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Published: March 22nd 2008
Fishing on Inle Lake
The lake is very shallow so they canoe around until they see a fish and then they drop the net over it trapping it. A spear is then used to pierce the trapped fish! And just to make things more difficult they paddle around standing on one foot so that they can see into the water better.Burma has suffered immensely over the last century. First there were the three Anglo-Burmese Wars with Britain. Then World War II with the Japanese and British fighting for control of Burma. Finally in 1947 Bogyoke Aung San (the father of Aung San Suu Kyi) met with the colony's executive deputy chairman of the Governor's Executive Council and signed a pact which stipulated self-rule within one year. Unfortunately Aung San was assassinated by a rival political party before this happened on 19th July 1947. There followed a period of political upheaval where the country passed from one party to another and there was much unrest and unhappiness with the standard of living spiraling down. On 8 August there were massive demonstrations by the local people the subsequent government response left over 3000 people dead. The Government renamed itself to the State Law and Order Restoration council (SLORC) and promised to hold democratic elections in May 1990. Not surprisingly in these elections the Government lost to the National League for Democracy (NLD) with the NLD taking 392 of the 485 contested seats. SLORC however did not uphold the result and has been in power ever since using the military Junta to keep the
Dhamma-yan-gyi Pahto, Bagan
The biggest temple in Bagan and also completely unrenovated! people in line. Aung San Suu Kyi was the leader for the NLD and she was put under house arrest in 1989 only being released six years later in 1996. From then on she has been in and out of house arrest and no progress seems to have been made.
The day after we arrived in Yangon we got hold of a translated newspaper and found it facinating but saddening to read. The Government had just released a new constitution and were promoting the referendum that they are planning later in the year. The front page was filled with statements that basically said that the people had to approve the constitution or they would not be able to vote in elections in 2010. "Emergence of the State Constitution is the duty of all citizens of Myanmar". What they didn't explain is that the Constitution heavily favours the ruling party and doesn't even allow Aung San Suu Kyi to run for Parliament because she used to be married to a foreigner. On the back of the paper was also printed in big bold letters, "RFA, VOA and BBC airing skyful of lies... are saboteurs, watch your step. The public be
Inle Lake
My guide demonstrating the very difficult art of paddling while standing on one leg! warned of killers in the airwaves!" This was a real eye opener because I didn't think that this kind of blatant propaganda existed any more.
Sorry to start the blog with such depressing news but I thought it had to be said. I think that most people don't know half of what has gone on in Burma (myself included before I arrived) and the suffering that the people have had to put up with. Even though the stories of my travels in Burma may be interesting (I hope! :P ) I think that it is more important for you to heighten your awareness of the situation first. That done, let's get into my two weeks there! 😊
Yangon I was lucky enough to meet a really cool Australian guy, Gene, in my guest house in Yangon only an hour after I had arrived and we headed out together to explore Yangon. As it turned out we both wanted to see the same places in Burma and had a similar traveling mentality so we ended up traveling together for the next 10 days. He was a really great traveling companion and we had a lot of fun together so
thanks a lot Gene! 😊
The highlight of Yangon for me was the local fruit and vegetable market which provides the 5 million inhabitants of the capital with food 24 hours a day! It is situated in what, from a Western perspective, appears to be a 5 storey car parking complex with different produce on each floor. From the moment we entered the ground floor our senses were overwhelmed by a cacophony of different sounds and various exotic smells. Literally truck loads of fresh ginger, baskets full to bursting with garlic cloves, racks sagging under the weight of dried fish, 1 meter high mounds of chilli and all between it a hive of activity with people scurrying about like ants carrying loads just as impressively heavy as those insects are capable of. Through all of this I did my best to keep out of the way and just observe and I'm sure that in the future those memories will be among the most resilient and lasting of my trip to Burma. Another reason why I think I loved the market so much as that I found a group of young guys playing cane ball and after watching for a
few minutes I was invited to join them. I jumped at the opportunity and ended up playing with them for 15 minutes or so learning lots of different "moves" that are part of a very complex game which involves keeping the ball off the ground using various parts of your feet and head. Eventually after a delicious meal of beef, vegetables, rice and tea (which cost the equivalent of 70 cents) we decided to say goodbye and emerged a little dazed blinking into the bright sunlight. In retrospect perhaps the most refreshing thing about our visit to the market was that in the 2 hours that we spent there, wandering aimlessly down the meandering pathways, we never saw one foreigner, and possibly even more incomprehensible, very little evidence that any ever visit.
For the rest of our time in Yangon we hired a guide who helped us navigate the local public transport and took us to a number of interesting temples, a reserve on the edge of town that had 2 albino elephants and also helped develop our understanding of the local language and love of the local food. On my return to Yangon before my flight to India
Burmese Maccas
wait till you see the next photo! he gave me a book written by an Australian author about Buddhism as a present! 😊
Mandalay In Mandalay we spent the first day exploring the local fruit and vegetable market and the Jade Market and also visited an ancient monastery built out of Teak Wood. That night we went to see the famous
Moustache Brothers show. Par Par Lay and Lu Zaw used to perform theatrical traditional shows at local people's weddings and celebrations but after making some jokes about the Ruling Junta they were ordered to stop performing. In 1996 Par Par Lay and Lu Paw (their cousin) performed at Aung San Suu Kyi's house at an Independence Day Celebration and were subsequently arrested by the government and sentenced to 7 years' hard labour. After 5 years they were released and instead of keeping quiet they started performing from their house in Mandalay for visiting tourists. This avoided the government order not to perform for local people and also raised awareness for their cause. These days they perform a bit of stand up comedy (mostly consisting of English phrases that Lu Zaw has picked up over the years), traditional dances (performed by Lu Zaw's wife and a
Gene and Renato
a law suit waiting to happen... :P few other local women) and Par Par Lay demonstrates the different ways to tie a longyi. Par Par Lay used to be the front man of the group but since he doesn't speak any Enghlish Lu Zaw has taken over the reins.
We also briefly visited three Ancient cities that surround Mandalay, namely Inwa, Sagaing and Amarapura. We hired a guide to take us and he turned out to be a really nice guy. He even helped us avoid paying the US$10 entrance fee by taking public transport and then a small boat across the river, entering from the other side. The ruins of these once grand cities were strewn amongst rice paddies and fields filled with sunflowers and we really enjoyed wandering around occasionally peeping into a temple or climbing a pagoda for a view of the surrounding area.
Bagan Bagan is simply breathtaking! There are over 3500 pagodas and temples scattered across the plain and over our 2 days there we only managed to visit a few of them barely scratching the surface of what Bagan has to offer! At one of the pagodas we met an 11 year old Burmese girl called Aye Aye Moe
Girls in Yangon
these girls spent ages trying to sell us postcards but we didn't want any so in the end i gave them each one of those gripping koalas :) who took us to many other ones nearby showing us hidden stairways which led to amazing views! Each day we were there we got up before daylight and cycled through the dark to watch the sun rise from a different pagoda. In the middle of the day we would find a cool temple with a nice breeze and read a book or have a sleep. The evenings were dedicated to finding a nice place to watch the sun set and then cycling back to our guest house in the dark.
Inle Lake In Inle I surprisingly spent more time on a bicycle than I did in a boat! Every day I was there I hired a bicycle and after 4 days there felt like I knew Nyaungshwe and the surrounding area pretty well. On the first day I cycled along the East side of the lake passing many sugar cane factories and villagers out in the fields planting rice. After an hour or so of riding I came to a town called Maing Tauk and walked along a long wooden bridge leading to the beginning of the town. I had in mind something similar to the Muslim Village I
had visited in Thailand but when I arrived at the end of the bridge it just ended in water... So I hired a canoe with a local villager as my guide and we spent 2 hours going up and down little canals between the houses built on stilts above the water. We also went out to the floating fields where the villagers grow tomatoes and ran around on them before swimming out into Inle Lake and having a race back to the boat!
The next day I cycled the other way down the West side of the lake coming upon a local market in full swing at about 7am. I had breakfast there to the amusement of the local people and then continued on to Indein. I had been told by various people that it was not possible to cycle to Indein from Nyaungshwe but where there's a will, there's a way. I got lost countless times but enjoyed stumbling upon small villagers and "talking" with the locals there before finding out the general direction to Indein. Eventually after crossing rice paddies and narrow bamboo bridges over rivers I arrived in Indein after 4 hours of hard toil. I
Shwedagon Pagoda
These women circled the entire Pagoda sweeping all the dust off the tiles explored the ancient pagodas there and then had a refreshing meal with some friends who I bumped into. Luckily I was able to put my bike in their boat and get a lift back to Nyaungshwe, via the Floating Markets and another swim in Inle, so worked out pretty well!
I also had the privilege of meeting Swe Swe Oo, a Burmese girl that Michael had met when he was traveling in Burma 2 years ago. She lives in the main town of Nyaungshwe on the shore of Inle Lake and after asking around at a few different places a small girl led me to her house. Michael had emailed her telling her that I might be visiting so she had prepared a welcome gift for me of a Burmese painting with a message telling me how happy she was to meet me! What a welcome! 😊
Over the next few days I got to know Swe Swe Oo better and from our conversations and watching her interactions with friends and family members I have to say that she is the sweetest and most kind hearted girl I have ever met. One day we were cycling to a
Cane ball in the market
I had a really good time playing with these guys! local monastery which she really wanted to show me and a lot of local people were looking at us and talking amongst themselves. Convinced they were discussing how ungainly I looked cycling in a
longyi I asked Swe Swe Oo what they were saying. She said "They are gossiping about us...", but then added with a big smile, "But I don't care because my heart is white". I think that statement sums her up pretty well and gives you a bit of an indication as to her personality. The next morning I went to the local market with her and her friend Su Nyein (also a lovely girl who spoke very good English) and they got me to try what seemed like every single breakfast food there was in the market! Then we took a pick-up to Taungyyi, about an hour away, and visited Swe Swe Oo's University and the Hostel where she lived while studying. The buildings and classrooms reminded me of Universities in Botswana and we had to wear identification necklaces the whole time we on campus. (There is a 300 Kyat fine if you don't wear one, even for Full Time Students!) That night I was invited
Women selling Thanakha wood
This wood is ground down to a powder which is applied to the skin and acts as a sunscreen and makeup. to dinner at Swe Swe Oo's house and was treated to a delicious meal! Her mum cooked a scrumptious fish, she cooked a mouth watering cauliflower and fried onion dish and her Aunt cooked soybeans and Shan style fish soup. After dinner we sat around chatting for quite a while with Su Nyein and Swe Swe Oo translating for me. It was a really special night! Thanks Swe Swe Oo and Su Nyein! 😊 Unfortunately the next day I had to leave Inle though and return to Yangon for my flight to India. I can't say enough how much I enjoyed my time in Burma, especially Inle Lake, and I really hope to return there soon!
Personal Reflections Personally, even though this sounds incredibly selfish, the honest truth is that I feel lucky to have visited Burma while it is still under the grip of "the situation". For many travelers countries like Cuba, the Central Asian States, Iran and especially Burma represent destinations that will irrevocably change in the next few decades. They are endangered animals in a dangerous jungle of consumerism, materialism and globalisation who will eventually succumb and mold themselves to the Western way of life, essentially
becoming extinct.
I will be the first person to celebrate when Burma does eventually become a Democatric State but I think that through that process Burma will change more than people think. That is not to say that I think democracy will change Burma into the next Thailand of South East Asia but the country will definitely loose some of its originality and innocence. This originality and charm that I speak of is hard to describe but perhaps through a few examples it will become clearer.
It is not uncommon to be half way through a meal or in the middle of a shower when the power will blackout not to return till the next day or the day after that... Internet is notoriously hard to find and when it is found the main server has either been shut down by the government, it is prohibitively expensive, there is a power blackout or the connection is excruciatingly slow (we're talking 22kbps in some places). Many places don't have small bank notes so when you buy something you are often given as change whatever they happen to have a surplus of at that time, fruit, cigarettes, tissues, lollies... Public
transport is so varied in Burma it is always an adventure when you decide to go somewhere any significant distance away. I took Rickshaw, tuk-tuk, horse cart, lay-bee (which literally means four-we/us and is a small matchbox car not dissimilar to the cardboard cars from East Germany), pick-up, roof of pick-up, taxi, truck, roof of truck, bus, boat and canoe. We only seem to have missed motorbikes because foreigners are banned from hiring them.
In addition, while I was traveling around Burma I read George Orwell's "Burmese Days" which was first published in 1934 and surprisingly his descriptions of the markets, people and transport are just as applicable now as they were back then, over 70 years ago. Rhinocerous beetle larvae are still sold by the bucket load in the markets, most people still wear longyis and chew betel and the women all wear thanakha and rickshaws and bullock carts are still used by the majority of local people. I don't think that there are many countries in the world where such a freezing of time has occurred to such an extent. So go there soon before it all changes!!!
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Barbara
non-member comment
Thanks for the beautiful photos and your reflections on Burma. I especially loved the photo of Fishing on Inle Lake. It was a special privilege to meet such lovely people in Myanmar!