When arriving in Naypyidaw there is only one thing you will never have to worry about: traffic jams. The 20 lanes highway is more than sufficient for the four or five cars using at any given time of the day.
The city was constructed over ten years between 2002 and 2012 to become the new capital of Myanmar. A city five times the size of London, officials expected the masses to arrive… but they haven’t. However, in late July 2019 the population grew by two as we settled in our brand new bungalow.
You will be pleased to know that our phones can always be in full charge. Committed to the life of a statistician, we began our extensive census of plug sockets and found 43. With a ratio of more than 40 to 2, our house, like the rest of the city, has the capacity to host many more people than it actually does.
One thing we will not be plugging in is kitchen devices because there isn’t a kitchen. However, we have been furnishing our living room with a rice cooker and we are enjoying the plentiful supply of YouTube tutorials on plethora different recipes. Stay tuned for our culinary adventures with a 1 litre pot and boundless imagination.
The bungalow is in a small housing complex with 9 or 10 other development agencies workers and is kept safe by the many werewolves that circulate around the property and keep us awake at night. But don’t worry about us sleeping into late, the rooster has got our back.
In our first day in the city we managed to join a gym. The evening six pack work-out course seems to be bringing the very latest in sports science to the ASEANs region. Who knew that rolling around like a dying cockroach could give you abs of steel?
We were pleased to find many local restaurants and Mr Bar B Q is already our favourite. You first choose a variety of fish, meat and vegetables from large fridges which then gets delivered to you perfectly grilled and full of flavour. It all tastes better when is washed down with a large Myanmar beer. Locals like to mix the pale lager with a darker stout, but we haven’t tried that yet. We don’t want to have too much fun too soon. Our schedule is already full with plans of nights out to experience the buzzling night life… in the one bar.
With our house set up, we are ready to start work. In our next post, we talk about starting a new job in a government office of Myanmar.
A Data Remember 