A woman was sitting in a chair out in a deserted hallway, making small talk

Woman laughing in corridor — Woman making small talk in the hallway

As I walked past the stores selling fishing nets at the market, I arrived at a different place with a different atmosphere. There were no fishing nets to be found anywhere here. Instead, all I saw were stores selling precious metals. In contrast to the sparkling precious metals on display in the stores, all the stores looked bored and the corridor was deserted. This is a market in Kyauktan. Not many people go out of their way to buy precious metals here.

The woman in the photo seemed to have nothing to do and was sitting on a chair in the aisle, making small talk. A colleague had said something funny, and the woman was laughing in the deserted aisle.

I have a feeling that the number of precious metals dealers operating in a town is inversely proportional to the trustworthiness of the government of that place. If the government is not trustworthy, people are more likely to buy precious metals that they can take with them and flee the country, rather than building wealth in bank deposits or stocks to preserve their wealth. In this light, it seems that although Myanmar's government has become more democratic, it is still not trusted by its own citizens.

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