It's hard to believe that just 60 years ago Myanmar was one of the richest countries in the region, supplying most of Asia with rice.

Nowadays, despite the country's abundant natural resources, it can barely feed it's own people.

Just four months ago, unannounced fuel price hikes pushed food costs up threefold, triggering street protests that were led by monks and ended with the army turning its guns on the demonstrators.

Today, to talk about food is to criticise the government. So no matter how much the people suffer, few are brave enough to open up.

I asked one woman why food was so expensive. Even with her identity hidden she wouldn't respond, such is the state of fear in Myanmar today.

Yangon's Shwedagon pagoda is one of the country's most important religious shrines and became one of the centres of the protests in September.

Now, in the streets around the pagoda, everything looks normal. Kids sell flowers or offer to wash the hair of worshippers to earn extra money for their families.