Prices

Hey hey, what do you know. Apparently there is limited and censored internet available in Yangon. Which is no longer even the capital city of Myanmar, since those guys got crafty and moved their capital to out in the weeds a few years back.

So this place completely does my head in. Who knew that a border could be so big. The differences between Thailand and Myanmar are dramatic.

Here's a little sampler for you of some prices, which I found quite illustrative.
exchange rate this afternoon: 100$ US = 130000 kyat
Noodles for two on the street: 800 kyat (pronounced "chat")
Tea for two with two baked banana thingys, two samosas, one full paratha, one little fried sweet ball thingy, and all the green tea you could drink: 1000 kyat
Hotel room in a decent place with aircon, minibar, hot+cold water, and no windows: 10$ US
1991 Toyota Corolla in acceptable condition(exactly what I've got back in the states): 30,000$ US
Cellphone with simcard that has it work on the myanmar network: 4000$ US
My camera package complete (Canon EOS 20D, pretty high end digital SLR with a couple lenses etc.): 30,000 $ US
Brand-new Toyota Land Cruiser: 400,000$ US (of which only about 40,000 is the car, the rest in getting it here)
new stainless-steel watchband, including adjustment and installation: 700 kyat
Passport and visa to go somewhere else: 10,000-12,000$ US
Brand-new Shan Star Jeep(the house brand, apparently an unmitigated piece of shit): 6,500 $
Gasoline: 3$ a gallon. Six months ago it was half that. Sound familiar? Thanks Dubya.

There are no new cars here. With a few exceptions, owned by those you would logically assume would. There are stacks of mid-eighties Toyotas, lovingly beaten back into shape again and again, made to work with some low-budget wizardry. It's astonishing how well my guide's Toyota worked, given what's working against it. Even all the electronics work, which is more than I can say for most beaters back in the states. Many of the city buses are 1940's model Chevrolets. I just can't figure out how they work. I don't think the cars here have the charm of the cars in Cuba, which I think are all old curvy 50's models. It's more like an 80's timewarp crossed with a stiff shot of squalor with no chaser. Its fairly grim here. The people are devout Buddhists, eschewing most of their material desires. They don't seem to have many other options.

So the pagodas are amazing, blowing most of the stuff in Thailand and Laos out of the water. Glittering gold-and-diamond spires rising off of great gold mounds surrounded by intricately carved teak pavilions and double-bodied Sphinxes, Nagas, and buddhas. By the thousand. One I saw today was unbelievably huge. I think the word is that it's a little over 180 feet (55 meters) long, and probably a quarter of that high. I think it's the biggest thing I've ever seen. Okay not, but the massive glittering glass eyes transfix you as you enter the pavilion.

Really almost nothing is new here, except for some low-end consumer stuff from China, like necessary plastic housewares. The lack of massive public advertising punches you in the face with its absence.

There is a romance to the imposing moss-covered ruins-in-training that the British left behind and have mostly been taken over as government buildings. Hundred-years old colonials abound, defined by swaying columns and algae-covered brick. The glories of the British Empire faded almost beyond recognition.

Talking to folks and looking around really makes me see what a major tragedy was the assassination in 1947 of the man who navigated this country to independence, the chap whose daughter has been in hot water with the fat cats for quite awhile now. It' been a world of hurt ever since. It's such a cliche to say, "and it's so terrible that it's happening to such nice kindhearted people!" Well, maybe there's some relationship between the national personality and the current situation.

So folks, I think I'll be able to log on again tomorrow, but after that maybe not for quite some time.