Chinese wedding in Myanmar

I didn't attend so many weddings in my life yet. I can actually count them on my fingers: first wedding was in Ukraine when I was still a child; then two were in Belgium. And now a fourth one - a Chinese wedding dinner here in Myanmar.

Definitely the most culturally different was the last wedding - indeed Asian traditions are much more difficult to understand. 

So, we were invited to attend a dinner for a Chinese wedding. First challenge was to find a suitable present - who knows what is appropriate to give? After asking some friends around, we decided to settle for a real present, not simply giving money. We chose a nice set of exclusive Chinese teas. 

The wrapping looks more Christmas'y then wedding like, but oh well... Who cares about the style when in Myanmar? :)

I didn't know much if at all about Chinese weddings before. So once we got to the dinner place, I could already feel the difference - there was a huuuge amount of cars parked next to the resto. Lots of people were attending the event.

There was a reception desk for presents. We gave ours and got back this nice card with a Ferrero Roche chocolate candy :) 

We were promptly lead to our VIP table (yes, it had a sign VIP on it :) In the middle of the round table there was a rotating plate - nice invention for getting shared food on your plate. You simple rotate the serving plate to reach it, no need to bother your neighbor.

When I saw the menu, I was surprised to see the amount of dishes to be served - 10! As far as I remember, there were all sorts of meat (bhew!) - chicken, duck, beef; one dish of fish; only one complete veggy dish (I was surprised to see not much of veggy since they eat a lot of them in China); rice; steamed breads; desert. 

Normally the dinner should start at 6 pm, but since people were gathering slowly, it started at 7 pm. There were around 600 guests in total.. Probably the biggest wedding I've attended. And apparently me and three other people were the only foreigners in the room. 

600 guests

I was anxious to see the bride and the groom; they finally showed up around 7 pm right before dinner. They actually changed their outfits twice - appearing in white at first and then changing into pink and grey. 

Couple with their parents

Singing  a love song. 

There were some traditional games and a bit of performances, but since everything was in Burmese and Chinese, we couldn't really get the meaning of everything. But it was fun to watch.

Then the dinner started. We were served the dishes one after another without any time for a small break. While eating we could enjoy the karaoke performance of the friends of the couple - apparently it is a normal practice to invite friends to entertain the guests instead of professional musicians. Since most of the food were meat I couldn't eat everything, and even though I was super stuffed with food in the end. I was surprised that the rice was served in the very end right after dessert. 

The dinner lasted for 2 hours. Right after dessert was served and eaten, people started to leave. Actually some of them were leaving even before that. I was surprised - aren't there going to be any party? Apparently not; it's a normal tradition to have just a dinner. People are fed and happy with that. They don't need a crazy party till 3 am. So people were disappearing super fast; it looked like someone gave them a signal to leave. 

People were leaving with a 'speed of light'. Only some of them were still chatting for a while with each other. 

We waited for a bit and also left. We went back home walking (it was just half hour walk for us) and probably got home faster than most of the guests: there was a huge traffic jam in front of the resto since everyone came by car and was trying to get out. It reminded me people rushing to their cars after musical concerts. 

That was definitely a different wedding and different experience.

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.

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…