Reclama Kandia:

Mandalay - Beautiful:

I have got so so much to tell you all about this closed-off, military state. I spend only a short time in Rangoon because I basically couldn't stand the place so made my way promptly up here to Mandalay on the overnight bus and I've been here ever since.

Throughout the night the surprising clean bus to Mandalay stopped at a host of Nazi-like checkpoints where soliders come aboard all throughout the night to check ID cards, and in my case, my passport. I was the only white person on the bus, and at the moment I'm one of the only white people in the whole country. I would estimate there can't be much more than one hundred non-Chinese foreigners in the whole country right now.

Mandalay has been extremely rewarding. I will tell you more about my activities here when I leave the country, which hopefully will be this weekend. I am hoping to take an overland route back but my passage through to Thailand is less than certain, so I might end up having to to go back via Rangoon and Bangkok.

We'll see. This is where Odysseus Jono needs to rely on every ounce of his resourcefulness.

I can also say that the Burmese people and a very friendly and interesting mob. Many of the country's intellectuals, monkhood and student body crave information about what is happening outside their country (and unbiased information about what is happening inside their country). It is amazing how much you take access to information for granted when you have it. Burmese people are the ultimate information 'have-nots'!

Anyhow, more to come.

Burmese restaurant Mandalay has been at the top of my restaurant wishlist for a while now. It's always sounded intriguing to me. Not only are the owners Burmese-Norwegian, they also run a little hotel nearby. And I've never had Burmese food before. As Time Out included it in its Top 50 London Restaurants list earlier this year, I thought I'd go and investigate with a friend.

It's located on Edgware Road, and not more than a five minute walk from the tube station (Bakerloo line). I always thought it would be a nightmare to find, which is why it has languished on my wishlist until now. Although we had reservations for 6pm, which was the official opening time, we had to wait outside the metal shuttered door for about ten minutes before the owners came down the road to open up. Luckily we didn't have to resort to Plan B, because there wasn't one.

Inside, Mandalay really is no more than a simply decorated café with 28 covers jam-packed next to each other. Most of the tables were reserved and by 7pm, only one table was free. Service was quirky, but in a charming way. But everyone was friendly, and each course arrived relatively quickly.

According to its website, Burmese cuisine is a fusion of Chinese and Indian with a slight Thai influence. The menu was quite extensive and we wanted to choose the 'right' dishes. Unfortunately there were too many things that we wanted to sample, so we had to forego (on this occasion!) the samosas and fritters, although practically every other diner had these, and the fritters really looked spectacular.

What we ordered:

In the end, we chose the papaya and cucumber salad (£3.90), chicken with lemongrass (£5.90) and lamb with potatoes (£6.90), with plain rice. The salad, with fish sauce and fresh coriander, was delicious and perfect for a summer evening. I loved the lamb, which was meaty, tender and slightly spicier than I thought it would be. The chicken itself was lovely, but the juices were quite watery in comparison to the rich sauce in which the lamb was cooked. The portions aren't huge, but this also means you can have starters, order an extra dish or two and enjoy more variety. From what we had to eat, I could definitely see the Indian and Thai influences. The Chinese part was harder to spot (although my mother does make a mean chicken and potato stew...)

Of course, dessert had to be tapioca cooked in coconut milk and served with jaggery (date palm sugar). It was served hot. In the summer, I prefer it chilled, but it was still delicious. I've found that as with Marmite, people either love or hate tapioca. How can anyone hate it?!

The verdict?

Mandalay is down-to-earth and totally unpretentious. And even though it's small, there is no pressure to leave, so you can enjoy a leisurely dinner, which is increasingly rare in London. Dinner with tip came to £15 per person, which is pretty reasonable for a London meal. For vegetarians, there is plenty to choose from, and my husband would have been delighted with the selection. I'm definitely returning to try some of the other dishes.

We could very well have been sitting in a small eaterie in Burma or 'somewhere' in Asia, if it had just been the two of us. But squashed next to a gigantic guide dog and its elderly owners, it was hard to imagine being anywhere but in England. Still, as I'm unlikely to fly to Burma in the near future, I won't have far to travel when I crave a Burmese curry.

10 - Perfection, 9.5 - Sensational, 9 - Outstanding, 8.5 - Superb,
8 - Excellent, 7.5 - Very Good, 7 - Good, 6.5 - Above Average, 6 - Average

Contact details:
Mandalay
444 Edgware Road
London W2 1EG
www.mandalayway.com
Tel: 020 7258 3696
Lunch - 12:00 noon to 2:30 pm
Dinner - 6:00 pm to 10:30 pm (evening reservations recommended)

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

Outros, por exemplo, preferem seguir caminhos totalmente distintos. Veja os integrantes do Cardigans: Magnus criou o Righteous Boy, Peter criou o Paus e Nina criou o A Camp. Esse último foi o que mais impressionou, pois percebi um processo inverso: o projeto solo de Persson influenciou a banda inteira (ouça os dois últimos álbums deles e você vai perceber a diferença). Por falar na sueca loirinha-morena, ela está fazendo um suspense desnecessário e insuportável para seus fãs. Reza a lenda que o segundo álbum solo vai sair esse ano - quem quiser saber o que ela andou aprontando ao vivo, vai no YouTube (estou no escritório, não tenho como acessar os vídeos).

Quem também está prestes a lançar um trabalho solo é a minha diva ruiva e escocesa Shirley Manson. Pelo que eu soube, ela teve alguns probleminhas para se acertar com alguma gravadora que aceitasse o lançamento de seu primeiro disco. Se ela conseguiu entrar em um acordo, não sei. Se alguém souber de alguma novidade, por favor volte e aqui e deixe um comentário - vou agradecer imensamente.

Para finalizar, aqui ficam registradas outras meninas que seguiram seu caminho sozinhas e deram certo, apesar de terem deixado um trabalho muito bom para trás - e que a maioria não têm mais retorno, por mais que tenhamos um fio de cabelo de esperança: Lou Rhodes (ex-Lamb), Maria Taylor (ex-Azure Ray), Nicola Hitchcock (ex-Mandalay), Hope Sandoval (ex-Mazzy Star), Roisin Murphy (ex-Moloko), Skye (ex-Morcheeba) e... Tracey Thorn (será que o Everything But The Girl acabou mesmo?).

Shan Gyi means tall man from Shan state.  Wearing traditional longyi and carrying a Shan woven bag, Shan Gyi finds us in front of the Sedona Hotel.  A deeply devout student of Buddhism, Shan Gyi becomes our driver, guide and closest friend in Burma.

Buddhism in Burma comes with a heavy dose of ‘bmahsan chinn’ or Burmeseness - a Buddhism influenced complex word describing the gentle personality of many, which includes undying respect for elders, modesty in dress, and a preference for subtlety rather than loudness.

Shan Gyi has bmahsan chinn.

For a slide show of our travels in this fascinating country, check out my slideshow at:

http://terrispath.com/Burma/

ေစ်းခ်ဳိ အိုင္တီဇုန္ အျဖစ္

ေစ်းခ်ဳိမွာ တည္ေထာင္ၿပီး

ဖြင့္ပြဲ အခမ္းအနားအျဖစ္ ျပပြဲကိုပါ က်င္းပမယ္လို႕ သိရပါတယ္။

ၾသဂုတ္ ၁ရက္၊ ၂ရက္မ်ားမွာ ေစ်းခ်ဳိေတာ္ၾကီးအနီးက အိုင္တီဇုန္ မွာ က်င္းပ သြားမွာျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

ျပခန္း ၄၀ ျပသမယ္လို႕ သိရပါတယ္။

Animar a los que no se atreven a viajar con niños. Nos presentamos: Alex,  Montse, Xavi y la pequeña Camila, de 4 años. Después de aterrizar en Yango y pasar allí un par de días tomamos un autobús nocturno a Mandalay. Sale puntual, a las 17,30 h. Y una hora más tarde ya se detiene para cenar. Va lleno. Hay botellas de agua en cada asiento y amenizan el

trayecto con un par de películas americanas con muchos tiros. Los asientos son bastante cómodos ( pedimos los cuatro de delante) y dormimos algunas horas.

Llegamos a Mandalay antes de lo que suponíamos, a las 7,30 h. La estación de autobuses está algo alejada del centro, a unos 20m m. de taxi. Nos alojamos en el hotel Royal. En el

mismo hotel reservamos los billetes del barco a Bagan y nos proponen un taxi para recorrer los alrededores. Aceptamos. El conductor se llama Ten Ten y pasa a recogernos a las 10

h. Para entonces ya estamos duchados, desayunados y despejados. Camila se entusiasma saludando desde el taxi a todo el tráfico rodante de la ciudad. En Sagaing subimos a

la pagoda Soon U Ponya. Está nublado pero el bochorno es tremendo. Contemplamos, sudorosos, un tapiz verde, salpicado de stupas, el río y las tierras inundadas por el monzón. Muchas casas han quedado inundadas y la gente ha trasladado sus pocas pertenencias a los arcenes de la carretera, incluidas las vacas.

Tras la comida Ten Ten nos deja en un embarcadero para acceder a Ava. Al bajar del barco ya nos esperan los coches de caballos para recorrer el lugar, dando tumbos por un camino trufado de baches. Parecemos los pioneros de la conquista del Oeste. En uno de los templos Camila y yo nos remojamos los pies en el lago observando los juegos de los monjes más jóvenes que chapotean a placer. Al día siguiente tomamos un barco a Mingún. El muelle es un hervidero de gente y animales. De un barco desembarcan unas 30 cabras a lo bestia: tirándolas al agua sin miramiento alguno. Intentaban escapar pero las agarraban por el rabo y

las orejas y ...al agua. En el barco somos 7, todos extranjeros. Las vigas del techo son peligrosas. Tres de los pasajeros se machacaron la cabeza al entrar (entre ellos Alex, como no). En una hora llegamos. La famosa pagoda es una gran estructura en ruinas. Solo queda la base, de 50 m. de altura. Hay que subir descalzo. Las escaleras arden a juzgar por los saltitos que da el personal. Alex es el más valiente de los cuatro. Nos cuenta que en la cima hay niños que ofrecen ramitas para posar los abrasados pies. Los demás nos quedamos bajo la espléndida sombra de un árbol, amorrados a una botella de agua fría.

En otra pagoda una monja vestida con una túnica rosa, la cabeza rapada y una ancha sonrisa nos muestra la huella de Buda. Se trata de un bajorrelieve dorado con dibujos de animales. Camila le hace cosquillas a los dedos, que son como caracolas. Encendemos una varita de incienso y pedimos un deseo: tener un buen viaje. Buda fue clemente y nos lo concedió. Algunos datos prácticos: 1€ nos salía a 100 kiats. Luego estaban los fecs, la moneda esa que te hacen cambiar en el aeropuerto y con el que puedes pagar los hoteles y las

entradas.

El billete de autobús Yangon Mandalay : 4.600 k.

Hotel Royal: Habitación triple 15 fecs,con desayuno incluido, aire acondicionado y cuarto de baño. A la hora de pagar tuvimos problemas pues no querían fecs sino k. Pero

no bajamos del burro.

Barco a Bagan: 18 fecs el billete más 300 k de comisión.

Taxi para visitar los alrededores de Mandalay , de diez de

la mañana a seis de la tarde: 8.000 k.

Entrada a Sagaing y Mingún 3 fecs. Entrada a Ava 10 fecs

pero sin tiquet te lo dejan por 3 fecs.

Coche de caballos para recorrer Ava : 2.500 k.

Camila no paga en ningún sitio, sólo el asiento del bus nocturno.

Para cenar en Mandalay está bien el restaurante Lashio, muy concurrido y con los platos a la vista. Eliges los que  quieres y te añaden un plato de arroz blanco para mezclar.

Comemos todos por 3.700 k. La bebida es lo más caro pues una coca-cola sale por 500 k. Y una cerveza de litro por 800 k.

Por la noche los cortes de luz son generales. Los hoteles y restaurantes tienen generadores propios. Meten un ruido ensordecedor.

Bueno, la próxima entrega, un día de estos. Saludos.

The sunrise display caused me, as always, to wonder how Homer got it so wrong. Granted, he was blind, but couldn't someone have told him the clouds at dawn look more like ribs than fingers? If Dawn is said to look like rosy fingers, doesn't that evoke a picture of clouds radiating from from a central palm? (See figure 1.)

Figure 1

That seems all wrong. Homer nods indeed. If one fine morning we saw a giant pink hand looming over the horizon, we'd be sure the end of the world had come.

No, not fingers. I think Homer would have done far better to call her "Pink-pancake Dawn." (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2

There. Now that's more like it. Pink-pancake Dawn: a better metaphor visually, and as a bonus it carries a suggestion of a delicious breakfast treat.

While we 're on the subject: Don't you think Rudyard Kipling is way off base when he says, "An' the dawn come up like thunder?" Well, I do. Maybe the dawn thunders "outer china 'crost the Bay on the Road to Mandalay" but it barely squeaks around here. Oh, man. I'm going back to bed.

Zaw Thet Htwe formerly worked as editor in chief of a popular sports newspaper, First Eleven Journal. He was previously detained in 2003 on charges of subversion, for which he was convicted with eight other people on Nov. 28, 2003, by a special tribunal inside the notorious In Sein Prison. But on May 12, 2004, the Supreme Court of Burma reduced the sentences of all nine defendants, and Zaw Thet Htwe was freed in 2005.

The May 2-3 cyclone killed at least 78,000 people while another 56,000 are listed as missing. The junta, which goes by the Orwellian name of State Peace and Development Council, has drawn sharp international criticism for moving too slowly and doing too little to aid victims of the storm.

In a statement, Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association on Monday condemned the arrest "for assisting in the distribution of food and clothes in areas hit by Cyclone Nargis. While editor of the sports magazine First Eleven Journal in 2003, he was arrested, tortured and sentenced to death, and then pardoned by the supreme court. "

"Zaw Thet Htwe is a respected journalist who was moved by the woes of his compatriots after the cyclone," the two organizations said. "Banned by the military government's censorship from writing openly about the tragedy in his magazine, he decided to act. We urge U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to intercede with the Burmese authorities so that civilians distributing aid should no longer be treated as criminals, and so that the Burmese and international media should be allowed to operate freely in the cyclone-hit areas."

You can depend
On certainty
Count it out and weigh it up again
You can be sure
You’ve reached the end
And still you don’t feel

Do you know you’re beautiful
Do you know you’re beautiful
Do you know you’re beautiful

You can ignore
What you’ve become
Take it out and see it die again
You can be here
For who’s a friend
And still you don’t feel

Do you know you’re beautiful
Do you know you’re beautiful
Do you know you’re beautiful
You are, yes you are

Innermost thoughts
Will be understood and
You can have all you need

Do you know
You know about anything
Do you know
You know about anyone

Do you know you’re beautiful
Do you know you’re beautiful
Do you know you’re beautiful
You are, yes you are

Mandalay - beautiful.

pe curand.

We spent 3 days in Nyaungshwe, mostly resting and recovering from the trek. We did hire a longboat for one day, to tour the villages and handicraft shops scattered around Lake Inle. In town we met a local man who worked at one of the monasteries. He invited us for tea at his house, where we also met his wife, children and a few of his sisters-in-law. His wife insisted that we come back for dinner the next day. "No pay! Real Myanmar food!" We accepted. We feared that they'd want something - to hire the man for a tour, to buy some nice local stuff, etc - but instead we had a nice chat in broken English, with their two-year-old jumping around and being very cute. After dinner the eldest sister-in-law came over with a huge bag of clothes and cloth bags. She promptly dumped everything on the floor next to me and started sorting through it, saying she was going to a market to sell them tomorrow. "See this bag? Very nice! I sell one today nice woman just 2000 kyat!" Etc. It was clear who the entrepreneur in the family was. 

Overall, our time at Inle was a nice. We were relaxing while you guys were frantically calling the US embassy, etc. Oops!

On the 7th we took the bus to Mandalay. And from then on, I can honestly say that the aftermath of the typhoon kinda took over our trip - not because of infrastructure, etc., but because a good portion of our attention ws diverted to the question of staying or going, and making alternative plans, etc. We did manage to tour a few pagodas and see the Moustache Brothers show. We also took a day trip to see the nearby ancient cities of Sagaing, Innwa and Amarapura including U Bein's Bridge, at 1.2 km the longest teak bridge in the world.

On the 11th we got up at 4:30 am to take the 15-hour slow boat down the Ayerwaddy River to Bagan.

Ahh, Bagan. After days upon days of pagoda-hopping in Thailand and Myanmar, I was secretly dreading this vast area of ancient temples. But boy, was that stupid. Whereas most temples I had seen had been "renovated" within an inch of their lives with whitewash and ugly gold leaf, Bagan was different. First, the temples weren't these dinky, tacky things. Many were the size of cathdrals and featured thousand-year-old murals. Some were crowded with children trying to sell us postcards, laquerware, sand paintings and various trinkets, but most were empty except for the odd keymaster/guide. In some temples you could climb up to higher platforms, where we were treated to lovely views of the stupa-studded plains and the river in the distance. The Lonely Planet says to picture Bagan like this: Take all the churches in Europe and place them on the island of Manhattan. And it's not too far from the truth!

Unfortunately, we were treated to more unseasonably rainy weather in Bagan, so only 1-1/2 of our 3 days there were good for sightseeing. And as there was no internet...I read all of George Orwell's Burmese Days, whose descriptions of Burma (and government corruption) are still remarkably accurate.

Finally, we took the overnight bus back down to Yangon, and then flew out the next day.

There's more, of course - plenty of odd and/or annoying characters and situtions, but there are just too many. For instance: Myanmar-language covers of western pop songs; the tag line for the thuggish and corrupt Myanmar police force is "How may I help you?"; some vehicles have the steering wheel on the left, and others on the right, but at least everyone drives on the same side of the road; being charged 700 kyat (about $0.70) for "air conditioning" at a local restaurant....

As the CE courses ended for the day, DPRWorld08 attendees gathered in the Dental Plaza for some relaxation, conversation and, of course, some lunch.

The afternoon’s activities kicked off with the Taste of Mandalay Bay, where attendees had the chance to sample a variety of foods, from crab cakes to spring rolls to prime rib. Complimentary bar drinks helped create a festive atmosphere before attendees headed off to the innovation centers and the show floor.

“It’s perfect,” Amy J. Arbogast, DDS, said as she enjoyed some down time. “You can walk around and eat and the drinks are nice. I like it.”

Food stations, comfy couches and tables were set up throughout the Dental Plaza, where dentists spent some time chatting and reflecting on the morning’s CE. Richard Ramos, DDS, and his wife Gayle said they enjoyed the morning panels and keynotes and were looking forward to the second half of the day.

“We haven’t hit the exhibit floor yet,” Ramos said. “That’s next.”

They're faking it everywhere. They fake it by video taping, and then leaving that area. They're just looking for an opportunity to video tape when authorities come. People are suffering from the storm. They are building elaborate stages, with velvet backdrops, and writing things like who is donating what for the storm victims. They want to make it elaborate. They don't actually look after the people who are suffering. The generals are on these stages, looking grand, with guns around their waists. -- Resident of Pyapon, Irrawaddy delta

From a recent interview by RFA's Burmese service:

Interviewee: Pyapon hasn't got any aid yet. Social organizations, such as Rice Merchants Association, keep going from Rangoon, taking aid materials and food for their regions. Today, 20 vehicles came from Kyaukbadaung with onions and potatoes. They came to donate them. Small groups from the Rice Merchants Association bought things for the areas they've been assigned, like Pyapon. With the money they collected, they bought noodles at Nyaung-bin-lay Market. They bought food and drinks to take there. They divided the onions and potatoes for different areas. The cars will take these things up to Ma-u-bin...The onions and potatoes that we got from Kyaukbadaung will be divided in Ma-u-bin, and we'll take them there. We've gone there and donated before.

Interviewer: Have you heard anything about foreign aid materials?

Interviewee: In rural areas, we haven't seen any foreign aid materials. People over there can't eat them, can't expect them, and haven't seen them.

Interviewer: The military is saying, and also showing on TV, that they would help, they would do these things. I even saw the prime minister carrying dried noodles. Do they ever come and donate and help?

Interviewee: No, Sir. The dried noodles that they said was unloaded from the helicopters turned out to be dried noodles from Win Thuzar store, the kind that's worth 50 a packet. We've only seen that kind. General Maung Maung Aye's brother, Ko Soe, died in the storm. The aid goes to them. Their relatives get rice bags. That's all they do. They don't do anything for the general public.

Interviewer: Are they giving these things free or selling them?

Interviewee: They're still unloading from the helicopters. There's no plan to distribute them to the people. We've only seen them helping the military families, like the relatives and siblings of 55th and 66th division commanders.

Interviewer: So what's the situation with the victims?

Interviewee: The victims are just waiting for groups that would like to donate. The USDA is not doing anything. There are no groups from the State.

Interviewer: Is there anything unusual? Can you tell us a bit about it?

Interviewee: We've been hearing that the rice that's been distributed is of poor quality. But from the rice depot from Rangoon - Aung Than Oo, chairman of the Myanmar Rice Merchants - in storage F in Lanmadaw, Pongyi Road, and also in storage number 100 - there is rice in those places. Also, opposite from that area, in storages with a dome roof, there are rice bags. In this area, there are about 100,000 rice bags - in those storages in Lanmadaw, Pongyi Road. Also, in Hlaing Thaya, what we call the industrial zone, in those areas and in Shwe Pyitha industrial zones, there is a huge storage on 3 acre land. There are over 100,000 bags of rice.

Interviewer: Yes, brother. What are they going to do with those 100,000 bags?

Interviewee: That's for export. The company owned by Aung Thet Mann, son of Thura Shwe Mann, is doing that. It's not for distribution to people.

Interviewer: So now the international community is saying they are going to help. People inside the country must hear it, right? Do you hear anything people are saying about this?

Interviewee: People are really unhappy about this. It's only because we can't do anything in return, but we feel very hurt. Everyone who hears this news is irritated. People who are supposed to enjoy these things are instead having to be satisfied with things from Win Thuzar store. They only get a few cans of rice for show. They're faking it everywhere. They fake it by video taping, and then leaving that area. They're just looking for an opportunity to video tape when authorities come. People are suffering from the storm. They are building elaborate stages, with velvet backdrops, and writing things like who is donating what for the storm victims. They want to make it elaborate. They don't actually look after the people who are suffering. The generals are on these stages, looking grand, with guns around their waists. They've been helping people, they've been feeding people. It looks like they're actually going to act only when it's too late.

(Latest roundup of some news on Cyclone Nargis in Burmese language media)

There have been a few reports about corpses of cyclone victims found with ears and fingers cut off, apparently to take the jewelry. Now the Yoma 3 News Service has alleged that soldiers of Infantry Division 66 are among those responsible. According to an eyewitness from Bogalay who spoke by phone,

“Division 66 officers and soldiers are removing everything from the bodies of the dead. If wearing bracelets, they’re cutting off the hands.”

The witness also accused the troops of refusing to allow relatives of victims from Kyachaung, Satkyun, Ayardan and Padekaw villages from meeting with their loved ones, and said that as they had sold drinking water that was sent for the survivors in those places from a betel nut shop at the Irrawaddy Pier for 500 Kyat (about 45 US cents) per bottle, so the survivors have been drinking any water that they could find.

Meanwhile, the efforts of private citizens have continued to keep people alive where officialdom has been busy apparently trying to do the opposite. According to a doctor who visited Twente who also spoke to Yoma 3,

“The villages that we reached don’t even have food. They’ve made huts to stay in out of old thatch. It’s an unhappy scene. Even in the places so near to Rangoon sufficient aid has still not arrived. They’re all expecting it. Nobody had come. As there’s water in the hand pump wells that’s not such a worry but there’s quite a rice problem.”

In Twente section 8 bore the brunt of the storm and was destroyed, while about 90 per of the buildings in the township suffered damage. At present there are five temporary sites set up to house people at monasteries and schools. Zinc roofing is being sold for 4900 Kyat (about US$4) per sheet, not given out.

Around Twente town there are 95 village tracts all of which have suffered damage and are in need of help, the doctor said. At Panhlaing the sluice gates are shut and there is an outbreak of disease. In some villages monasteries are housing and feeding people but have enough food supplies for only three or four days.

Similar conditions are reported in Htanmanaing, of Kawhmu Township, Rangoon, which was hit hard by the storm too. Of the 540 houses there before, only ten are still intact. However, as the water supply there also was destroyed, children are drinking from dirty water sources and getting stomach ailments. There are no medicines for them when they become sick, a resident said to Yoma 3. As the people there too had received no help so far, a villager had husked the remainder of his paddy stock (being kept for planting next season) and distributed it to the hungry.

In other news, four senior monks from the Mandalay Mahagandharayone Monastery have arrived in Rangoon to bring relief supplies that they have collected there. Monks are also coming with emergency aid from Pegu and Magwe. They are distributing the food and other items in Rangoon and the delta (Source: DVB, May 14). (Full report is now in English).

Authorities are continuing to drive people out of temporary shelters, and are not even sparing injured persons, let alone giving them any help, say victims in Laputta. Members of the government mass organisation the Union Solidarity and Development Association are telling people that if they want help then they have to go back to their own homes. An elderly woman told DVB that

“They say go back home. I don’t have a home so where will I go back to? They also don’t have any plan to give aid, just get us out. Back to where?”

A man angrily condemned the local officials:

“The chairman hasn’t come, the ten-household head also hasn’t come, the hundred-household head also hasn’t come; nobody’s come. They’ve got the (relief) supplies alright, and they’ve kept them all.”

(Listen to audio of these comments)

There are many similar reports on DVB and other radio stations attesting to the same problems and growing anger among people across all of the affected areas (see in English on Bogalay, here and here, Dawpon, and Laputta, and in general, here), even as yet another cyclone is reportedly forming in the Bay of Bengal.

Announcer: The storm victims, who lost their houses, are now facing severe starvation, but they cannot enjoy the help from the international community right away. Instead the families of the military are getting the help first. A person close to the military families in the airforce in Mingaladon, Rangoon told RFA this. The anonymous woman told RFA as follows that some of the families from the Mingaladon airforce lost their roofs in the storm, and the engineering troops from GE unit put up new zinc sheets and made roofing and walls, as well as distributed food:

Interviewee: I saw them distributing food and all.

Interviewer: Yes.

Interviewee: A person close to the military families in the airforce in Mingaladon, Rangoon They were distributing potatoes and tomatoes. If there were houses that got destroyed, they didn't have to pay anything. Everything [was done for them/was taken care off? -- not clear] According to the soldiers, only if you [note: the civilians?] are in the household registration would they accept you [note: to apply for supplies?]. Even then they don't take care of every house that got destroyed. Only those houses that got damaged a lot got 10 sheets [note: of zinc roofing]. Those houses got damaged slightly, losing 4, or 5, or 10 sheets, got only about 2 sheets. Even then they had to pay. One sheet of zinc is 4,000.

Announcer: She continued to tell us that while the military families are getting all the help they need, for the civilians, only when people lose the entire roof of their houses, do they get to buy a sheet of zinc for 4,000, and houses that lost two or three zinc sheets cannot get those sheets for roofing. As for South Dagon and Hlaing Thaya, people there have not got the zinc sheets yet, so they can't repair their roofs yet. In Bogalay, which got the worst of the storm, however, don't talk about roofing, they can barely manage to get clean water and food, said a person who went to Bogalay recently to give donation to the victims there. An eyewitness told RFA that yesterday, Monday morning, a truck from Mingaladon Airport, carrying zinc sheets for roofing, sold many zinc sheets to a private businessman in front of the Fishery Department on Bayint Naung Road. An eyewitness has been in Rangoon, Thakayta, Kyauk-tan and Bogalay, while donating food to storm victims. According to that person, the storm victims staying in monasteries and schools were being chased out from these places, and the deadline was this coming Wednesday. Therefore, those who have not rebuilt their houses were crying.

Interviewee: In Thakayta and Kyauk-tan, there were [unclear]. People from the refugee camps told the [unclear], crying, that by the 14th the victims will have to leave from the monasteries and schools. That's for the entire country. That's for sure.

Interviewer: Approximately, how many people were there at the refugee camps?

Interviewee: As far as I know, in Thakayta Ward (3), there are three refugee camps and there are a total of 600 refugees there. And they said that in Bogalay township, there are a total of over 8,000 refugees. They are in monasteries. There are 54 monasteries in the town of Bogalay.

Announcer: According to that eyewitness, in the refugee camps, only the rice donated by private donors inside the country was seen, but they never got the food and clothing sent from abroad. She continued to tell us that the most important thing is to get clean water.

Interviewee: I only saw rice at the refugee camps. That was donated by private donors. What we urgently need now is medicine to purify water. We can't get that in Burma at all. So, if we go to Bogalay, we have to buy many water bottles. That's a problem for us. We need that medicine to purify water urgently. We can buy [unclear] but we can't buy water purifying medicine at all.

Announcer: That was by a person who got a chance to meet with the storm victims in Bogalay. Even though it's been about 10 days after the storm, the majority of the storm victims are emitting bad odors from their bodies due to lack of hygiene. Also, since they cannot clean the trash and dirt from their surrounding environment there are many mosquitos and flies. Since they are using smelly and muddy water, they can get infectious diseases any time. However, they have not been given vaccinations. An eyewitness who had a chance to meet with the storm victims told RFA these things.

The dried noodles that came from abroad, that we've never seen before, -- you can now buy them at City Mart. Also, in Nyaung-bin-lay Market, I've seen cans of condensed milk that we've never seen before. These are the things donated by foreign countries. You can buy those packets of dried noodles. It's 600 a packet. These dried-noodle packets were donated. I don't know what happened that they didn't get to the victims, but ended up in Nyaung-bin-lay Market and City Mart. -- U Thuya

From a recent interview with RFA's Burmese service:

Announcer: Please tell me the donation plan you, U Thuya, have for the storm victims for today, May 12.

U Thuya: We, the group led by Ko Waylu Kyaw, went to Myaung-mya to donate a total of 300 rice bags, 20,000 clothes, and uncountable number of dried-noodle packets. They went to donate these things. I am left behind in Rangoon. For Ko Kyawthu and I, the ones remained sitting here, we went to Kungyan-gone, Hlaing Thaya, and South Dagon. We were not able to donate uncooked rice there. The reason is [said with a chuckle] we were told not to distribute uncooked rice. We've been harrassed. [chuckles again] So we distributed cooked rice instead. Also we distributed rain coats. We donated warm clothes donated by Ko Lwin Moe. We donated pots of boiled rice. The most effective thing was donating medicine - various medicines donated by Htet Lin. We were able to give them those various medicines. Also, we gave them Ma-ma dried noodles. In 35th street, there are many supporting actors and actresses and technicians who are victims of the storm. We donated 30 bags of rice, 5 bags of beans, and 18 viss of dried fish. We're having trouble getting salt. We were able to get only a little bit of salt. So we gave salt and clothes and 3,000 kyats each today. Tomorrow, we are going to Hlaing Thaya.

Announcer: Have you encountered any difficulties when donating? If you have, what sort of difficulties are they?

UT: There were some problems at first. When Ko Kyaw Thu went, they said, "Don't donate." These organizations like USDA and all said to hand these over to them. We're supposed to hand them over these things, and they'd donate to people. So Ko Kyaw Thu said, "We can't do that." We had those problems. That took place on Wednesday - that problem. After Wednesday, on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we no longer had that problem. But in South Dagon and East Dagon, whenever we tried to donate uncooked rice, they started looting. So we could no longer donate uncooked rice. We now have to cook the rice and distribute it. If you take bags of rice, they'd loot from us. We don't know who these people are. They'd just loot from us.

Announcer: What's the current health condition of the storm victims and the situation of providing health care to them?

UT: What's for sure currently is that everyone is having stomach problems. Many people are having cholera. And some rashes, I don't know what they are, but they have tiny bumps that are itchy. That's on both adults and children. So we have started to donate medicine for those itchy bumps. Then I think the stomach problems are caused by the water. So we are donating water-purifying medicine... Tomorrow, a group of medical doctors will come to join us. They're like a mobile team. They'll go to houses in their cars and see patients and give treatment right away. They've joined us with their medicines. Only when they test the stool will they know what sort of stomach problems they have. They'll find out if it is cholera or just an ordinary stomach problem caused by the water. Tomorrow, they'll come along. We have 12 doctors who'll start tomorrow.

Announcer: What kind of arrangements can you make for those who want to donate through you?

UT: When people call us and say they'd like to donate, we'd accept it when they come to give us. We accept it in Ko Maung's Funeral Aid Association. If they tell us, "Come and get it at our house," we would. Yesterday, all around Rangoon, I had to climb to the 6th floor of about 14 or 15 buildings. Things from Mandalay have also arrived. Just now we went and got them -- chillis and beans and there was another package, I don't know what. I didn't check it. We accept all these packages through the Funeral Aid Association and donate to people.

Announcer: Another thing is that we heard the international community is sending aid by airplanes. Are the victims receiving these things?

UT: We saw in the newspaper that these things had arrived. The electricity is out, so sometimes on TV we see things arriving and things being accepted. But in the areas we have been to, we haven't seen rain proof tents and food. These things were not there yet when we were there. I don't know when these things will get there. But the dried noodles that came from abroad, that we've never seen before, -- you can now buy them at City Mart. Also, in Nyaung-bin-lay Market, I've seen cans of condensed milk that we've never seen before. These are the things donated by foreign countries. You can buy those packets of dried noodles. It's 600 a packet. These dried-noodle packets were donated. I don't know what happened that they didn't get to the victims, but ended up in Nyaung-bin-lay Market and City Mart.

Announcer: Yes, U Thuya, thank you very much for your interview.

(Latest roundup of some Burmese language reports following Cyclone Nargis

As the military regime in Burma continues to obstruct relief efforts from abroad, and especially hamper foreign staff of aid groups (see the latest news about this on The Irrawaddy) most of the news in Burmese language reports has been about the efforts of fellow citizens to help the victims of the disaster, the obstacles that government officials are also putting in their paths, and the lack of help getting through to some areas.

According to Yoma 3 News, monks in Mandalay who have been collecting items and money to donate to victims have been asked by the authorities there to donate through official channels, but have refused. A monk told Yoma 3 that

“We are collecting things at the Mandalay Maha Gandharyone Monastery. About four days back the divisional head came to the monastery and said to give them the things; that they would be delivered through them. The Gandharyone temple didn’t accept this.”

The items collected at the temple include clothes, clean water and rice. One lot of items had already been sent successfully and the temple is now preparing for a second round.

The efforts of Kyaw Thu’s social welfare group and comedian Zarganar together with some prominent actors and others have also been reported on.

However, there are still seriously affected areas where no aid has been received eleven days after the cyclone. According to the New Era Journal, in Kunchangone, which is only some 30 miles from Rangoon, virtually no help has arrived and there is now an outbreak of cholera.

An eyewitness from a group of private citizens who went to the riverside area about three miles from the town, including villages Kyunchaung, Kayan, Tawkyi, Tawkayan and Thonehkwa, told the journal that

“It’s totally demolished. Nothing can be done with the houses that are lying flattened on the ground. People are sitting around nearby looking. Nothing has arrived yet for rebuilding the rooves. No food or medicine has arrived yet. The corpses are just lined up along a steep hillside. Dead people, dead cows, dead buffaloes, none of the dead can be cleared away. There’s quite a stink. Up to yesterday there were clearly yet more washed up further along the riverbank.”

Theirs was the first group to get through to these villages with any type of help and there were cholera cases already in about seven households that they saw, including among children, but no medicines to be had. The seawater had flooded drinking water supplies and fields and around 4000 people there are homeless and some 300 have died so far.

On their way into the area they were stopped at a checkpoint and the vehicles they were travelling in checked for foreigners who would be prohibited entry, they were told.

The eyewitness added that wherever they went in the affected areas they met people shouting and crying for food and water. In some places where the government had made an official distribution, in the nine days since the cyclone there had only been two distributions of two condensed milk tins of rice for an entire family.

There is also a report on Kunchangone in English on DVB.

New Era reports too that people living in Hlaingthayar on the outskirts of Rangoon have not been able to rebuild their houses because they haven't yet been given any materials even though the rains have started again. A resident of section 18 in the township said that

"At night it rained here. People who haven't been able to rebuild their houses sleeping on embankments had to take shelter in vendors' stalls."

Sections 18, 19 and 20 were the worst affected parts of Hlaingthayar and Shwelinpan section had not long ago been hit by fire also. These sections house workers employed in the nearby industrial areas as well as other parts of the city. A worker staying in Ye-okkan section said that

"Work has been suspended. Food prices are rising. Without income we are hoping for handouts. If they cook rice soup, we go and drink it. If they serve rice then we go and eat it. That's how it is. There's been absolutely no foreign aid reach the people."

The section council has been accused of selling materials sent for use for cyclone victims, and also telling people who want sheets of zinc for roofing that they have to give 500 Kyat per sheet (around 40 US cents) just to apply, although no sheets have so far been distributed. A resident of section 8 said that after General Thein Sein, the prime minister, came and gave a few bags of rice and other provisions the Union Solidarity and Development Association and Swan-arshin gangs took everything away. The same thing happened when some actors and actresses also came to donate.

In Bogalay too officials have been selling sheets of zinc at 4000 Kyat per piece, VOA says, and foreign aid is not reaching the affected people but has been kept in warehouses and other buildings. (See also the report on officials skimming aid at The Irrawaddy an another on DVB about theft by officials in Rangoon which is backed by similar reports in Burmese such as this on VOA concerning the delivery of US aid.) For this reason the people in Irrawaddy Division and elsewhere are relying heavily on donors coming to their aid from other parts of the country, including private citizens and some companies that have brought supplies and distributed them from local buildings, one local resident said. When asked if the bodies shown on internet websites floating in the water had since been cleared by the authorities,

"They haven't collected any of the corpses. They are bobbing along with the tides. Even today they can still be seen near the Daw Tin Mya bridge, the monastery. The arms and so on of some are said to be decomposing. Boats are going around them. I asked some people coming from the countryside, they said that the villagers are burying the corpses left in the fields after the water's receded. They're digging pits and burying them."

I'm in the most relaxed mood in a while today, for a few reasons. First, after a lovely but way too long 15-hour slow boat ride from Mandalay to Bagan, I got a decent night's sleep last night. Second, I managed to change my flight so that I'm leaving this Saturday, on the 17th, on the same flight as Marjan. Third, Bagan is the most relaxed place I've been in Myanmar...and we just had the first decent meal in like 2 weeks (believe it or not, fresh pasta with fresh tomato sauce). But most of all, this morning I got a reassuring phone call from the US consulate in Yangon.

It seems that one Andrea DiCastro McGough had been inquiring with her about my possible whereabouts, and she's been calling around to look for me ever since. She finally tracked me down at the New Park Hotel here in Bagan, where she left me a message to call back. Of course, my first thought (while the woman in the hotel was trying to get through on the phone) was that something terrible had happened to one of YOU. Hehe.

When I finally got through, she was great. "I figured you were somewhere upcountry trekking and having a wonderful time," she said. And she was right! She told me that things are pretty much back to normal in Yangon. The guest houses and most of the rest of the city have electricity back. There's no food or water shortage in the city. It's most expensive, but that's pretty much it. I told her my travel plan and she said I'd be safe. So I feel better, and I hope you all feel better as well!

So, my final Myanmar plan:

Now-Thurs: Bagan

Thurs afternoon: bus from Bagan to Yangon with Marjan (arrive Fri am)

Friday - arrive Yangon; hang out in Yangon for the day

Saturday 8:30 am - flight to Bangkok, arrives around 11 am Bangkok time (12 hours ahead of NYC, so around 11 pm Friday night NY time)

I'll send a text message to Zoe and Drea when I land in Bangkok.

OK. Enough about that. Let me say *something* about this country! It's wonderful and strange and difficult to communicate and dirty and hot and the food sucks and the people are ridiculously, over-the-top, knock-you-out friendly and helpful and incredibly cheerful. In its "Dangers and Annoyances" section, The Lonely Planet travel guide says: "Most travellers' memories of locals grabbing your money are of someone chasing you down because you dropped a K500 note (about $0.50) in the street ('you dropped this sister')." That's no exaggeration. Everywhere we go, people say hello and "Where you come from? America?!? That's a very good country. And you very beautiful." They sometimes follow up with "You need something? Trishaw? Taxi? Some guest house? Buy some postcard?" - but not that often. (A trishaw is a bike with a two-seated side saddle. The "driver" pedals and you sit in the tiny seats. It's a popular form of transport for short distances.)

In Mandalay, we befriended a trishaw driver called Tin Nyit who took us around for cheap ("I need business, so I take you for K2000," he replied, when we told him we were going to Mandalay Hill, 4 km away, on a hot day.) And then we were stuck with him. He appeared early every day out in front of our guest house and stayed there until late at night, in case we needed a ride somewhere. We need a taxi to take us to a few ancient cities outside of Mandalay? He had a younger brother with a taxi. We wanted to go to the famous Moustache Brothers show? He could take us, and knew a great place nearby to eat dinner. Sure, it got annoying after a while. And sure, between what we paid him and the commission we're sure he got from the places he took us, we gave him some good business. But we would have paid other trishaw and taxi drivers for the same services, and Tin took care of us. We needed a travel agent to see about flights, and he know a great one near our guest house. We had a question about anything, and he would answer or find the answer.

Anyway, he's just one example of how people in the tourist industry here go above and beyond to make sure you have everything you need, and they're extremely rarely sleazy about it - trying to trick you into taking an expensive trip somewhere, etc. Other people are simply curious. They want to interact with us, but don't seem sure what to ask...thus the endless shouts of "Hello!" and delighted giggles when we answer back.

There's so much more. Where do I start? Men in skirts (or rather, longyis), and shoulder bags. No Coke or Pepsi signs! (Though yuo can buy Coke that's been imported from Thailand.) Cities reek of diesel. Ancient Mazdas and other cars held together with duct tape and wire. Horribly broken, pot-holed roads (even pre-typhoon). New computers stacked as cargo in the last few rows of the passenger bus from Yangon to Kalaw. Burmese "pop" music with accompanying karaoke videos played at top volume for most of the 12-hour bus journeys. "The government owns the land, the sea and the air," said Robin, our guide for our trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake. "The people just lease it for 99 years. And if the government wants to take the land, they can do it at any time."

-------

Honestly, I'm not sure what to do. I know many of you are extremely concerned, especially after seeing the Katrina-like conditions in the delta region that was hardest hit. But up north here there seems to have been *no* effect whatsoever, other than taxi drivers blaming the higher cost of petrol and food on their inability to give us a lower price. People are rather blithely going about their daily lives as if tens of thousands of their countrymen hadn't died, and as if tens of thousands more weren't in danger of dying of disease and starvation. To compare (roughly) with Katrina: Fearing for our safety up north here is like a New Yorker fearing Katrina looters.

On the other hand, 99% of the exits from the country require that we go via Yangon, where there *are* food and water shortages. The only other two ways to get out of the country are to either fly from Mandalay to Chiang Mai, Thailand, or to fly to a border town and cross by land to Mai Sai, Thailand. Neither are appealing options, and both are rather complicated to arrange. Right now, Marjan has a ticket from Yangon to Bangkok on Air Asia the morning of the 17th. I've got the same flight booked three days later, on the 20th. So yesterday Marjan and I went to a travel agent to explore our options. The extremely helpful agent made reservations for each of us to fly directly from Bagan to Yangon the day before our respective flights to Bangkok, thereby avoiding overland travel. He gave us the name of a reliable hotel near the airport, so that we wouldn't even have to go into the city at all - we just arrive in the evening, sleep in the hotel for a few hours, and then fly out at like 8 am the next morning. So Marjan is scheduled on that Air Bagan flight from Bagan/Yangon on the 16th and I'm on the 19th. If either of us choose to not use the tickets, we get a full refund.

All that said, the travel agent assured us that things would be fine in Yangon by the 17th. "There are many rich men in Yangon," he said. "They are already paying to bring water, electricity and food." He assured us that we would be perfectly safe. In fact, he seemed amused at our concern. For my part, I just don't want to be in the way in Yangon, eating food and drinking water that could go to someone who really needs it.

Obviously, we've also spoken with the few other travelers we've met, to see what they're doing. Everyone else seems either as conflicted as we are, or completely unconcerned. No one is making a panicked run for the border. In fact, yesterday we met 4 people (two Americans and two French people) to actually flew *in* to Mandalay on the 5th, after their flight had been delayed by the storm. One of American guys has been here 6 times, and doesn't seem at all concerned.

Another consideration, of course, is all of you. I don't want to torture you with worry for 10 days while I wander around some dusty ancient pagodas. I know that we are safe right now, and I haven't seen any indications that the situation will change in the next 10 days or so. Yes, I know about the forecast for rain down south next week, but that's pretty normal - the rainy season starts in May. I feel like as long as I don't go to the delta region, I'll be fine. (A few of you have sent me email intimating that flights out of the country could get canceled or something. Can you please send details of where/from whom you heard this info? I can't find anything about it on the net.)

Marjan and I will make our final decision on what to do when we get to Bagan. Right now we're leaning towards spending our last few days in Bagan, and then each taking the flights I described above. (This means I would be alone for 3 days in Bagan, rather than Yangon, for 3 days. I'm now thinking I might change my flight to Marjan's, if there's room, as I just read that Air Asia is not only NOT canceling flights, but letting people change flights for free.) We want to see what it's like on the boat we're going to take there (it's perfectly safe - a huge slow ship going down the Ayerwaddy River hundreds of kilometers north of the typhoon region). We leave tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 5:30 am and it's scheduled to arrive around 3 pm local time. Note that local time is 11.5 hours ahead of NYC time.

I *had* wanted to write a post about what we've actually been *doing* here. But your worried emails prompted this post instead. Please rest assured that I am completely safe and easily continuing my trip as planned. The internet cafe I'm in is filled - half with tourists and half with locals playing games or looking at photos or chatting on Google Talk. It's strangely and completely normal.

I may post again later.