Still in quiet and hopeful times on the beach of Maungmagan: The swimming tire rental of a small family.
In the early hours of the morning, before the sun casts its timely glow over the fine sand, Maungmagan beach is a quiet place. Seagulls circle over the shallow water, fishing boats glide back ashore - and a small, colourful stall comes to life: a family's floating tyre rental business.
The family has been running the small business for over a decade. What began with just three tyres and an improvised bamboo roof is now an integral part of beach life. Colourful black truck tyres are neatly lined up. Children shout enthusiastically, tourists smile - but these days everything has become a little quieter.
‘Buses used to come every day with visitors from Yangon or Mandalay,’ says the wife as she inflates a tyre with a foot pump. ‘There are fewer now. But we hope that everything will calm down again.’
The political and economic uncertainty that has shaken Myanmar since the military coup in 2021 has also reached remote places like Maungmagan. Nevertheless, the beach remains a place of refuge for many, a place of small escapes and simple pleasures. This is precisely why the family relies on consistency - on the smile of a child entering the water for the first time, on the ‘mingalaba’ of a guest who decides to buy a ring.
And while the sun rises higher and the first families arrive on the beach, the small stand is ready – as it does every day, in quiet and hopeful times. | Myanmar
I loved reading and viewing the photographs in this report.
One way or another, politics often gets in the way of our lives.