Since it took me two days to make the trip from Yangon to Ngwe Saung I was very happy when the General Manager of the beach ressort next door offered to take me back to Yangon. I met him two days ago since he is a friend of Michael and Eon Young, my parents friends who live in Yangon. At the end of the trip he even offered me a job in his hotel. But one thing after the other.

The trip back was really interesting. Not only because I found out that it actually is quite possible to go 130 km/h on the narrow dirt roads of Myanmar but also because I learned a thing or two about the country. One of the reasons why we were able to go as fast as that was the way our car looked. It was a Toyota land cruiser, with shaded windows, the kind that is normally only used by members of the government in this country. And Andreas did something else to further increase this illusion: He switched his lights to high beam even though it was the middle of the day. Something that normally is only done by members of the government. The effect was quite interesting. Almost everyone tried to get out of our way and policemen and soldiers who were sitting idle on the side of the road rose when we drove past. Apparently one of the reasons why he can afford this sort of behavior is because the owner of his hotel is the richest man in all of Myanmar and thus very close to the government. On my second day in Ngwe Saung the prime ministers wife stayed at Andreas hotel.

After we had arrived in Yangon he showed me a shopping mall that also happens to belong to his boss. And this gave me a glimpse of what it must be like living in Myanmar when you are rich: There was almost nothing in that shopping mall that I could afford to buy. Well, short of a cheese cake and coffee. The watches they are selling all start north of 10.000 USD. And the mall was definitely not empty. Apparently it's true what I've heard from the expats who are living here: While most of the Burmese are very, very poor, you also have a sizeable number of people who have more money then we could ever dream of!

While driving through the countryside we were also talking a bit about my job and I told him a bit about what search engine optimization is and gave him some free advice. Apparently he liked what I told him because at then end of the trip he offered to ask the owner of his hotel to hire me for a month or two. I could stay at the hotel on the beach for free, would get free food and quite a bit of money. His boss would see to it that I get the necessary visa etc.. Initially I declined the offer since I don't want to get stuck in my first country. Later I agreed to think about it until I'm done with my Asian tour. And in the meantime I'm thinking that I probably should do it. After all it certainly beats picking apples in Australia! And after all: what do I have to loose? If I don't like it I can always leave!

In the evening I went to a night club with Andreas (six USD cover charge, which we didn't have to pay) and where every beer cost three USD. The interesting thing was that the place was mainly frequented by Burmese or to be more exact very good looking by Burmese women. The ration men : women was about 1 : 20. Quite quickly it became clear though why these girls had the money to pay the cover charge. They themselves were quite a bit more expensive than the entrance fee! But the nice thing was that unlike their Thai counterparts they were not pushy. Once I made clear that I wasn't interested in acquiring any venereal diseases, they were just as happy to simply talk. They didn't even try to get me to pay their drinks. So basically it was a good though quite expensive night.