Back street in Yangon, Myanmar

tirediron · Jul 19, 2016

Man would I ever like to be the guy with the Asian concession on those little plastic tables and chairs!!!!

The_Traveler · Jul 19, 2016

tirediron said:
Man would I ever like to be the guy with the Asian concession on those little plastic tables and chairs!!!!

Ain't that the truth.
My son was with me on that trip and he had gotten some tutoring in Burmese from a student in SF whose family lived in Yangon. So when we got there, he called and arranged to meet the sister for dinner and then, on the weekend he returned to Yangon, to go to dinner at their house.

So, she picked us up in a new Toyota (at a time when all new cars were imported from Thailand) and both she and her friend had two cell phones each - one personal, one business. We went to this restaurant that catered to the high end locals and visitors and where entrance was by a card and the entire place was guarded by the army.

He went to their house for dinner - also on a compound guarded by army - and said that it wasn't too special, there were never more than ten servants in the room at one time and no one wore a diamond much bigger than a dime.

She, his tutor's sister, at age 32 owned and ran a factory with the monopoly on aluminum pots and pans for the country.

She mentioned that, because of the limit on entering the company with >$10k in cash, she had to visit the sister 4 or 5 times a year to give her spending money.