Support A Burmese Homegrown Business

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Internet Cafe

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uploaded by HellaD

The owner of this small internet cafe/ tour office/ traditional documentary making/ computer and english school for kids is working hard to promote traditional Burmese culture to the wider world.

Earlier this year he was the victim of a very clever scam which involved corporate identity theft of a large hotel as well as a visa issuing company in the UK.  These people were taking advantage of the terrible situation in Burma and were offering work visa's to London.  He lost at least $600 in this process.  A good salary in Burma is $20 a month.  He is recovering from this set-back by putting energy into his home-town which is Nyaung Shwe-the gateway to the famous mystical Inle Lake in Shan State, Burma/Myanmar.

His company offers some of the best personalised tours of the areas around the lake and Shan State, and has the best fresh strawberry and chocolate pancakes in Nyaung Shwe.

Tourism has dropped steeply to Burma in the past year, but Inle Pancake Kingdom has transformed the internet cafe into a free computer school for kids of the town as well as english teaching.  They are expanding into video production and have produced a great video on the traditional method of making yellow tofu, which is unique to Shan State.

The school is happy to accept volunteers who would like to share their knowledge.  The owner is completely self-taught in both english and computers and a very intersting fellow.  If anyone is thinking of going to Burma this is a good place to head for real contact with the local people.