By Subrata De, NBC News senior producer

I continue to receive regular updates from my friend in Yangon (Rangoon). He still wishes to remain anonymous on this blog. This e-mail came in late last night. With the government shutting down public access to the internet, it'll probably be the last note we see for a while.

"People are sheltering monks in their houses, at great personal risk.  The monks are taking off their robes and leaving the monasteries to avoid being arrested.  Several people in our neighbourhood sheltered monks last night.  A lot of monasteries are empty and shuttered at the moment.  There is going to be another big monks' march today.  People are really, really angry, and I think that they're determined to stare down the soldiers. "

And this from one of his friends who heard there has been some resistance from the military:

"Good news! No.33 Army force refuse to shoot the people officially. So, Government ordered to No.33 Army for move out from Mandalay but they are not following the order. We need to pray for our people and real Myanmar Soldiers."