Myat Thura

I am writing a series of full length articles on Shwedagon Pagoda in next few days on Myanmar Today . The articles include brief history of Shwedagon Pagoda, stairways, terrace, details of the structures on Shwedagon, interesting places, wonders of Shwedagon and a floor pland of Shwedagon Pagoda for visitors to guide them in their visit to Shwedagon Pagoda. The series will run over two weeks. The first of these series starts today at Shwedagon Pagoda Guide - History .

Yesterday, I got an email invitation from one of my friends to use a new online telephone calling service. This low cost VOIP internet telephone calling service is different from other services in that it can be used to call Myanmar (Burma). Apparently intended for Myanmar people inside and outside of the country to call each other at low costs. It uses Gtalk to connect to a phone in Myanmar, or from a gtalk user from Myanmar to outside phone. Although the promotional email said it is free, the reality is, it is not a free VOIP service. Only registration is free, but to use the service, you need to buy credit. Call rate to a phone in Myanmar, either fixed land line phone or mobile phone, is US$ 0.18 (18 cents) per minute. Call rates to other countries differ from one country to another, depending on the country. You can make online payment as well as bank draft and account to account transfer. There are a number of payment methods mentioned on the website. The Bamartalk website explain...

Finally, at last, prepaid GSM mobile SIM cards are available to the general public in Myanmar. With the official price of post paid GSM phone cards at around 1,500 US$ in Myanmar, the new cheaper GSM cards become the hype among the general public. According to one news story, the sale of cheap handsets goes up in recent weeks in Myanmar. However, there are also some draw backs with this cheaper GSM prepaid cards. I have written three articles on this prepaid GSM cards in my other blogs and the blogs I contribute to. Here are the links to these posts. Prepaid GSM mobile phone cards to be available soon in Myanmar According to some internet news, prepaid GSM SIM cards will be available in Myanmar soon. According to unofficial reports, these GSM SIM cards are to be sold in US dollars initially, aiming at tourists coming to Myanmar. Although the price is yet to be confirmed, it is rumoured that ..... Prepaid mobile phone SIM cards available in City Mart Supermarkets in Yangon...

Yesterday, I got an email invitation from one of my friends to use a new online telephone calling service. This low cost VOIP internet telephone calling service is different from other services in that it can be used to call Myanmar (Burma). Apparently intended for Myanmar people inside and outside of the country to call each other at low costs. It uses Gtalk to connect to a phone in Myanmar, or from a gtalk user from Myanmar to outside phone. Although the promotional email said it is free, the reality is, it is not a free VOIP service. Only registration is free, but to use the service, you need to buy credit. Call rate to a phone in Myanmar, either fixed land line phone or mobile phone, is US$ 0.18 (18 cents) per minute. Call rates to other countries differ from one country to another, depending on the country. You can make online payment as well as ... Read more about Bamartalk - Low cost phone call to Myanmar at Myanmar Man's Diary .

“Vietnamese security firm BKIS proved that all Asians look alike - to a computer; the firm showed it can fool any popular face-recognition “security” system in any brand-name notebook computer quite easily with a photo; the built-in webcams on Toshiba, Lenovo and similar notebooks scan eyes and similar conspicuous features, and BKIS simply enhanced those facial parts on the otherwise normal photos to fool the computers; companies that have been hyping facial-recognition as superior to fingerprints or simple passwords had no immediate comment.” Source: Bangkok Post - Facial Recognition is flawed I am not sure whether this is true or not. If this is really true, it is quite worrying. Why? The first thing is, I am an Asian, and my notebook with built in facial recognition software installed for security is no longer safe. However, I don’t own an advanced notebook, and I don’t have faith in such kind of biometric. So why worry? There is something to be worried about. Facial recognition i...

According to some internet news, prepaid GSM SIM cards will be available in Myanmar soon. According to unofficial reports, these GSM SIM cards are to be sold in US dollars initially, aiming at tourists coming to Myanmar. Although the price is yet to be confirmed, it is rumoured that the SIM cards will be sold at around 50 US dollars each. Each SIM card will comes with US$ 10 worth of credit. The prepaid top up cards will be sold in cards of US$ 10, US$ 30 and US$ 50. US$ 10 card will have validity of one week, US$ 30 with ...... Read in Prepaid GSM mobile phone cards to be available soon in Myanmar .

“Look to the southwest after sunset on Dec. 1 for a close conjunction between three bright solar system objects: the moon, Venus and Jupiter. If you have binoculars, you might even be able to fit all three of them in the field of view. Between now and then, you can see Jupiter and Venus getting closer together each evening.” I just read these lines from MSNBC website. Although it is not yet December 1 ....... Read in Venus, Jupiter shine on Monday Night .

(BangkokPost.com) - Army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd on Thursday afternoon denied that the army was preparing to stage a coup d'état after the widespread coup rumours triggered panic among the public throughout the day. According to the spokesman, the military tanks moved to the First Infantry Division (King's Guards) for the cadets to see, and the vehicles had already returned to the Fourth Cavalry Squadron (King's Guards). The national army chief, Gen Anupong Paojinda, and the army chief of staff, Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha, were reportedly travelled to meet the Statesman and Privy Council president, Gen Prem Tinsulanonda, at Si Sao Thewes residence Thursday. Source: Bangkok Post

Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat will declare state of emergency specifically for the Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi International airports to empower police to break the demonstrations, a source said. The prime minister would not use military forces to deal with the protesters but would use police. The source said forces from the Metropolitan Police Bureau would be deployed to crack down on protesters at the Don Mueang airport and police from the Provincial Bureau 1 would be used to deal with protesters at the Suvarnabhumi. Source: The Nation

Suvarnabhumi Airport will remain closed until 6pm of November 29, according to Airports of Thailand Acting President Serirat Prasutanond. Serirat also added that Don Mueang Airport would be shut down until 6pm of Friday, November 28. He said on Thursday that he has sought an injuction for the court's protection of Don Mueang Airport. Source: The Nation

Here is a brief update on the current situation in Thailand. Suvarnabhumi Airport, the country's main airport and one of the major hubs of Asia is closed, because of PAD protesters taking control of the airport. Don Mueang Airport, the old airport is also closed today, after some PAD protesters seized control of the domestic passenger terminal. The prime minister is currently in Chang Mai. Army commander in chief has suggested the parliament should dissolve and call for a new election. PM refused to accept the suggestion. A group of 30 PPP (the government party) MPs asked the PM to fire the Army commander in chief. PAD refuses to back down. Now, everybody is expecting another military coup. And I cancel my trip to Bangkok.

The head of Thailand's powerful army has asked the government to dissolve parliament and call new elections. Gen Anupong Paochinda denied the move amounted to a coup, and also called on anti-government protesters to withdraw from Bangkok's international airport. Members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) took over the airport on Tuesday, after months of protests. It was the PAD's most dramatic move so far after months of calling for the government to resign. It is unclear where Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who was due to return to Thailand on Wednesday from an Asia-Pacific summit in Peru, now is. However, Gen Anupong said the government was still in control. "This is not a coup," he told a news conference. "The government still has full authority. These points are the way to solve the problem which has plunged the country into a deep crisis," Gen Anupong said. The protesters, who have also been occupying a government compound in t...

Here are high resolution Myanmar Maps created my Myanmar blogger Nyi Lynn Seck. He requested some body to make all of them into a .rar file so that people can easily download these maps. These are .................... Read at High Resolution Myanmar Maps .

I set up a new wordpress blog at my own server at Bamarlay's Diary . I imported all the posts and the comments from this blog to my Bamarlay's Diary . However, this blog will still be running and I will still be posting new articles here. The new blog, Bamarlay's Diary is still a beta and will be running parallel to the current one. Please check it to see any errors and help me by let me know. You can drop a comment anywhere about my new blog. Thank you very much.

I recently stumbled upon an interesting Myanmar personal blog on the web. The blogger is Myo Kyaw Htun, a Myanmar computer and IT professional from Mandalay. He is currently working as a PHP programmer in Bangkok, Thailand. He set up his personal blog mainly as an IT related blog. I found many interesting and useful articles on his blog and here, I share his blog to all my readers. Mya Kyaw Htun

For those of you who want to read the proposed Myanmar Constitution 2008 by the current Myanmar government, here is the document on scribd. You can see it online or you can download it. It is the official translation and publication. Myanmar Constitution 2008 English version Get your own at Scribd or explore others: Politics Asian 2008 constitution Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (2008) Printing September, 2008 (10000) Copies Printed by Printing & Publishing Enterprise, Ministry of Information CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Preamble Basic Principles of the Union State Structure Head of State Legislature Executive Judiciary Defence Services Citizen, Fundamental Rights and Duties of the Citizens Election Political Parties Provisions on State of Emergency Amendment of the Constitution State Flag, State Seal, National Anthem and the Capital Transitory Provisions General Provisions ... ... ... ... ... ... P...