Capital Confusion in Myanmar

Overbuilt and Downright Confounding

Rush Hour - 20 Lane Highway

If there were a prize for the world’s most unusual capital city, Nay Pyi Taw might be a strong contender. The new capital, with expansive fourteen-lane highways, a Vegas-style hotel zone and the only shopping mall I saw in Myanmar, was our first training assignment outside of Yangon. The capital is 200 miles north of Yangon, but our driver made great time on the clear, expansive highways. Expecting a bustling capital, what we found were vast highways so empty that street sweepers with brooms and the odd buffalo walked safely across the concrete ribbons. Animals roamed the grounds of sprawling hotels and government buildings and clearly, hotels were overbuilt and under occupied.

Entire buildings of our hotel were shut down and the rest sparsely used. There wasn’t anyone to ask about the situation, but a student in our class claimed that the city was built quietly—the Myanmar people were taken by surprise by its even existence as well as the shift of the capital from Yangon to Nay Pyi Taw back in 2005.

Our guidebook stated said that the nation’s then leader was following the advice of an astrologer to prevent “overthrow of the government from the sea.” Fear of attack from the sea may help explain why the government did not allow outside assistance after Tropical Cyclone Nargis, when 146,000 people died from the storm, flooding and then starvation in the aftermath.

All the buildings in Nay Pyi Taw are shiny new, and the Myanmar Red Cross building even has hostel style accommodation for visiting Red Cross volunteers. We expanded our hands-on practical exercises based on that first class and were thrilled with the interest of the students in HF/VHF radio skills and procedures as well as their warmth and interest toward America and the functions of the American Red Cross. Next stop, Mawlamyine, in the southern Delta region.

No problem getting a taxi at the airport