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Southern Myanmar is
the long tail all
the way down from
Yangon to Kawthaung
or as the British
called it Rangoon to
Victoria Point.
British colonial
time in Myanmar is
long gone but the
colonial British
are still very
virulent in the area
by different means.
One of them was
Rudyard Kipling and
the Burmese girl at
Moulmein.
A great story,
poem or whatever you
want. Today
there are people who
try to reinterpreted
all this stuff, but
they fail because
today is different
and nobody can
seriously backwards
interpret what
happen at that time
in southern Myanmar.
Probably the best
stories of southern
Myanmar in the
past come from
Maurice Collis and
not Kipling. The
story "Siamese
White" of the
Maurice Collis is
the best book ever
written about that
part of
Myanmar in
reference to the
past, its a absolute
classic.
Southern Myanmar
always was a a ball
jumping back and
forward between
Myanmar Kings of the
past, Thailand Kings
of the past and
Portuguese, English,
Chinese and Dutch,
all of them left
their mark on Yangon
or Rangoon, Pegu or
Bago, Moulmein or
Mawlamyine,
Tavoy or Dawai,
Mergui or Myeik, the
archipelago in
between and
Kawthaung or
Victoria Point, the
southernmost tip of
Myanmar, then Burma.
This includes the
Isthmus of Kra
just a bit north of
today Kawthaung and
Ranong in Thailand
where since
centuries the idea
to create a channel
between the Indian
Ocean and the
Pacific lived.
The Isthmus of
Kra is where the
shortest way over
land between the two
oceans exists. A
channel such as the
Panama Channel there
would cut down |