Blogs from Yangon Region, Burma, Asia - page 22

I seem to have few problems to publish this entry. Sorry for this, but I'm trying again. I've been living in Asia since 1996 and never set foot in Burma. So why now? Maybe because the stand of the opposition seems to be changing slightly in view of outside visitors. I've been to Zimbabwe and the case of Burma is somewhere similar. You can visit here, and make a difference for the local population, you just need to seriously do your homeworks to make sure you put your money in the right pockets. It was not that easy to get proper info on the country, so for once I decided that we would rely on the Lonely Planet. The latest May 2009 edition ended up being pretty spot on. The aim was clear...avoid to put money ... read more

Murrays first trip to Myanmar was at the end of March, after a few passport/visa obstacles. He really enjoyed his trip and was pleasantly suprised by the organised response to Cyclone Nargis, which happened in May of 2008. Unfortunately, he is very busy with work, study etc, etc, which means this blog is just photos with no written report. At the moment he has just finished a conference on Household water treatment and Biosand Filters here in Nairobi. Then next week will run a conference in Kenya for his water and sanitation team from around the globe. He has also had to do a unscheduled report to the donors, so things have been very busy. On a personal note, the girls have had Hand, Foot and Mouth, which has meant isolating them, which has been hard. ... read more

Myanmar (aka Burma) is weird. Coming from Kolkata, India we flew via Bangkok to Yangon. Our plan is to stay here approx one month, but we'll see. Touristy Weirdo Country Myanmar was also on our list of "weirdo" countries to visit, but apparently this is a rather touristy one: all facilities are here, tourist all around, no strange, abnormal military nor police presence on the streets, you can talk and walk freely here. People are very friendly and at night, you can walk safely home. So in itself it appears to be the perfect tourist place, cause there is loads to see and perfect weather. But it's a military dictatorship, which is not that friendly to its inhabitants. It just gets a bit weirder and weirder once to start probing around: *The human rights situation is ... read more

Il nous reste à présent 5 jours pour profiter du pays et c'est à Chaungtha, au bord de la mer (Baie du Bengale) que nous séjournerons. Chaungtha est célèbre pour être la station balnéaire la moins onéreuse du Myanmar et arrive donc en dernière position après Ngapali et Ngwe Saung pour la beauté de sa plage et de sa mer. Pour les Trotteurs, qui bientôt visiteront les iles idylliques de l'Indonésie, le plus important pour l'instant, c'est non pas la couleur de la mer ou le grain du sable, mais bien le repos, la brise douce qui souffle constamment et les plaisirs de la table que nous apportent les pêches miraculeuses de tous les jours! Notre arrivée (un peu tardive, apres plus de 30 heures de route cahoteuse) au Shwe Hin Tha nous remplie de bonheur!!! ... read more

On oublie très vite la conjoncture politique en arrivant au Myanmar. La gentillesse et surtout le sourire des gens rencontrés permettent de mettre vite à l'aise, quiconque ayant assez de détermination pour remplir la tonne de formalités nécessaires pour venir visiter ce pays. Le tourisme en est encore à son étape embryonnaire et les Birmans sont extrêmement accueillants avec les pèlerins sac au dos, représentant une rentrée d'argent direct chez les membres de la population. Les données sont toujours difficiles à vérifier dans ce pays coupé de l'information, mais on dit qu'il accueille environ 500 000 touristes par année; une information très significative quand on sait que sa voisine immédiate, la Thaïlande en reçoit aux alentours de 10 millions pour la même période! Toujours est-il que nous avons quitté Bangkok au beau milieu d'une mini-tempête tropicale: ... read more