First day "Rumors and excitement"

August 19 2007, I am not 88 student uprising generation and to be totally honest I am not interested a bit about 88 uprising. I don't know how peoples started about then but on August 19, it all started with rumors, fear and excitement. Long before SPDC government had raised fuel price by cutting down the subsidized , there were many rumors and peoples are actually hoping for something to came. Change or no change , peoples were hoping for a showdown or mass demonstration of some kind to display their discontent. As in every August to September, the rumors of small or limited demonstration all happened in Burma. On the anniversary of 88 uprising and bloody crackdown that followed later on. I or any body that I knew in my age didn't care about it nor had any attachment to it and life went as usual for us. Happy to rid of Yangon heat but working soaking wet in murderous torrent of rain in Yangon. But lately by every year, rain just pour down but heat doesn't seem to goes away anymore. Must be global warming and we were in forefront of it. Life in Yangon was hard before government raised the fuel price and I guess it harder after they raised it.
Before they raised the fuel price , the fare were pretty cheap even for lowest income in Yangon. Every fare was usually 50 Kyats. From outskirt of Yangon to downtown and 20 kyats for short distance bus stops. Every fares was pretty standardize and only fares that travel outside state of Yangon was 100 kyats. Average income of low level workers in Yangon at that time was 1000 kyats. That include, clerk in supermarket , door man , labor worker and many young and old store workers who lived in outskirt of the city and commuted everyday for 2 to 3 days on crowed bus for 100 to 200 kyats a day. That leaved them with 800 kyats to spend every day. Many of them have families and most that 800 kyats went to grocery and in kitchen for tomorrow. Single and young worker were the winner because that whole 800 kyats was for their pocket money. Young men usually spend on cigarette, in tea shop and sometimes a little bit on liquor. After the fuel price raised, the short distance fare became 50 kyats and average fare between outskirt of city to downtown was 150 kyats. That make 300 kyats a day on return ticket and it was the shortest distance from downtown to outskirt of the city. So some fare cost a lot more than 300 kyats and I just travel that far from downtown using the bus. So lower income worker didn't leaved much to spend on and silent a week before the monks march on.
Many workers stop showing up for work, bus were empty in most of the regular time and even in rush hour you could get a seat which never did happen before the fuel price raised. Both the employer and employee were in the trouble because many employer didn't want to raise the wage because they are afraid inflation. Employee simply can't survived on 1000 kyats a day wages. I seem some came on compromised , Employee didn't raised the wages but agreed to gave free lunch. But the tension were so high that many people expected something to came up even without the monks marching on.
Two or three days before the monk actually show up in Su Lay pagoda (that like Burma medicine square or Kremlin square),we heard so much rumors that we thought monks would had caught by government spy before they could even reach Yangon. Some said that 3000 monks were matching straight from pogoku on foot just as oil workers did in colony time. But a day before the monks set foot on Su Lay pagoda, we got the corrected numbers that show up, 300 monks had arrived to Yangon and would start marching on August 19.