Evicted from an Earthly Paradise

CHAUNG THA — When people come to the beaches of Chaung Tha and Ngwe Saung in Irrawaddy Division, they immediately feel their stress melt away. The warm sand, clear blue sky and bluish-green water bring relief to the weary souls of Burmese city dwellers and world travelers alike.

But for many of the original residents of these famous resort areas, life here is anything but paradise.

Souvenir shops and food vendors in Chaung Tha. (Photo: Ko Khaing)

Although they once lived simple but comfortable lives as coconut growers, many local people now barely scrape by on what they can earn from wandering the beaches with food to sell to tourists. And even this income is often denied them by police and resort owners, who regard them as little more than a blight on the local tourism industry.

Many foreign and local tourists flock to the beaches of Ngwe Saung and Chaung Tha from December to April. There are now18 hotels in Ngwe Saung, 13 in Chaung Tha and another 25 bungalows waiting to accommodate visitors from near and far.

Most have appeared in the past decade, after a land grab by the government cleared the way for cronies of Burma's ruling junta to develop prime seaside properties.

For beach vendors like Mya Mya, who carries trays of grilled seafood on her head all day long—her face covered with a thick layer of thanakha paste to protect her skin from the scorching sun—there is no forgetting that these beaches once belonged to her and others like her.

“We used to own these lands once,” she says, looking vacantly at the Ngwe Saung seashore.

Like many other people who lived in this area before property developers moved in and turned it into a upscale tourism hotspot, Mya Mya and her family lost their coconut plantation in 2000, when the government confiscated their land.

They received nothing for the land itself, but were paid 1,500 kyat (US $1.50) for each coconut tree they owned. Mya Mya's family had 50 trees, so they received a total of just 75,000 kyat ($75). Deprived of his land and his livelihood, her father died of grief, she said.

Now, says the 37-year-old mother of three, her husband and 14-year-old son work at a prawn farm in a nearby village. But they don't earn enough to support the family, so she and her 10-year-old middle son spend their days trying to sell food to tourists.

But walking the beach in search of customers is a risky business.

“We used to have our own coconut plantation, but now this is how we make a living,” said Ma Shwe War, a vendor on Chaung Tha beach. “During the high season, when there are lots of tourists, we can get by selling seafood on the beach, but we always have to be careful not to get arrested.”

For Daw Thay, a 60-year-old grandmother who sells crab curry on the beach while her daughter works at a rubber plantation, stealth has become second nature.

"We always have to sell food behind people's backs,” she said. “My granddaughter finds the customers and I prepare the food. We don't dare go anywhere near the hotels.”

When she gets an order, she buys crab from the market, cooks it and sells it for 2,500-4,000 kyat ($2.50-$4). From this, she earns around 500 kyat ($0.50). But, she adds, if she's caught, she could end up paying a fine of 10,000 kyat ($10).

Not everyone is sympathetic to their plight.

“These vendors are a nuisance to our guests,” said the manager of one beach hotel. “It also looks bad for our country.”

Some vendors say that hotel staff often team up with local police to prevent them from selling food on the beach.

"Sometimes we can't get away from the police because we can't run into the water to escape, and we can't run towards the hotels, where the staff are waiting to catch us,” said Ma She War, who sells grilled prawns on Chaung Tha beach.

Of course, concern for their guests and their country's image is not the only reason hotels try to block vendors. Food sold on the beach sells for a fraction of what the hotel restaurants charge. At one hotel, for instance, the same crab curry that Daw Thar sells for 4,000 kyat ($4) costs 15,000 kyat ($15).

Even outsiders who have witnessed the growth of the local tourism industry say they can see a steady deterioration in the quality of life for people who lived near the beaches before they became popular resort areas.

“Locals used to be able to live easily before, but now if you ask them about life here, eight out of ten will tell you they are in hardship. They have lost all of their property and have been uprooted.