A lot has been going on here in Myanmar. Tomorrow, Hillary Clinton will arrive and even here in School someone mentioned it. She's another high-profile person in a line-up of well-known/important people to visit the country.
Another, smaller, change but with, for us, more direct potential is that the first ATM's have been installed in Yangon. Ok, you can't do much with them yet except withdraw money from an account with the particular bank that has that ATM (the few private banks are all installing ATMs). But the planning is that somewhere next year the ATM's give access to any bank account (with a Myanmar bank). Hopefully the service will be extended to a 'normal' ATM service so tourists don't have to worry about bringing enough dollars anymore. And i'd love to be able to deposit my money in a bank account and be able to withdraw when necessary. Even better, pay-on-the-go. Every weekend we go shopping and every weekend we stand at the counter wondering whether we have enough kyats. Even though you have a whole packet of them in your purse.
We can also access youtube now which is wonderful. Not that the internet connection is usually fast enough for it to be of any real use but hey, sometimes....
And pictures of a certain lady are now seen even on the front page of the newspaper. And her face is plastered all over town since posters of her are now being sold openly next to posters of her father.
They may be small changes but changes none the less.
Wednesday 30 November 2011
Monday 21 November 2011
November 19
Today we went on a day trip to Bago. We went with several teachers from school and it was really really nice to go and do something like that again. It has been a while since we did (day)trips. Last year of course a trip to Bagan but that was almost a year ago.
While we were driving into the countryside I was thinking to myself how I love Myanmar outside of Yangon. Yangon has never been my favourite place in Burma and I was reminded of that again today. Of course, it is nice to be able to get loads of western food stuff here 9thanks to the City Mart supermarket chain) but I also realised that I get annoyed at not having things like power just because I expect a city like Yangon to have a regular power supply (or other things that you expect to have). I wouldn't mind things missing so much if it was normal not to have them (I remember that from my travel time).
Bago is still very nice. I don't like the main street so much but they have some beautiful houses around there. We didn't go into Shwethatalyaung Pagoda since we were asked to pay $10 each (the non-Myanmar). Ok, it would give us entrance to a few other sites but we weren't going to visit many places anyway. While arriving at the Paya though,I had that strange feeling you sometimes have of recollecting an experience. I remembered how I loved visiting new places when I was still traveling by myself. The freedom of lingering as long as you wanted, exploring wherever you wanted to go, not having to pay attention to anyone. I miss it. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to trade my time now for anything but I think that as soon as the kids are older, backpacking will be back on our travel calender.
Our organiser was bend on drinking palm juice. That's were we were heading after lunch. With 2 preschoolers and 2 preteens included in the party, sitting on a mat while some people drink palm juice (which is slightly alcoholic) is not something that you can do for too long. So we left a group behind and went to visit the Snake Pagoda. I hadn't been there for a while. Last I heard the snake was dead. The snake turned out to be alive after all. Not extremely active but our science teacher says it is hugely overfed and under exercised. It is enormous though. While I was inside the enclosure with the kids (all 5 of them) the snake moved its head and 'tasted' the air. Xenne wasn't at all afraid of it but I was the more afraid for him. Not that it would harm him I'm sure (they told me years ago that the snake eats 12 chickens a week...which seems more than enough), but it is a big snake (about 5 meters).
The monastery looks a whole lot different from the last time I was there (which must have been somewhere in 2007). Then, the monastery looked almost forgotten. Now there was a huge entrance gate, a big open space to park the bus, a covered area on the side with 2 big cars which obviously belonged to the monastery. It felt strange.
Our little one was so easy during the trip. Not yet four months and she cried not even once. The other two had a great time. It helped that both had a playmate of around the same age. It is something we should do more often.
While we were driving into the countryside I was thinking to myself how I love Myanmar outside of Yangon. Yangon has never been my favourite place in Burma and I was reminded of that again today. Of course, it is nice to be able to get loads of western food stuff here 9thanks to the City Mart supermarket chain) but I also realised that I get annoyed at not having things like power just because I expect a city like Yangon to have a regular power supply (or other things that you expect to have). I wouldn't mind things missing so much if it was normal not to have them (I remember that from my travel time).
Bago is still very nice. I don't like the main street so much but they have some beautiful houses around there. We didn't go into Shwethatalyaung Pagoda since we were asked to pay $10 each (the non-Myanmar). Ok, it would give us entrance to a few other sites but we weren't going to visit many places anyway. While arriving at the Paya though,I had that strange feeling you sometimes have of recollecting an experience. I remembered how I loved visiting new places when I was still traveling by myself. The freedom of lingering as long as you wanted, exploring wherever you wanted to go, not having to pay attention to anyone. I miss it. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to trade my time now for anything but I think that as soon as the kids are older, backpacking will be back on our travel calender.
Our organiser was bend on drinking palm juice. That's were we were heading after lunch. With 2 preschoolers and 2 preteens included in the party, sitting on a mat while some people drink palm juice (which is slightly alcoholic) is not something that you can do for too long. So we left a group behind and went to visit the Snake Pagoda. I hadn't been there for a while. Last I heard the snake was dead. The snake turned out to be alive after all. Not extremely active but our science teacher says it is hugely overfed and under exercised. It is enormous though. While I was inside the enclosure with the kids (all 5 of them) the snake moved its head and 'tasted' the air. Xenne wasn't at all afraid of it but I was the more afraid for him. Not that it would harm him I'm sure (they told me years ago that the snake eats 12 chickens a week...which seems more than enough), but it is a big snake (about 5 meters).
The monastery looks a whole lot different from the last time I was there (which must have been somewhere in 2007). Then, the monastery looked almost forgotten. Now there was a huge entrance gate, a big open space to park the bus, a covered area on the side with 2 big cars which obviously belonged to the monastery. It felt strange.
Our little one was so easy during the trip. Not yet four months and she cried not even once. The other two had a great time. It helped that both had a playmate of around the same age. It is something we should do more often.
Friday 4 November 2011
Electricity (or the lack of...)
X was watching TV the other day and the Power Puff Girls were on. Mama, he said, look the Power Out Girls! Of course I had to laugh.... But he has a point. The past two years the electricity was pretty goo din our neighbourhood. We had our share of the power outages but they usually occurred in daytime. Lately, we have many outages and at all times. In the evening they are still usually not more than half an hour but on Tuesday the power went off at 4:30 in the afternoon and was still not on when I left for work the next day.
Now I'm only hoping that we won't get the same situation as a few years ago. We went on a power supply schedule that started in early November and lasted till early June. We were living in a condo building at the time and eventually we got a separate cable supplying the elevator. We had no power from 5 am till between 5-6 pm for two days and then the third day we got electricity at around 11 am till 5 pm. Then we sat in the dark until 11 pm when the power would come back on. We started that time with an inverter so we still had lights and could use the TV but that thing only lasted for 2 months...
Now we have a small generator outside. It makes one hell of a noise but fans and light work so I'm pretty happy. Though, of course, you can't let it run the whole night... I keep my fingers crossed that it won't get any worse.
Now I'm only hoping that we won't get the same situation as a few years ago. We went on a power supply schedule that started in early November and lasted till early June. We were living in a condo building at the time and eventually we got a separate cable supplying the elevator. We had no power from 5 am till between 5-6 pm for two days and then the third day we got electricity at around 11 am till 5 pm. Then we sat in the dark until 11 pm when the power would come back on. We started that time with an inverter so we still had lights and could use the TV but that thing only lasted for 2 months...
Now we have a small generator outside. It makes one hell of a noise but fans and light work so I'm pretty happy. Though, of course, you can't let it run the whole night... I keep my fingers crossed that it won't get any worse.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)