Word: naypyidaw
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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There aren't any," says the hotelier with an embarrassed laugh when I ask about the best tourist attractions in Burma's new capital. That's no surprise, really. Naypyidaw--the name translates as "Abode of Kings"--was built from scratch just three years ago on orders from the ruling junta. The vast swath of former scrubland didn't even exist when the latest Lonely Planet Burma travel guide was written, and there's not much tourist charm in a dusty bunker town whose sole purpose is the wish fulfillment of paranoid generals...
...Naypyidaw is very big and very empty. Even after Cyclone Nargis devastated Rangoon, Burma's former capital, that metropolis of 5 million still teems with life. The authorities claim that Naypyidaw, untouched by the storm, is home to nearly 1 million residents. But on a recent visit, I saw only a few dozen people apart from the gangs of manual laborers painting crosswalks and sweeping spotless boulevards. On the 20-minute drive from the airport to the hotel zone--where all six of Naypyidaw's hotels are located--I passed just three other vehicles. One was a horse-drawn buggy...
Tens of thousands of civil servants have been forced to abandon Rangoon for Naypyidaw, but the new capital has only two markets catering to their needs. There's no sign of movie theaters or karaoke dens, and no cell-phone coverage--for "security reasons," the locals claim. (That still doesn't explain why junta leader Than Shwe has refused to take calls from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was phoning to urge more government aid for cyclone victims...
...Despite the considerable effort evident in the landscaping of the manicured confines of Naypyidaw's Natural Herbal Park and Water Fountain Garden, no people loll in these public green spaces. Indeed, the only place, besides the market, where people seem to be relaxing was at a Buddhist pagoda, where three canoodling couples have sought out shade. But none of the country's omnipresent Buddhist monks appear to have made it to Naypyidaw, not even to its pagoda. Presumably, these instigators of last September's peaceful democracy protests, which were violently suppressed by soldiers aren't overly welcome in a city...
...city's only attempt at a tourist attraction is a replica of Rangoon's famous Shwedagon pagoda. The Naypyidaw version, though, remains unfinished. At the building site, groups of child laborers - some appearing no older than six - lug heavy rocks on woven stretchers and swing pickaxes into the hard earth. Burma's junta has long been considered one of the world's worst human-rights abusers. But the country's generals don't have to see these tiny laborers build a golden temple for their Abode of Kings. That's because the generals are bunkered in another, faraway part...