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Published: March 13th 2006
Boats at Tup Island
Near Railay Beach, ThailandIn a candlelit room in Kanthaya, the beach that seemed to be isolated from the rest of the world, we learned via BBC radio that Burma had secretly changed its capital. Overnight the generals pulled out of Yangon and snuck 400 km farther north to Pyinmana, an out-of-the-way blurb on the map where plans for new government and army headquarters would be accompanied by fortified bunkers and tunnels. The official reason for the move given to the BBC Reporter in Thailand was to protect itself from a military attack by the U.S... ????
Arriving in Yangon one day before our visas expired, we were told that it was impossible to get a visa extension since the government workers weren't even 100% sure where the administration had moved to, nor how we could get an extension. So we were to simply travel on and pay a daily surcharge for overstaying. Determined to find a way to frolic with the sea gypsies in the Mergui Archipelago, we were met with discouraging news at every turn. Each mode of sea or overland transport was shot down, and we finally had to concede and buy a flight to Myeik. The first two days in
Arriving in Railay Beach
By boat from Krabi; nice cliffs! Yangon were tied up with running around to make all these arrangements, and with only a half day of sights completed I came down with what my "highly scientific" method of diagnosis pinned down to giardia. After 14 hours of throwing up every drop of water consumed, and trembling for fear of dehydrating to death, the miracle tetracyclines were delivered and by morning I was on the slow road to better health. Giardia -- or whatever it was -- definitely has a way of bulldozing any false visions of invincibility you may have. Bound to my hotel by weakness for a couple days, I had some time to consider my thoughts on some of the meatier controversies and issues involving this little slice of Asia.
(If you are only interested in reading about beach bumming, skim down a ways....) Democratically elected Burmese leader (and Nobel peace laureate) Aung San Suu Kyi’s 11+ years house arrest was --- surprise, surprise - once again extended, and the State Peace and Development Council (how 1984-ish is that name for a bureaucracy of murderers?) recently dissolved the assembly working on “democratic and constitutional reform” until the end of 2006. Tension and resistance
Yangon street scene
A little Burmese boy chasing pigeons in Burma seems to be growing, however, and the technology of mobile phones and internet proxy servers complicates the logistics of censorship and allows more banned communications to flow through. Perhaps they are nearer to a breaking point? A journalist in Yangon noted that the government’s actions were like that of “a retreating army,” and the government’s relocation seems to be a response to “the more direct danger of the growing discontent of their own people.”
Suu Kyi has encouraged other nations to stop foreign investment and has urged outsiders not to travel to the country until it is democratic, stating that it is feeding into the military junta’s urgent need for hard currency. While it is reprehensible that the junta has engaged in forced labor, relocations, and property seizures for tourism development projects, these human rights abuses are scarcely limited to a tourism focus. The government’s executions, torture, forced labor, and rape of political opponents and prisoners seem to be the backbone of fear that allows them to seize administrative control of the country.
A hard line approach of economic sanctions and tourism boycotts, in conjunction with international pressure denouncing the junta, could affect change if applied
Low tide view
Mornings at Railay Beach, Thailand, while the beach is still lonely globally, but without a unified front, they seem to impoverish the general populace. Asian nations have refused to interfere with the sovereignty of Myanmar, admitting the country into ASEAN in 1997, and regional trade is increasing significantly. Revenues from Thai, Chinese, Indian, Singaporean, South Korean, Japanese, and Malaysian ventures were over six billion dollars last year alone, making the military junta largely impervious to economic sanctions by the U.S. and European Union. Natural gas and oil reserves bring in sizable revenues from its energy-hungry neighbors, China and India; revenues that will most likely end up completely in the hands of the regime.
Rightful winners of the Burmese elections have appealed to various western nations to apply pressure through the UN, but *certain* members have precluded this even with their objections. However, even if the pro-Burma politicians weren’t successful at getting the issue to the UN Security Council, it seems that the West
could enact a more global front by creating repercussions for those countries that did not comply with the international condemnation of the junta. U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell proposed a bill that would have withdrawn most-favored-nation status from any country that did not back sanctions against the Burmese
Burmese Buddha
On the giant reclining Buddha near Myeik government and would have suspended aid to countries selling arms to the Rangoon government.
I say
could because it doesn’t appear that any country has the balls to do it, not even the originator of the plan. “ was persuaded to withdraw the amendment because of widespread criticisms from other senators for inserting an amendment, without unanimous backing, that could have huge repercussions.”
Huge - a.k.a. China. What other major trading nation is going to be opposed to stopping the Burmese killing machine?
China continues to offer unconditional support to the Burmese government, creating a major stumbling block in efforts to apply international pressure via the United Nations. China has deep political, military, and economic ties to the military junta and has made it clear that they will oppose putting Burma on the Security Council agenda. While the West maintains that they are making a stand against undemocratic institutions and violations of human rights, they seem to have generally looked the other way in the case of China, with its enormous market and exploitative labor possibilities for greedy multinational companies. Will it be able to convince China to stop trade with Burma on some kind of
moral appeal when it knows that China itself is guilty of many similar crimes?
I feel like the West has created a hypocritical showpiece in imposing sanctions in Burma. Can any country genuinely claim to care about human rights if they dare not condemn brazen human rights violations of an undemocratic giant or its lubing of the neighboring fratricidal dictator machine, simply because he wholesales labor to their companies at 10 cents an hour? So long as profit is more important than people, the junta will continue to have access to economic means.
Furthermore, while Suu Kyi claims that the people stand behind sanctions, ordinary Burmese express other sentiments. “We want pressure from the international community, but we don’t want sanctions. Our people are very, very poor,” says a Yangon-based journalist. A Burmese trader said, “We’re not thinking about Aung San Suu Kyi or General Than Shwe. We’re thinking about food, clothes, and housing.” As one of Suu Kyi’s discordant colleagues commented, letting conditions deteriorate to a breaking point so the people take to a bloody revolution in the streets hardly seems to be a show of solidarity or humanitarianism for the civilians left to battle for their
A beautiful day in Yangon
Colonial architecture in the heart of the city survival. Is this the plan for ‘help’ that the world has endowed upon the Burmese?
I therefore concluded that boycotting tourism has little effect on the junta but a tangible negative effect on small businesses. Tour groups may very well fall into government-run establishments, but it is quite easy to avoid government-affiliated businesses and to stay at privately-owned hotels, eat at privately owned restaurants, and use privately-run transportation companies. The $600 spent in a month traveling independently is a dewdrop next to the waterfall of foreign currency exchanged in multimillion dollar trade deals. Guesthouse and restaurant owners seemed unrestrained in their appreciation for our business, which has been hurt since sanctions went into effect and have left them with fewer options for survival. And it appears this segment is growing: independent travelers increased by 64%!i(MISSING)n 2004, fueling one of the only growth areas (aside from prostitution and sex trafficking) in the economy.
….And we now return to our regularly scheduled programming…. Through Burma by Backpack… With Jason also now weakened from the giardia syndrome, we mustered up all our energy to board the early morning plane to Myeik. After we passed over Dawei, which is purported
Cop a squat
A Burmese passenger waiting for the bus in Yangon to be a wonderful beach town, we took coasted above the Mergui Archipelago, gazing down at islands like little fuzzy green crocodile backs poking out of a river of turquoise. Around the fringes lay white sand beaches….and not a soul to be seen. One couldn’t help but salivate at the thought of digging into this feast of pristine land and of playing Gilligan’s Island or Blue Lagoon. Unfortunately, the airplane window was about as close as I came to it. Still gulping down tetracyclines, the tenacity required to hunt down some fisherman with a boat that was capable of transporting us to any of the rarely mentioned sea gypsy islands was severely lacking. It didn’t take long to realize that we were not making any headway in Myeik, which is a rather unattractive fishing and oil port. Killing an extra day waiting for the next ferry to Kawthaung we took a boat around the neighboring island, on which lies an enormous reclining Buddha. Small fishing huts and mangroves line the perimeter, with mud flats on the shore.
While this city was not at all geared towards tourism, there were a few eager souls keen on practicing English down at
Looking back on what we covered!
Our mighty kayak and the seaward view back to Railay Beach. the dock. A polite English teacher leading a field trip demonstrated his aptitude in front of his students, as they snickered while using their new lingual abilities. A dodgier character who used to work for the government was a fountain of inaccurate information. Not wanting to admit it if he didn’t know the answer to a question, he concocted fantastic stories that were completely incapable of being true. He did, however, help us get onto the ‘VIP’ section of the ferry when it arrived. A wooden plank about a foot and a half wide was placed down as a bridge and there were masses pushing from both left and right while the disembarking passengers did their utmost to keep from suffocating in the squeeze.
Despite being infinitely more comfortable than bus travel, I was still happy to pull into Kawthaung eight hours later. We settled discontentedly into the extremely overpriced junky hotel and spent the rest of the night being accosted by notebook-wielding “tsunami babies” offering their services as city tour guides and chasing more dead ends on independent travel to the sea gypsy islands. The only options presented were either to go to Phuket in Thailand and take
a live aboard dive cruise or to spend $100 each way to speedboat out to an island resort where we would most likely have no chance of actually meeting any sea gypsies anyway. Once we admitted defeat and cast one more longing glance at the island-hopping adventure we would have to abandon, we quickly consoled ourselves with the comforts of Thailand. (On a side note, I think that the NGO that set up these tsunami victims with notebooks would have been more successful teaching them how to make Myanmar Beer t-shirts. The majority of ‘tourists’ in Kawthaung are visa runners from Thailand, who seem to have little interest in a tour of the city’ temples, but we noted many stocking up on Burmese cigarettes and Myanmar Beer to get a real taste of the country’s culture.)
Back in Thailand, all the conformist conveniences of globalized commerce became easier to swallow after a month of wondering which stomach illness I would contract with each meal ingested. If you stopped trying to make a profound cultural experience out of it all, the beauty of Thailand’s Andaman coast could be appreciated for what it was - a hot vacation destination for you
Some of the Andaman Sea islands
View from Railay Beach; we kayaked to the two in the distance and 2 million of your fellow countrymen.
The simple joys of being able to jump on a bus and go anywhere you want in the country was quite irresistible and we grabbed one heading south to land in Khao Lak in the midst of a light rain. We had really no information about this place, which is what made the series of ‘no vacancy’ reports at the hotels hard to understand. Apparently it is a center for diving schools and trips to the Surin and Similan Islands, though the tsunami had taken its toll on the town’s beachside. Armies of volunteer workers had set up camp in Khao Lak making it quite full of foreigners but with nothing notable to see or do, aside from appreciating unrestricted internet access, viewing a Sepak Takraw (rattan ball sport) tournament, and rediscovering a love for Thai cuisine.
Praying for a sunnier forecast and more picturesque beaches we headed south, hoping to veer away from the throngs at Phuket by choosing the seaside options near Krabi. However, where in Thailand could one possibly find cliffs of deliquescing limestone rising like a phoenix out of calm turquoise waters and have them all to
View of the Myeik seafront
from the reclining Buddha isle. Fishing boats and more fishing boats... oneself? Certainly not in Krabi (although if anyone has an answer to this question, please whisper it to my inbox and I promise not to divulge the secret!) Actually, aside from the colorful night market and plethora of cheap food stalls, the town of Krabi itself is nothing all that memorable, but it is a convenient transportation hub to Thailand’s famed islands off the Andaman coast. Since neither of us fancied boat occupancies of claustrophobic proportions, we never gave the Ko Phi Phi option so much as a glance, but beating the crowds anywhere along Thailand’s seascapes is a challenge!
We decided to head to Railay Beach, which, although it is connected to the mainland, is only accessible by boat. The little peninsula is a prime rock-climbing destination, and the multitude of nearby islands attracts snorkelers, divers, backpackers, resort goers, families, fishers, and anyone (everyone?) else seeking a little sun and fun. Arriving at high tide on the east side, one has to wade through the water, which laps right up against the cement sidewalks. When the tide recedes, however, please dismiss any notions you might have of a glorious beach at your doorstep, because the whole area turns
into a mud flat. The other 2 sides of the peninsula, however, have broad sandy beaches and amazing neck-torquing views of the giant rock formations, which cower over the onlooker in an amazing balancing act as its base is slowly eroded by the waves below. Like enormous stepping-stones in a giant’s walkway, numerous islands pop out of the water to decorate the seaward view.
The presence of many bars ensured a quiet and empty beach in the morning, though the colors that the sun eased out of the landscape seemed to grow more brilliant with each additional body that lay on its white sands as midday grew closer. The luck of good weather abandoned us and we succumbed to numerous showings of pirated DVDs at local restaurants and made a foray into the nearby Diamond Caves (although the lights were out in there and some other gal with a flashlight took us back in for a quick run around, so all my pictures were shot blind, hoping to see with my flash what I couldn’t see with my eyes).
Not wanting to end our days in Thailand on a sour note, we held out until the sun returned
Sunset in Khao Lak
Rocky beaches in southern Thailand to explore the islands by kayak. Weeks of lazing around made this little water adventure a bit of a shock to the system, but the sun rewarded us with its presence shortly after arriving at our first stop. Though we had researched good snorkeling spots in a dive shop one stormy afternoon, the book must have been written years ago before all the motorboats started arriving to drop off day tripping passengers from mainland ports, because all the coral was dead. Another half hour of paddling brought us to a beautiful little place called Tup, Tub, Tap, or Chicken Foot Island, depending whose brochure one chooses to peruse. At low tide the waters part to reveal a white sandy footpath connecting two of these little islands, where the snorkeling was a bit more interesting. With the holiday mindset in full force and the choppy afternoon waves kicking in, we eyed those boats with the broad fluorescent ribbons affixed and took the easy way back to shore for our last cruise through the Andaman waters.
Returning to beaches packed with sarongs, topless sunbathers, food vendors, noisy kids, and pasty white skin, there was really only one thing to do...hey, if
Diamond Caves
They really do sparkle like a ribbon of diamonds runs through them; Railay Beach, Thailand you can’t beat ‘em…..sneak into their resort’s swimming pool! ;0)
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Kate Hildebrand
Kate Hildebrand
Awesome post
I am sorry you didn't see any sea gypsies