Yangon Different Perspectives Newsletter July 23, 2008

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Thursday July 24, 2008
May Fair Inn Room 108 Yangon, Myanmar

We landed in Yangon about 12pm. I trucked around the streets a bit before catching a cheap taxi into town and my destination The White Hotel. Arriving, I quickly noticed a smelly reception area and dirty beyond my my comfort level. Although I was to stay in a less than clean hotel in Bangkok in a few days.

I turned around and left the White Hotel and sat down on the steps outside to flip through my guide book. Lonely Planet is a great guidebook but I have more than once been mislead to hotels that were not real nice. The White Hotel was at the top of their list of good moderately priced guest houses. I decided to check out a few other guest houses in the area and after about 1 1/2 hours I finally found the May Fair Inn, clean and reasonably priced.

The guest house was owned by a retired Myanmar doctor. She lived there with her husband and maids. She spoke very good english and was very helpful in getting me settled into Yangon for a few days. My first big city since I visited Mandalay 2 1/2 weeks earlier.


Friday July 25, 2008 10 am
May Fair Inn Room 108
Yangon, Myanmar

It rained most of the evening and night here in Yangon. The most rain I've seen since I arrived in Myanmar on July 2nd, I guess it really is "the rainy season". Not much of a breakfast here at the May Fair Inn, but clean, good service and quiet. I slept well.

I'm somewhat nervous about the options I will have for departing Myanmar, when I inquire at the Myanmar Travel and Tourism Office this morning. The easiest way is to fly out but I don't have enough cash, and with no ATM 's or any other way to get American dollars in Myanmar that I know I was up against a dilemma.

You have to bring dollars when you enter the country. Yangon being my last stop in Myanmar, I miscalculated my funds by about $200 dollars. I brought $500 with me across the border. $500 dollars for almost a months visit to Myanmar not including in country airfare, of about $150 USD. Reasonable travel costs overall I think.

So I don't know. I will go to find out what my options are and based on my options I will or will not visit a short list of sites here in Yangon. Things are good, had some laundry done in Inle Lake so feel good. God has not let me down yet. I'll see what he has in store for me next.

Saturday July 26, 2008 8 am
May Fair Inn Room 108
Yangon, Myanmar

I sit here alone in the quiet family eating area of the May Fair Inn. Quiet as can be save the cutting of vegetables and fruit coming from the kitchen and the faint chant of a vendor selling his wares on a distant street.

Yesterday I had some good luck at the MTT with a very helpful agent. I found out that there was a hotel on the other side of town where I could get a wire transfer of USD from the states, no limit. I'll get enough cash for me to purchase a flight ticket out of Yangon to Phnom Pehn, Cambodia, and have some dollars to take into Cambodia. Problem solved I'm a happy camper.

That was yesterday. As I sit here at breakfast this morning, reviewing what had happened when I decided yesterday to take a little side trip by the US Embassy a few km from the hotel where I got my wire transfer.

I knew I was in the general area of the US embassy, but didn't know that it had been closed and a new one had opened a couple of km away. On my way to check out the new embassy, I had on my radar screen to get close to the compound where Aung San Suu Kyi was held under house arrest. The compund was actually a very short walk from the hotel where I got my wire transfer.

I walked down the sidewalk of the 4 lane boulevard passing guard posts that I couldn't quite figure out what they where guarding. I think it was an abandon military equipment factory. No pictures please.

A short distance later I crossed the boulevard toward a road that had many concrete barriers and barbed wire structures pushed to the side of the road. I walked on further with a few cars and taxis passing going in the same direction. Approaching a gated road guarded by soldiers I stopped at a cafe to get cold drink and make some not so innocent inquires as to what the barriers were all about.

An older man that spoke good english, and looked to be of some stature greeted me somewhat sheepishly. I guess I must have looked like a journalist, which I am not. He didn't tell me anything that I didn't already know that the barricaded road prevented the public from traveling near the compound where Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest, and that her NLA front led the resistance against the government in the uprising of 1989.

She was arrested and has been detained under house arrest since. He told me all this as if I should be well aware and that getting any closer to the barricade is strictly off limits. And that the government frowns on people discussing the issue. The man said he needed to go and left in a hurry, leaving me contemplating my next move.

I retreated to another cafe about 100 meters back toward the boulevard. Sitting down with a coffee, I eventually convinced the proprietor to sit down an talk to me for a moment. With a shy hesitance she told me nearly the same story that the man at the other cafe had told me.

In simple terms that Aung San Suu Kyi was in house arrest beyond the barricade, and that it would probably be a good idea if I left this area as soonas I finished my coffee, if not sooner. That said, she got up, put her coat on, said something to her husband and rode off in the family car.

Back out onto the street I moved back toward the barricade to get a couple photos and video. At which point a local taxi driver approached me and also suggested I leave the area. After getting some video of him and the barricade I moved away.

At that point I headed up a side street adjacent to the barricade to see if I could get a glimpse of the compound from a different perspective. After wandering around for a while and inquiring with the locals if they could see her house, which they said no, I started up a conversation with a couple of neighborhood woman, and found out where the new US Embassy was and managed to hitch a ride. She left me off about 1/2 km from the main entrance to the US Embassy.

Through the trees I could see this massive concrete and steel fortress that projected an aura of supreme nature. I was shocked at the size of this structure and it's location on the shores of Inya lake in Yangon's exclusive lake front area, undoubtably on one of the countries most valuable pieces of real estate. Below the main section of the structure I could see a dozen new top of the line American SUV's parked in single file.

Parked near the main gate of the Embassy about 500 meters from where I was standing I noticed an army truck with at least 8 soldiers piling into the back, and leaving. After recording a minute or two of my present situation, I cautiously but confidently made my way toward the Embassy entrance. Walking up to the first guard post I was asked in broken English by one of the 6 guards (don't remember if they were armed or not) what my business was.

I ignored them, flashed my passport and said I was an American citizen and I wanted to check out the new embassy and maybe have coffee with the Consulate.

At that point 2 other guards joined in trying to stop me from entering, but by that time I was already 50 meters inside the gate and walking down the drive toward the next guard post. With my camera out I was clicking away. Seconds later another guard approached me head-on, while the other guards stood at their post, the new guard took over.

I was able to navigate around this guard and enter the lobby of pre-screening building. At that point they convinced me that if wanted to go any further I would have to leave my camera, which I of course objected to at first but quickly realized that at this point I was caged between locked doors of bright plated steel and glass on either side of me.

Giving up my camera I was escorted across a short courtyard enclosed in 8 foot high concrete walls with a steel spiked cornice, toward the reception area building ahead. Opening the heavy door surrounded by guards I was told to sit and wait a moment. The site of the United States flag standing in the corner of the room mad me feel like I was all of a sudden rocketed into the west. It was a somewhat intimidating feeling of arrogant authority.

Within minutes I was told to approach a window similar to a tellers window in a bank but with glass as thick as 6 inches and the other side seemingly hermetically sealed from the reception area. Behind the window a woman asked me to state my purpose for my visit. I ask if I could have coffee with the Consulate General and discuss the current issues between the Myanmar and United States Government.

I was told that I needed an appointment and that they didn't have any coffee. I mentioned that I was an American citizen and thought it would be helpful for the staff to have coffee with me and discuss my experience in Myanmar. Again I was told by the young government employee woman that I needed an appointment. At that point I decided that I probably wouldn't have a chance to meet with the consulate, and expressed to the woman my disappointment with how the United States Government was handling their relationship with the Myanmar government and that sanctions were only hurting the local people and not the Government.

The tourism industry has suffered terribly and as a result the local population. I was upset. Having been asked more than once to leave, the woman threatened to call "the Marines" at which point I let out a burst of laughter. Within seconds a US Marine soldier passed by across the room behind the clerk. He was big and in standard issue soldier fatiques, but was not carrying a rifle. He may have been carrying a hand gun but I couldn't see.

Then out of a door adjacent to where I was standing 2 American Embassy security officers quickly approached, instructed the clerk to pull down the shade on the other side of the window, and proceeded to physically hustle me toward the exit while intimidating me with threats of criminal trespassing charges. I responded by mentioning if they had any idea what was going on out in the country, no electricity, water, food, and ask them if there $100 pants and $60 Brook brothers shirts were comfortable. And he must be looking forward to smoking that $125 dollar cigar in his shirt pocket when he gets home to his house in Yangon with all the comforts of the west?

Once again being physically pushed forward and almost falling I was escorted through the preliminary screening house to pick up my camera and bag. Shuffling arm in arm with the security guards we headed out along the driveway toward the embassy exit. I let them know how I felt about the United States and their selfish involvement in Myanmar, and with their absolute failure at any form of diplomacy with the country.

As I walked through the gates to the road I turned around to take some more pictures and video, at which point the security offices ran toward me. I ran across the street, as the security officers where yelling to the Myanmar Police 100 meters down the road to head me off. They were not happy that I snapped a few file pictures.

The Myanmar Police grabbed my hands as if to handcuff me while the embassy security officers came up from behind me to grab my camera. Struggling to hang on to my camera, I finally gave it to them.

Surrounded by Myanmar Police and embassy security personal I was hustled back across the street to the post where the police where guarding. Within moments I was searched and my passport taken. After a few minutes of interrogation by the police on orders from the embassy personal, I was able to sit down, and chat with the police on a personal basis about the country, to the shagrin of the security personal.

Before long the embassy security called for support from the local "government police". Plain cloths and young, the embassy guard tried to intimidate me that "these men were from the government" and this was serious.

About 10 minutes later an officer came back with my passport and handed it to the embassy security officer. He again attempted to intimidate by mentioning that "my passport could be revoked at any time", and they would discuss weather to arrest me or not. At that point I turned around and walked back inside the hut to chat with the local police about the local Myanmar cuisine.

Moments later my camera was given back to me, with all the pictures deleted. So I lost all the pictures that I had taken in and out of the embassy. This was the mistake I made. If I had just not turned around and taken those last few pictures, I would have been back to the May Fair Inn with a full camera of pictures.

In the end I opted to protect my visa status in China, and so gave lip service to the embassy personal when they asked me to promise to stay away from the area.

Walking down the street to flag a taxi I reflected back on the experience and noted that the Myanmar Police were quite pleasant. They were employed by the US Embassy, but didn't seem to care much about securing the facility although they did carry automatic weapons. I talked to the them as freely and friendly as I had talked to anyone through my time in Myanmar. The police didn't seem to be carry an element of fear as the embassy personal did. What were the embassy personal afraid of from an innocent all American tourist?

Sunday July 27, 2008
May Fair Inn
Yangon, Myanmar

Today I'll pick up my ticket at the MTT for my flight to Bangkok, make a stop at the internet cafe, then visit
The Shwe Dagon Buddhist Temple, the largest temple in Myanmar. I'm kicking myself for getting to greety
yesterday at the embassy and loosing what could have been some very valuable pictures.

I took a taxi to the temple as it started raining hard this dark Sunday morning in Yangon. The taxi left me off about 1 km from the east entrance. I climbed the shallow slope of the city street to the entrance. Busy with Myanmar tourists and I'm guessing the usual number of Buddhists that just seem to spend a lot of time around the temples, the area was alive with activity. Vendors selling food, and souveniers, it was crowded enough so I had to pick my way through the crowd to the entrance.

The Temple is built on a man made mound or a small hill made from the ruins of the first temple that was erected here centuries ago. The massive east entrance up to the actual temple plateau is about 100 steps that are 50 meters wide lined with gift shops on both sides and lined with traditional buddhists decor.

After 100 knat entrance fee (foreigners only, Myanmar people get in for free) I entered a plateau nearly the size of a football field filled with various forms of gold Stupas and Pagoda. Standing in awe, as I had gotten accustomed to doing in Myanmar, the clouds slowly moved by above me leaving a moderate sprinkle of rain to add to the already peaceful site of dozens of Buddhist pilgrims kneeling, praying and offering gifts to the Buddha's and deities.

Before long I met a Monk who said his name was Guru and acted as my tour guide. We made good friends and have been in touch via e-mail. I told him about my experience with the embassy. We talked a little about politics and he mentioned that he thought the monks might demonstrate again next year. I sat with him and another Myanmar gentleman and prayed for a while.

After spending about 3 hours at the temple I walked across the street to see one last site in Myanmar on my list. The Martyrs' Mausoleum where Bogyoke Aung San and his fellow cabinet officers where assassinated. It was also here that a bomb set off by North Koreans killed a number of South Korea's top Government officials in late 1983.

I knew it wouldn't be open but decided to get a glance anyway. Since it was 9pm it was dark I had a difficult time finding my way across and down the street to the mausoleum. As I approached I noticed what looked like a school building adjacent to the entrance with a light on in one of the classrooms and a guard sitting on a chair outside armed with an automatic rifle.

About 50 yards to his right on the street was a military vehicle with a couple of soldiers standing by. I looked from distance of about 50 meters and could see that they noticed me clearly and I thought I probably shouldn't get any closer. I could see in the classroom that there they were all men and it looked like they were wearing uniforms, and reciting in unison there lesson.

Unfortunately I wasn't close enough to get a picture. Guru had told me that although it was in my guide book as a site to see that it was mostly off limits and guarded. I think that the mausoleum memorializes a faction that was not in agreement with the current military ruled government, and it was a risk to open it to the Myanmar public. It's officially only open 1 day a year.

Monday July 26, 2008
May Fair Inn
Yangon, Myanmar

This evening I'll leave Myanmar. Today I'll pack up my air ticket check in at the internet cafe and reserve a taxi for my ride to the airport. I'll leave the Inn a little bit early so that I can take one more ride past the United States Embassy and covertly get a few pictures.

Bags packed I left the May fair Inn and convinced my taxi driver to ride past the Embassy on the way to the airport. Approaching the embassy I hung my camera outside the taxi window as to not implicate the taxi driver as we quickly drove by entrance I snapped a few pictures. Further on down the road the taxi driver pointed out other myanmar military outposts, and reminded me to not take pictures.

In a few moments we were adjacent to the embassy near the prestigious Yangon Sailing Club. We stopped so I could get some picture of the United States Embassies new neighbors and the beautiful shores of Inye lake. What better place to have your embassy than on the finest property in the country and neighbors with a yacht club.

Take a guess who the local patrons of the yacht club are. Besides with the Myanmar countries population pretty much helpless and the American citizens so isolated from this part of the world, what the heck, nobody will ever know.

My flight left on time after I spent about 2 hours at a cafe adjacent to the terminal drinking coffee and watching military personal walk by every so often, and nodding to them as I listened to the Allmans on my IPOD. Seemed like many places I went in Myanmar a military soldier or official would be close behind. Kind of reminds me of the time I just happen to run into a United States Green Beret on leave from Iraq in Starbucks in Beijing.

After we met a few times I started asking him questions about way he was here and what he wanted, all of a sudden I wasn't able to get in touch with him again. This happened actually a couple of months after I had visited the US Embassy in Yangon.

Other than meeting a Myanmar woman who was involved in rebuilding schools in the ravedged hit cyclone area the flight was pretty quiet. I contemplated travels through Myanmar in the last 24 days. I visited 9 cities including the border town of Muse then Lashio, Hsipaw, Py oo lyn, Mandalay, Bagan, Kalaw, Inle Lake and Yangon.

I travelved by land for 22 of my 24 days covering about 1200 km. The beauty of the country from my
first glance of a 50 meter high standing Buddha erected in the woods in Muse through the beautiful National Gardens in Py oo lyn, temples in Mandalay and of course Bagan I have pictures of the countries natural beauty most of the western world is completely unaware of.

Temples in Bagan, Buddhist Caves in Pi oo Lyn, Muslin Mosques, next to Buddhist temples in Mandalay, and mountain rice farming in the Shane State. A culture so foreign to me as to see people literally living in temples in parts of Bagan, and a village scraping there money together to complete construction of there own temple.

It seemed like wherever I went in the country there was a temple. Out in the middle of the tea plantation or centered in the middle of a busy downtown intersection. I remember riding to the airport in Bagan and seeing some structure of Buddhist Temple in the middle of the median strip.

Monks everywhere, especially in the larger cities. Pilgrims praying with monks frequently seemingly out in the open, or in small meeting areas at all times of the day and days of the week. My Eden Guest House clerk chanting in the early morning heat of Bagan as I sipped my morning coffee nearby.

The people of this magnificent country the most kind, nicest and humble people I have ever met in my life. With an aura of truth, peace and above all absolute honesty in their eyes they projected hope in the world for me. Let us all pray to Buddha that we continue to have the hope for all mankind that "we accept that we all die someday and settle our differences". Dhammapada

I would like to thank all my friends in Myanmar especially the following people for giving me a part of their life and allowing me to give them part of mine:

Ko Kyi
Hnin Hnin Yu
Mang Soe
Monk Guru

Eden Guest House, Bagan
ET Guest House, Mandalay
May Fair Inn, Yangon
Dalia Motel, Py oo lyn
Sam's Family Trekking, Kalaw
MTT Travel, Yangon

Peace
Edward

Different Perspectives c2008 all rights reserved

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