Again in Thailand

Xenne, Sandra & I arrived in Thailand about a couple of hours ago. This time we'll stay a few days since it is difficult at the moment to get flights in and out of Burma. many carriers only fly on sunday, wednesday and friday. There is one carrier that flies every day but the price is quite a bit above the others. So, we decided to stay a few days. Maybe KK will come on friday but that is not sure yet. And it helps that we now have 2 days to go to the embassy. That makes quite a difference if you have a baby to carry around.

For the rest, loads to tell but will do that tomorrow. It was not possible to access my blog these last weeks....

So cute

And since i couldn't get the video up......

No very funny little film of Xenne

Since i can't get to the relevant page on this blog. But it'll get here someday. Somehow. He was making Sandra and me laugh so much yesterday.

It won't be much today. Somehow have to keep login in every 5 minutes. Quite annoying as usual. And Sandra didn't let me write my blog on the laptop the week either. Sandra had bought some new dvd's and they saw that in the evening. They had to use the laptop since the DVD-player has gone to the teashop.

But she's promised me i can write some this week.

Sandra's sooo busy

Or at least, that is what she says. And after school she doesn't want to go to the internet cafe. So i have almost no opportunity to update my blog... But i can understand her. After all, if it is between choosing the internet cafe and Xenne the choice is pretty obvious. Hopefully Sandra wil have a computer (with internet connection) in her office (which she shares with 2 burmese teachers) and then i can be online a bit more often too. Now i prefer to stay at home and play with Xenne.
Sandra tells me that it is quite a change from last year. The school is very big (relatively). There are at least 9 Primary 4 and 10 Primary 5 classes (she has no idea about the number of classes for the other grades..). But she's slowly adjusting to so vast a school.

Soon more. I'm trying to convince Sandra to turn on the computer in the evening so i can type my 'daily' report and then she only has to upload that when she has a good connection. But she's not really listening yet. I assume that it is because she had to get used to working again (after such a long 'holiday'. Maybe she can be persuaded this week.

Some pictures from our last visit to Thailand

With mama in a chiang mai songthaw
After shopping at the local market
Family group picture
What is this?
Let me see that!
No comment
In the train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok
In the same train
In a Chiang Mai coffee shop
A lesson in sleeping
In the train from BAngkok to Chiang Mai
Hello hello
What is this? Let me feel that again


Fun with Dad

A quick visit to Thailand

And not really planned either. Sandra had been trying to contact the international schools ever since we got back from Thailand but to no avail. So on friday she decided to visit them. And bingo, a job. With twice as much pay as at Sandra's last school and less hours. So she's pretty happy about that. She's going to teach english, history and geography to 4th and 5th graders... Mmmmm.

Anyway, so she needed a business visa (the last one was a tourist visa which is only valid for 1 month). After a lot of phonecalls it turned out that we could only get an evening flight on wednesday and an early morning flight on friday (8 am). After which Sandra will rush to to hug Xenne, say hi to KK and, after a quick shower, hurries on towards school and classes....

She hates being in Bangkok with just me and Xenne and KK in Yangon. But it was not doable to take Xenne for such a short period of time. Especially since we were running around all day today arranging our visa, so emergency shopping (for books and such...). It took a while to get the ok from immigration to go and get the visa by ourselves (without Xenne). And we're hoping that we won't run into problems tomorrow morning after all.

Ok. now i will try and upload some pictures from our last time in Thailand

All is still well....

Prices on rice and water are slowly returning to more normal. And the news on the international websites is good. Sandra doesn't trust the local news very much since it still shows the VIPS handing out food (a small pack each time) and still shows the new tents with a family in front of it.. Yeah, right...

We were very close to the meeting that the international community had this sunday. But Sandra didn't want to spend $4 for a cup of coffee at the Sedona so i never got a chance to see Ban Kee-Moon. I thought that would be so cool to mention in a casual conversation in the future. But she really couldn't be talked into having that coffee...

For the rest.. Well, i'm writing this, hoping it'll come over well since 3/4-ths of the page is missing and i can't actually open my own blog... So if you see something strange, too bad.

In Yangon

Actually, i must admit that on the surface things don't look too bad in Yangon. KK's family is fine, most of them went back to Bagan since things here were way too expensive. Our apartment is ok too. Although KK's brother who was house-sitting, told us that they (a cousin decided to keep him company) had to clean a lot since the bedroom floor got flooded somehow. The next building got most of its roof blown of. And we suddenly have an amazing view of the lake. We can even see the restaurant really well of which we saw only the lights before. We have electricity most of the time (if a 2 day-stay can be regarded as a decent time period for reviewing) and water. In the Yankin Shopping center it was crowded as usual. But then it is obvious that the people who suffer the after effects of the cyclone aren't the people who shop there. Those people have plenty of money to keep them going. And the shelves are stocked normally.

But then you look closer. Water is at least twice as expensive as it was before. And rice is much more pricey as well. Both essentials for people here. And everywhere people are cleaning up. But i've only seen the military sitting on the ground, waiting for something or someone. When we arrived, Sandra & KK saw 3 cargo planes on the tarmac. Behind one of those planes there were a lot of m-men sitting. On the other side there were empty trucks with their doors open. And a fair few people waiting around. That was all that was going on. Of course our plane was not even half full. But there were even a few westerners,other than Sandra & Xenne, on it. The taxi driver told us that on the markets one can buy goods that have been donated by the international community. I am not sure whether he has seen it for himself or whether he heard about it. But it says enough....

Ok, time to send this on. The lines are incredibly slow...

Off to Yangon

Tomorrow we'll all be heading to Yangon. See if KK's family is ok. see about his business and if our apartment survived unscathed or whether there is major cleaning to be done... That is, if we can locate KK's brother since he has Sandra's keys to the apartment. KK lost his the day before we left for Thailand. so it could also be that the whole apartement is empty....... Oh well, we'll see.

Sandra isn't too thrilled to go. But she keeps in mind that there is always the possibility of a (hasty?) retreat back to Thailand. Provided that Kyaw Kyaw gets a visa (read: if the consulair section of the Thai embassy is open or not). Sandra went shopping today and bought a lot of baby food and candles. Hopefully it'll be enough.....

Sandra's parents just left. We' all said goodbye. Well, they kind of forgot about me really. I was in Sandra's bag as usual but no one paid much attention to me.

If i have a change i'll try to put up some pictures later. But now Sandra tells me we need to pack.

Update on the cyclone

The news is getting worse and worse each day. We all follow the big news channels (CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera) and we all get extremely fustrated about the lack of cooperation of the military government.

We have no news yet of KK's family but we remain very hopeful and statisticaly speaking they should be fine. Besides, that area is not too near the river.

Sandra just chatted to a former collegue and she said that there is still no water and electricity in Yangon. A week after the cyclone hit. The internet obviously works but only because most internet cafes have generators. She also said that many foreigners (the teachers at Sandra's forer school for example) are all leaving because they can't deal with the situation.

Sandra isn't sure wether she shoudl hope that the government won't give her a vias any time soon (so we have a good reason to remain in Thailand for a while) or that they wil give her the visa so we can see how KK's family is and our freinds and what (if any) is the damage in and around our apartment.

For the rest, we're all doing fine. Chiang Mai is hot and humid. We don't do much except play with Xenne, have a massage, see old friends and things like that...

Cyclone

We're safe and sound in Thailand. It seems that this holiday couldn't have been planned better. According to the news, the cyclone will arrive here too but is apparently diminished in strength so it'll more be like a normal storm.

Yangon looks a mess when we see the pictures on the news and we hope our home is ok. But there is no way to establish contact at the moment. Sandra sent a message the other day (about something completely unrelated) and she got a message back telling her that the delivery has been delayed.... Which is not so strange as Yangon has no power (and no water either if we understood everything correctly). And KK got the news from the Burmese in Khao San Rd already yesterday that the whoel of Burma was closed already for 3-4 days. No flights in and out of either Yangon or Mandalay. Sandra had booked a little early because she had planned to go to the Burmese embassy before her parents would arrive (a plan which failed since it was extremely busy at the embassy when they arrived there so we didn't wait. The visa is now being arranged via a travel agency). But in teh end it was a good thing we got here this early or we might not have gotten here at all.....

So much has happened

Although i wasn't there all the time i got all the info from Sandra......

On thursday she got the telephone number of a dutch woman who lives here in Yangon. It turned out that there is not really a dutch community but that the dutch who live here in Yangon get together every year to celebrate Koninginnedag (for an explanation of this very dutch day see http://www.thehollandring.com/koninginnedag.shtml ). Sandra was sooo disappointed. She had just booked tickets to Thailand for the 30th. But she said she'd love to join them next year (and get together before that time of course). It turns out that there are 21 ! dutch people living in Burma as far as it is known. Sandra was so surprised. 21 dutch, that is so much more than she ever expected. She had heard about other dutch every once in a while (e.g. a taxidriver talking about a dutch man he knew who lived in Yangon and whether Sandra knew him. Or Xenne's doctor who talked about a dutch woman and her 3 year old son) but she had never imagined that there would be this many people here. And now she wonders what they're all doing here....

Then on saturday Sandra, Xenne & I went into the supermarket to buy baby food while KK stayed with the taxi and all our other shoppings (read: he and the taxi driver sat in the teashop looking at the car and drinking tea). Sandra was just looking at some baby things when a woman started to talk to her. She had seen Xenne (he was in the baby carrier) and she was so surprised to see another western woman with a baby. Her son was 5 months old and he's also half burmese (she's american). So they got all exited and started to talk like crazy in the store. Luckily for me, Xenne started to squirm and cry a little otherwise we might have been in there for ever. They exchanged phone numbers and yesterday Xenne, Sandra & I went over there (they had electricity and we didn't). And Sandra thought it was fantastic. They had so many things to talk about. And they were both so happy to find another woman with a baby here in Yangon (there are western children here but usually past the toddler stage at least). And now they can't wait till the 2 guys meet. KK was busy yesterday so he didn't come along. Me, i found all that baby talk a bit boring but i was happy just to be there and enjoy the cool air....

Alright, the next post will probably be from Thailand.

Have you ever lived in a sauna?

Sandra now says she knows exactly what it feels like to live in a sauna. Yesterday she was feeding Xenne and even though he was just lying in her lap and she was only holding the bottle up (hardly a very strenous effort) beads of sweat were runnning down her spine. And she could feel the sweat forming on her face. Just like when you are in a sauna according to her. I don't know what that must feel like since i've never been in one. So i can't tell you whether her perceptions are accurate but i can confirm that it is incredibly hot at the moment.

For the rest there is not much going on. KK and Sandra are busy trying to was away the big pile of dirty laundry. Which is a hassle without a washing machine (we have one but it doesn't work well so they don't use it. Besides, without electricity it is not easy to run a washing machine). And teh cleaning lady quit. At least that is what they think since she hasn't showed up for more than a week now. So apparently being good employers (more pay than average, easy hours and even paid holidays) wasn't good enough...

Electricity - part 3

Remember that i said in the last post that Sandra told me not to mention that we had 24 hours of electricity. Call it superstition but apparently the around the time i wrote it, the power was disconnected again. We only got it back at around 8 in the evening (1,5 hours after it was completely dark!). And this morning it was switched off again...... So the saga continues!

Our landlady (who is also our neighbour) told me yesterday that she lived in Japan for a short while (her husband is Japanese) but she couldn't live there. She loved the fact that they had power all the time. And she loved the Onsen (hot springs but she couldn't get used to the cold.... Sandra thinks that she and Kyaw Kyaw should talk about that some time. Kyaw Kyaw keeps saying that he can handle the cold. Because he has been to Kalaw a few times where it was around 15 degrees celsius which he figures is very very cold. Even yesterday night he asked Sandra whether it was as cold in her country as it was in the bedroom at that time ( the aircon has 3 temperatures: a little cold, colder and OFF). She said that it could be much colder in the Netherlands. Kyaw Kyaw reacted by crawling deeper under the blanket (mind, the temperature is such that Sandra sleeps only under a sheet, no blanket necessary).

It was nice that our landlady dropped by (the guards from downstairs needed to do some maintenance in our apartment and she came along) since it turned out that she still had a baby bed. And we could borrow it (Xenne is outgrowing the camping bed fast. The other day he had almost managed to put his legs over the edge...). It is a little bit dusty since it hasn't been used these past 5 years but with a bit of cleaning it wil be as good as new. Brilliant since Sandra had already gone to the shopping mall yesterday to look for a baby bed but the mall was still closed for Thingyan. And this bed is big enough for Xenne and me. In the camping bed i found i got pushed away a bit too much for my liking.... It'll be handy though when we'll all go to Thailand early May. Sandra's parents come over for a 2 week holiday. And thankfully they do have electricity ALL THE TIME in Thailand (part of which is provided by Burma, don't get Sandra started on that...)

Thinyan and Xenne's 100-day party

First of all, Thinyan. Burmese new year and all out waterfestival. Which means that usually you'll be drenched from the moment you set a foot outside till the moment you get back home. But not this time. Sandra decided to stay at home most of the time. She thinks Xenne isn't old enough to be wet all the time. Besides, the water isn't always very clean. Or they throw ice-water. KK went one day with friends. 14 guys in the back of a jeep of sorts. Luckily all those guys have an asian figure otherwise they wouldn't all fit in the back of that car... I was invited but decided not to go. I don't speak burmese very well so i didn't have anyone to talk to apart from Kyaw Kyaw. So i stayed with Sandra & Xenne. We could still hear all the music (there was a big stage with Iron Cross, Burma's most famous band, on the corner of Inya Lake) and it was fun watching the little kinds of the next apartment building trowing water. Mostly at each other though since there weren't that many cars that passed.

It also turned out that many places were closed for all the Thinyan days. Luckily KK's brother had warned KK and Sandra about the city mart being closed. This is the place where they buy Xenne's baby formula and there aren't many other places where you can get that. So they stored 2 boxes just in case. Sandra thought it was not possible that a supermarket/shopping mall would be closed for 7 days just because of a yearly festival but it was. So we were all very very glad we'd stocked up on baby food and diapers......


The 16th, Xenne was 100 days old so there was a birthday party. Arranged mostly by Xenne's grandparents. KK's grandfather had cooked (he is a most excellent cook, probably one of the best i know here in Burma). We were expected at the teashop at 7.30, a time we didn't make of course. We were half an hour late (it is half an hour by taxi from the apartment to the teashop so it isn't exactly next door either). The upper floor of the house had been decorated with balloons and such. And there were mats on the ground on which 3 low, round tables where placed around which the guests positioned themselves. They got a sort of pancake with chicken and could take as much potato curry and bean soup as they wanted (every table had bowls of that on the table). Topped of with a cold orange drink or tea, whatever they liked.

There were quite a number of guests throughout the morning. Many didn't stay very long of which Sandra was quite glad since she couldn't talk with them. And they just kept looking at her which made her uncomfortable after a while.

Xenne got a lot of presents. Some very useful, some a lot less. We now have 5 cans of talcum powder. One expecially for babies, and the others for teenagers/adults (the text isn't in Burmese and many people can't read the english texts). People here use that stuff a lot for baby bottoms but Sandra tells me that she has enough baby cream to last her a while so they haven't figured out yet what to do with all that powder.

They also got a pair of squeeky shoes for when Xenne can walk. Sandra told me she vowed Xenne would never wear those kind of shoes (she was once on a boat for 2 days where one of the children had shoes like this. She, and the 2 people she traveled with, were ready to kill that child after those 2 days....). But it is a present so she can't really throw them away. Thankfully it is of a cheap chinese quality so she's betting that the shoes will be broken after a couple of days use.....

Photo's of the birthday party will be put here as soon as i can get them loaded again...

More electricity

Or should i say 'less'. 'cause it has been less of late. A lot less. Ever since i wrote about our electricity-situation we've experienced a dramatic reduction of it. It was so bad at some point that we had 6 hours of electrity every day (from 6 in the morning till 12). That really really sucked big time.
But the last 2 days we've suddenly experienced life as it should be. 24 hours of electricity. I'm almost afraid to write this down and Sandra tells me i shouldn't just in case. But we're hoping the we'll have a more regular power supply from now on. I'll keep you all updated on that....

Electricity, or more the lack of it

We've been staying a little over 2 weeks at our new apartment and i finally managed to figure out the power-supply. We have 2 non-power days with the power coming on at around 5-6 in the evening. On the 3rd day however anywhere between 10 and 12 the power comes back on and we will have it till 5-6 in the evening. After that, we're in the complete dark. Literally. So Sandra has bought a fair amount of candles and we now also have 2 rechargeable lights that we can take all through the house. Which is a must since Sandra tells me it is very difficult to make a bottle of baby food if you can't see what you are doing. And cleaning dirty baby bottems is also not easy without light. But other inconveniences are that the fridge is off for at least a couple of hours every day (there is always electricity again at night after 11 which lasts till you can almost see what you are doing in the morning, which is around 5.30). So things as yoghurt, milk or even left overs that need to be cold can't be kept. And sandra & KK put the water bottles in the freezer so they have cold water at least. And half the time we can't use our rice-cooker and the mixer (for nice juicy juices). I think (and Sandra agrees with me) that the power supply rotates between the neighbourhoods since whenever we have no power in the evening we can see 2 pagoda's lit-up and on at least one night that we have power, the pagoda's are invisible.

Of course it is high summer and it is bloody hot and we all hope that the supply will be more available once the rainy season has started (late may).

Traveling

a last feed before take-off by aunt Mirjam
The bye-bye committee consisted of long time friend Nicole and her daughter Jutta

Xenne's nice baby-bed in the airplane. It was attached to the wall in front of Sandra's seat. I was stored up in the luggage compartment which was ok with me. I curled up and slept the whole way. So did Xenne. Well most of the time i heard. He was also taken good care of by all the staff. They doted on him.

A few pictures of the time in the netherlands

In bed with one of his nice toys
Playing with uncle Arno
A nice bath. An dlucily done by more experienced hands than his mum's
Yummy, food!



There are many may more pictures but since the connection is so bad of late, i might or might not post them later

Finally, some pictures again...

Proud grandparents

Proud mums
7 weeks older and already so much more grown up
all together for a nice picture