Backstreet. (Tachileik, Myanmar)

Jon, do you know these guys? This looks positively dangerous. Great capture that tells so much of a story.

These guys aren't dangerous at all. They're just young guys taking a break from work.

 

The dangerous ones in Tachileik are the Wa druglords that produce mephamphetamines. In a country in which people typically earn $1 a day if they can find work, these Wa druglords are filthy rich. The Burmese government allows them to carry their guns around with them in Yangon. They provide much of the capital to the Burmese banks which have no real international connections at all. (The contractor who was building the apartment next to ours in Yangon was thrown in jail after the Wa bank pulled his financing. He was found guilty of fraud for being unable to repay some prepayments that future tenants had made. Everytime we opened our window we saw his family who was camping out in the skeleton of the unfinished building while he served his jail term. The inscrutable East?)

 

Thank you for the comment and rating. Sorry for sounding so serious above. I'm still recovering from living in the place, that is Burma. I love the people but there are so many problems there, making enough to eat for your family, the health system for your family when they are sick and dieing. If you attempt to live there you inevitably get wrapped up emotionally in those problems yourself. Cheers.