Day-to-day life in Myanmar

[josephbloggs]

4 hours ago, simon43 said:

Friday is a part-time teaching day for me, and I planned to pop home after the morning lessons.  However the young, pretty female teachers (they all seem to be like that in Myanmar!) had other ideas.

 

"Teacher Simon, we want to make a movie with you" they chorused!

 

Well, that sounds more fun,and I was ready to strip off my kit and lube up the rusty banana when they explained "The school is making a promo video for our winter sports festival, and the other foreign teachers have nominated you to be the presenter of this promo video".

 

My first thought was that the appearance of the oldest teacher in the whole school to promote a sports video was not a good idea.  However, after briefly considering the apparent health (or lack of it) of my fellow foreign teachers, I decided that I was maybe the better candidate.

 

So myself and 3 lovely young Burmese teachers squeezed onto 2 motor bikes and rode the short distance to the Mandalar Thiri sports stadium to make our movie.  30 or so grade 2 students arrived shortly by bus and they busied themselves in running around the sports hall and generally acting like errant cats, whilst the gym teachers tried to herd them.

 

I was given a sheet of paper with the various phrases and sentences to read out.  We didn't have any professional recording equipment, so one teacher videoed me with her mobile phone and I spoke my lines into my own phone voice recorder, to ensure an adequate sound level.  Videos and audio clips will be spliced together by the highly-skilled post-production facility (that means the computer teacher...).

 

Well, I have to say that the Burmese teachers were suitably 'wowed' by my professional presentation.  Little did they know that they were face-to-face with none other than 'Barry Lancaster', a famous radio DJ from Radio Delmare, from the days of the offshore pirate radio stations in the 1970's!  (Actually I spent most of my stint on that ship being seasick, but I need to keep the illusion going).

 

We completed the promo video by the kids all jumping in the air to a raucous scream.

 

So, the winter sports event will be on the last day of this month.  That gives me plenty of time to 'plot' my revenge on my fellow foreign teachers!

 

Addendum: For anyone interested in my 'radio' career, here are links to information about Radio Delmare:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Delmare

https://www.dxarchive.com/offshore_radio_delmare_english_service.html

 

 

 

Simon, I have only been to Myanmar once and that was a quick trip for work so I have nothing meaningful to contribute here. I just wanted to thank you for your posts - I really enjoy reading them and you are doing a lot of good for a lot of people. Please keep them coming.

It's also reassuring to know there is a corner of this forum which is worthwhile and positive.

[simon43]

Just a few photos to curry interest.

 

I usually teach online all day Saturday, but I'm trying reduce the number of lessons because - to be frank - I'm getting too old to teach all day and then teach in the evenings and all day at the weekends! Also, I don't need all this extra income and this heavy workload reduces my free time for hobbies and charity work.

 

Therefore, I have been culling some of my students whose parents treat my lessons as a baby-sitting exercise, or where the young student has learnt a lot over the years from me, and would probably benefit from a different teacher.  It's also a good time to wind down my relationship with iTalki, (where many of my students book my science lessons), because I have almost reached the impressive level of having earned $100,000 USD from my lessons with iTalki.

 

None of my students/their parents are happy with this decision, but I need to be a little selfish here.  In any case, it still leaves other students, and their online income over the month is about $1,500, (plus my daytime income, plus my UK pension next June).

 

So, I took a walk to a hardware store where I was able to finally track down the PVC board that I'll use to make sturdy wall poster backgrounds for my day students to draw/create project posters about different aspects of science that they have been learning.

 

I walked past the Red Cross office, who clearly don't want to take sides in the current conflict.

 

 

Most of the houses have impressive security around their perimetre walls, with barbed wire, electrified wires, CCTV and lights. I do know from my time in Yangon than even 60 watt outside light bulbs would disappear in the night, if they were not locked within a barbed wire mesh.

 

The workers who install the barbed wire are clearly rather skilled at creating  something akin to a modern work of art...

 

 

This (not so great) photo is of a pedalo, something not seen so often nowadays in Mandalay. 

 

 

Many years ago, when living in Yangon, I would take the ferry every Sunday across the river to Dala Township, and then a pedelo would take me the 2km or so to the local monastery where I would teach English.  The room was bare, with no electricity, but the students were keen!

 

 

 

 

[simon43]

Another Monday and my day off.  I dropped some vocabulary posters off at the Girls' orphanage, and also ordered 8 more laminated poster sets (8 different posters/set), from the print shop.

 

The reason for needing these extra sets is because I have planned a journey next week 🙂 .  Since it's Christmas, I have a few days of holiday.  Ideally, I would love to jump on a motorbike and ride across to Kalaw, Inle Lake and Taunggyi, just as I used to do when I worked in Naypyitaw.

 

But it's not practical to do that, because I haven't yet bought a motorbike!  Additionally, although the regions that I plan to travel through are considered reasonably safe, (by some close friends working in Myanmar, NOT by the red maps on the UK/US etc government advice web sites), I'm not happy to ride in a region bristling with trigger-happy soldiers when wearing a motorcycle helmet - it can make it difficult for them to recognise that I am a foreigner and they could shoot first....

 

So I've planned a private car tour guide trip from my base in Mandalay, and visiting/donating at all the orphanages that I previously supported.  I want to check on their needs, meet some old friends and (hopefully), make my first attempt at 'vlogging' for YouTube with a video from a foreigner who is not just visiting Myanmar on a 'trip to the most dangerous country in the world' as how these vloggers seem to promote their videos.

 

My tour guide and driver is fully aware of the reason behind my trip, and he also knows some more homes which never receive any donations or help.  Using a car also makes it easier to transport donation items, such as rice, clothes that we might buy in the region after assessing the homes' needs.

 

Anyway, my plan is to record a sort of 'introducing myself' video in the next few days, get that up on my new YT channel, and then follow up with my Christmas trip through war-torn Myanmar to some of these orphanages 🙂

 

There are some regions that I previously visited, such as Pin Laung and Loikaw etc, but these are too dangerous for me to visit now (so sad).

 

ChatGPT has a vivid imagination....

 

[rhodie]

You're a good man Simon. I hope it all goes well.

[soi3eddie]

6 hours ago, simon43 said:

 

ChatGPT has a vivid imagination....

 

The person asking ChatGPT to generate the image must have written a complex and detailed set of instructions. A very good creation IMO.

 

[simon43]

7 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

 

The person asking ChatGPT to generate the image must have written a complex and detailed set of instructions. A very good creation IMO.

 

I usually give ChatGPT a few concise instructions and it produces good images, BUT it seems to be dyslexic and unable to put form correctly-spelt words!

 

Viz:

please create an image with the letters of the alphabet from A to Z in order, and please also write the sentence "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog"

 

[simon43]

I had a half-day today (Wednesday) because some of my students have to practice for our school's winter sports festival on New Year's Eve.  Apparently, my promotional video last week has attracted the highest ever number of hits on the school Facebook page, (so that means 10 hits LoL!),  and I have therefore been ordered to be the official announcer on that day 🙂

 

I visited a school book shop today and stocked up on more books that I need to take next week on my visit to the orphanages.  I also invested in some pipe-cleaners and cotton wool....  Now I wonder what they are for? 🙂

 

Mandalay is very quiet now after dark.  There is no evening curfew, but numerous teens and young men are being 'conscripted' off the streets to fight in the army against the civilians.  Naturally, this is keeping most young men at home after dark 😞

 

The kyat to USD exchange rate is all over the place!  If I exchange USD to kyat in a bank or withdraw kyat from my Bangkok bank account via the ATM machines here, the exchange rate is about 1 USD = 2,100 kyat MMK

 

If I change USD notes in the local (registered) currency exchange office (which I did today), the rate is $1 USD = 4,400 kyat MMK!!  Naturally, I avoid withdrawing from an ATM machine....

[Mahseer]

8 minutes ago, simon43 said:

The kyat to USD exchange rate is all over the place!  If I exchange USD to kyat in a bank or withdraw kyat from my Bangkok bank account via the ATM machines here, the exchange rate is about 1 USD = 2,100 kyat MMK

 

If I change USD notes in the local (registered) currency exchange office (which I did today), the rate is $1 USD = 4,400 kyat MMK!!  Naturally, I avoid withdrawing from an ATM machine....

There are two rates in Burma. The official rate used by banks and the black market rate. The latter did peak at just over 7,000/$ earlier this year but has been steady around the 4300-4600 level for past 6 months. Crisp $ bills required, 

[simon43]

10 hours ago, Mahseer said:

There are two rates in Burma. The official rate used by banks and the black market rate. The latter did peak at just over 7,000/$ earlier this year but has been steady around the 4300-4600 level for past 6 months. Crisp $ bills required, 

Yes, I know about the 2 rates - I've lived/worked in Myanmar many times since 2012.  My comment was that my $1=4,400 kyat is not a black-market rate.  It is the rate offered by the government-registered currency exchange offices on the high street, (hardly an 'under-the-counter' rate!).

[Mahseer]

13 minutes ago, simon43 said:

Yes, I know about the 2 rates - I've lived/worked in Myanmar many times since 2012.  My comment was that my $1=4,400 kyat is not a black-market rate.  It is the rate offered by the government-registered currency exchange offices on the high street, (hardly an 'under-the-counter' rate!).

The term 'black market' is slightly misleading and indicates deals can be done with shady characters which can be the case today around Sule pagoda in Rangoon but the exchange place I use is in Bogyoke market and is wide open for all to see so assumably operating legally. 
 

Best of luck with your projects.

[simon43]

For perhaps the first time in 20 years, I got food poisoning yesterday.  Spent the evening emptying my stomach into the toilet, and then a very unpeaceful night... I'm travelling today to the orphanages.  My stomach is ok now, but I feel rather weak.  Hopefully I'll improve as the day passes.

 

PS - It was a custard creme that did it!

[norfolkandchance]

3 hours ago, simon43 said:

For perhaps the first time in 20 years, I got food poisoning yesterday.  Spent the evening emptying my stomach into the toilet, and then a very unpeaceful night... I'm travelling today to the orphanages.  My stomach is ok now, but I feel rather weak.  Hopefully I'll improve as the day passes.

 

PS - It was a custard creme that did it!

Thank god for Imodium.

[Burma Bill]

6 hours ago, simon43 said:

For perhaps the first time in 20 years, I got food poisoning yesterday.  Spent the evening emptying my stomach into the toilet, and then a very unpeaceful night... I'm travelling today to the orphanages.  My stomach is ok now, but I feel rather weak.  Hopefully I'll improve as the day passes.

 

PS - It was a custard creme that did it!

 Hope you are now okay Simon. 

Fortunately, during all my visits to Burma I never got the "Rangoon Runs" but Imodium (as mentioned elsewhere) came to my rescue in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand!

 

[simon43]

Thanks BurmaBill, Norfolkandchance.  To be honest, I was more annoyed than anything else, because I like custard cremes.  And yes - I brought along medicine just in case, so are feeling weak but better now.

 

Now I am in the small town of Nyaung Shwe, which nestles at the north end of Inle Lake, and is where tourists set off for boat trips on the lake.

 

 

I was last here visiting orphanages 6 years ago, and how it has changed, thanks to Covid and then the military coup.  Absolutely no foreign tourists of course.  There are local tourists, but my driver tells me that they all stay in nearby Taunggyi, and then make day trips to Nyaung Shwe.  So the town economy has collapsed 😞 No large hotels are open, no 'western' food restaurants, no tourist shops etc.  The mobile internet is stopped by the military and there are only a few hours of electricity each day...

 

 

My trip from Mandalay was not so good!  As I mentioned, I got food poisoning the day before, so wasn't feeling on top of the world.  My driver told me that the main route to Inle Lake had huge delays (4 hours), since every vehicle was x-rayed for weapons.  So we took a smaller road over the mountains.  This was a 6-hour 'switchback' journey on a small and very bumpy road.  Every few km we had to stop for police or military checkpoints.

 

As we approached Kalaw, the military presence was much tougher, and the soldiers were surprised to see a foreigner.  At 2 checkpoints, they did not want to let me proceed.  But my driver told them that I was an important foreigner, and the soldier didn't want the responsibility of stopping me!  So we proceeded.

 

 

Right now, I'm at a zero-star hotel in Nyaung Shwe. (I won't show you photos of the bathroom because maybe you've just eaten your lunch!). Since there are no minimarts open or western food restaurants, I bought some banana, fried chicken and fresh bread, which will keep me in the land of the living tonight.

Tomorrow I'll start my orphanage and monastery school visits/donations 🙂

 

I chatted with the banana seller, who spoke good English. My Burmese language ability is what language experts call 'pretty crxp'.  It's at conversational level for both spoken and reading the language, which no doubt is still much better than most westerners! She told me that I was the first foreigner that she had seen in weeks...

[NewGuy]

I liked Kalaw, walking there from Inle, three days, two nights in village chiefs homes.  Outrageous fun, we had to sing for our supper and were surrounded by 20 plus young and old ones while we were there, the most when we changed clothes, haha. Village chief was so proud of his garish Rolex that he got in Chiang Mai (it couldn't have cost more than $15US). The 3 of us stayed in a nice guesthouse in Kalaw; the Lonely Planet said it was the only one not connected to the military whose presence was everywhere. Great restaurants in those days, lotsa fun.

[Mahseer]

Kalaw is still excellent. Was there last November (after visiting Taunggyi for the balloon festival) and it still retains all the charm. Needless to say didn't see a single tourist the 4 days I was there. 

[simon43]

I just got back to my hotel in Mandalay, after 3 days visiting/donating at orhanages and a 6-hour car journey back over the bumpy mountain road. As usual, there were many checkpoints, including a major checkpoint where all vehicles are x-rayed for hidden weapons or drugs. The x-ray machine is a customised mobile unit, with an extendible gantry that goes right over the road and zaps the vehicle moving slowly underneath. (God knows how many bechtels of radiation the car driver gets...). Interestingly, that mobile x-ray vehicle was a modern-looking Ford...

Here we came unstuck. Seeing a foreigner in the car, the police officers sent me and my Burmese translator over to speak to the chief police officer. That man had us stand in front of him while he harangued my translator non-stop for at least 20 minutes! My translator kept saying 'sorry' in Burmese and 'ok' to everything that the officer was saying.

We were finally saved by 2 rotund Burmese women, who waddled over to pay their bribe money to this officer. These 2 were dripping in gold jewelry and they winked at me :).  After they waited for some minutes while the officer shouted at my translator, one of the women physically dug her fingers into the man's ribs and said effectively "Oh, give it a bleedin rest!" in Burmese, at which point the officer let us proceed.

My translator later told me that the officer was annoyed at him for bringing a foreigner into this dangerous place. 'What would happen if he gets injured?'. (Well, the chances of ME getting injured are next to nothing, whilst the chances of that officer being on the receiving end of an RPG are somewhat higher!!).

I asked my translator later what will happen when the pdf fighters take over this region, (as they no doubt will at some stage). He said that the soldiers will either die in the fighting, or they will run away or surrender, since most of them are conscripts. As for the local police who are aiding the soldiers, they will just change sides...

[simon43]

A few non-orphanage photos from my trip:

 

This is a large monastery and also apparently a famous eye hospital in Myanmar.

 

 

An interesting Buddhist site, not sure of the name!

 

 

This is a small temple in Inle Lake

 

 

A local fisherman doing the 'standing-on-one-leg' pose at Inle Lake. (This isn't done for tourists - the fishermen use one leg to control the vertical oar as they use both hands with their nets).

 

 

Nice sunset over the lake.  No foreign tourists here, but quite a few Burmese day-trippers from Taunggyi.

 

[scotty1286]

What a great thread, thanks Simon.

 

I'm in Rakine state at the moment and things here are not good but are hopefully going to improve in the near future.

 

Have worked here a few times and can honestly say the locals are the nicest and most respectful people I have ever met. Considering what they have been through and are currently going through it truly is amazing.

[simon43]

1 hour ago, scotty1286 said:

What a great thread, thanks Simon.

 

I'm in Rakine state at the moment and things here are not good but are hopefully going to improve in the near future.

 

Have worked here a few times and can honestly say the locals are the nicest and most respectful people I have ever met. Considering what they have been through and are currently going through it truly is amazing.

North or South Rakhine state?  Are you working there?  I travelled through south Rakhine state on my motorbike a few years ago.

 

[scotty1286]

3 hours ago, simon43 said:

North or South Rakhine state?  Are you working there?  I travelled through south Rakhine state on my motorbike a few years ago.

 

North, I am working on Ramree island.

[simon43]

2 hours ago, scotty1286 said:

North, I am working on Ramree island.

That's the place where (supposedly), 1,000 Japanese soldiers in WW2 got eaten by crocodiles!

[simon43]

Having got back 'home', I've been doing a post-mortem on my trip to the orphanages. What was very clear was a) My Android learning app was greatly appreciated by the various teachers and b) it was a real pain to download and install it from my website because unless it's downloaded from the Google Playstore, the phone pops up no end of warning messages about possible viruses etc.

This app used to be on the Playstore a few years ago, but Google Playstore T&Cs are constantly updated with changes needed to the app software. I'm not an expert in C programming, so I let the app compliance lapse and now it's no longer on the Playstore.

But seeing the demand for my app and also wanting to make some changes to the app functionality etc, I've engaged an Android app developer not only to update the app to bring it into compliance, but to also manage the app on an ongoing basis, to ensure that it is always available on the Playstore for easy download. That leaves me free to do app promotion, and to create new language/vocabulary files for the app library.

(Also, most folks that I met only seemed to think that a mobile phone has Facebook and Playstore!. Opening a browser to download from my website was met with a blank stare...)

Anyway, that's a cost close on $800, but I see this as an investment for the future 🙂

[josephbloggs]

25 minutes ago, simon43 said:

Having got back 'home', I've been doing a post-mortem on my trip to the orphanages. What was very clear was a) My Android learning app was greatly appreciated by the various teachers and b) it was a real pain to download and install it from my website because unless it's downloaded from the Google Playstore, the phone pops up no end of warning messages about possible viruses etc.

This app used to be on the Playstore a few years ago, but Google Playstore T&Cs are constantly updated with changes needed to the app software. I'm not an expert in C programming, so I let the app compliance lapse and now it's no longer on the Playstore.

But seeing the demand for my app and also wanting to make some changes to the app functionality etc, I've engaged an Android app developer not only to update the app to bring it into compliance, but to also manage the app on an ongoing basis, to ensure that it is always available on the Playstore for easy download. That leaves me free to do app promotion, and to create new language/vocabulary files for the app library.

(Also, most folks that I met only seemed to think that a mobile phone has Facebook and Playstore!. Opening a browser to download from my website was met with a blank stare...)

Anyway, that's a cost close on $800, but I see this as an investment for the future 🙂

You should crowd source the money - you'd get that in a heartbeat for such a good cause.

[simon43]

7 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

You should crowd source the money - you'd get that in a heartbeat for such a good cause.

 

I can't use Go Fund Me - no accounts from Myanmar allowed.. 😞

[josephbloggs]

59 minutes ago, simon43 said:

 

I can't use Go Fund Me - no accounts from Myanmar allowed.. 😞

Ah, that's a shame.

[simon43]

2 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

Ah, that's a shame.

Since I started working in Myanmar some 12 or so years ago, I was very much aware of the problems.

 

Go Fund Me not allowed (GFM policy)

Paypal not allowed (Paypal policy)

Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram currently blocked (military action, but 'illegal' VPNs work)

Cash money out and money in only possible by Moneygram/Western Union, and very hard to find an office for those nowadays

ATM withdrawals from overseas banks often doesn't work, and the exchange rate is lousy anyway

 

For the Android developer that I hired today, Fiverr blocked my payment to him because I'm in Myanmar. That is Fiverr's loss since I was able to contact and pay him directly 🙂

 

So there are problems often imposed by external factors.  I realise that the USA, UK etc has sanctions in place against major Burmese companies/individuals associated with the military, but that policy can also affect private citizens and their business...

[simon43]

This morning I needed to buy a SIM card for MPT mobile network.  Since I teach online in the evenings, and since the mobile internet is often 'interrupted', I have mobile data SIMs for each of the 4 Burmese networks - Ooredoo, Atom, Mytel and now MPT. I use an application called Speedify which can bond all 4 connections together, and/or switch seamlessly between networks, should one of them go down.

 

As is often the case, the staff in the MPT shop were more than helpful, checking that the SIM was working OK and adding data top-up to my account 🙂

 

Driving in a tuk-tuk around Mandalay is rather like trying to find your way through a maze.  So many roads become barred by the military/police for entry overnight. My driver had to go up and down different streets that are normally open, zig-zagging left and right until we reached our destination.

 

The police checkpoints usually consist of 3 or 4 police officers, with a further police officer standing at the back with a long gun.  Some of these long guns are about 70% the height of the policeman!  I scrupulously avoid these officers, crossing over the road, just in case someone decides to start shooting at them....

 

I've moved into another hotel, because my school will no longer pay 100% of my hotel room cost.  However, my new hotel is cheaper than the previous, has a bigger bedroom, and has a swimming pool and free breakfast.  It costs about $400 per month, of which my school pays $200.  So it works out cheap. I have a great view of Mandalay Hill and the pagodas 🙂  (Strange photo colour 'cos I was too lazy to open the tinted window...)

 

[simon43]

As it was New Year's Day, and a school holiday, I took a wander along by the palace moat. The banner above the road was a hopeful wish for a happy year, but I doubt if that will become true...  The building shrouded in green on the left of my photo is the Hilton hotel, currently closed (like most tourist hotels).

 

 

A memory that I have of Yangon are the many street booksellers.  Burmese people are definitely keen on reading all manner of books. These bookstalls were set up by the moat, almost opposite the Hilton. 

 

 

There was an eclectic range of book titles,in both Burmese and English languages.  Novels, history, Buddhism, Christianity, medical and law books - you can find almost whatever you want here, (but sadly I couldn't find a first edition of George Orwell's "Burmese Days"...

 

[Tomtomtom69]

On 11/21/2024 at 7:07 PM, simon43 said:

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.

 

Do locals stare at you a lot since you're one of the few westerners in town? Must feel like being a rockstar!