Big Drum Restaurant | Nyaungshwe, Myanmar
MTDateHeader>January 24, 2009
Canon A630
This sweet man works as a waiter but occasionally as a boat driver. I assume the boat pays well compared to serving at a restaurant with 5-6 customers per night15000 is the going rate for a day trip, although I don't know how much of that goes to gas or rent of the boat.
His village was further away than Paw Son's, so he'd moved to Nyaungshwe for work. His wife was Burmese, so he considered his daughter "true Bamar" as well. He had another on the way, which he was convinced would be a boy.
Although he complained that there hadn't been many tourists lately, the staff agreed the biggest hit had been due to the Bangkok Airport's shutdown. No mention of whether tourism had steadily decreased since Cyclone Nargis, whether it had basically been bad all year from his perspective.
He clearly adored his daughter, but the "white liquor" (rice wine) he shared with me also brought out the fact that he wished sometimes he was still single, that it was too much work having to worry about the family all the time, that he never felt like he could catch up financially.