WHERE IN THE WORLD IS NAYPYIDAW?
It has been almost 2 years since Burma moved its capital to the mountains. I’m not kidding – it’s literally in the mountains 320 km north of Yangon. Why so isolated? The capital city is so remote; they have to clear acres of forests to build an administrative enclave on it. Is this isolation symbolize Burma’s position to the world?I met a couple of former schoolmates the other night at The Bed – one of Bangkok’s prime night clubs. We flirted with sexy girls, howled at gorgeous boys and drink, drink, drink. Y’know, normal night out of bored Eurasian dudes. Our conversations are normally dominated by Southeast Asian politics as we all represented each and every country in the region.
“Don’t you think the capital of Malaysia should be moved to Putra Jaya?” asked Rhys, the Malaysian-English dude.“They literally did. KL is just regarded as still the capital for sentimental reasons.” One dude answered. Whatever he meant about “sentimental”, I really have no idea. We chatted ever so loudly with geeky topics our catches-for-the-night all disappeared one by one. *sigh* There goes my lay for the night.
“Anyone of you been to Burma’s capital?” one dude asked.
Me, as a self-assured, half-drunk, all-knowing dude replied immediately “Hell, yeah!” draining my beer. “Yangon is one destination for people who got culture, yappy yappy yap yap.” I added.
In our group was a tall, quiet Burmese-Englishman who just drank and drank suddenly butt in, “Yangon is not the capital of Burma.” He said quite very seriously.
“Oh shit.” I said to myself. I knew I made a mistake. I’m sure I heard from somewhere Burma already changed their capital. To regain my ground, I just let the Burmese dude add something…we waited in silence, but it never came. *what’s with him? Ha!*
AND AS CUSTOMARY (whenever I post something about Burma), I say:
"FREE AUNG SAN SUU KYI NOW!"
****
4 Comments:
According to two Burmese "experts" in my office, Pyinmana is the district in which the new capital is located. The Burmese military junta officially calls the new capital Naypyidaw. Burmese opposition refers to the new capital as Pyinmana or Pyinmana-Naypyidaw in a conscious effort not to be seen to support the junta's decision to move the capital to a new location. Hope this background info enlightens you a bit more about the new Burmese capital.
Oh shoots! Thanks, thanks! Must be my hang-over.
Ok, thanks Nam. I owe you one. I have to edit this entry. It's double jeopardy! LOL.
Why not set up a new blog about Aung San Suu Kyi and ask for petitions for her release?
There is no non-Burmese blog doing it. A united SE Asia in mind, it could be a good and noble cause.
I actually saw photos of whole buildings and houses being transported to Napyidaw. They're really moving. Full-force.
Moving capitals is actually a good idea, I guess. Every country should have one commercial hub and one governmental hub. Not like Jakarta, which is everything that's good, bad, expensive, cheap, glam and un-glam jumbled into one horrible mess. And don't even get me started on the great Jakarta floods...Where else in the world can the stock exchange SHUT for days because of floods??? Oh Jakarta...
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