Today in Myanmar » Myanmar Life

A sad tale from Chin Hills

Bamarlay — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 09:54:28 +0000

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 malaria is a serious problem. Land for cultivation is so few that the state cannot produce enough rice or food for its entire population. There is not enough jobs for the people, and thousands of Chin youths from towns like Hakha, Falam, Mindat and Kanpetlet go out of Myanmar to work as laborers in nearby countries, especially in Malaysia. With such poor conditions, sad tales of human tragedy are not unheard of. Two years ago, I met a family of four in Chin Hills. I was working there when one day somebody told me of a child admitted to the local township hospital. He was admitted with severe pneumonia and severe malnutrition. The family cannot afford to pay for the medicine and food. They don’t have warm clothes and blankets. The father was attacked by a bear a few years ago while hunting, and become debilitated [...]

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Myanmar Tuk Tuk

Bamarlay — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:22:58 +0000

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 years ago, it has become a popular and cheap form of public transport in Myanmar. Myanmar tuk-tuk is different from Thai tuk-tuk. In Thai tuk-tuk, the passengers sit facing the front of the vehicle. It is a factory designed and produced vehicle. Myanmar tuk-tuk is essentially a converted Chinese motorcycle. The back wheel of the motorcycle is removed and a passenger compartment attached to the back end of the motorcycle, with some changes in the structure of the motorcycle. There are usually two rows of passenger seats in the back compartment, facing face to face with each other. It can usually accommodate around 8 passengers, with some more hanging at the back of the vehicle. More often than not, it is also used as a cargo truck, carrying quite a large load of goods. Myanmar tuk-tuk is a very convenient way of transport in small towns [...]

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Trishaw – Myanmar way of travel

Bamarlay — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:16:37 +0000

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 is no public bus service. People in these smaller cities and towns have to rely on trishaws as the major mode of public transport.

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Beer culture in Myanmar

Bamarlay — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 12:33:23 +0000

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 a high price. Most Myanmar people cannot afford to buy a can of beer then. With the opening of economy in 1988 saw the introduction of a number of locally produced beer brands in Myanmar. These Myanmar beer brands include Myanmar Beer, Mandalay Beer (now a private venture), Dagon Beer, as well as Tiger Beer, ABC Stout and Anchor Beer which are produced under license from the parent brands. With the introduction of cheap locally made beer, people in Myanmar saw a new trend of beer bars in Myanmar. Called Beer Stations in Myanmar, these sell beer at a cheaper price than bottled beer. They also sell food at a cheap price, but mostly are of low quality. Within a few years time, Myanmar Beer established itself as the most successful beer in Myanmar. Hundreds of Myanmar Beer stations appeared in Yangon, Mandalay and all over [...]

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Gmail, Yahoo mail and Myanmar

Thet Naing — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 11:35:17 +0000

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 web mails are blocked in Myanmar. If you are using Gmail or Yahoo mail as your primary contact email, you are now in deep trouble. You cannot access these mails from Myanmar, and you are totally disconnected. All you will see is a welcome screen of “This website is blocked by your ISP”. I am deeply sorry. However, please keep calm. You are not totally disconnected. There are ways to connect with your friends via your favorite mail. Myanmar people are genius at improvisation when resources are scarce. Email and internet is no exception. All you need to do is head to a local internet cafe which is now quite easy to find in Yangon (Rangoon) and Mandalay (but still a rarity in other cities), and ask the owner that you want to use your gmail. More often than not, he will be willing to show [...]

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PCO – Public Phones in Myanmar

Bamarlay — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:03:30 +0000

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 the user. Although not as convenient and as private as true public telephone booths, it is a popular and widely used public communication system in a country where very few people have fixed land line phone or mobile phone. In small towns and villages, usually there are no automatic telephone exchanges. They have to rely on old and outdated manual telephone exchanges where the caller has to ask the operator to connect his or her call. To call other towns, that is, to make trunk calls, you have to book the call with the operator, or come to one of a few PCOs in the town. This is how I call my family while I was in Chin State. PCO – Public Phones in Myanmar is an article from Myanmar Today, a site about Myanmar news, culture, custom, information and travel advice. If you like our [...]

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Nhit-Lone, Thone-Lone – Myanmar Underground Lottery

Bamarlay — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:10:56 +0000

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 Thai National Lottery. This Thai lottery is held once every two weeks, so thone-lone’s winning number is also announced every two weeks. Winner gets 600 times the amount he paid for the ticket. To play nhit-lone, the vendors used, in the past, the last two digits of the first prize of the Myanmar government lottery. In the past, the Myanmar official lottery was open every month, for seven consecutive days, announcing the winning numbers every day. There was first price for that day and the last two digits of that winning first prize became the wining number of nhit-lone for that day. To stop this illegal lottery, Myanmar government changed the system of the Government lottery system. Now, all the numbers are chosen in a single day, making it impossible for the nhit-lone dealers to play. However, the nhit-lone dealers have a more brilliant way to [...]

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Buses in Yangon (Rangoon)

Bamarlay — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 14:34:46 +0000

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 still run the streets of Rangoon. They are old, dirty, crowded and break down easily and frequently. The roof is also quite low so tall passengers have to bend their neck and back when standing. However, those are not the only buses that run the streets of Rangoon. The government has imported larger, newer (comparatively)second hand buses from Japan and Korea in recent years. They are far more larger than the older buses and more comfortable, but most of them are already quite worn out and break down as often. One thing you might notice in Yangon public buses is that they are overcrowded most of the time. Passengers were packed into buses like herds of animals. But people are quite used to this and do not complain much. Rangoon bus drivers and conductors are quite notorious for their rude behavior, carelessness and recklessness. More often [...]

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Life on Irrawaddy (Ayarwaddy or Ayeyarwaddy)

Bamarlay — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 17:46:58 +0000

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 their shoulders, loading and unloading ships docked at the piers. Naked children swim in the muddy river while their mothers bath on the river bank; the same thing that their mothers and grand mothers might have done a century ago. Meanwhile, their fathers row small boats, catching fish along the river. Life was no different from sixty years ago for them. Irrawaddy, being the longest river in Myanmar, runs through the heart of the country. As most of Burma’s ancient cities were built along the river, it was always the life line of the country for more than a thousand years. Although. with the development of modern land transportation, its importance has declined in recent years, Irrawaddy still plays an important role in modern Myanmar (Burma). Thousands of people, if not millions, still depend on the river for their living. Thousands of acres of farms use [...]

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Pork on Stick (Wet-thar-dote-htoe)

Bamarlay — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:43:37 +0000

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 as well as meat, skin and cartilage. They are then cut into small pieces, and put on tiny bamboo sticks and served. The vendor usually sells on the road side, with all the food served on a large metal pan with charcoal stove underneath. Customers sit around the pan and eat the food dipped in sauce. The meat is really delicious. If you want to try one, just walk in the streets of downtown Yangon. There are many shops there. Pork on Stick (Wet-thar-dote-htoe) is an article from Myanmar Today, a site about Myanmar news, culture, custom, information and travel advice. If you like our articles, why don't you link to us in your website? It is simple. Just copy and paste the following code somewhere into your webpage. We really appreciate your link to us. <a href="http://www.myanmar2day.com/">Myanmar Today</a> Related Posts Teashops in Myanmar

Pork on Stick (Wet-thar-dote-htoe) is an article from Myanmar Today, a site about Myanmar news, culture, custom, information and travel advice.

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