Rangoon- the city that time forgot

After leaving Singapore following our 2-day stay, we headed off to Kuala Lumpur. We arrived early the next day at Port Kelang, the port for KL. It is a long boring ride into the city and we’ve been there before, so we elected to visit the local shopping center. We were here 3 years ago and it has been spiffed up quite a bit since our visit. There is now a food store on the bottom floor and there’s a fancy electronics store up on the second floor. We were unable to find any fabrics for Eiko and returned to the ship within 2 hours. Following 1 day at sea we arrived at the dock in the Rangoon River at 330 in the PM. The water is rather muddy in the river and in the shallow sea 40 miles in front of the river’s mouth. There’s a strong river tide and the river must be almost a mile wide near Rangoon. Rangoon is located at a bend where 2 rivers meet. Our ship docks across from the city, in the industrial terminal, as it did 3 years ago. Not much has changed in the port. The people here are Indo-Chinese in appearance while in Vietnam; they are Chinese-Indo or Malay-Chinese. While there are some churches and mosques in town, the people are overwhelmingly Buddhist. The Buddhist monasteries and pagodas with their golden stupas dot the landscape. And the Shwedagon Pagoda is the grand-dad of them all.

Our first full day here we took the shuttle into the Traders Hotel. This is an hour’s drive. We took off in search of the Strand Hotel, which is just across from the old docks on Strand Street. There is some demolition and foundation-creation on the river side of Strand Street. What this activity will eventually yield is unclear at this point. The Strand Hotel has been beautifully refurbished. Sad to say most of the city is still in decline. To go to the Strand, exit the Traders hotel and go to the right down Sule Pagoda Road. When you reach the river, turn left. It’s about a 20-minute walk. We found the St. Mary’s Church undergoing repairs and perhaps the City Hall as well. It was difficult to tell since high fences surrounded city hall. Most of the colonial buildings are in a deplorable state. It doesn’t look like too much was added after 1915. We found some unusual crafts in the hotels’ shops. The sidewalks are broken or absent and making your way in town on foot is not easy. But I think you are probably not in danger of physical assault during the day. People do approach you in the central district to change money or tell you of their business. But it is not aggressive. Walking is the best way to savor the markets and feel the street life. I imagine the Chinese will finally jump-start this country as it needs their abundant resources. But I doubt I will see much physical improvement in my lifetime. There’s a heck of a lot of repair to do. The international community has pretty much isolated this country, financially. My sense is that this is counter-productive. It generally just punishes the people and the leadership finds a way to hang on. We will sail west from here for 2 days across the Bay of Bengal to arrive in Colombo, Sri Lanka. All pictures are from Rangoon.