elevators aka lifts - scary stuff

my dad was a civil engineer and whenever i find myself navigating a poorly designed parking lot in the USA i find myself smiling at the memory of him in the same situation cursing the city engineer who would approve such a design.  god forbid it was planed incorrectly to drain after a rainstorm.

so i wish he was still around to explain what is going on with the elevators [lifts] in Asia - they are a nightmare for anyone with disabilities who is actually the group that most needs to use elevators.  for a reason unfathomable to me the elevator access is never on the ground level - it's always up a half flight of stairs.  then you get into the elevators which were clearly built for hobbits and travel at the speed of turtles.... okay...  i'll admit that i have mild claustrophobia but still .... i'm holding my breath every time i step into one of them.  karma must be on my side because i've yet to get stuck in one.  on the plus side there always seems to be an elevator attendant so maybe it's his job to pry open the doors if the elevators get stuck.

novatel opens a fancy hotel

i stopped in at a newly opened Novotel Hotel in Yangon.  it's walking distance with decent sidewalks from the apartment and they have good coffee.  the pool on the roof is amazing and for a short time was open to expat for free which was really nice as the weather was 100+/39+.  it was an effort to win over some expats as the initial opening had not gone well they were struggling a bit as early guests were arriving and the paint was still wet all the walls.  in particular the staff was criticized because they were so pretentious.  yeah, girls you get wear heels and short skirts at work but it's still a service job so adjust your attitude.

the big P

mostly i think to keep the tourists from noticing the mold and decay of the rest of the city, Yangon promotes the Shwedagon Pagoda as it's biggest attraction.  and it is impressive, with jewels and leaves of gold, built to stand out for miles in every direction.  it's a sacred place, so sacred that you can't wear footwear and you must be covered from elbows to knees.  unlike most sacred spaces, they provide companies the opportunity to advertise wireless internet access and charge a FEE if you are not a local.  you'll also run the gauntlet of vendors selling worthless trinkets lining the approach which is about half a kilometer.

take the time and go ride the circular train instead. 

at one time as an expat with properly stamped resident papers you could get in without a fee but now they just shake their heads and point at the fee board.  most people i know take their guest up to one of the bars/restaurants overlooking the pagoda towards evening as it is impressive to watch the sunset and moon rise and the lights come up at the pagoda.  unless you're a practicing Buddhist there's nothing to really see inside the perimeter [you can't go inside the actual stupa unlike a temple where the religious practice is inside] and it's voyeuristic to stand and watch those who are in the moment practicing.

Myanmar mulls left-hand drive car law

there's a lot of stuff that's different in Myanmar.  there is the fact that most cars [90%] have the steering wheel/driver on the right side of the car we call that right hand drive or RHD.  what makes it different from other countries with this car orientation is they also drive on the right hand side of the road.  again, superstition ... one of the generals switched the driving from left to right on the advice of a wizard.

well, now there gonna change that..... can't wait to see when that law hits.


http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Myanmar-mulls-left-hand-drive-car-law-30269172.html

Myanmar mulls left-hand drive car law

YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar plans to make left-hand drive cars compulsory, state media reported Sunday, causing concern in a country where the vast majority of vehicles remain right-hand drive despite cars driving on the right.

The law is an attempt to correct one of the more unusual legacies of decades of junta rule.

More than four decades ago Myanmar’s paranoid and notoriously superstitious dictator Ne Win ordered all citizens to drive on the right.

The reasons were never stated, but many said the change was either made following advice from an astrologer or was a rebuke to Myanmar’s former colonial master Britain, where vehicles are driven on the left.

After junta rule gave way to a quasi-civilian reformist government in 2011 and the lifting of most Western sanctions, the car market exploded.

But an estimated 90 percent of the vehicles remain right-hand drive -- primarily because most of the affordable cars available and brought in by importers are second-hand vehicles from Japan.

The strange quirk creates daily havoc on Myanmar’s increasingly congested roads, with drivers often having no clear line of sight before overtaking and buses regularly disgorging passengers into the middle of a road rather than onto a pavement.

The government now aims to correct that anomaly.

According to a report in the Global New Light of Myanmar a new law was given initial approval last week that will make left-hand drive vehicles compulsory.

The report made no mention of when the law would come into effect or whether citizens would receive any help from the government to initiate the change.

"The new law drawn by the Road Transport Administration Department pointed out that use of right-hand drive cars is incompatible with the existing drive-on-the-right traffic system from the standpoint of ensuring road safety in Myanmar," the report said, adding that drivers would have 90 days to make the change.

The same state media report voiced rare official criticism of the proposals, saying many were hoping the government would give drivers more time to make the switch.

"People will suffer losses if they are asked to abandon their right-hand drive cars during a short period of time," U Nyan Tun Oo, Yangon Region Minister for Electricity and Industry, was quoted as saying, adding that taxis and buses should be switched first.

The report added that over 50,000 right-hand drive vehicles are currently on showroom floors waiting to be sold, according to Dr Soe Tun, president of Myanmar Automobile Manufacturers and Dealers Association.

In recent years Myanmar’s roads -- particularly in cities like Yangon and Mandalay -- have become choked by the influx of cars that accompanied the country’s opening to the world after decades of military rule.

And the gridlock looks set to get worse.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is working with Myanmar on several nationwide transport projects, predicts the number of cars clogging Yangon’s pot-holed roads will quadruple to around one million.

just running errands around town

before i'm off for the trip to Bali i have a bunch of errands that have piled up and there is no putting them off.  i've mapped out the trip around town and leave early in the morning to get as much as possible done before it gets really, really hot.  

i haven't driven anything except the scooter i had in Chiang Mai since i left the US and it's such a luxury for me to be driven everywhere.  westerners think that Asians drive really badly because we are so used to different road rules.  of course when they are in a western country they need to adapt to our rules but i don't think there is a higher accident rate in Asia than in western countries.  

in most of the SE Asian countries where i've been walking across the road is a bit like that game frogger but walking in Yangon is a totally different scenario.  those 'buddhists' will run your ass over in a heartbeat.  about once a month i will be in a taxi that hits a pedestrian. it's horrific.  one time it was a child about 6 years old and he hit him hard.  after the brother/friend picked up the boy the driver just kept going until he got to a traffic jam and then he got out and checked for what?  a dent? blood? 

the roads are packed with taxis because it's just in the last few years that the government has allowed the masses to buy cars - leading to the obvious problems like parking and traffic jams.  it's just a few dollars for a taxi ride but it can take 30 minutes to go 2 miles in some parts of Yangon.  motorbikes are forbidden in the city and there are very few bicycles because there are incomprehensible rules around that as well.  on some streets you are forbidden to ride bicycles and the police will confiscate the bike.  the problem is there's no way to know which roads are forbidden.  there are cyclos [we call them pedicabs] but they mostly operate off the main roads and again the rules seem to be murky.

the staff arranges a car/driver when i have meetings during the day but evenings and weekends i am on my own.  that involves standing on the road, trying not to get hit and flagging down a car.  then you have to negotiate a fair price [westerners get charged more of course] and depending on how hot it is - if they will turn on the ac for you. sometimes it's better to not have ac.  closing the windows and turning on the ac flushes out the mosquitoes [never figured out how there can be so many mosquitoes living in a car] and being paranoid about dengue, well...  also, the cars have tiny engines so the ac only works if the car is actually moving. 80% of the taxis are grimy and disgustingly dirty so it's a good day when you find a clean one.

i remember one day, there was a student protest moving into the city so traffic was especially bad.  i was in a taxi, it was hot and traffic was at a standstill for over 10 minutes.  i had a sinus infection so i felt miserable and the gas fumes from a bus in the next lane were overwhelming.  i looked up in annoyance at the bus and realized, on my worst day, i still had it so much better than most of the people of Myanmar.  imagine whatever horrible bus you've ever been on or seen a picture of it - i promise you it's much worse.

few westerners ever ride the city buses.  i only met one westerner who had done it.  it's a bizarre system where the bus drivers lease the bus by the day.  they are paid based on the number of riders they have so they compete with other buses to get to the stops quickly.  it takes a team of three people to man a bus  - the driver; the fare collector and the door guy whose job is to push people on/off the bus and to shout out the bus route/next stop. it's really chaotic and sometimes i stand on the street watching a busy stop for a few minutes.

but on this day i seem to get all the good taxis with ac and reward myself at the end of the day with a stop at my favorite foot massage place on Nawaday Road.  60 minutes $6US.

there are a couple of things that are striking when you first arrive in Myanmar. 

the first is what the men wear.  about half of the men wear the traditional dress.  it's called the longi.  patterns and styling reflect different ethnic groups and are worn for both formal and casual occasions.  after a while it seems normal because you see this everyday. 

the second thing that pops out at you is the paste the women wear on their faces. thanaka is a yellowish white paste made from grinding the bark of a tree.  the women of Myanmar are as vain as the western women and value a clear complexion.  the thanaka is a natural sunscreen.  it's common to see the young girls wearing it as well as the older women.  i see it everywhere on the streets, markets and shops but not in the office or other professional settings.

the third thing is the betel chewing.  areca nuts are chewed inside a betel leaf and are a mild stimulant like drinking a cup of coffee.  like chewing tobacco the saliva is not ingested.  instead they spit out the red juice from the nuts and the streets are covered with disgusting patches of red spit.

  

besides being carciongenic the effects on the teeth are also quite brutal.   a lot of places post notices prohibitting it.

i'm back

i have taken a contract in Myanmar which has kept me busy for the last month.  now that i have settled into my apartment and the position i'm ready to share what's it is like to live in Myanmar as an expat.  i am living in the Yangon - it was the capital for many years but the ruling military regime moved the capital to Naw Pye Taw in 2005.

my first glimpse of myanmar

my arrival was easy enough, i breezed right through immigration and there's a taxi desk with fixed fees by the exit so that's nice but i had a pickup from my hotel so i'm off the plane and on the street in less than 30 minutes.  the hotel taxi is pretty stinky.  like the windows were left open when it rained and it hasn't properly dried.  my hotel, Hotel 63, is fine but far enough from the center of town that i move in a couple of days over to the Hotel K.  i arrived after dark and in the morning the view from my window is pretty depressing.

i met up with a contact at a coffee shop to get some perspective on Yangon.  the art scene is exploding here after decades of restriction on any type of expression and as i wander the streets i see galleries that have popped up everywhere.  

the traffic is just like everyone says - gridlock everywhere.  a 2 mile $2 taxi trip can take up to 30 minutes.  motorbikes aren't allowed in the city.  the country is like 98% Buddhist but apparently they forget that as soon as they get behind the wheel.  they will run your ass over in a heartbeat.  i saw two people get hit by cars in my first few days.  

the colonial buildings that still exist are in severe decay although there is a movement now to restore them which i hope they do because they really add to the character of the city.  there is talk of an opera house or museum but some of these buildings are already being scraped to fill the need for more hotel rooms.

walking around there are not a lot of westerners.  i see them in some of the western restaurants but rarely on the street.  the exception is when i join the free Yangon walk http://www.freeyangonwalks.com/ this guy is good... reciting the complete Kipling poem Mandalay and his passion for architecture makes him a good tour leader.  yes, it's free but everyone enjoys it enough to give him a few bucks.

and the food.  i'm adventurous and willing to try the street food.  i look for the native spots for a snack but i'm spoiled after Thailand and the food i find on the street is fried, swimming in oil, infested with flies and bland.  i try to fill up on breakfast at the hotel but even that is by any standard bad.  they sell msg by the pound here and i can tell by the swelling in my ankles it's going into everything.  unlike Thailand where i eat mainly from street vendors and the local cafes here i find myself looking for the western restaurants which will eat up your budget very quickly

there is a very special, extremely revered pagoda in Yangon.  it's listed as the top site to visit in Yangon.  i go early in the morning - about 7 am - to avoid the heat.  it is packed and for the hour i am there i do not see another westerner.  i'm guessing the tour buses show up later.  to me it's just another pagoda but i am respectful because it's clear there is a lot of worshiping going on. everywhere you go there are tourist fees and everyone gets tired of seeing the signs saying as a foreigner you must pay but the locals are free.  what if in the US they only made foreigners pay for access to our National Parks?  something to think about.  here's another thing to think about... at this site that is so revered and holy that you can't wear shoes or inappropriate clothing .... there are signs advertising free wireless access for the internet and vendors everywhere.  it's like putting a router into St. Peter's ... and charging noncatholics a fee to enter.

still there is an excitement around the city with all the restrictions that have been lifted in the last couple of years and the sense of optimism and hope is quite tangible. i'm off to Bagan to visit the temples that i have been wanting to see for years.