Originally Posted by
Asturias56
I had some mates who worked there in the 60's and 70's - reckoned there were 13-15 active armed forces roaming the country (including the Govt.).
More like the Middle Ages than the 20th Century one observed
Operated out of Rangoon (as then was) for a month in the mid 60s. A curious mixture of charming people in a spectacularly beautiful country desperately short of finance. The exchange rate for the Burmese Kyat was such that when we tipped the hotel staff for their exceptional service, we ended with individual staff members serving each of us ! I still have a small pair of gold-painted, laquered papier-mache ducks as souvenirs. Our hotel was also the base for a group of Russian 'advisors' - the gloomiest bunch I ever came across. Night-stopped up country in the company of a Pakistani Goose captain who had flown the rescue mission to pick up Tony Melton, the Javelin nav who had bailed out, with his (sadly deceased pilot) en route to Singapore.