Back from Burma (long) OT

Well, I'm back from Burma, the most different place I've ever been. And
I've been to many countries!
I got to Yangon on the evening on the 21st and did nothing but check into
the hotel at the airport and go to sleep. The next morning I had to get up
at 5 am and go to the airport, my plane was waiting for me. I flew just
over an hour to Kambauk, in southern Burma. It is a very small village but
has a couple of oil refineries, one is Total and one is Premier. When I got
there, Dennis landed in the helicopter only a few minutes after me. I was
supposed to go back to Dawei with him, but unfortunately they had a couple
of flights come up to the oil rig, so I ended up going to Dawei in the twin
otter. It was only a 15 minute flight and I was met in Dawei (which used to
be called Tavoy) by Rob, the engineer.
Rob took me back to the crew house where I would be staying. The crew house
is a big huge house, the nicest one in town, where Dennis and the other
pilot Dane and Rob live. They also have a driver who lives downstairs and a
houseboy who cleans 6 days a week but doesn't live there.
The town of Dawei is unbelievable. It is seriously from another world. The
few roads that are paved were paved in the '30's. I saw 3 cars the whole
time I was there, other than that a few ancient Willy's army jeeps and some
big old trucks. The people got around on foot or on really old Chinese
style bicycles or by horse and carriage or oxcart.
Rumour has it that the area has 100,000 to 130,000 inhabitants, but it
looked like a village of 5000. Most folks lived in huts. I only saw a
handful of houses that actually had glass in the windows.
Dennis had to fly a lot in the mornings, so I would take his bike out for
long rides. It was amazing the commotion I caused. I'm sure that I was the
first white woman most of them had ever seen and to see her in workout
clothes on a fancy mountain bike riding at 20 km/h on their rickety farm
road passing the horse and carriages and oxcarts, that was some sight to
see! People were gathering on the side of the street to see my ride past
and yelling out "Hi!!!". That was really strange for me that they were
using such an American greeting. In Thailand, nobody says hi, they say
hello.
The day before Christmas, Dennis and I went to the market to look for
vegetables for Xmas dinner. Unfortunately we didn't find much, just some
limp looking cauliflower. No carrots, no nothing. Good thing the guys got
a big turkey from the oil rig. On Christmas morning, we got the driver to
take us to the beach, none of them had ever been there before because it was
a 45 min drive, only 18 km but the road is bad. On the beach there was a
big festival and all the locals were gambling with these strange big dice
and drinking various concoctions. I collected some shells and decided I
better not get in my bathing suit to go swimming because it might cause too
much commotion. Instead we went to a straw hut and had some beers.
Later that night, I cooked the turkey up for the guys, along with some
improvised stuffing consisting mainly of cashew nuts and some really weird
canned peas. We had a good dinner and got really drunk afterwards. Nothing
much more to do there. On Boxing Day we watched the first LOTR on HBO while
feeling hung over. It was actually really strange because if you didn't pay
too much attention to the outside, you could imagine it was really
Christmassy with all the hose and carriages driving past outside and the
bells jingling.
One time, Dennis and I went to the market and I bought one of those old
fashioned irons that you put hot coals into. They use those there because
the town only has electricity for 4 hours every 2nd night. The rich people
have their own generators, but unless you are connected with the government
or military, you don't. The iron is made of solid brass and weighs a ton.
It cost me US $2.50.
One day, we got the driver to take us out on a drive into the country side.
We saw the brick factory (mostly small kids) and the basket weavers (also
kids) and the straw mat weavers (kids). Oh, did I mention this place only
has like one school, all the other kids work. Very high illiteracy. There
were also the palm beer makers where they had rickety ladders going up palm
trees and were collecting some kind of juice in pieces of bamboo. It would
ferment for a day or so and then they would drink it. It was pretty awful
tasting. Oh, and then there were the shipyards by the river. They make
these old style Chinese junks out of solid mahogany. These things are huge!
You can pick up a brand new one for $20,000 US without an engine. It would
almost be worth it to buy one and then take it apart for the beautiful wood
they use!
But all in all, I can't say that there's anything to do there. It was
almost not worth it to venture out of the crew house because of the huge
commotion we caused. The food is severely limited and if Dennis and the
other pilot and the engineer didn't get some food off the oil rig and from
Yangon, they would almost starve.
On the morning of the 29th, I got a ride in the helicopter back to Kambauk.
It was only a 15 minute flight but they flew only 50 feet above the river
and buzzed some hilltop temples, it was really cool. I got a good view of
the country side, but I bet they scared some of the villagers by flying so
low!
When I got to Kambauk, the twin otter was waiting for me and I hopped on for
the 1 hour 10 min flight back to Yangon. I spent the rest of the day in
Yangon and went to Scott Market to look around. It was kind of depressing,
the shopping is definitely nothing like in Thailand! I did get a good
scenic tour of Yangon in the taxi. Oh, the taxi made our old 1985 Hyundai
Pony that we used to drive in Vancouver look like a Cadillac. I got to see
the big Pagoda from the cab and we also passed some of the most amazing
mansions I've ever seen. I guess that's where the government types and
military dictators live. The rest of them are dirt poor and seem really
repressed. There are a lot of tall fences with razor wire on top.
I flew out to Bangkok early the next morning. From there I had to head
straight to the Canadian embassy to apply for a new passport because my old
passport is now full. It was weird being back in Thailand, it sure seems
like fun town, party town. Everything is geared toward good times,
colourful, beer everywhere, people are so relaxed and happy. Everything
that Burma is not.
I also headed to my hairdresser for a much needed haircut. He gave me free
highlights for a New Year's present, what a sweetie! It just seemed wrong
to be indulging in these sorts of things though. But I fought it and
proceeded to buy some lingerie at my favourite department store before
heading home on the bus.
I got home at 6 pm and boy, was I happy to see Vino! And Vino was so happy
to see me! I hardly got any sleep last night because he kept waking me up
every half hour for more scritches and headbutts. Is he ever going to be
happy when Dennis gets home on the 9th!
So tonight is New Year's eve. I don't have anything going on because I
opted to hang out with Vino instead of going to a party in Bangkok. I think
I made the right choice. My buddy is the cutest kitty ever, he is now
sleeping on my scanner. Gotta love that :-)
It's just after midnight. I watched the second Star Wars movie on HBO and
had some spicy martinis. Usually I go to this party in Victoria, BC that my
friends have been having for 8 years in a row. But this year it isn't
happening anyway, everyone is too tied up with their kids. So I don't feel
like I'm missing out on anything.
I still have 200 posts to catch up on but wanted to wish everyone a Happy
New Year! And purrs all around! Woo hoo!
--
Britta
Check out pictures of Vino at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/badwilson click on the Vino album
ROT13 to reply

"badwilson" wrote in message
...

The town of Dawei is unbelievable. It is seriously from another world.
The
few roads that are paved were paved in the '30's. I saw 3 cars the whole
time I was there, other than that a few ancient Willy's army jeeps and
some
big old trucks. The people got around on foot or on really old Chinese
style bicycles or by horse and carriage or oxcart.
Rumour has it that the area has 100,000 to 130,000 inhabitants, but it
looked like a village of 5000. Most folks lived in huts. I only saw a
handful of houses that actually had glass in the windows.
Dennis had to fly a lot in the mornings, so I would take his bike out for
long rides. It was amazing the commotion I caused. I'm sure that I was
the
first white woman most of them had ever seen and to see her in workout
clothes on a fancy mountain bike riding at 20 km/h on their rickety farm
road passing the horse and carriages and oxcarts, that was some sight to
see! People were gathering on the side of the street to see my ride past
and yelling out "Hi!!!". That was really strange for me that they were
using such an American greeting. In Thailand, nobody says hi, they say
hello.
The day before Christmas, Dennis and I went to the market to look for
vegetables for Xmas dinner. Unfortunately we didn't find much, just some
limp looking cauliflower. No carrots, no nothing. Good thing the guys
got
a big turkey from the oil rig. On Christmas morning, we got the driver to
take us to the beach, none of them had ever been there before because it
was
a 45 min drive, only 18 km but the road is bad.
snip
We saw the brick factory (mostly small kids) and the basket weavers (also
kids) and the straw mat weavers (kids). Oh, did I mention this place only
has like one school, all the other kids work. Very high illiteracy.
There
were also the palm beer makers where they had rickety ladders going up
palm
trees and were collecting some kind of juice in pieces of bamboo. It
would
ferment for a day or so and then they would drink it. It was pretty awful
tasting. Oh, and then there were the shipyards by the river. They make
these old style Chinese junks out of solid mahogany. These things are
huge!
You can pick up a brand new one for $20,000 US without an engine. It
would
almost be worth it to buy one and then take it apart for the beautiful
wood
they use!
But all in all, I can't say that there's anything to do there.

Anything to do? That depends on what you mean...

Here is some of CIA's analysis of Myanmar (Burma) See the whole thing at
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/.../geos/bm.html:
"Burma is a resource-rich country that suffers from abject rural poverty.
The military regime took steps in the early 1990s to liberalize the economy
after decades of failure under the "Burmese Way to Socialism", but those
efforts have since stalled. Burma has been unable to achieve monetary or
fiscal stability, resulting in an economy that suffers from serious
macroeconomic imbalances - including a steep inflation rate and an official
exchange rate that overvalues the Burmese kyat by more than 100 times the
market rate. In addition, most overseas development assistance ceased after
the junta suppressed the democracy movement in 1988 and subsequently ignored
the results of the 1990 election. Burma is data poor, and official
statistics are often dated and inaccurate. Published estimates of Burma's
foreign trade are greatly understated because of the size of the black
market and border trade - often estimated to be one to two times the
official economy."

With such resources and such a country, it is tragic that the people live in
such poverty, oppressed and without a real opportunity to express their
thoughts. The military regime has for years tried to gag the opposition, the
most well known is the treatment of the opposition leader (and also Nobel
peace price winner), Aung San Suu Kyi. She has been held arrested in her
house for years.

But why can this regime keep up their terror? Partly because multinational
companies like your husband works for, are generating so much values for the
government, that they can afford it.

You said you didn't have much FUN in Myanmar... Gee, guess you would have
had much more fun if you actually were a Burmese LIVING there. Dont' you
think?

This group is a cat group, and we appreciate the values of sympathy for the
weaker members in our world (i.e. cats...) I think some of the purrings
should be directed towards the Burmese people, too...

If anyone was offended by me writing this... Shame on you!

Hans

Glad to hear you're back safe and sound!

So tonight is New Year's eve. I don't have anything going on because I
opted to hang out with Vino instead of going to a party in Bangkok. I think
I made the right choice. My buddy is the cutest kitty ever, he is now
sleeping on my scanner. Gotta love that :-)

We're also spending the night home. We're just going out to a late
dinner and then we'll watch the ball drop on TV with the cats, drinking
champagne. Us, not the cats. They'll get some catnip to celebrate.

I still have 200 posts to catch up on but wanted to wish everyone a Happy
New Year! And purrs all around! Woo hoo!

Same here! 11 hours to go here in Central Texas!

--
Victor Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

Hans Schrøder wrote:
You said you didn't have much FUN in Myanmar... Gee, guess you would have
had much more fun if you actually were a Burmese LIVING there. Dont' you
think?

Due to a burp in my system, I lost my killfile. Too bad I had to read
the above. You Hans, are an asshole. Albeit a well-intentioned one.
Get off your f*cking high horse! Who the hell do you think you are to
judge Britta or her husband?

*plonk*

--
Victor Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

"Hans Schrøder" wrote
SNIPPED a bunch of junk the turdhead wrote in response to Britta's
delightful and MUCH enjoyed tale of her Burma trip.

Leave Britta alone you shrimp dicked poopy head!!!! sorry to the rest of
the ng!!

Someone give me a recipe, quick!

Stacey

Hi Britta! We missed you. Even though your trip didn't sound that wonderful,
I'm still jealous that you get to see so much more of the world than the
rest of us. Glad you got there and back safely! Any new pics of the new
haircut?

Stacey
"badwilson" wrote in message
...
Well, I'm back from Burma, the most different place I've ever been. And
I've been to many countries!
I got to Yangon on the evening on the 21st and did nothing but check into
the hotel at the airport and go to sleep. The next morning I had to get
up
at 5 am and go to the airport, my plane was waiting for me. I flew just
over an hour to Kambauk, in southern Burma. It is a very small village
but
has a couple of oil refineries, one is Total and one is Premier. When I
got
there, Dennis landed in the helicopter only a few minutes after me. I was
supposed to go back to Dawei with him, but unfortunately they had a couple
of flights come up to the oil rig, so I ended up going to Dawei in the
twin
otter. It was only a 15 minute flight and I was met in Dawei (which used
to
be called Tavoy) by Rob, the engineer.
Rob took me back to the crew house where I would be staying. The crew
house
is a big huge house, the nicest one in town, where Dennis and the other
pilot Dane and Rob live. They also have a driver who lives downstairs and
a
houseboy who cleans 6 days a week but doesn't live there.
The town of Dawei is unbelievable. It is seriously from another world.
The
few roads that are paved were paved in the '30's. I saw 3 cars the whole
time I was there, other than that a few ancient Willy's army jeeps and
some
big old trucks. The people got around on foot or on really old Chinese
style bicycles or by horse and carriage or oxcart.
Rumour has it that the area has 100,000 to 130,000 inhabitants, but it
looked like a village of 5000. Most folks lived in huts. I only saw a
handful of houses that actually had glass in the windows.
Dennis had to fly a lot in the mornings, so I would take his bike out for
long rides. It was amazing the commotion I caused. I'm sure that I was
the
first white woman most of them had ever seen and to see her in workout
clothes on a fancy mountain bike riding at 20 km/h on their rickety farm
road passing the horse and carriages and oxcarts, that was some sight to
see! People were gathering on the side of the street to see my ride past
and yelling out "Hi!!!". That was really strange for me that they were
using such an American greeting. In Thailand, nobody says hi, they say
hello.
The day before Christmas, Dennis and I went to the market to look for
vegetables for Xmas dinner. Unfortunately we didn't find much, just some
limp looking cauliflower. No carrots, no nothing. Good thing the guys
got
a big turkey from the oil rig. On Christmas morning, we got the driver to
take us to the beach, none of them had ever been there before because it
was
a 45 min drive, only 18 km but the road is bad. On the beach there was a
big festival and all the locals were gambling with these strange big dice
and drinking various concoctions. I collected some shells and decided I
better not get in my bathing suit to go swimming because it might cause
too
much commotion. Instead we went to a straw hut and had some beers.
Later that night, I cooked the turkey up for the guys, along with some
improvised stuffing consisting mainly of cashew nuts and some really weird
canned peas. We had a good dinner and got really drunk afterwards.
Nothing
much more to do there. On Boxing Day we watched the first LOTR on HBO
while
feeling hung over. It was actually really strange because if you didn't
pay
too much attention to the outside, you could imagine it was really
Christmassy with all the hose and carriages driving past outside and the
bells jingling.
One time, Dennis and I went to the market and I bought one of those old
fashioned irons that you put hot coals into. They use those there because
the town only has electricity for 4 hours every 2nd night. The rich
people
have their own generators, but unless you are connected with the
government
or military, you don't. The iron is made of solid brass and weighs a ton.
It cost me US $2.50.
One day, we got the driver to take us out on a drive into the country
side.
We saw the brick factory (mostly small kids) and the basket weavers (also
kids) and the straw mat weavers (kids). Oh, did I mention this place only
has like one school, all the other kids work. Very high illiteracy.
There
were also the palm beer makers where they had rickety ladders going up
palm
trees and were collecting some kind of juice in pieces of bamboo. It
would
ferment for a day or so and then they would drink it. It was pretty awful
tasting. Oh, and then there were the shipyards by the river. They make
these old style Chinese junks out of solid mahogany. These things are
huge!
You can pick up a brand new one for $20,000 US without an engine. It
would
almost be worth it to buy one and then take it apart for the beautiful
wood
they use!
But all in all, I can't say that there's anything to do there. It was
almost not worth it to venture out of the crew house because of the huge
commotion we caused. The food is severely limited and if Dennis and the
other pilot and the engineer didn't get some food off the oil rig and from
Yangon, they would almost starve.
On the morning of the 29th, I got a ride in the helicopter back to
Kambauk.
It was only a 15 minute flight but they flew only 50 feet above the river
and buzzed some hilltop temples, it was really cool. I got a good view of
the country side, but I bet they scared some of the villagers by flying so
low!
When I got to Kambauk, the twin otter was waiting for me and I hopped on
for
the 1 hour 10 min flight back to Yangon. I spent the rest of the day in
Yangon and went to Scott Market to look around. It was kind of
depressing,
the shopping is definitely nothing like in Thailand! I did get a good
scenic tour of Yangon in the taxi. Oh, the taxi made our old 1985 Hyundai
Pony that we used to drive in Vancouver look like a Cadillac. I got to
see
the big Pagoda from the cab and we also passed some of the most amazing
mansions I've ever seen. I guess that's where the government types and
military dictators live. The rest of them are dirt poor and seem really
repressed. There are a lot of tall fences with razor wire on top.
I flew out to Bangkok early the next morning. From there I had to head
straight to the Canadian embassy to apply for a new passport because my
old
passport is now full. It was weird being back in Thailand, it sure seems
like fun town, party town. Everything is geared toward good times,
colourful, beer everywhere, people are so relaxed and happy. Everything
that Burma is not.
I also headed to my hairdresser for a much needed haircut. He gave me
free
highlights for a New Year's present, what a sweetie! It just seemed wrong
to be indulging in these sorts of things though. But I fought it and
proceeded to buy some lingerie at my favourite department store before
heading home on the bus.
I got home at 6 pm and boy, was I happy to see Vino! And Vino was so
happy
to see me! I hardly got any sleep last night because he kept waking me up
every half hour for more scritches and headbutts. Is he ever going to be
happy when Dennis gets home on the 9th!
So tonight is New Year's eve. I don't have anything going on because I
opted to hang out with Vino instead of going to a party in Bangkok. I
think
I made the right choice. My buddy is the cutest kitty ever, he is now
sleeping on my scanner. Gotta love that :-)
It's just after midnight. I watched the second Star Wars movie on HBO and
had some spicy martinis. Usually I go to this party in Victoria, BC that
my
friends have been having for 8 years in a row. But this year it isn't
happening anyway, everyone is too tied up with their kids. So I don't
feel
like I'm missing out on anything.
I still have 200 posts to catch up on but wanted to wish everyone a Happy
New Year! And purrs all around! Woo hoo!
--
Britta
Check out pictures of Vino at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/badwilson click on the Vino album
ROT13 to reply

On 31 Dec 2003 11:25:10 -0600, "badwilson"
wrote:

Well, I'm back from Burma, the most different place I've ever been. And
I've been to many countries!

snip

Glad to hear you're home safe - and no lingering nausea to ruin the
trip.

You're narrative reminded me of my time in Honduras. I was there for
ten months serving with a US Army field hospital and we would go out
to villages three days a week to pull sick call for the locals. The
only way to get to some of the villages was by helicopter, foot or
horseback - we used the helicopter ;-) Had to be careful to land away
from any dwellings because the wash from the 'copters blew then over.
The drs usually had to use multiple tranlators - 1 to translate into
Spanish and then another to translate into the local indian dialect.
We may have been the first non-Indians the kids had ever seen, and
really attracted the attention.

Your talking about movies also reminded me that the first time I
watched Romancing the Stone was down there in a Honduran Air Force
Officers club - in Spanish with English subtitles ;-)

I got home at 6 pm and boy, was I happy to see Vino! And Vino was so happy
to see me! I hardly got any sleep last night because he kept waking me up
every half hour for more scritches and headbutts. Is he ever going to be
happy when Dennis gets home on the 9th!

Poor Vino, bet he was glad to see you, and is looking forward to his
Paw getting home.


--
Steve Touchstone,
faithful servant of Sammy, Little Bit and Rocky

[remove Junk for email]
http://www.sirinet.net/~stouchst/index.html

"Hans Schrøder" wrote in message
news
This group is a cat group, and we appreciate the values of sympathy for
the
weaker members in our world (i.e. cats...) I think some of the purrings
should be directed towards the Burmese people, too...

If anyone was offended by me writing this... Shame on you!


Sorry folks, I am not going to apologize for my last posting. I meant every
word of it.

But, having said that, I want to say that I am _not_ judging Britta or her
husband. I am criticizing the Burmese regime and the companies that have
chosen to build up their business there.Britta's husband has a job there,
and I don't think he has much of a choice, but just has to go down there.

Anyway, this is an OT thread, and it should be possible to express one's
meanings without being "mugged" by politically blind people...

--
Best regards,
Hans
New year's coming up, only three hours and 20 minutes left... (Norway)

"badwilson" wrote
Well, I'm back from Burma, the most different place I've ever been.

Welcome home, Britta!

I still have 200 posts to catch up on but wanted to wish everyone a Happy
New Year! And purrs all around! Woo hoo!

Happy New Year to you, too!

--
Marina, Frank and Nikki
Email marina (dot) kurten (at) pp (dot) inet (dot) fi
Pics at http://uk.f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/frankiennikki

"Victor Martinez" wrote in message
news
Hans Schrøder wrote:
You said you didn't have much FUN in Myanmar... Gee, guess you would
have
had much more fun if you actually were a Burmese LIVING there. Dont'
you
think?

Due to a burp in my system, I lost my killfile. Too bad I had to read
the above. You Hans, are an asshole. Albeit a well-intentioned one.
Get off your f*cking high horse! Who the hell do you think you are to
judge Britta or her husband?

*plonk*

--
Victor Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he


Go Victor!!!

Grace