A Learning Journey - the last leg

I was in Myanmar/Burma for 4 days. Three to work (and I almost literally did not leave the hotel, which doubles as UNICEF's office) and one to be a tourist in Rangoon/Yangon, the capital (and thus NOT a fair representation of the country).

I did not see the suffering of the people and there is much. I did not discuss politics and there is much to be said (I did get one comment that the government will not accept external help and thus no repairing of old colonial buildings, little development, no international adoptions, etc. and another comment that the country is run by 10 families - no more). I did not try and sneak into the prison home of Aung San Suu Kyi. However, as I flew in, I did notice how dark the capital of 4 million people is. Electricity is scarce. And I did note how kind people were to me, ensuring that I felt welcomed and taking me out for food, as a tourist, shopping, giving my children gifts, and buying me coffee (as in a kilo to take home).

There are two 'musts' for a tourist to do in the capital. One is visit the main pagoda - Shwedagon - (2500 years old) and the other is to visit the main non-food covered market.

Friday was a holiday for many people and thus the pagoda was busy at dusk. A lovely buzz filled the space, bouncing of the gold statues and marble floors. People come there to pray and meditate but also to socialise and picnic. The children run around and bang the ancient bells. It had the most wonderful ambiance of happiness and serenity, even though people must have been praying for relief from personal sorrows.


You take an escalator up. No Catholic on your knee stuff.


tiny gold plaques all over it and then at the top a huge (I mean huge) diamond and large rubies


Incredibly intricate carvings




One of a pair that guards the pagoda which is open from 5 a.m. to midnight.

Sadly, Scott's market did not wow me. The wonders of Bangkok's shopping (truly a modern wonder of the world) have spoiled me, I guess. I searched in vain for a certain multi-gemmed ring to replace one that I had lost. But the style was too avant-garde/hippy for the conservative tastes of the national market. I bought some large amethyst earrings (dubiously mined, no doubt), only to be told by a kind staff who had accompanied me, that they weren't really very big by local standards. I did get some funky fabric with hand-painted drums and a tablecloth woven in the traditional northern Chin way.

And upon departure, I was paid the greatest compliment by two staff members: "There is a job posted. Why don't you apply and come and work with us?" How lovely that would be. But somehow, I don't think that all members of my family would be given a visa to join me.