Talk thirteen.
Yangon, 07 th December
- I don’t understand why America and Europe call Myanmar Burma, and Yangon Rangoon?
- I have to refer you to the Wikipedia, because I was myself startled with a twisting explanation which name should be used in Poland: either Burma or Myanmar or even Republic of the Union of Myanma (!).
- What about Yangon?
- Rangoon is the name imposed by the British colonizers. The military junta moved the capital from Yangon to Na- pyida justifying it with the need of reviving the inner part of the country. The real reasons were clearly political.
- So, what are we supposed to call this country?
- Have you anywhere in Asia seen any name like Burma or Yangon?
- No, I haven’t seen them anywhere.
- It means that we should respect the names being used by the citizens of Myanmar. What are your first impresssions of Yangon?
- It’s hard to tell anything about this city just after one late evening and a short night here. We are flying on at six a.m.!
- Remember that Myanmar is still one of the poorest countries of the region and it is so obvious in the streets of Yangon.
- In a way the people don’t look tired or unhappy, nevertheless, poverty is so conspicuous.
- You can observe that the citizens of Myanmar are quiet and humble people, somehow reconciled with their fate. I’m doubtful whether this bodes well for the future. Hilary Clinton paid a visit to this country opening a new process. Adam Michnik also met the opposition leader and supported her sharing with her his experience.
- In a week time we will be in Yangon again, before we will be leaving for Bangkok, so we’ll have a chance to talk about the city.
- Already after a very short stay here, I irresistibly keep comparing this country to Poland from the 1950s and the similarity of the then Polish technological backwardness compared with the West. Aspects of the 1940s are prevalent here.
- Seth is watching this country for the first time but he doesn’t pass any judgment.
- He refrains from negative comments as his manners wouldn’t let him do so, but he’s got a different perception. Over centuries Thailand was in territorial conflicts with belligerent and possessive Burma. These two nations do not love each other too much.
- At least the travel agency which arranged our Myanmar itinerary works fine. So far so good.
- I must admit that after our arrival in Yangon when one of the agents met us there, I had a slight doubt whether we got in the right hands.
- The journey to the hotel, prolonged up to one and a half hour, through a crowded city was jammed by pilgrims waiting in long, long queues to get to a temple with …
- …Buddha’s tooth. Those people were humbly waiting for many long hours to bow before the relic which has been pilgrimizing in the Asian countries.
- …was exceptionally tiring. The city does not look at its best during the rush hours. Those overcrowded buses…
- It’s hard to call them buses. They are a sort of trucks without windows or roofs. Quite late, after dark did we arrive at the hotel and our agent surprised me handing me a wad of local money which amounted to fifty US dollars. He said it would be too risky to exchange money in the streets.
- Fifty dollars it’s a lot of money for them, isn’t it? He didn’t want any receipt, did he?
- No, he didn’t. He said we’d account it after a week when we have come back from the tour arranged by his agency.
- To my surprise he warned us that only completely brand new dollar bills, preferably hundred dollars notes, can be exchanged.
- We soon found out that it was impossible to pay with credits cards. Officially the dollar exchange is illegal but tourists do it just everywhere. It reminds me of communist Poland. In Myanmar little shops and craftsman’s workshops exchange the money and play the role of not existing banks.
- So do all the tourist agencies.
- Hopefully they don’t do scams. We have to be careful and not to change money with the street money-changers.
- During your early trips did you have any problems with exchanging money?
- Not with the exchange itself, but with getting hold of them in the first place.
- Exactly. Where did you have those dollars from?
- Each time I would get my passport for which I had to apply every single time, I was allowed to buy five or ten dollars in the bank. The rest I had do “arrange” on my own. It would be an enormous financial effort. The black market was cruel. Before going to America for the first time, I would make fifteen to twenty dollars a month. For the money made for teaching English I would buy dollars. I used to charge twenty five cents for one teaching hour! The economic crisis in Chile during the Allende times made their black market even crazier than in Poland. For two UD dollars a day I had room and board at my Chilean landlords’ in Santiago. Whereas for my US trips I had to borrow the money from my friends in Poland. I paid them back thanks to my job in a hotel.
- So, all the money you had, you would carry all the time with you, wouldn’t you?
- I never had too much of it. But it’s true, carrying all the money was very impractical but there was no safer option.
- Let’ go back to Myanmar..
- Difficulties with the Internet are a bit irritating.
- There’s either no connection at all or the signal is so weak that there’s no way I could make use of any portals.
- It means that we are not going to meet any gay Myanmar man this way, right?
- No, we aren’t. All gay portals are blocked here. The rulers in power know much more what is good for the citizens and they know how to make them happy and control their conduct.
- This is the way it is in many countries with dictatorship. Mobile phones are luxury for the rich only. There’re warnings in in each hotel about extremely high prices of international telephone connections and they do not encourage the use of them.
- We aren’t going to learn much about gay life in Myanmar, are we?
- We have to try to do without the Internet!
- Look, what a beautiful view we have from our hotel window!
- This is Shwedagon pagoda[1] which looks great. We’ll see it up close in a couple of days.
[1] Shwedagon pagoda
