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Myanmar. What a country! It will not stop surprising you!! Perhaps because it is one of those countries where almost no signs of modern influence is visible. And the modernity I refer to starts with the Industrial Revolution. Just sit for 15-20min on the street of any city, town or village (in a shady spot, if possible!) and you will immediately understand why.
Lets start with the people. A combination of Burmese, Indian and Chinese descendants lives peacefully in Myanmar. This was something totally unexpected for us (Ani has finally joined me in my travels). The vast majority of men and women, regardless their features, ages or professions wear a 'longui', a typical Myanmar sorong, of different colors, with squares or stripes and a t-shirt, shirt or blouse on top. Even builders, farmers or trekking guides do wear longuis. The majority of women and some men use 'thamakha' on their faces, a Myanmar yellow "make-up" made out of sandal wood which is supposed to protect against the sun. In addition, most women, even elderly ones, have really long hair (under the hips!) tied up in a pony tail, braid or bun.
Myanmar people are very friendly. They smile, wave
and great you all the time. In the countryside, in Yangon, in a mountain village...And they stare at you. Because even though they have surely seen more tourists before you, you still are a novelty for them. So much, that more than once, specially if you are blond, redhaired, really tall, very white-skinned or blue eyed, they will want a picture with you...I actually started feeling like a celebrity here! :-)
When you first see Myanmar people's smiles, you get impressed (if not kind of shocked). A really high percentage of people eat betel-leaves which dye their teeth in a black-reddish color. Even if they brushed their teeth (we are quite sure than loads of them do not practise this very much), the black color remains and a couple of teeth may fall out after some time. Apparently the Government tried to ban this costume, but was unsuccessful.
Another thing that will catch your attention is the different ways of transport. In this sense, Myanmar has managed to remain almost 'untouched'. Cars and buses are from the 70ies or 80ies. The only modern cars belong to the Government. (we have been told more than once that "Myanmar Government
is rich and Myanmar people are poor...). Horse carts carry people and bags of food, ox carts are mainly used for agricultural transport (although you should not be surprised to see more than one person riding on the ox itself). Bicycles, motorbikes, trishaws and tractors make roads be very busy and noisy. However, in Yangon bikes are prohibited and in Bagan tourists are not allowed to take a ride on a bike, except if it is a hotel service! And people also walk. They walk a lot. One of the comments of our trekking guide in Kalaw was "my sister lives not far from here, two hours walking"...
But the best thing about Myanmar transport is not the combination of different ways of transport. Cars have their steering wheels on the right hand side (British way), but they drive on the right side of the roads (European mainland way)!!! This means that, in case of overtaking another vehicle, they cannot see if another vehicle is coming from the opposite direction until their whole car/bus gets on the other lane!!! Actually, buses drive with open doors and a man is standing there (it would be more appropriate to say, hanging
out of the bus) telling the driver when there is a chance to overtake....so absurd!!! If you are looking for a business niche in Myanmar: import European mainland cars! The only problem is that nobody has money to buy them...except for the Government, of course....
Myanmar lives mainly out of agriculture. It is not an industrial country. However, fields are worked by hand and only the luckiest ones may have the help of one or two oxes. Burmese tractors are not used to work the land, but as a method of transport.
To understand why Myanmar is so laid back in time, it is necessary to briefly know about its history. Myanmar belonged to the British Empire since 1885. British invited Indian and Chinese to move to what they renamed as Burma in order to built better infrastructures and to encourage the commercial transactions of the country. This caused a national feeling among Burmese people, due to the 'superior attitude' of Indian and Chinese people towards them. The 'Thirty Comrades' whose aim was Myanmar's liberalisation found international support in Japan. Together with the Japanese, they managed to gain what they thought would be Myanmar's freedom. But Japanese happened
Notes!!
No ATMs, no credit cards, no coins...just notes!!! You will always feel you are rich, because your purse is about to explode!! But have in mind one thing...Myanmar is not cheap!! to be very aggressive and dominating during their 4 years in Myanmar. Aung San (leader of the Thirty Comrades) and his supporters changed alliances. Being in the same team with the British, Myanmar got rid of the Japanese and gained its independence in 1948. Since then (being very brief), Myanmar has been suffering under what is supposed to be one of the hardest dictatorships of the world. There have been loads of attempts to fight for a democracy (famous Aung San's daughter, Suu Kyi, known as "the Lady", is one of the leading voices in this fight), but peaceful demonstrations have ended with hundreds of people killed. From our conversations with local people, the support of a democracy is extremely high. Nobody has a good word for the Government. But fear and frustration remain being the dominant feelings.
Myanmar has been closed to the world during several periods and this has affected its economy and consequently its development. We have seen that one of Myanmar's biggest lackings are infrastructures. Main cities such as Bagan and Mandalay are connected by (literally speaking) dust roads. The train network and the trains themselves are still the ones established by the British Empire (a
Public buses...
...will always have a flat screen TV showing video clips and TV series and a small screen for the bus driver! ride from Mandalay to Yangon takes 22h!). In addition, petrol is expensive. Very expensive bearing in mind the salaries! One gallon (aprox 4 liters) costs more than 6€. The manager (!) of one of our hotels told us he gains around 70€/month. Therefore, to have a private car or bike is very expensive. And even public transport is not that cheap. Another of Myanmar's big lackings are energy resources. Energy is not guaranteed and more than once the electricity in your hotel (even in big cities) will fall out. Actually, Yangon surprised us very much for being that dark at night!!
On the other hand, there are several modern influences you may find here: Internet is starting to be more common (you can now find a very slow and often interrupted Internet access almost in every big city) and some people tell you proudly that they have email addresses (although these are the fewer ones). International music can be heard, although Myanmar pop music is the biggest hit (we have even bought two CDs!) and loads of people invest their money in modern hi-fi systems. You will see hill tribe cottages with flat screen TVs and some people with
mobile phones (not very modern ones, tough).
However, despite these small influences, Myanmar is an 'untouched country'. For the good sake of its people, we hope a political change will come soon. Because although this country is amazing for visiting, it must be very hard and unfair to live in. Coming to Myanmar is going back in time. For many, the living and working conditions are similar to ones of the early 19th century. Myanmar is really impressive and we would dare to say unique.
Xox
Ani & Viky
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