‘Be back by 7’: For Yangon’s young, a life ruled by a self-enforced curfew

The Yangon in my mind was sketched from the memories of friends: a city of golden pagodas and crumbling colonial architecture; of delicious bowls of mohinga and teashops where, in their younger days, they would chat for hours before finally wandering home in the hazy glow of a humid Myanmar night.Landing there recently, these images all came to life for me for the first time. The bustling city was a remarkable mosaic of cultures, eras, and tastes. And the evenings were spectacular. But I soon learned that the brilliant orange sunset was more than just a pretty farewell to the day. It was also a warning.“Be back by 7,” everyone told me. The streets aren’t safe at night anymore, they said.By dusk—the time when the streets would normally be full of young people lingering in teahouses or heading out to bars, or simply strolling after a long, hot day—the city is largely quiet.There were no young boys showing off their chinlone prowess in the streets, no students striding arm in arm or careering around on bikes—just a few street vendors wheeling away their wares and the odd taxi looking for one last fare to end the day. I knew the reason for this, but was still surprised to see it with my own eyes. War was raging across the country, but here in Yangon, its most visible sign was not shrieking bombs falling on unsuspecting civilians, but the almost total absence of a nightlife.With ward administrators and other junta officials prowling the streets at night, looking for young people to fill the military’s depleting ranks, an evening out now means risking your future—or your life. Desperate to fill conscription quotas, these officials will snatch anyone they find of eligible age off the street and force them into military service.When the military seized power in 2021, Myanmar’s largest city saw more than its fair share of violence, with deadly crackdowns claiming the lives of many anti-coup protesters. Since then, it has been spared the sheer scale of destruction seen elsewhere in the country. Yet even here, the tendrils of war are evident.Barbed wire barricades remain around police stations, hotels, and big businesses, while manned gun posts can be seen in seemingly random places, such as beside park playgrounds or propped up against old colonial buildings. And then there are the checkpoints, which are all over the city. Each one sends your heart racing—“Quick! Put a helmet on! Get in the back!” You must always have your ID ready—and your wallet, to pay the mandatory “fee” to ensure smooth passage. Police station in downtown Yangon (Photo: Myanmar Now) ‘Sometimes I just cry’ Despite all the potential pitfalls of appearing in public, some young people still can’t resist going out to socialise. One university student tells me that whenever he goes out in the evenings, his father calls him every hour to check in and remind him to stay off the streets for fear of being abducted.“My parents don’t want me to go out at night at all, but I’m careful,” he said, adding that he and his friends usually meet at KTV establishments where they can sing in private karaoke boxes, out of view of the authorities.But it is not just the threat of military abduction that keeps people inside. A rising crime rate—a product of the prevailing lawlessness of life under military rule—has forced residents of Yangon to take safety concerns more seriously.The university student told me how he was robbed recently by the driver of a three-wheeled motorcycle taxi. The driver and his partner took him to an isolated spot and demanded the outrageous amount of 450,000 kyat—around US$100—as their fare. Fearing for his life, he called around frantically, until a teacher agreed to lend him the money.“There was nothing I could do,” he said. “I couldn’t go to the police, and I was scared they would fight me. The money was not worth my life.”Despite such dangers and the many other stresses of their lives, the residents of Yangon somehow manage to stay in seemingly good spirits. Eager to talk, their unfailing cheerfulness is often at odds with the devastating news they share.When meeting a foreign visitor, they will go directly from, “Hello, where are you from?” to “Our country is in a terrible state.” An English teacher stopped me in the street. Our conversation was brief. “Last month, there was an airstrike in Rakhine State. They bombed a market. Over 50 people died and many more were injured,” he said. “Sometimes I just cry.”Before I arrived, I had wondered if war fatigue had set in, making people unwilling to speak about the seemingly endless conflict that has gripped most of Myanmar. But I found that many I spoke to were well-informed about the situation around the country, and wanted those stories heard. Actively following the latest developments in the civil war, they openly curse the regime that ignited it by seizing power. Ignoring the risks that come with speaking out, they say the junta has robbed them of their national pride by pulling the promise of democracy out from under their feet. /* Widget Sandboxing & Reset */ #mn-article-banner, #mn-article-banner * { box-sizing: border-box !important; margin: 0; padding: 0; } #mn-article-banner { font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, sans-serif !important; width: 100% !important; max-width: 580px !important; margin: 28px auto !important; background-color: #f7fafd !important; border: 1px solid #d0e3f0 !important; border-left: 4px solid #0089cf !important; border-radius: 8px !important; padding: 20px 24px !important; } #mn-article-banner .mn-banner-inner { display: flex !important; flex-direction: column !important; align-items: center !important; text-align: center !important; gap: 16px !important; } /* Header Text with Updated Spacing */ #mn-article-banner .mn-banner-header { display: flex !important; flex-direction: column !important; 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} } သတင်းလွတ်လပ်ခွင့်ကို ကူညီပါ အမှန်တရား ကိုထုတ်ဖော်နိုင်ရန်အတွက်သင်၏ ပါဝင်ကူညီမှုသည် အရေး ပါပါသည်။ လစဉ် နှစ်စဉ် $4 $10 $20 $40 $100 $200 ပါဝင်လိုက်ပါ လိုသလိုအချိန်မရွေး ဖျက်သိမ်းနိုင်ပါသည်။ (function () { function initArticleBanner() { const banner = document.getElementById("mn-article-banner"); if (!banner) return; const freqBtns = banner.querySelectorAll(".mn-freq-btn"); const groups = banner.querySelectorAll(".mn-plan-group"); const submitBtn = document.getElementById("mn-banner-submit-btn"); function updateSubmitLink() { const activeGroup = banner.querySelector(".mn-plan-group.active"); if (!activeGroup) return; const activeChip = activeGroup.querySelector(".mn-chip.active"); if (activeChip && submitBtn) { const targetUrl = activeChip.getAttribute("data-url"); if (targetUrl) { submitBtn.setAttribute("href", targetUrl); } } } // Toggle Frequency Tabs freqBtns.forEach((btn) => { btn.addEventListener("click", function () { const selectedFreq = this.getAttribute("data-freq"); freqBtns.forEach((b) => b.classList.remove("active")); this.classList.add("active"); groups.forEach((g) => { if (g.id === "mn-group-" + selectedFreq) { g.classList.add("active"); } else { g.classList.remove("active"); } }); updateSubmitLink(); }); }); // Toggle Amount Chips banner.querySelectorAll(".mn-chip").forEach((chip) => { chip.addEventListener("click", function () { const parentGroup = this.closest(".mn-plan-group"); if (!parentGroup) return; parentGroup.querySelectorAll(".mn-chip").forEach((c) => c.classList.remove("active")); this.classList.add("active"); updateSubmitLink(); }); }); } if (document.readyState === "loading") { document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", initArticleBanner); } else { initArticleBanner(); } })(); Gun post outside an old colonial building in downtown Yangon (Photo: Myanmar Now) A city without energy Meanwhile, life goes on, however haltingly. Economic stagnation was apparent from the moment I stepped out of the airport into the steaming heat of the city. Under towering palm trees, I saw hundreds of parking spaces that had grown black with mould—evidence of their disuse after years with only a trickle of visitors entering the country. After reaching the downtown core, I was greeted by the sight of young mothers with babies on their hips, their hands outstretched as passersby shifted their gaze away. They were on every street, and almost as numerous as the ubiquitous betel nut sellers, whose trade appeared to be ballooning.I heard about skyrocketing prices. Eggs were now 10 times more expensive than they were before the coup, while one pyi (a little over 2kg) of rice now cost between 5,000 and 11,000 kyat ($1.10-2.40)—up from 2,000 kyat ($.44) in 2020.Residents queued at dawn for their ration of cooking oil, while the price of mohinga—the rich, fish broth-based stew regarded as a staple for all, and as Myanmar’s signature dish—has more than tripled. Life goes on—workers and devotees at Yangon's Shwedagon Pagoda (Photo: Myanmar Now) Across the Yangon River in Dala, a stone’s throw and yet a world away from the gridded footpaths of the city’s downtown, the topic of conversation was fuel.A driver said he slept at the petrol station in his three-wheeled motorbike to ensure he could fill up in the morning. But for all that effort, he could only receive the maximum 35 litres a day allowed to all motorists.With petrol at about 5,000 kyat per litre, it’s not easy to carve out a living from ferrying people around. And with vehicles reportedly costing 10 times more than in neighbouring Thailand, it’s no wonder taxi fares are higher than many visitors expect.Fuel is not only food for vehicles, but also for the hungry industrial generators chained down along footpaths that rev to life the moment the city’s lights and fans inevitably switch off due to regular power outages. As Myanmar’s chronic lack of electricity deepens—because of this year’s El Niño, according to the regime—access is now limited to six-hours-on, six-hours-off shifts for different areas across the city. When the power goes out, some locals without their own backup wait outside to escape the stifling heat. Yangon’s beer gardens do a thriving trade during these intervals, at least until the lights come back on and everyone heads home for the night. My glimpse of Yangon revealed a city not untouched by war, but without the obvious scars of violence seen elsewhere in the country. The undercurrent of conflict was most evident in its lack of energy—not just of the sort that has to be imported, but in the mood of its people, weary of their everyday hardships and the fear that is so much a part of their lives now.After nearly six years of restrictions, extortion, and dimming expectations, the golden city of my friends’ reminiscences has lost much of its lustre. There is still life here during the day, but the nights no longer generate any excitement, much less dreams of a better future. Generator in Yangon's downtown to tide over daily electricity cuts (Photo: Myanmar Now)

‘Be back by 7’: For Yangon’s young, a life ruled by a self-enforced curfew

A first-time visitor to Myanmar’s commercial capital finds a city drained of much of its vitality, as conflict takes its invisible toll

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