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Our last day in Myanmar. Today we flew from Inle Lake to Yangon and are back to our grand old colonial hotel, the Yuzana, and have been upgraded to a huge suite! For dinner we went to a beautiful old colonial home which once held the office of Aung San, the father of Nobel Peace prize winner and beloved leader here, Aung San Suu Kyi.
So...our impression of Myanmar - an incredibly rich country that has everything - except good governance. It has every kind of terrain and lots of arable land to produce all the food it needs. It has oil and electricity that it exports to Thailand and many natural resources such as gold, numerous gems and teak wood. Everyone here should be living well. Instead, there are a few very rich people while the rest of the population ekes out a living. Opposition is not tolerated and censorship is rampant. In many ways it is like going back in time 100 years here, where ox carts and horse carts are a common way of transport along with ancient motored vehicles, road work is done by women carrying baskets of gravel on their heads, and people carry enormous loads on their backs. Yet, if you weren't aware of the political system and the gross inequities, as a tourist it is a wonderful country to travel in with interesting sites and lovely, friendly people. However, when we were alone with individuals they opened up and expressed their frustration with this terribly unfair system that does not allow them to get ahead no matter how hard they work. There do seem to be some small signs that things may be improving somewhat. We will keep our fingers crossed as these people deserve better.
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Bev The old Colonial Hotels are so wonderful to stay in and I imagine dinner at the colonial home would be fantastic. Your minds must be overflowing with information.