I quickly learnt not to take my mobile phone to Myanmar (Burma) when it was confiscated at the airport on the way in.
Actually, there wasn’t much point in me taking it in the first place because there wasn’t a mobile network there at that time.
The reason I was there was to plan and spec one out.
It was a small network – 135,000 subscribers – but the impact was to increase mobile penetration in Myanmar by around 50%..!
Until that point the only way you could get mobile communication was via a Government (meaning military) network or satellite (Iridium, for those who remember).
So what was my experience of Myanmar?
Actually – I loved it.
It was probably one of the safest places I’ve ever been in my life. A colleague and I were in Scott Market one Sunday afternoon when we saw a young girl, probably not much older that 14 or 15, walking across the market place holding a bundle of cash in her arms.
She was on her way to bank the day’s takings – but the idea of walking across a crowded market place with a bundle of cash in your arms is not something I’d have immediately thought of doing.
Certainly by the time I’d spent nearly 6 months there I had no qualms about leaving my PC on my desk in my hotel room – not something I’d normally do in any hotel!
The sad thing about Myanmar, though, is the incredible waste. It seemed that since independence (1948) there was absolutely zero investment in infrastructure or the economy.
Myanmar is naturally rich in minerals, precious stones and timber. But most of the proceeds from those industries are squirreled away in the external bank accounts of the people controlling them.
In the city shops (mostly in the hotels) you can buy stunning jewelry for a fraction of what you’d pay outside Myanmar.
But the railways, the roads, the telephone systems and the other fundamentals of a strong economy are dilapidated.
Yangon itself contains some lovely Victorian architecture. But a lot of it’s hidden under overgrowth or simply fallen into disrepair.
Hotels like the Strand are wonderfully maintained and serve excellent high teas. But step outside and the contrast with the poverty and dilapidation is startling.
There are some modern hotel chains there, too – Traders and Sedona – as well as some spectacular locally owned ones like the Kandawgyi Palace.
But they’re eerily empty.
The lights are on, but no one’s home. Literally.
You have the totally spectacular Shwe Dagon Pagoda, then you get into a (very dilapidated) taxi and drive out to the suburbs and you have houses on stilts of Bamboo.
The kind that were devastated by Typhoon Nargis in 2008.
I was there from April to October 1999 working on that project I mentioned, and I met some lovely, lovely people.
But I was also told not to mention Ang San Suu Kyi’s name in any upmarket restaurant.
And for at least the first month we were there we were under close observation by the military.
Once they’d decided we weren’t planning a government overthrow they relaxed a bit, but international phone calls were always monitored.
And 2 years after we’d finished the contract our client – the person with whom we’d had the contract – was executed for treason.
Scary. Very scary.
But if you visit there as a tourist, on a tourist package, you’ll find good hotels, great food (really great – it’s a combination of Indian and Thai), wonderful people and some spectacular sights.
But give yourself plenty of time to get your visas and be prepared to be shepherded around in a closely managed group.
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