Daw Aung Suu Kyi

Until very recently her name was not even mentioned but people always knew who they were talking about.  This morning we bought a book with pictures of her European tour and our local teashop's news stand.

Over the past year there have been many changes here but this openness about Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is still one I have to get used to. It started with posters of her and her father being put up for sale downtown and now you can get books about her everywhere.

Also, general Aung San's museum is now open every day. Until recently you could visit only once a year on the 19th of July.  I'm not sure whether the change about the daughter has affected the attitude regarding the father, but now there is a project under way to make a movie about his life. And Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is on the advisory board.

I'll have a proper look through the book tonight. A teashop is not the best place to browse a book at leisure.

Some people...

Monday evening we came back with a flight from Air Asia. It wasn’t too crowded on the flight.  I hadn’t seen a flight this empty for a long time. The flight was uneventful. All kids fell asleep during and right after take off so I had time to read a book.

When we got to Yangon I saw three guys. They were in their mid twenties I guess.  Apart from them being the tallest people aboard, they had the distinction of wearing their sporty pants so low on their hips that, that at least for one, it was almost below his buttocks. Honestly!

I do understand that this is fashionable. I, for the life of me can’t understand why anyone would want to wear their pants like that. Let’s face it, it is very unattractive and it can’t be comfortable either. I do think this might have to do with a different generation and all that. I know that my parents weren’t too charmed with my choice of clothes either when I was young.

Of course I couldn’t keep my mouth shut and had to say something about it. That they walk around like that in their home country or even in some parts of Thailand, ok that is one thing. But Myanmar is still a very conservative country. Yes, you can see this look here in Yangon amongst the youngsters as well but mostly in nightclubs (the few we have) and among the rich.

They seemed fairly offended (then again, I didn’t really like having to look at their buts hanging out and they walked right in front of me). When I saw them later I noticed the pants had been hitched up. I tried to explain why I said something but no reaction apart from a contemptuous look. Ok, fair enough, so I left it at that.

It did however trigger for me the old question about how offending one can be as a tourist to the country and culture that one is visiting.  

A few years ago I was in Bagan at the market. A tourist with an enormous camera was pushing aid camera almost literally in the face of a young girl who worked there and who was wearing Thanaka (the local ‘suncream’/moisturizer/make-up). She was very clearly uncomfortable. The camera was obviously good enough to have made the same photograph from a much more relaxed distance.

This kind of behavior seems to arrive more and more with the influx of tourists. For example: they forget or don’t want to know about the Myanmar usually swimming fully clothed. I haven’t seen it yet but I wonder how long it will be before there will be tourists who will sunbathe topless. Like someone said, a few years ago in a travel documentary when she was asked to put her top back on which she took off again the moment the policeman’s back was turned: “I have paid for this holiday so I do what I want.”

Inappropriate dress, pushing cameras into peoples' faces, inappropriate behaviour,  and so on... The lovely extras that come with tourism. 

I hope that those three guys will be a bit more culturally sensitive. The sentiment is not often voiced so bluntly but often enough acted on already.

Kyats to dollars

Sometimes it amazes me how fast Myanmar changes in many ways.

I happened to be at the airport a few times lately. You can now rent a phone card at the airport for $2 a day and yes you can call and be called from abroad.

The 2 exchange counters now have opening times that actually match with most of the incoming flights. There are also many more flights. Some companies like Air Asia have expanded to 3 flights a day. Other companies open new lines or are completely new to Myanmar. You can now fly  to more destinations from Yangon than I have ever known before. And you can fly to Mandalay as well, It is getting almost busy at the airport. There are more counters for immigration and they are manned.

When we flew to Bangkok on Wednesday, I even found an exchange after immigration when leaving. I was in shock. I asked them if I could change my kyats for dollars and they said yes. wow, that is a huge change. Of course people could always change their money before, but on the black market. That or you would find someone who could exchange with you. We've done this quite a few times before when people needed dollars. So to have an official counter that was very nice to see.

The airport and Myanmar in general are finally picking up on the tourists desires.

oops

I was writing a long post when something happened with my keyboard. No matter what I tried I could not change the post, let alone finish my sentence. I thought I 'd copy the post and delete the draft since it didn't do what I needed it to do. Of course in one of my  smarter moments I also deleted the draft immediately, I didn't want to clutter up the posts... I open a new post and.... nothing absolutely zilch, nada, nothing.. Now I'm too angry with myself to start over again... But since we're in Bangkok and have something as amazing as Wi-Fi in the hotel room, I might be tempted to try again tomorrow.

Great, now I find I can't publish it. This is definitely not my online day!

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Finally, 2 days later.... I had to upgrade my browser. That's what you get when you never use your own computer for this kind of thing!

Sore muscles

Last week a Myanmar teacher asked around if anyone wanted to join Myanmar martial arts. I said I might join once a week after the October break.

On Wednesday several colleagues of mine (all westerners) had been to the lesson and were all very enthusiastic. When I was asked specifically if I would join the next day, i found I had said yes before I really realised it.

So Thursday after a busy day at school I found myself in the Music room with a few of my fellow teachers and our teacher of Bando, the traditional Myanmar martial arts. He said we would start easy. There are 63 poses to learn and we made it up to number 20 on that day.

It was great fun and a really good workout. When we came back home (we have a new house guest for the moment) our muscles were well used. I felt very energised though and I felt really good.

Yesterday, I didn't feel too bad. It was International Teacher's Day and we had a dinner from school. After to karaoke (the Asian staple). At about 10:30 a few of us decided to go dancing. Great fun but now I do feel sore...  Luckily, I have until Tuesday to recover.