helps" was the company tagline, and I realised that you do not need to throw $$$ of cash at a project, in order to get results IF you cut out the middlemen and those charity workers who were greedy, lazy, and exploited the local women (or men) etc.

 

Back in 2012, I used to see the charity workers from the big-name charities securing all the rooms in the 5-star hotel in Yangon, occasionally venturing out in their brand new landrovers for a spot of shopping.  I found it disgusting!  I went directly to the school book supplier, negotiated a large discount (because I was using my own cash to buy and donate the books), and I was able to help deserving students by creating mini-libraries of the books required by the school syllabus at each school or orphanage.  This cost me only a small amount of money, but would make a big difference in the student's education 🙂

 

Here's one of these mini-libraries at SaMa Mountain orphanage in central Myanmar.

 

 

 

There are other friends of mine also living and helping in Myanmar, and making a difference to the communities that they help.  It doesn't require much money, just the desire to help 🙂

[Card]

Great story and it brings back wonderful memories for me. I used to travel a lot in Myanmar and miss it since the recent coup. I'd love to keep up with your stories. Just one question. I heard savage sounding dogs when I climbed those steps up to the top. Are they still there?

[Card]

On 11/22/2024 at 1:01 AM, jori123 said:

Burma is OK, but damned boring, beer is ok though

I bet the beer is not as weak as your opinions.

[Card]

58 minutes ago, kevozman1 said:

You have more guts than me... I have this nostalgia bug of Thailand 20 years ago that I think Myanmar would maybe realize, but it's just too risky. Not sure if i'm sensible or becoming cowardly as I get a bit older. From travelers I have heard Yangon is ok, but most of the country is risky. What is your assessment Simon? I do recollect you posting many years ago that you had enough of Thailand and was planning to move to Myanmar. Good to see you are still around and followed through with your plan.

I've always said that Myanmar is like Thailand 50 years ago, not 20! And thats not a sneer. I love(d) travelling there.

[Card]

30 minutes ago, simon43 said:

[quote]

...

What is your assessment Simon? I do recollect you posting many years ago that you had enough of Thailand and was planning to move to Myanmar.

...

[/quote]

 

Well, checking where I've been living since 2012, I note that the majority of my time has been spent living and teaching in Myanmar, followed by Laos and then Thailand. I've been a teacher in Yangon several times, Mandalay several times, then Naypyitaw and Mahlaign (spelling?).

 

Myanmar is never my idea of a retirement or leisure destination!  I go there to help with student education.  The lack of decent amenities, hospitals, retirement visas etc rules it off my list.  My plan is still to eventually retire in the Philippines (index-linked UK pension), but I find that I do not feel ready to retire.

 

It's National Day on Monday next, so the amount of anti-junta activity will probably increase.

 

Yonks ago, , I established a very small enterprise called Xtrer (XTRER), whose modus-operandi was to generate small but regular amounts of money for under-privileged families living in developing countries. "A little xtrer helps" was the company tagline, and I realised that you do not need to throw $$$ of cash at a project, in order to get results IF you cut out the middlemen and those charity workers who were greedy, lazy, and exploited the local women (or men) etc.

 

Back in 2012, I used to see the charity workers from the big-name charities securing all the rooms in the 5-star hotel in Yangon, occasionally venturing out in their brand new landrovers for a spot of shopping.  I found it disgusting!  I went directly to the school book supplier, negotiated a large discount (because I was using my own cash to buy and donate the books), and I was able to help deserving students by creating mini-libraries of the books required by the school syllabus at each school or orphanage.  This cost me only a small amount of money, but would make a big difference in the student's education 🙂

 

Here's one of these mini-libraries at SaMa Mountain orphanage in central Myanmar.

 

 

 

There are other friends of mine also living and helping in Myanmar, and making a difference to the communities that they help.  It doesn't require much money, just the desire to help 🙂

Simon, I'm on a retirement visa in thailand been living here for 20 years but made 4 long trips to Myanmar, the last just before the recent coup. What can I do for kids education in the country, either including visits there or from here?

Edited 1 hour ago by Card

[kevozman1]

11 minutes ago, Card said:

I've always said that Myanmar is like Thailand 50 years ago, not 20! And thats not a sneer. I love(d) travelling there.

 

Maybe one day. I honestly struggle to justify the risk to myself but I have a weird feeling like I did about Thailand years ago (which proved correct) that if I traveled around there it would be a fantastic journey. 

[simon43]

48 minutes ago, Card said:

Great story and it brings back wonderful memories for me. I used to travel a lot in Myanmar and miss it since the recent coup. I'd love to keep up with your stories. Just one question. I heard savage sounding dogs when I climbed those steps up to the top. Are they still there?

 

Hi Card, there are plenty of dogs, but (unlike Thailand), I have never had a problem with those dogs?  They looked rather meek last week. The only 'savage' incident was a Burmese woman who was insistent that I buy her Buddha flowers 🙂  (I didn't!).

 

As to helping with the education in Myanmar, of course this is really difficult to figure out something that actually will benefit the local students.  My view is that donating to the big charities is akin to throwing your money down the drain! Many years I sat down (with myself) to try to figure out a way that my small amounts of $ could actually make a difference.  So I wrote an Android learning app which allows students/teachers to download videos while in a wifi cafe, and then to study/watch those videos 'offline' at home.  I add to these videos most weeks, and they have lesson content that mirrors the Myanmar school curriculum.  (I am also going to add videos in Burmese that help students to learn Korean and Japanese).  Some of these videos are created by myself, and the others are downloaded by me from YouTube.  Does that break the copyright rules? Probably.  But I make no money from these videos and my conscience is clear.  Of course, most poor kids won't have a mobile phone, but their local teachers certainly do, and it;s important to educate the teachers, so they can pass on this knowledge to others.

 

The other way to help is to buy school books etc, but in the current state of the country, it's impossible to physically travel to many areas. You also need to be sure that you are not 'throwing loads of mud at a wall in the hope that some will stick'.  I used to visit each school or orphanage, make a note of how many students and what grades, and then 'customise' the contents of my donation box to ensure that my $ was actually going to help those students.  Now, since I am stuck in Mandalay, I have a list of all the government schools, monastery schools and orphanages in the city that I can try to help.

 

I take the view that since I have managed to survive for 22+ years in south-east Asia on a relatively small income, I will be able to continue doing that on my UK state pension.  I don't need to leave money to my overseas family, so I might as well use it to make a small difference to the lives of others who - by fate of birth - were born into the situation where they find themselves today.