How Much Has It Changed In 35 Years?

[wayned]

How has Burma changed in the 35 years since I have been there? I was there for 3+ weeks in 1979 installing navigation equipment and training helicopter crews on its use. The company was a well established British company doing crew changes for an off shore oil exploration venture. All 21 of us stayed in the Inya Lake Hotel, built by the Russians in 1958. We were the only guests in the hotel. Although they had tennis courts, there were no rackets or balls, there was a putting green, but no clubs or balls, the swimming pool was full of green slimy water and there was a dock on the lake but no boats or water activities and we were warned to stay out of the water. The only door that was open was the front door, there were logging chains securing all of the other doors. The rooms were small, no air, no TV and only blaring Burmese music available. The bar was large and the only beer that you could get was large bottles of Mandalay, most without labels, some with dirt in the bottle. The local whiskey tasted the same no matter what you ordered. The restaurant menu was large, over 200 items, but most were not available. Dinner was the big event for the crew, eat, drink and watch the Burmese waiters try to corner and kill the rat that appeared every evening. Our transport was a WWII sedan with only third gear so whoever sat in the back had to get out and push whenever we stopped. At one intersection on the way to the airport there was a young Burmese with a cobra tied on the end of a bamboo pole. If we stopped he would threaten to put the cobra into the car unless we threw coins, we named him one Kyat Charlie. All inside passages of the Pagoda were closed, falling down, and wherever we went we were accompanied by a political advisor. You had to declare foreign currency brought into the country and you were checked when you left to see if your purchases match the amount for money that you spent. The official exchange rate was 7 kyat to the dollar but the black market was 27. I spent a few nights in a small village on the coast that was used as a refueling stop. The choppers landed on the football field. The locals would put water in some of the 55 gallon drums of fuel that were left there knowing that they would be checked and discarded if they had a high water content, they used it for cooking and lanterns. The people were friendly and it was very much like the village where I am living today minus the advancements over the years.

It would be nice to go back and see what it’s like today, but I don’t think that it’s in the cards. I wonder how much it has changed.

[CP3]

more chicken

[SeaVisionBurma]

Wayned - great post. Paints a vivid picture.

I first arrived to Yangon in early 1999, and it had already changed a lot compared to your experience.

If you do get a chance to head back and have a look, I'd wait until the monsoon season. Almost impossible to get a hotel room at the moment.

SVB

[wayned]

Googled Inya Lake Hotel. Rooms avaiable $240 USD/night NOT!

[SpoliaOpima]

I've been visiting Myanmar frequently since 1986 for up to four months at a time. Things changed substantially after 1989, when Gen Ne Win stepped down and the command economy was abandoned. Although many people associate the violent events of 1988 with a new era of repression, in fact Myanmar was more repressive between the years of 1962 and 1989, a period during which virtually all industry was state-owned and the government maintained a command economy. During that time the government operated according to Ne Win's whims, and the influx of foreign capital and imported goods was almost nil, except on the black market in the case of the latter.

When I first visited in the 1980s the country was very much as you described. Things really began changing after 89. The military still governed with an iron hand, but with a slightly more enlightened outlook. Free enterprise was permitted for most sectors of the economy, overall conditions steadily improved during the 1990s, and by 1998 there were many more privately owned vehicles in the streets, people were dressing noticeably better, all manner of foreign imports were easily available on the open market (as opposed to black market), and at least in the cities people looked visibly healthier. The variety of locally produced goods also multiplied by leaps and bounds, eg a variety of local competitors for Mandalay Beer were widely available by the late 90s. Doing away with the artificial kyat/FX soon after that spurred further growth.

Since you visited, the country has moved from the bottom of the 10 least developed countries on the UN Human Development Index to a ranking of 149 out of 189. That puts them at the top of the UN's Low Human Development category. The country is likely to move into the Medium HDI range (95 to 41) within the next few years .

Yangon looks much the same overall, with the addition of wider roads, more stoplights (some with time displays), more traffic, and a smattering of high-rise hotels and office buildings, but Shwe Dagon is still the tallest structure

Edited February 4, 2013 by SpoliaOpima

[tombkk]

Googled Inya Lake Hotel. Rooms avaiable $240 USD/night NOT!

I don't doubt the price. It's one of the very nice hotels these days, and I visited it. Several UN agencies seem to have set up camp there.

[Tomtomtom69]

A LOT has changed just in the last few years. My first trip to Yangon was in 2004, followed by 2005 and finally last month. Both 2004 and 2005 were similar, hardly any changes - only old, second hand cars on the streets. No ATMs, not many foreign tourists, only spotted a few inside and near the Traders Hotel. Back in 2004 the Traders Hotel was US$40 a night for a standard room, now you'll have to fork over something like US$180 even if you book online. The Kandawgyi Palace and Sedona, both of which I stayed at in 2005, had relatively few guests back then but for US$54 booked online, both were a bargain compared to like US$260 now!

Nowadays, apart from the obvious substantial increase in the number of tourists and hotel prices going up and few rooms available, the infrastructure still looks fairly similar, although with some obvious construction projects (mostly hotels and apartments) going on but the vibe still being fairly similar to last time I was there - more traffic though including a few newer cars.