Yangon, (Rangoon) Myanmar (Burma)

Yangon, (Rangoon) Myanmar (Burma). At about noon we anchored to wait for a pilot and clearance. The waters had become very muddy and now there were chunks of ugly muddy stuff floating by. It was now very smoggy too. The air, here too, now smelled like burning garbage. Though there were no clouds and the sun was out, you could not see very far. At about 1:45 PM the pilot got on and we continued to and then up the Yangon river. This river looks more like a very large bay or a gulf at the point where we are docked.

As we docked there were buses and vans parking on the pier. Behind the pier is flat pasture for miles and we could see longhorn cattle grazing. As the lines were being attached to the pier vehicles full of people arrived. One was a man in a wheel chair. He was obviously some high mucky muck. Except for the dockworkers, all the men wore long skirts. We were told this is the form of dress throughout the country.

After the gang plank was installed captain Dag came off the ship and there was a short ceremony where they let go a bunch of gas filled balloons that had a small flag like thing attached at the bottom. There was a lot of hand shaking and then swarms of these people came aboard to eat whatever they could find. We saw them every place there was any kind of food available.

There was a shuttle bus to town every half hour but the trip took over an hour because of poor roads and very heavy traffic, even though it was just sixteen miles. We have a private car or van tour the next day so we opted to wait until then to go into town. The only thing worth buying is rubies and jade we are told. US dollars are accepted everywhere but no credit cards since a countrywide sanction was placed last October.

We were warned not to try to engage the locals in any discussions about the government because if the wrong word was said they could be jailed and sentenced to hard labor for the littlest thing. This slave labor is then used for government projects.

There is a minority population of Chinese and Indians but neither are allowed to be citizens.

They claim a literacy rate of 91% but the rest of the world says it’s actually 30%. Life expectancy is 57 for women and 54 for men.

At 6:00 PM we had a Purim service led by the Rabbi and his wife. The chef had made hamantashen that was pretty good but the dummy added salt that was not called for in the recipe given him.

We went to dinner at the Veranda restaurant with the Pritzkers, the couple from Orlando we have eaten with several times before. Sure enough, lots of local government officials testing the food there too. I am sure it was just to be sure no poor food was getting into their country, not.

At 9:30 PM the entertainer was a jazz violinist. He was very good and got two standing ovations. It was like a private performance as only about 90 people were left as the rest had gone on different tours.

Abandoned Ship Sherm Out
(Posted on behalf of Sherman Rootberg)