Myanmar official visit ( SATREPS Workshop and field survey) - Day 7 (23-August-2015)

Day 7

Good morning.
A field trip is not a field trip without interviews with local people/residents. Am I wrong? I guess no!

So there we were, eagerly waiting to interview some local residents of the flooded area!

We checked out of the hotel and headed to two near-by monastries. For better communication and understanding, we also hired a professional translator to translate Japanese-Burmese-Japanese. We conducted many interviews with local residents of the flood affected areas.

Interview with local residents

Local resident showing the flood water level for 2015 and the year before.

Our group also donated to both the monastries

Donations at 1st Monastry

Donations at 2nd Monastry

Area devasted by the recent flood

The picture shows the same location during the 2015 flood.

Local resident showing the 2015 flood water level

Just a random pic! Can you guess what it is? Please post a comment with your answer! :)

Then we visited the DMH regional office for the Bago region. They explained about their data collection system. Like all the other visits to offices, we were again served some foods/fruits. Since this meeting was completely in Burmese and Japanese, I just got some idea of what was going on (thanks to my poor Japanese skills). So I just ate a complete plate of watermelons (it was so delicious, I couldnt stop!).

Later on I cross-checked my understanding of the meeting with the DMH official, and yes I got most of the things correctly!

DMH official explaining about the recent rainfall pattern

Sensor at the Bago bridge

Kawasaki sensei giving a souvenir to DHM official

Then we left for Yangon. On the way to Yangon, we stoppped at the Shwe Pyi restaurant (a very famous restaunrant) for lunch.

Lunch time!

We reached YTU at around 5 pm and bid farewell to the YTU group. We really appreciate their arrangements and also for accompaning us for the trip. Without their help, the field survey/trip wouldnt have been a success!

Finally cheecked-in in a hotel in the Yangon downtown area, and (yes you guessed it right) another meeting at Hotel lobby!

A view from my window

For dinner, we went to a near-by Shan restaurant. I tried sticky noodles with chicken and Som Tam, one of my favourite Thai food (oh I really miss Thai food!).

And finally some rest after a very tiring and productive day.

Thats all for the day. Good night!