On Friday we flew from Kuala Lumpur, after spending one night at an airport hotel, at 6:55 a.m. to Yangon, Myanmar. It was so convenient to stay right at the airport. We could walk a ramp way right to the terminal. It was a great night’s sleep! `The room was basic but clean and the location was perfect!
Our flight on Air Asia was only 2 hrs. Not sure how this works but I think there was a 1.5 hr. time change! So it was earlier when we arrived from Malaysian time.
Our taxi ride from the airport went past Inle Lake, near Yangon University, where we saw students walking along, many young women in light pink robes dressed like nuns. This lake is where Aung San Suu Kyi lives. She is the daughter of a national hero, Aung San a leader here before and after WWII. He and his wife had 4 children, she the only daughter. One son drowned as a child. The father was a student leader, at one time a Communist, allied with the Japanese, thinking to gain independence from the British. But then realized his mistake and helped the British conquer the Japanese. He realized they were going to be more oppressive than the British had been. After the war he and the 30 Comrades formed a government. But at age 37, while in a government meeting in the Secretariat, a former British government bldg. downtown, rebels broke in and he and 6 others were assassinated.
So the mother raised the 3 kids herself. Suu Kyi got a good education, including studying at a prestigious school in India. She I believe studied at Oxford or Cambridge and met and married a Brit and had 2 sons. Because she had been married to a non-Burmese, she can never be leader of the country. At one point she realized if she didn’t return to Burma, to help her people, she might NEVER be allowed back in. All totaled she was under house arrest, in her house on the lake, for years. When her husband in UK was ill with prostate cancer, she wasn’t allow to visit (or not ever return to Burma) Her children are UK citizens and live abroad. She has been working for peace in her country and was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in . Of course, she couldn’t attend to receive it, or she could never return. She since, after pressure from many governments, including from Pres. Obama, has been released from confinement. She created a position of State Counselor or some such but the military is in control, I think.
Recently there was an attorney who used to be HER attorney, who was working to help a beleaguered ethnic group in the NW - a Muslim group called Rahingi, I think. Anyway, he was recently assassinated in the Yangon airport. There was a memorial service this past week for him and Lindy an American we met at the hostel, from Texas, who has taught here for 2 years, and now teaches in Chna - she said Suu Kyi showed up at the service and made a nice speech (Lindy seemed critical and didn’t think she’d show). The military, without any restraints fro the government, are raping, killing men, women and children in what Lindy called genocide! Many have fled over the border into Bangladesh (just what that country needs - refugees!!) Suu Kyi has yet to speak out against any of this, I’m told.
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