Burmese Days

We always saw Burma, or Myanmar, as a possibility in our travels and really didn't know up until about two weeks prior to going that we would definitely take the plunge.  It was all

a bit of a mad rush in the end with queueing outside the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok to secure the visa, shouting at the computer screen because the flights had jumped significantly in price from the day before and co-ordinating all of this while trying to see the sights of Bangkok.

So we eventually found ourselves on an early Air Asia flight to Yangon, formally known as Rangoon, almost not believing that we were doing it.

We didn't know what to expect having read a whole load in the news about the military regime and also being a little perplexed in our travels from what we have now dubbed the 'Rosy Planet', our travel guide, which sometimes gives a false impression of a restaurant/city/country.  It was very British weather when we

arrived with drizzling rain and overcast skies, the stifling humidity was a bit different I'll admit but there you go.  We jumped in a taxi to the bus station to book our onward journey to Mandalay, a bit of bargaining later we had managed to book our bus in US Dollars rather than the local currency as that was all we had.  What followed was probably the best example of the amazing generosity and friendliness that defines the Burmese people.  We had no local currency which we needed to pay the local bus driver, we asked if they would change some money for us but instead of doing that they just gave us some money and told us where we could exchange

money in town.  Needless to say we were very taken aback and although we tried to refuse he insisted with the words "it is a gift." We re-paid him when we returned but it was done with such humility it was in itself truly humbling.

The Burmese people have been through a torrid few decades, just Wikipedia Burma and have a read through the history and you will see what we mean.  They have been ruled by a military regime who restrict everything from the state run media, any 'official' places of national interest (which of course have a fee for foreigners) and basically anything that makes money internationally.  This can be anything from natural gas sales to Thailand, joint venture expensive hotels with Japanese, Chinese and Korean chains and pretty much any natural resource

e.g. gold, coffee, timber.  The result is that all the significant money is controlled by the government, quite often going to line the pockets of the generals at the top of the hierarchy.  We soon became very clear is the local population was quite often abused in the process.  

One of the most spectacular sights on our trip to Burma was to the temples of Bagan, a massive plain beside the Irrawaddy river full of cathedral like temples that have been constructed over a thousand years ago.

The local population used to live in place called Old Bagan which is situated slap bang in the middle of the temples.  In the early 1990's this population was literally picked

up overnight and dumped 4 miles down the road in an undeveloped, utility free area called New Bagan.  The people were then left to organize basic needs such as sanitation and roads while the Generals built expensive hotels with the support of joint venture companies.

Another tale we heard from a fellow traveller was a gold mine being sold to a Chinese company.  They then employed the local male population and paid them a relatively low wage alongside importing cheap alcohol and opium.  Consequently they all got addicted and spend all the wages back into the hands that gave it to them through the alcohol and opium.  The consequence is a ruined community who's men have all become junkies and can't even provide for their families, the regime is laughing all the way to the bank and the Chinese company is selling gold at $1600 an ounce.

Traveling for Burmese people is basically not possible for the vast majority of the population.  To obtain a passport you need $1600, about a £1000, when a government office worker earns about $65 a month you can see it is a most unlikely ambition.  Quite often people haven't even been the few places we managed to make it to on our two week trip.  So you can see that quite often they may feel trapped and unable to do anything about it.

I'm sorry if this seems like a tale of sorrow and I hope you are not too depressed, we just want to help you understand the plight of the Burmese people before we go on.

Ok, so as I was saying earlier we experienced a fantastic example of generosity on our first day.  We even struck up a conversation with a local man who turned out to be a Christian and invited us to his church, before we could stop him he paid for our meal and left with a big smile.  It was at this point we said to ourselves that we were going to enjoy Burma.

After a relatively comfortable journey up to Mandalay we spent a couple of days viewing the ancient cities.

Mandalay and it's surrounding counterparts used to be the capital of Burma and the evidence can be seen with pagoda's sprouting up everywhere.

ancient  The children were especially friendly, although they tried to sell us postcards from   the moment they laid eyes on us they soon responded to our questions and we had a lot of fun with them.

One of our more successful ideas was to buy some modeling ballons and give them to some of the kids we met.  

From Mandalay to Bagan, Inle Lake to Yangon they managed to draw a lot of attention.  There was even one point while we rested in the shade of a temple in Bagan that adults were requesting one of our slightly deformed ballon dogs which we had presented to some of their kids.

 The excuses came far and wide and it was always for their child/brother/sister and never for them.  It provided quite a comical half hour as I struggled to blow them up quickly enough.

Everywhere we went the people gave us huge smiles, quite often taking time to chat with their limited English.

 Several times we started conversations that could not be finished for one reason or another, quite often about what we thought about Myanmar and maybe leading towards their political situation.  A lot of you may have heard of Ang Son Su Chi who is the leader of the opposition in Myanmar.  She has spent much of the last 20 years under house arrest and it is forbidden to mention her name.  Quite often she is refered to as 'the lady' or just not at all.  She is currently free from house arrest and there seem to be some softening of the hardline approach to her but only time will tell.  People were just genuinely happy to see you and to be honest we were happy to see them.

Our time seemed to just fly by and before we knew it we were back in soggy Yangon preparing to fly back to Thailand.  Our trip had taken us on a tour from Mandalay to ancient Bagan, to the cool plains of Inle lake and back.  We really enjoyed our time, making good of our invitation to church and managing to make it to the service and enjoy some great fellowship.

We left Burma with some very fond memories of the people and a greater understanding of the situation there.  Some people say not to go as you are condoning the government and regime that ruled before it.  We would definitely say the opposite, you should go and meet the people who want to meet you.  Of all the money we spent we estimate about 12% of it went to the government, but 88% didn't, it went in to the hands of the people.