Yangon Zoo

One afternoon when Julie and Ken (our guests from Belgium) were here we decided to visit Yangon Zoological Garden. Since it is located close by Kandawgyi lake, again 15-20 min walk form our place, it was very convenient for us to go there.

To get to the zoo we had to pay 2 000 kyat per person. Again a foreigner price.

THAT ticket... 

Once we got to the zoo we could see immediately that it was once a very nice zoo, but now it was so purely maintained... Pavement was broken in many places, cages looked very old. 

'Zoo' gang: Ruben, Julie and Ken (from left to right).

The first animals we saw were different exotic birds which names I don't remember besides peacock :) Birds looked quite fine and even happy, despite the fact that rats were also feeding from their food. Yes, the peacock was (happily?) sharing his plate with a fat hairy rat.

Afterwards we saw monkeys. There were not many of them, but they were big and pretty nice. Once they saw us, they immediately started posing and bagging for food.

This one came straight to the fence and started wash himself and posing to the cameras. 

This one was kind of a 'yoga master' - doing all sorts of stretching exercises 

We went further. It seemed that third of all the animals in the zoo were ungulates: different roes, horses, deer etc. You could buy some bananas to feed them. Actually it was the first zoo I've been to where it was allowed to feed animals.

Some zoo visitors bought banana and were feeding animals. 

Now I understand why it's not allowed: it is not only that animals can get sick or poisoned, but they start begging for food. Which almost all animals in this zoo were doing. Apparently they either don't get enough food or they are so used to beg that it became an instinct for them.

Another interesting animal was the fishing cat. There were few cages with that species of cats. One of the animals looked like a real psycho: he was nervously walking from one side of the cage to another making weird sounds. Two other of his mates looked scared and were quietly sitting.

Fishing cat. Some of them were really big, others much smaller. Maybe male and female differentiate in sizes. 

I could not believe my eyes when I saw the elephants: there were 5 elephants, chained with their feet to the floor, on a very small space. How could those people treat poor elephants like that while other animals had quite a lot of space?

Nevertheless elephants enjoy their lives and care for each other. 

You could take an elephant ride in the zoo.

Elephants were also begging for food and many people were buying sugar cane sticks to feed them. I felt great pity for them...

But not until I saw the bears. There were 2 small bears, probably still babies, with who visitors could take pictures. Both bears were chained to benches with a very short chain. Basically those bears couldn't even walk properly! When one of them started crying, I just couldn't stay there anymore - it felt like the baby was crying! Although it seemed that only me and my friends were pitying the animals - neither bear trainers nor any other visitors seemed to care...

Somehow there were so many hypos in this zoo. Apparently when the zoo in Nay Pyi Taw (the current capital) took the biggest collection of animals from Yangon zoo, they decided to keep all hypos here. Well, at least those hypos had a lot of space and they looked OK.

This hypo was the fattest since he was the closest to the banana selling stall. 

The otters were next to the hypos and didn't look OK at all. Once they saw us coming, they got out of the water and started loudly squeaking - this is they way they were begging for food. Poor little otters...

The next was monkey island so to say. The pictures speak for themselves. Monkeys looked healthy and active. So hopefully they get enough food.

Monkey island

Lazy one

This adventurous monkey tried to escape from the island :) 

Then there were lions and tigers, whose pictures I don't even want to show since they were so skinny... The animals didn't even get up when we came to their cages. I just hope that it's their normal behavior and not because of hunger and illness.

One of the inhabitants of the wild cats compartment :) 

I left the zoo with mixed feelings. I was so sorry for those poor animals who didn't have enough care. After being in nice zoos in Europe, where all animals look healthy, I felt like crying for all those in Yangon Zoo who were starving and sick. I really hope that since the country is developing so far the zoo will evolve as well getting some corporate sponsors and donors.

Feeling royal

Last Sunday we decided to be tourists for a little bit and explore something in Yangon.

As we wanted to do something in nature without going outside the city, a walk around Kandawdgyi lake seemed like a good choice.

Kandawdgyi lake, which in Burmese means 'Great Royal Lake', is located in downtown area of Yangon, only 20 minutes walk from where we live.

To get to the area foreigners have to pay 2 USD or 2000 kyat. I don't know how much locals should pay, maybe 10th part of the amount if at all. Anyway, here in Myanmar they have foreigner prices for everything. It is such a shame that to get to any park or this particular lake you need to pay. But since there is no a good taxation system, someone needs to pay the maintenance... Rich foreigners :)

Anyway, once we got to the lake we didn't think about the high entrance fee anymore. It was just  so beautiful! All those wooden bridges spreading from one side to another looked so cute!

This long bridge connects one bank of the lake with another.

The lake is artificial and is connected to a bigger Inya lake with a system of pipes. Apparently there is not enough water exchange that's why the water gets this green color. 

Water drops on water lilies looked a bit like jelly fish :)

Palm trees along the bridge

  

We had a long walk along those bridges, enjoying the view, resting on the grass sometimes. There were lots of people, especially couples, who were hiding behind their umbrellas and kissing. Showing affection publicly is not so common here, but apparently if you're behind umbrella it's okay :)

This is the park where couples were hiding :) 

Sometimes it was quite dangerous to walk there since the bridges are poorly maintained and wooden bars are broken in many places. Also in the water there was some garbage of plastic bottles and bags. People here don't really bother about environment unfortunately.

The best view on Shwedagon Pagoda. 

We got to another side of the lake close to Kandawdgyi Palace, but didn't really go there since both were too tired. That will be our next touristy trip in the city :)

Kandawgyi palace

People were preparing to the Full moon festival by putting candles. 

Overall we did enjoy our little tour. What bothered me a bit was that sometimes locals were staring at me, making some comments in Burmese and sometimes even taking photos. I can understand that people are curious, but that was a bit too much... Still getting used to be a local celebrity - a weird white blond girl with strange dress.. :)

Deep into the jungle

It was our first week end in Yangon. After a very tiring week of running around the city, shopping and cleaning it was nice just to relax and have no weekend plans (as we thought :).

On Saturday we were invited to a dinner by one Belgian lady. Ruben got to know her via InterNations. It was a lovely evening and a fun gathering of people - it were only ladies and Ruben :)

Deb from Australia who was among the guests mentioned that she was going to do a biking trip next day. Apparently every Sunday there is a biking trip outside Yangon organized by one Australian guy.

We eagerly agreed to join as it was very exciting to go outside the city in a real rural area.

It was a real challenge to wake up at about 5 am to be on time for the departure from the meeting point. There were quite a lot of other people willing to a ride, if I recall correctly, about 15 in total. Plus the team of 3 guides.

It took us around 1 hour to get out of Yangon in the rural area by truck. The live in the village is completely different. There were no real buildings - just wooden huts; no asphalt on the road - just pure reddish soil.

We had a lovely breakfast all together, seating at those small plastic tables on plastic chairs. We ate mohinga which is a traditional fish and noodles soup. It was delicious and very nutritious. We needed those calories to survive the difficult route ahead.

Eating mohinga. Mjammyyy!!!

I think we started our way around 8 am or something. It supposed to be a 25 km ride. Oh my... If only I knew it will be that difficult...

All equipped and ready! Still clean and shiny... :)

Ruben was still a bit sleepy. So am I actually

We started our trip by visiting a small factory that produces bandages. It was amazing to see how those people make everything. The equipment was so old.. almost manual. 

Then hit the road for real. It was not easy for me at all. The road was unstable, full with ruts. I'm a city biking girl and not used to such a difficult path... But I tried my best :) Of course I was always the last one in the group :)

A farmer taking care of his bullocks. What a nice spa treatment :)

It was 1/3 of our route when we made a stop at a rubber making factory. Well, it is not a factory at all. It is just a village where they make rubber mats. All manually! That's why the quality of rubber is so poor. And although the people put a lot of effort into its production, the rubber can't be sold expensive. They get only around 2 USD for one mat. 

The whole village is involved into production. Even small children

Oh yeah, I fall down couple of times (not badly to my luck)... At times i was frustrated and cursing myself for being so crazy to agree on this tour... But then it all faded away when I was seeing all the beauty of the nature!

Just one of the beautiful views

At some point Ruben got a flat tire. It was quickly fixed by Lance. He is Burmese and works for this biking tours. By the way, he was my best friend during the tour always helping me in difficult situations :) Due to the stop over we were far behind the rest of the group. 

Lance, my best friend during the tour :) I won't be able to survive without him. 

Water is used for rice production

It took us about 4 hours to get to the starting point. Ruben was one of the first to get to finish (he came right after the main guide).I was the last one, but i didn't care - I felt proud for myself anyway.   

I was deadly exhausted. I got bruises, sunburns; I was covered with mad and very hungry. But I was happy that I've done it. 

Now I feel ready to do it again. I just hope for an easier route :)

How to get a taxi for dummies

Today I felt in the mood of writing about Yangon taxis. And it's simply because I met a super nice taxi driver. But all from the start.

So transportation system here sucks. There is a kind of system of public buses and trucks, but first of all they all look awfully dirty and crowded, second - bus numbers and route names are written in Burmese, so it makes it difficult to figure out where does the bus go. Third, there is no really a schedule for the buses. The only advantage of the bus - it's cheap. 10 times cheaper than taxi. Costs about 100 - 200 kyat which is 10-20 USD. Average taxi ride is about 1,5-2 USD and more depending on the distance. 

Busy junction next to my office. 

Anyway, being white European and having more or less decent salary I can afford to go by taxi. They are much better than buses; nevertheless still quite dirty and without airco. Sometimes it feels that the car will fall apart :) But people say that since couple of years situation improved and more new taxi cars operate. 

Taxis are everywhere. They drive around the city in search for clients since there is no service of taxi on call. You simply go out on the street and get one. You rarely need to wait more than 3-5 minutes. Maybe longer during the night sometimes.

Taxi drivers love foreign looking people - because those are mostly tourist who don't know the real price for a taxi ride. Locals expect all white foreigners to have money therefore they don't feel guilty so much to ask for a higher rate. Since taxis do not use meter (although it's installed in most of the cars) they can charge whatever they want. And if you don't know how to bargain you will be ripped off.

Since we arrived in Yangon, we learned some ground rules on how to get cheaper taxi. Especially when you need to use taxi everyday for work or going out. 

Rule #1 Never look too desperate 

Just walk along the street as you don't need a taxi at all. Taxis will start honking trying to get your attention. Which means they ARE desperate to get a customer. You need to approach those. Or you can approach a taxi which is parked. They are lazy to search for customers and won't be too stingy.

Rule #2 Be specific

Know where you go. Preferably have an address written in Burmese or have a Google map ready. Taxis do not have GPS so they need to understand where the place is. Sometimes it helps to know a famous place in the area where you go - landmark, or shopping mall, or hotel, even school. 

Rule #3 Do not be too fancy

If you want a cheaper ride do not approach fancy looking cars. If the car is new or has airco, most probably the driver will ask for more. If your ride is just 10 min you don't need all that - open window will be sufficient enough to survive the heat :)

Rule #4 Know your price and always bargain

Before going for a ride ask your friends how much that kind of ride will cost. It's important to know the price in advance so then you know what is a real value for the ride. Usually taxi drivers will ask at least 500 kyat higher than normal price, or even 1000 kyat. 

Before getting into the car ask How much is for the ride? They will tell you their price and then you will tell yours. If they don't agree to the price, just say you're not interested and pretend to walk away. Be firm in telling your price, otherwise they will see you hesitation. In 90% of the cases they will agree on your price once they see you leaving. Otherwise you can always wait few min for the next car :) 

Important to note that during rush and night hours the price will be usually slighly higher. You can try to bargain, but it will be really difficult. 

Rule #5 Be fair

Do not go with your price too low - drivers will feel cheated too and just drive away. Burmese people are proud. Besides, you will most probably never ever get a local price unless you go with a local person. 

Rule #6 Have exact payment

It's important to have small money with you as sometimes the drivers do not have change or pretend not to have one :)

So that were the rules we've created from our own experience and they do work. We still didn't try the bus though... Hopefully soon we will have enough courage :) 

Ah yes, today for the first time I met a very nice and polite taxi driver. The car looked clean and new. When I asked him how much he charges, he told 'How much you can give'. I told the normal price I pay and he agreed without hesitation. The car inside was clean too, no airco though. But the music was very lovely and I made him a compliment about it. The driver seemed to be happy. Apparently there are exceptions to the rules :)

Coconut love story

'Why do all Europeans like coconut so much?' - my Burmese friend Phyu Phyu asked me yesterday during  lunch when we were eating Burmese traditional dessert made with coconut.  I didn't know what to say besides that it's tasty :) And obviously it doesn't grow in our part of the world.

So after one month of living in Asia I had to try coconut. I tried it Thailand once and it was heavenly delicious! But here in Yangon they don't sell it on every street corner as they do in Bangkok - apparently you need to know special places to buy it.

Phyu Phyu told that she knows one good place which is a special coconut market near Shwedagon Pagoda. We agreed to go there on Sunday.

On Sunday morning she picked me up and we drove to the market. Indeed, it was a street full of coconut sellers. I asked Phyu Phyu where do they bring coconuts from and she told that some of them just take it from the pagoda garden, some of them are brought from villages around. 'Coconut grows everywhere, so no problem for supply', she told.

We bought 10 coconuts as it was cheaper to buy by 10 from a trusted lady. We paid 4 000 kyat which is around 4 USD. Coconuts here are huge, way bigger than in Thailand.

The lady is cleaning the coconut skin. She does it super fast!

The seller lady asked if we want coconuts cleaned. If they cut the skin, coconut should be eaten within 5 days. Otherwise it stays about 2 weeks.

I was so happy with my coconut hunt!

So today once I got home after work I decided to have some for dinner. It took me a while to open the thing - the shell is quite hard and the knives we have are probably not the best for coconut opening.

Anyway, I was so excited to try the juice and the meat of the nut once it was finally opened!

Poor coconut suffered big time while I was trying to cut it open.. :(

But to my deepest disappointment, the juice was not sweet at all.. And the meat either :( I felt betrayed ...

I hope it was just one bad coconut. I have 4 more to go... :)

Creating our new home

I recall that the first week in Yangon was not easy. It was dedicating to settling down and arranging our new life.

Since we had to buy quite some things for our household, we were discovering new shops and areas of town. We became experts on where to buy food, furniture, kitchen utensils, plastic things, rugs and so on.

Here are the list of shops we discovered and visited (might be useful for newcomers and tourists :)

• Food shopping

City Mart - supermarket chain which has shops all around the city. There you can buy different kind of package and fresh food; local and imported; not cheap but not that costly either.

Marketplace - an expensive supermarket with imported goods mostly; you can buy there diverse food and other goods which you kind find anywhere else. For example, cheese :). This shops is very expensive. 

K-Mart, ABC mart  - convenience stores where are all around the city. Cheap and handy. Basic packaged food and drinks are sold there. 

Street stalls - we discovered that most of the fruits and vegetables can be bought just outside of our apartment on the street. It can be very cheap if you know how to bargain. 

• Plastic 

All the plastic here is imported from China. Apparently Myanmar is a great market for them, coz here they use lots of plastic things. It is convenient and cheap, but of course ugly and doesn't last long.

• Department stores (also furniture) 

Ruby mart - there you can find any kind of things, from food till basic furniture. Quality is OK and the prices are OK too.

Super One is also a department store, a bit more expensive but not so much choice as for me. 

Yuzana Plaza - is the oldest department store in Myanmar. It reminded me those open air markets (bazaars) we have in Ukraine. Ground floor is full with fabrics sold there. You can get clothes, shoes and even furniture here. This is where we bought our amazing guest sofa :) 

So you can imagine that we've visited lots of shops. There is nothing you can buy online or check on the website at least. You have to visit every shop. Luckily our local friend could recommend us where to go, otherwise we would be completely lost. . 

Despite absence of some food i'm used too (e.g. cheese..) what is truly missing in Myanmar is a good and cheap furniture producer, something like IKEA. The furniture quality is poor and it's not that cheap either.

In general the country turned out to be not as cheap as we expected. Therefore the settling down cots were not so low. And if you want to have a good quality thing you need to really run around the city searching for something decent.

By the end of the week finally I felt that we have OUR flat. It had almost everything we needed. It was clean and much more welcoming. I could say that it became HOME for us. 

Con's of living abroad

It is my 5th year living abroad.

There are pro's and con's of being so far from home - I do miss my parents a lot. I sometimes think what if something bad happens and I can't be there for them as fast as I want?

So today I was just going to casually Skype with my parents since I didn't do that for the last couple of days and they were also surprisingly quiet. I finally caught my mom online and then she says that 2 days ago she broke her wrist. And it can be quite serious.

And then I just think WTF? Why didn't tell this to me immediately? But then I imagine the pain she went through and I start crying and all that...

But that's not the point. The point is that I'm not THERE to hug her, to comfort, to take care and help her while she is recovering. I can't do a thing from here. I just can tell some nice words which I hope help her in a way. 

Sometimes I feel like giving up, going back to my old small town to live a boring (maybe) life, but being close to my mom and dad. 

Value the people you love and show it every day. 

First night and first shocks

Finally I got some time and inspiration to write about our very first night in Yangon, Myanmar.

In fact, it was a first night for me as Ruben was in Yangon already in August. So he was much more ready than me to all those shocks I've encountered.

We landed in Yangon around 4.30 pm and by the time we got to our new flat - our future 'home' - it was about 7 pm.

Myo, our landlord and now a friend also, was waiting for us already in the flat. We dropped our things, had a quick tour in the flat and went to have some dinner in the tea house just around the corner.

It was my first time eating Burmese food. I was so hungry and tired that even didn't notice that the food was quite greasy and weird. This I realized later the next day when my stomach was not so happy about the dinner :) Papaya juice was stinky (yes, I don't like papaya; for me it smells like trash). But the dinner was cheap. I think we payed around 4 USD for both of us including drinks.

To word, eating in local tea houses are usually very cheap and if you know what to eat, you can choose something really nice.

Anyway, right after dinner we went back to the flat. And there we had our first power cut - it was short, but long enough for me to get scared while fighting cockroaches. Yes, there were huge cockroaches in the bathroom and the kitchen. I was trying my best to fight those disgusting creatures with a repellent.

The light appeared again after 15 minutes or so. And we decided to go for a walk in the night Yangon. Ruben told that he knows one route. I agreed.

We were wondering around passing by Central station, going downtown to Sule Pagoda and then went to Indian town. Indian town was horrible during the night. There were a lot of people sitting on the streets - eating or just doing nothing. They all stared at me - I'm white, blond, wore shorts and sleeveless t-shirt. Of course they would stare; they are not so used to see many foreigners.

The sidewalks were broken and you can see the sewage underneath, stinking and dangerous. I've seen some rats on the street and felt really disgusting - oh gosh, where I am? why did I come here for God sake... Is THIS my dream to live in Asia, being Zen and stuff?..

At that moment I couldn't believe that I can survive in this country. I wanted to pack my bags and go home. But go home where? I couldn't go back to Belgium since didn't have visa anymore. Going back to Ukraine was not an option either. No choice - I have to adjust... Running away is childish. Facing a challenge together with Ruben was my own conscious choice.

Finally we got to 365 cafe. It's a 24 hour cafe with wifi, full of locals and expats, more or less western style. I would say  small civilized island in the middle of nowhere. We had some drinks, chatted with Ruben about our first Myanmar experience and tried to fight our jet lag (which will follow us for the next couple of weeks after).

We were home late after midnight and fall asleep immediately, even being still scared of those creepy insects.That night I slept like a baby in our king size huge and comfy bed.

... Next morning I woke up. In the daylight the things looked much better. Morning is always wiser than evening, as we say in Ukraine... :)

The ghosts of Myanmar cinema

Tonight we went to a local cinema for the first time.

That was an experience I must admit J

First of all, I was very much surprised that they do have Hollywood movies. Even 3D. Even in original, without any subtitles. Which means that locals watch it without any translation, purely in English (we were watching Thor 2). Myo, our Burmese friend who were with us told that most probably the people don’t get the movie completely, but still, it was impressive – watching movie in original language. In Belgium all the movies had Dutch and French subtitles. In Ukraine they are always dubbed.

Secondly, I’ve noticed that apparently all movies showed here are somewhat action movies. There were 15 min of ads before the movie started, including trailers of upcoming films. All about fighting, explosions, science fiction, fantasy, action and super heroes. No detective or drama. Well, I shouldn't complain – at least there is some kind of choice between Hollywood and Burmese movies J

But the real cultural shock started together with the movies – with the first minute people started to hog whatever they bought beforehand – sunflower seeds and popcorn are the most popular movie snack. I don’t have problems when people are eating in the cinema if they do it quietly. But not in Myanmar J Here people feel like at home seating in their cinema chair. They chew loudly, they burp loudly, they don’t bother putting their cell phones on quiet. They pick up the phone and talk during the movie. One guy was snoring very loudly too throughout the movie. Beautiful J

While watching I’ve heard some strange squeaking sounds in the cinema. I couldn’t believe my own thoughts – a rat or a mouse. But at some point the sound became very loud – there WAS a rat in there; it got into the trap and a cinema worker took it away from the room. Huh… Rats are literally everywhere (luckily not in my flat)…

Yeah, not forget to mention – there were 2 power cuts during the movie, and both right on the most appropriate moments of explosions J Good there was a power generator so the cuts were really short, max a minute long each.

When the movie was over and the lights went on I felt as I’ve been sitting in a trash been – the floor was covered with food leftovers, plastic bags, bottles. People didn’t bother to clean after themselves…

But I did have lots of fun. It was a different experience, with lots of local customs which are different from European. The rat, the power cuts and garbage around are still less important than the genuine laughter of the people from the jokes in the movies. They don’t hold on their emotions – they just laugh. The same way they don’t hold on their burping or snoring J

Discovering Myanmar: how to get a phone SIM card

After living in Western Europe I'm so used to the comfort of life, to all that small things that make it easy.

For example, getting a GSM SIM card for your mobile phone. What can be easier and cheaper?

But not in Myanmar.

First of all, there is only one mobile operator for now which is obviously a monopolist. The only official way to get a SIM card is to win a lucky draw. Yes, yes, a SIM card lottery. And only locals can participate. The government arranges a lottery once in a while when they give away SIM card. Usually they give only a limited number of SIM cards per township (disctrict) which obviously creates a huge demand.

The lucky person can get it for 1 500 kyat (which is 1,5 USD). Which is a ridiculous amount comparing to the market price... So those who get that SIM card prefer to sell it out to a re-seller who will afterwards sell it for 150 USD... I don't know how much exactly the person earns, probably not much but the middle man (re-seller) earns a lot...

It is possible to get a cheaper card, but it won't be a GSM standard, It will be CDMA or WCDMA (yeah, like in early 90th..)

Well, 150 USD is still OK price considering the fact that just 3 month ago it was 250 USD, and 2 years back it was 2 000 USD...

Luckily the 2 big telecom providers just got there licences to operate on the market. All hope is for them that they will improve the crazy situation. But they say it will take at least 6-8 month to go through the whole administrative process and arrangement of the services. 

Today I feel lucky anyway: no i didn't win any lottery (coz I'm not allowed to participate as a foreigner), but I finally got my SIM card. After 1 month being here disconnected. And yes, I paid 150 USD. It's nice to be in touch with people again. 

But at the same time it was the most painful purchase I've done so far in my life... 

More shocking things to come :) 

Sneak peak on what's next :)

Today is exactly one month since we arrived to Myanmar.

I took this picture at Yangon Central Station. I simply love it! This is the only phrase written in English at that station.  By they indeed love tourists :) 

It's a shame that we didn't blog much about our experience. We were really busy plus the internet here is so bad that it takes forever to do anything online. But we will try to catch up and write about all the things that happened with us during the last month. 

In my opinion, it was a difficult month, full of settling down, adventures, meeting new people, arguments. But we survived :) And all in all it was BEAUTIFUL. 

So here is a small sneak peak into what I want to write about (I hope Ruben will agree and even can add some things):

• First night in Yangon
• First week of a new life
• Bike tour in the rural area
• Life in Myanmar - local & expat
• Our first visitors
• Trip to the Yangon Zoological Garden

This is definitely not a full list, there is so much more things to tell about, so I'm sure other stories will pop up :) Especially stories related to our everyday life :)

Stay tuned :) 

The Myanmar adventure becomes real

Lyuba & LinkedIn are great friends

Now the next step – Lyuba needs to find a job. So Lyuba was starting to be very active on LinkedIn, looking for opportunities and posting in job search websites in Myanmar. She also added on LinkedIn that she’s looking for a job in Yangon. And then, out of the blue, she got a job offer in a start-up company called SERV-SMART (http://www.serv-smart.com/). SERV-SMART is a business center offering serviced offices in Yangon, Myanmar. As there are many companies entering Myanmar, there is a high need of offices for small branches of companies.

They offered Lyuba first a freelance job to set up the marketing of the company. Afterwards, once we’ll be in Myanmar, Lyuba could set up the local office as an office manager. She would be responsible to get the first clients, set up the operations of the company, manage local people,… from A to Z. Awesome J

AIESEC in Myanmar?

Another opportunity was to start up AIESEC in Myanmar. After some research, we found out that a Klaus from Germany was working to set up AIESEC branch there. We discovered that AIESEC would be very relevant, bringing experiences to local people, as the educational system in Myanmar is extremely poor…So great, ready to impact and empower the youth in Myanmar!

Excited waiting for…forever!

So…At this point (May-June 2013) we know we go to Myanmar, we both have a job…But we only leave in October, as in September there would be a month of preparation for Myanmar and Lyuba needs to finish her job and visit Ukraine…it looks like forever!! We used these months to get to know the Myanmar market, the culture and also to try to find some connections in Myanmar. And we found some, even though it was not that easy. But most of the time, we were excitedly waiting…

Of course it was also a period of connecting to our friends, having fun with them and trying to organize small parties and get together. It’s not so easy to say bye to all your friends…

First steps in Myanmar…

In the end of August, I set the first steps to Yangon for a business trip for one week. The first working day for SBE I spent on a plane to Myanmar… That’s an interesting way to get started J Once in Myanmar, the first 3 days I used to find our future apartment. And we were so lucky to get in contact through Simon, an earlier Prince Albert Fund candidate who was in Myanmar, with Myo, a Myanmar person. We immediately found a great apartment, and for a reasonable price also compared to other apartments in Yangon. As many people want to come, there is a huge bubble in apartment prices in Myanmar, which makes life in Yangon extremely expensive.

Beginning of slums in Yangon

Afterwards, I went on the first ‘real’ working day in Nay Pyi Taw, the actual capital of Myanmar. Nay Pyi Taw is an strange city, as it was built to become the political capital of Myanmar in … There are only governmental buildings and hotels, but the city has some highways with 20 lanes…With almost no cars. Really interesting to compare with the congested roads of Yangon with Nay Pyi Taw J

Pagoda in Nay Pyi Taw

Pink elephant in Nay Pyi Taw. It is considered blessed. 

Then I had an amazing boat trip up to Bagan, a city with thousands of Pagoda’s. The nature in Myanmar is amazing and really untouched. It is extremely green full with rice fields where local rural people plow the fields with water buffalo’s, just like in ancient times. Here, it really looks like time stood still…

Countdown…

After this week I came back to Belgium and on the 2nd of September…The first day of work! Starting work was interesting, preparing to get started in Myanmar. As nobody in the company knew how the job would look like, it was more inventing the job, which was a nice experience.

In the meanwhile, Lyuba was counting down the days to leave Belgium … 13th of September was D-day, jobless and free again J  Afterwards, she went to Ukraine to spend 2 weeks with her family and friends. Great to have mama-food again and to be able to practice Russian with the family J The last 3 days, I spent also in Ukraine to be fed, as Lyuba’s mum thought I got too skinny.  But also it was to  say bye to the family again for probably one year. Hopefully we’ll be back in Ukraine soon!

The last week was extremely hectic, making all the final preparations, packing for Myanmar, having a delegation of Myanmar in Belgium… We were not bored those last days we could better say…Exhausted…

We only had limited amount of time to say bye to everyone in Belgium, but still we found some time to do so, which was also not easy but in the end, we know that some people will still come to visit, and all the important people are very close to our heart…

3rd of October we were on our way to Asia. The golden land of Myanmar was getting closer and we are getting nervous…

How Lyuben ended up in Myanmar...

In need of some adventure…

January 2013… We both started to feel like it is time for an adventure, but had no idea what to do and where to start.  So we decided to have a workshop, thinking about all the adventures we both want to have for the next years, and what we want in our lives.

The result was the ‘Lyuben goes to Asia’ plan, with a complete plan on how to reach our goals. We both wanted to live in a South-East Asian country, preferably Buddhist with ‘Zen experiences’, entrepreneurial challenges, social impact and friendly people around us. Next, we drew up a complete plan with milestones when we want to follow… 

This is Lyuba's creation :) This is how she saw her Asian experience

This is my drawing :) My vision of Asia and me there :)

So we made a plan and hoped that it will work out J What we didn’t know yet that everything will go EXACTLY as we predicted J

This is our plan. We made it in Belgium but it's now on the wall in our flat in Yangon :)
According to the plan made in January 2012 we had to be in Asia in October. So it happened on October 3d we were in Asian and on 6th - in Yangon, Myanmar... :)

The Prince Albert Fund

First part of the plan was for me (Ruben) to find a job first, because Lyuba has more experience, so she would be able to find a job easier in a South-East Asian country. So that’s how the search started, looking into opportunities… At Antwerp Management School, where I studied last year, they advised me to apply for the Prince Albert Fund http://www.princealbertfund.be).

Prince Albert fund looked like a real challenge, where a Belgian young, entrepreneurial person who would like to work abroad would get the experience to work in a Belgian company expanding out of Western Europe. Seemed perfect! A challenge though, because looking through the people who did it in the past, they all had quite some experience…But I gave it a shot! And we got lucky…In March, I got selected for an interview, which went quite well.  And on the 7^th of March, the big news came… I WAS SELECTED!!! It was all thanks to great experiences in AIESEC and because of Antwerp Management School entrepreneurial experiences.

The big search

Together we started to look for Belgian companies where I could do my international project. I had several meetings and the decision was going to be though… We could choose between going to India, Malaysia, Latin-America, China…And Myanmar…. About Myanmar, a country we’ve heard very little, we go to know really randomly when I e-mailed a company, which just mentioned its name on the list of PAF, and I was invited for a conversation

Well… it is not entirely true. First Lyuba read in one Belgian newspaper that one Belgian company co-operates with Myanmar in one big project. The first conversation was really interesting, getting to know Myanmar as a country which is going to be opened completely after over 50 years of military dictatorship…Opened up to be a democracy. A country with thousands of opportunities but even more challenges…!

The project for SBE (http://www.sbe.be) looked like a real challenge with lots of opportunities. I was supposed to work for this Belgian company in Myanmar on a large hydropower project with the Myanmar government. In Myanmar, there is a huge electricity problem, as only around 30 percent of the population has access to electricity, and there is a huge lack as the country is developing immensely fast. The job I would work on would be business development, project management and setting up the local office of SBE in Myanmar… Looked like a great challenge!!

After the meeting, I called Lyuba, and first she was a bit hesitant, especially because of job opportunities. But after some research, we found this wouldn’t be a problem!! So we got both really excited, doing a huge research about Myanmar, getting both really into the country…. Waaaaah J So we decided…Let’s go to Myanmar!!!