Yangon - January 30, 2008

Hi everyone,

This will be a catch up for the past few days. I have been able to locate the Cyber room here at the Sakura Residences where I am staying and establish e-mail and Google Talk with my sons. Every morning I have tried to catch up with some e-mails and figure out how to transmit some pictures. I did get some pictures to my son, Mark, and hopefully he will include them in my travel blog soon.

I have had Tamara’s driver for the past 2 days and he has driven me all over Yangon to sightsee. I have been to the downtown area several times. It is hard to imagine people who earn such small salaries existing as they do. A person earning US $0.75 a day is common here. There are thousands though, who sit by the road or sidewalk with small stands selling whatever they can to make a few Kyat (pronounced Chat). You will see on some of my photos just how ghetto-like their homes are. They make the ghettos of New York City look okay. They are warm, friendly, and will return a smile in a second.

I went to Scot Market yesterday to start my shopping for items to bring home with me. Buyers beware especially light, tall Americans. The prices will always be inflated. My driver says that he will bargain for me if I want to purchase anything.

I have seen the downtown area’s large buildings, old buildings, traffic jams, colorful people, scroungey dogs, kids without their clothing, ladies balancing heavy loads on their heads, maniac driving, memorials, the train station, the nice looking churches, the run down buildings, the trash on the streets and sidewalks. There are huge hotels for tourists that look lovely, nice restaurants, and places to shop. I have purposely stayed away from the tourist areas, preferring to see how the locals live. There is a huge contrast between the two.

I am going today with a native Burmese lady who is married to an employee of the United Nations. She is taking me to her village where she grew up. This weekend Tamara and I are flying up to a city in central Burma called Bagan. There are thousands of pagodas there and lots of other sights to see. More on that later.