Real life of Myanmar people
Chin Hills State is probably the poorest region in Myanmar. It is also the most difficult region to live and survive. Almost all places in Chin State are mountains and hills, with no flat land; all the towns and villages are built on the mountains where it is very cold or in valleys where...
Everybody knows the famous tuk-tuk from Thailand. You must have seen that TV ads from VISA with James Bond riding a tuk-tuk in the streets of Bangkok. Tuk-tuk is synonymous with Thailand. However, does anybody know that Myanmar also has tuk-tuk running the streets of towns and cities in Myanmar? Just introduced a few...
Trishaws (or Side-car as it is known in Myanmar) are the easiest and most convenient mode of transportation in Myanmar, especially outside of Yangon. Although buses are the major mode of travel in Yangon, very few buses run the streets of other major cities and towns in Burma. In smaller towns in Myanmar, there...
Last 20 years saw the establishment of beer culture in Myanmar. Before 1988, beer is a rare commodity in Myanmar. The government produced Mandalay beer was always in short supply. It was available only in a very few hotels and restaurants. Foreign brands like Heineken and Tiger beer were available in black markets at...
Visitors to Myanmar would still remember the feeling of totally cut off from their friends and families outside Myanmar (Burma). Telephone call to foreign countries from Myanmar (Burma) is quite expensive. Mobile phones are not readily available until recently (when the government introduces a new prepaid GSM mobile phone cards), and all those popular...
This is what a PCO looks like in Myanmar. PCO stands for Public Call Outlet, a public telephone. Unlike those from other countries, there are no public phones using coins or card. Instead, at a PCO, there are one or two ordinary fixed land line telephones with an attendance to mark time and charge...
Well, nhit-lone and thone-lone are illegal lotteries popular and widespread in Myanmar. Nhit-lone means two-digit and thone-lone means three-digit. Although thone-lone has been around in Myanmar for more than twenty years, nhit-lone gained popularity just a few years ago. To play thone-lone (three-digit), the lottery ticket vendors use the last three digit of the...
If you ever traveled to Yangon for the first time, you will be amazed by the public buses running the streets of Rangoon. Not only are they old and worn out, they are also overcrowded. And some of them date back to the pre-world war 2 era. Many wooden buses from the colonial period...
If you ever sailed along the great river Irrawaddy (Ayarwaddy or Ayeyarwaddy), the largest and longest river in Myanmar, you would notice one thing. Life is almost as it was sixty years ago. Old wooden ships still run along the river as it was before the World War II. Workers carry rice sacks over...
This is a favorite Burmese food. Originally from Chinese community in Myanmar, it has become a popular food in cities. Called “Wet-Thar-Dote-Htoe”, it literally means “Pork on Stick”. Various parts of the pig are cooked with soy-bean sauce and seasoning. The parts include carious internal organs like intestine, liver, kidney, spleen, heart, lungs, tongue...
