More glimpses

According to my father-in-law, a military man himself, homemade soap was a treat in MyanmarYou read it right. It was 'Spirulina Beer'. Any excuse to get drunk while taking in something possibly nutritious.Each symbol on the Buddha's sole mean something. Unfortunately, I can't really make out what it said on the chart next to it.More shopping!Me at Shwedagon. Barefooted of course.Every frame tells a story. Or two.I was sure these decorations carry some significance .....Yangon has transformed over the years. The building on the left was the hotel we stayed while at the ground floor of the red building opposite housed a cinema. It was showing Gulliver's Travel and some Hindi movies then.Colonial architecture still fill the city

Glimpses of Myanmar

I wished that I brought my 7D along, but the photos coming out of my trusty LX3 wasn't too shabby either! Here they goes;

Paying tribute and prayers - at the Chauk Htat Gyi temple

Prayers offered took many formsShwedagon - with its gold-plated templesThe famous Bogyuke Market - here my colleagues were doing some bargainingThe place was filled with ornaments made from semi-precious stonesAlthough I really can't tell the differenceSee no evil, hear no evil, say no evilAnd the street markets were lively tooPopcorns!

More thoughts of Myanmar

I was not sure what really to expect before my Myanmar trip. I tried looking for travel book at Kinokuniya. Zilch! Internet gave a mixed bag of stories, most of them untrue. A couple of days before leaving, there were worries that handphones would be confiscated T the airport, as well scary stories about to leave other communications devices at the airport, to be picked up again on the way out of the country. Internet would also be limited.

But it was much better than expected. It was a very safe city, we were allowed handphones in although we were not able to connect to any of the local networks. There were no problem taking laptops and cameras in. In fact, the Immigrations Officers at the airport was very courteous and efficient. The hotel we were put up in was very comfortable and smack in the city centre. The Internet was rather sketchy, with Google being blocked. Internet was generally very slow but in the early hours, it was more than adequate. I was able to assess emails from the lobby wifi, and the signals in the room enabled me to log into my blog, twitter and Facebook.

During the stay, we were taken to a couple of temples as well as the main shopping market. Myanmar was steep in Buddhism. In fact close to 80% of the people were Buddhist, reflected by the number of temples in town. The biggest one was definitely Shwedagon, which we vested on the second day we were there. People there lived a simple life, reflected by the way they dressed up and the way they communicate - you'd be surprised at how many of them can communicate very well in English. On one of the evenings, I actually visited one of the Sunni mosque, only about 300 meters from my hotel. Unfortunately, not many of them can speak English there, and I performed my Maghrib prayers there. There were mainly Indian Moslems coming to Yangon to make a living rather than the local. That explained why they were not Hanafi.

On the last afternoon before we left, we were taken to the main market, the Bugyoke. A typical market, selling bangles, T-shirt, as well as the local jades and rubies. I did not buy any of these precious stones, because first of all, they were damn expensive and secondly, I really can't tell if they were really precious. Better to be safe, to avoid being conned big time.

All in all, Yangon was a very safe city. Yes, there were beggars and children running around, but they were polite when you turn around and said no. The weather was very warm during the day - apparently we just missed the Monsoon season. The time there was an hour an half behind Malaysia, and it was better to use American Dollars for transaction.

The Eye-opening Visit

The female ward at the UnitIt has been a long tiring day but I felt compelled to write this blog entry as the memory was still etched in my mind. The time I spent at the Haematology Ward at Yangon General Hospital was rather inspirational and should I be given the chance, I would more than happy to give it another visit.

Before I go on any further, I would not pretend that the health service there was any better than ours. But the main different was, how the Doctors and patients there cope with the severe limitations that they have over there. Things which we took for granted here were luxuries, be it, the ability to use sophisticated tests to help diagnose and treat our patients, the availability of modern drugs, in terms of chemotherapy and even basic antibiotics, as well as the superior human resource that we have here.

At the entrance to the Day Care Unit. Notice the cool sarong and slippers?I wonder what this thing does ....Let's start from the patients. They came from far and wide mtgs major difference there was, given the choice between modern medicine and traditional remedies, they would prefer modern. Maybe, the scarcity shape their thinking as here, many patients arrogantly prefers the traditional means even when they do more harm to them. The patients there appreciate the care being offered, that bit more than what we do here. The extended family will stay with the patients while they were being warded, and since some of them traveled many days to the hospitals, all the family members would sleep at the hospital with them. These family member would then become helpers, they do the chores, such as lifting patients, cleaning - even the toilets, distribute food. Realising their invaluable help, the hospital actually have a separate area for these caters to sleep should they wish, a separate toilet, kitchen and even social rooms with TV. For them, the nurses job was to assist the Doctors. The family members would do the cleaning and changing for them.

The patients here would have to pay for the drugs themselves, but the blood products, hospital stay as well as doctors fee were provided by the government. Realising that not everybody can afford the medicines, the Doctors utilises the help from NGOs as well as judicial use of generic products. The Pharmaceuticals also lent their hands through generous discounts and donations. I even saw some of the ward furnitures had Pharmaceutical company names etched on them.

This patch of green was personally planted by a retired Haematology Professor. He wanted his patients to enjoy nice views.The isolation ward on the second floorThis room was maintained by the monastry and were usually occupied by sick monks. These three were on various stages of leukaemia treatment.The common room for the relatives. All of them chipped in, making life easier for everybody. The place was very, very clean.Contributions from the Pharma companiesLastly, let me mention about the staffs. The Doctors there were being paid a pittance and brain drain had been a major issue for the country. In UMMC alone, there were six Myanmar Doctors I knew who worked in various fields of Medicine. They had to move abroad for better living, as well as a chance to have advance training. Yes, there were a few large private hospital I saw during my stay in Yangon, but only very few people can afford them. Medical Insurance was not something well-established in the country.

In the Haematology Unit which I visited, there were only five nurses on duty at any one time, as well as the Doctors there working everyday including Sundays. It was not uncommon that they admit 20 patients daily just in the Unit alone. But all the staffs there seemed unusually content. They welcomed us with open arms. We were taken round the Unit, meeting the patients and seeing the facilities, and not one complain we heard from them even off the records. When asked what they really needed for the development of the Unit, they mentioned funding for their juniors to advance their trainings. Such generous attitude.

Enjoying the nice, freshly-brewed Myanmar tea. I had three cups. Typical greedy capitalist that I was.It sure was an experience, something valuable which I appreciated more than the actual time in the lecturer hall listening about he latest therapy and how good they were. If I were invited again to go to visit another similar country, I would definitely find a way to see how the Doctors there cope. I was surer there were plenty I could learn.

Day Two

The second day in Yangon today and it was such a relief getting my talk out of the way. We arrived yesterday at about lunch time and went straight for the afternoon lecture session after some food. As I was not sure if the food were Halal or not, the organizer had put aside some seafood for us.

The afternoon session was more of a meet and greet although it was followed right after with a talk by a Pharmacist. I was pretty tired by then and was not able to concentrate. Unpacked and was tired enough for a power nap.

The dinner was by the poolside. It was a barbecue and Yangon being by the sea, the grilled prawns was a delight. In fact, I couldn't really complain about the food at all. The food were simple, a fusion of Indo-Chinese food really, but nice. I finally went to bed extra early - Yangon is an hour and a half later than Malaysia in term of time difference. so by the time I finished dinner, I was ready to sleep.

The problem then was I woke up very early - 6am Malaysian time, which was 4.30 local. A quick flip of the TV channel, and a quick tweak on my slides while waiting for breakfast.

This morning's program was rather tight, starting at 8.30 and broke for lunch just after 1.30. Half an hour later, then it was time for some sightseeing which took us the whole afternoon. I will blog that on a later entry, but for now, I had just had dinner - with a cultural show thrown in. Rather sleepy. Will probably head for bed soon. Mind you, it was 10 am Malaysian time. But it was only 8.30 here now.