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| The
question of Myanmar (Burma) |
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Rating:
 ( 4.8 )
( 45 votes )
Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar
Dec 17, 2003 10:00
Pros :
Friendly people, rock music, nice and decent place
Cons : electricity keeps
going out
As Sarah and I travelled more and more throughout SE Asia
the question of whether to visit Myanmar started coming up, even
more so once we decided we were not going to be travelling through
Laos. Our first source of information was, of course our guidebooks,
but even those were not up to date with the current situation in
Myanmar. We found out from other travellers as well as online sources
that being able to visit Myanmar without contributing to the Myanmar
government was getting easier.
Among the reasons not to go we read about in our guidebook were
that international tourism can be seen to give a stamp of approval
to the SPDC (State Peace & Development Council - the ruling
military party in Myanmar), that forced labour has been used to
construct some of the country's tourism infrastructure, and that
it is difficult to avoid some government-owned businesses, tourism
sites and transport, and impossible to avoid the mandatory purchase
of US$200 worth of FECs (funny money that puts hard cash directly
into the government's dirty wallet). In actuality, the mandatory
purchase of US$200 was no longer enforced as of 3 months ago,
there are almost no government run hotels and there are many independent
bus companies now. We still had to avoid taking the train and
flew in on Biman Air (to avoid Myanmar air, a government owned
airline). Our goal was to not use any government facilities and
to not endanger any of the Myanmar people by openly discussing
politics with then unless they initiated it. As we travelled we
received a sheet from another traveller that was distributed by
political dissenters about things travellers could do, most of
which we were already doing. One of the best things we could contribute
was to talk to as many people as possible to try and help others
learn some English - a powerful tool in Myanmar as English language
newspapers and magazines can be found while all Burmese-language
news is under strict control of the government. The Internet is
another tool now opening up to Myanmar, however that is also under
the government's watchful eye and is not something we looked into
when we were there. This travelogue is actually being written
in Kolkata (Calcutta) India, but for Travelpod readers wanting
to learn about Myanmar I put it in the heading as Myanmar. Aparently
(we did not try this) you can email but not through pulic services
such as hotmail, netscape, etc. and all emails are monitored.
The situation is definitely repressive for the Myanmar people
but we heard of no travelers fearing their safety (we nevered
felt threatened), only the Myanmar people. In the end it was still
a hard decision that could be seen either way and I would suggest
to anyone thinking of going to check on the latest information
available before going.
So after that long discussion of why we thought we would be doing
more good than harm in Myanmar I must say it was also a unique
country to visit. We arrived in Yangon (Rangoon) and found what
looked like a decent place to stay at the White House Hotel, which
has somehow, after four months of travel, attained the inauspicious
title of the "worst night of sleep" for Sarah and I,
hopefully never to be topped. That night we found out about the
electricity situation in Yangon, which can only be described as
sketchy at best. Power goes out often, but most businesses have
generators that automatically turn on after a few moments.
Walking down the streets in daytime you can tell when the power
goes out when all those generators kick on. Unbeknownst to us,
this also affects water pressure - not fun when you're in mid-shower
all lathered on the 5'th floor of a building! Still, I really
ended up liking Yangon (after we changed hotels). After sorting
out our money situation which included getting an incredibly bad
rate on some travelers checks (due to US sanctions) and then feeling
out the black market rate for US dolars we finally got to enjoy
Yangon. The most known sight there is of the Schwedegon Pagoda,
which can be seen from miles away, and is pretty incredible (pictures
coming soon). We walked to Schwedegon and on the way were already
being approached by people wanting to practice their English.
At first we were a little shocked, usually if someone approached
us in SE Asia it was to sell us something, but here people said
hello just to say it. There was one more plus to travelling in
Myanmar - the food. If you eat at local restaurants in Myanmar
they have a custom that I just love - eat until you're full. In
other words if you order something and finish it, it's free refils
until you're stuffed!
From Yangon we decided to head north to Bagan, an area which
contains thousands of ruins from the 9'th to 12'th century. We
booked an overnight bus but getting there turned out to be a little
bit more of an adventure. Around midnight our bus broke down,
we were probably halfway there. As no one else on the bus seemed
bothered and kept sleeping we followed along with them. In the
morning we were told by one local who spoke some English that
we were waiting for another bus to come and pick us up. Looking
out from the bus we were still on the main "highway"
- a one lane country road and the main traffic going by was a
few heavy truks and lots of ox-pulled carts. People on the bus
were so nice, they offered us their food for breakfast and to
show Sarah a toilet. After a few hours of enjoying the scenery
around and getting stared at by ox-cart drivers (no looks from
the oxen) the bus driver arrived on a huge truck to take everyone
on the bus to the nearest town to get some lunch. With more waiting
and staring in town another bus arrived and we managed to reach
Bagan after 31 hours (it was supposed to take 14!).
Bagan was great, with incredible vistas of a dusty "African
plains-looking" landscape dotted with thousands of temple
ruins. We rented some pretty cool 1950's looking bicycles (single
speed) to explore. The last time I was on a bike it was a 27 speed
Klein, now I was reduced to a bike that's weight was closing in
on my own. It turned out to be great fun and after a few days
of exploring the ruins and soaking in the atmosphere we were off
again to Inle Lake.
Like many people visiting the lake we opted for a boat tour of
the many cottage industries on the lake; we got to see how everything
from cigars to knives were made, how the people fished, and ended
at a monastery which seemed to be overrun with cats. Although
it was a Bhuddist monastery it had the title "jumping cat
monastery" because the monks, in their spare time, teach
the cats to leap through hoops for treats. I tried to get a picture
but after mistiming the photo a monk took my camera and got a
great shot. I asked him the obvious questions: "Why so many
cats?" "Too many mice." Being a monastery we were
obligated to take our shoes off when we entered, I did not think
much of it as we are used to it, but another person in our tour
realized one of the pitfalls of doing that. When he went to put
his sandals on he found a wet spot in his sandal - something to
beware of when you on a stilt house full of cats on a lake.
During our two weeks in Myanmar there was one more constant that
made me like the country and the people even more, it's the first
country we've been to in SE Asia where one of the styles of popular
music is hard rock. Whether it was some unknown-to-us Myanmar
band blaring in our bus to Bagan, old school Metallica translated
into Burmese just JAMMING in the streets of Yangon (it sounds
pretty cool translated too), or the kid in from of us as we left
Inle Lake singing Nirvana to the rest of the bus as he listened
on his headphones, I give a thumbs up to the musical tastes found
in Myanmar (later that kid proclaimed to me he was "Nirvana-crazy").
From Inle Lake it was back to Yangon and on to Bangkok and from
Bangkok on to Kolkata (Calcutta) but that'll have to be next travelogue.
There seems to be an endless amount of information on the situation
in Myanmar, I hope anyone interested will take the time to do
some reading and find out what they can do to help. |
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