Through the looking glass

I am going to Yangon to take John Okell's Burmese language course. It is an intensive course that promises to have you reading and writing Burmese at the end of 10 days. We arrive in Yangon on Sunday, May 16, the 'we' being 5 women who work on the border and who want to learn Burmese. Our guesthouse, Motherland 2, has a cartoon school bus ready to take us from the airport to our new home. The young male staff practice their English and point out Shwedagon Paya, and Kandawggi Lake on the way in. It's breakfast time when we arrive so after getting our room keys we go to the dining room, which is long and narrow, like a railroad car, where we help ourselves to a Tang-like orange drink, coffee with powdered creamer, toast and sweet bread, bananas, and eggs anyway you like them. My 4 minute egg looks like it has just left the chicken; this will become and ongoing challenge during the coming days!

Love those 'princes' for laundry service!

Our guest house is not far from the river on Lower Panzandaung Road, in the eastern part of Yangon. There are lots of marine shops in the area, selling boat propellers, anchor chains, and mysterious oily engine parts. The wares are spread out on the sidewalk for all to see and step over/around. Work goes on here too: welding with only sunglasses for eye protection; washing bits of metal in something dark and murky, young women weaving nets at the speed of light while chatting away with their neighbors. Everything is labor intensive because there are lots of laborers available.

And then there is the 50th Street Bar & Restaurant, a short walk away but in another world. Wi-fi, brick walls, comfy booths, a large U-shaped bar, big plasma TV screens tuned to the latest football game, pool table, pizza, good bread, and real coffee. This is a hangout for ex-pats, a place to skype family and friends, check email, while sipping a cold Tiger beer or iced latte. Of course it comes at a price, but after the rigours of slow internet, spotty electricity, and monsoon rains, it is heaven!