Back to Burma: How a couple is restoring Myanmar’s colonial past, brick by brick
Decades of neglect left a historic building in Myanmar at the mercy of Mother Nature, but broken gutters and a dilapidated roof were no match for Win Thida Khine and her husband, who have returned it to its former glory
When Win Thida Khine and her husband first saw Salay House, it was in a similar state of disrepair to the other colonial-era buildings that rather forlornly dot this riverside town of the same name. The paint was either peeling back to the brickwork or stained black where decades of rain had leaked through broken guttering. The windows were tightly shuttered, the roof had holes in it and the garden that ran down to the Irrawaddy had been reclaimed by jungle.
It was exactly what she and her husband, Tun Aung Hlaing, had been looking for. They knew it had immense potential. “I worked as a guide, primarily for German-speaking groups, throughout Myanmar for 19 years and I often came to Salay,” Khine told This Week in Asia. “And every time, we would walk around the temples and then the old colonial buildings close to the river.
“I have always loved these old buildings and it made me so sad to see them gradually falling into disrepair due simply to neglect,” said Khine
“Nobody was caring for them and they were slowly being abandoned,” she said. “To buy one and to repair it was my dream, and we finally managed to do that.”
In 2015, Khine bought Salay House, which was built in 1906 and served as a warehouse and offices for the British-owned Irrawaddy Royal Trading Company, and set about restoring it to its former glory.