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Published: June 30th 2009
Funny:
There was a lovely Burmese chap who managed to get a passport and travel to India.
He visited a dentist for treatment.
"Why not wait until you're back home in Burma and visit a dentist there?", he was asked.
"Don't you have dentists in Burma?"
"Sure", said the Burmese visitor.
"Problem is -- we can't open our mouths".
Not Funny:
The author of the joke is currently serving a 45-year prison sentence for sharing his perspective on the state of Burmese affairs.
Welcome to Burma, also known as Myanmar, a country of contradictions. Since 1962, it has been ruled by a heartless military junta which suppresses almost all dissent and wields absolute power in the face of international condemnation and sanctions. But the people we met were as far from heartless that they could be. From our first day until our last we were sincerely touched by how kind, helpful, funny and gracious the Burmese people were. They were extremely poor in monetary possessions but rich in spirit. They deserve so much more.
We arrived in strange times. A few days prior, the pro-democracy leader,
Yangon
View from our guesthouseNobel Peace Prize winner and icon of hope for the Burmese people, Aung San Suu Kyi, was arrested. An uninvited American man had swum across a lake to her house and the Generals responded by accusing her of violating the terms of her house arrest, which she has been under for most of the past 20 years.
Timing was great for the Generals, who are planning an election next year. Leading up to this, they want to keep the icon of the opposition out of the public eye and Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest was due to end shortly. Now, they have an excuse to keep her on trial for awhile and long-term, she faces up to five years confinement for the intrusion.
Not that we heard much talk of this on the street. There, people go about their daily lives. Yangon is a busy city during the day and shuts down completely at night, when the electricity doesn't reliably function. We enjoyed walking amongst the grand Colonial buildings, walking through the "exotic" food markets (check out some of their offerings in the photos), and visiting some of the beautiful pagodas.
The Shwedagon Pagoda was particularly
Yangon
Local Transport awe-inspiring. Said to be somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 years old, it is an enormous golden maze of shrines. The lower portion of the monument is plated with close to 9,000 solid gold bars and the upper part with another 13,000. The tip of the monument is set with 5500 diamonds, 2300 rubies, sapphires, and other gems, 1065 golden bells and, at the very top, a single 76-carat diamond. Kinda blows my mind. Not only is it impressive, it is also extremely busy with individuals praying and visiting the various shrines.
One of the "tricks" of travel in Burma is making sure you get as little money to the government as possible: Trains are owned by the government, so they are a no-no. Also, many of the more expensive hotels are government owned, but with our budget, that wasn't a problem at all!
Another "challenge" we faced before coming to Burma was getting our hands on PERFECT US dollars to take here. In Myanmar, the currency for most of our daily costs were in USD. We had read that they were particular about the condition of the US money they received. That was quite an understatement! They were
Yangon
Lunch, anyone? really expecting dollars fresh from the mint -- even a tiny mark made it unusable. However, the change we received in the local currency (kyats) was often taped together and generally falling apart. How ironic it all was!
After Yangon, we took a night bus to Bagan. There are two preeminent ancient religious cities in Southeast Asia: Bagan in Burma and Angkor in Cambodia (in our NEXT blog). Both sites are notable for their expanse of sacred geography and the number and size of their individual temples. What astounded us at Bagan is the view: sprawling across a vast dusty plain, the ruins of Bagan are unhidden (unlike at Angkor, where the temples stand alone and are isolated from one another in the thick jungles). With no trees to obstruct the view, one may gaze over forty square miles of countryside, upon literally thousands of temples. The kingdom dates back to early 2nd century A.D., but it only entered its golden age with the conquests in 1057 A.D. From this time, until Bagan was overrun by Kublai Khan's forces in 1287 A.D., more than 13,000 structures were built. Today, approximately 3,700 temples remain standing. It was a majestic, incredible
Yangon
Fried crickets are a specialty here (not that we tried any)! day amongst the ruins.
We took our next bus to Inle Lake, which is was about 14 painfully-bumpy hours from Bagan. There is no point in referring to kilometers when the roads are in such bad condition. It just takes time. And patience. And for women - a good sports bra 😊
It was worth the trip. It is the second-largest fresh-water lake in Burma and surrounded by beautiful hills. We did what most people do and hired a boat and driver to spend the day on the lake. The trip around the lake begins with a two-kilometer sprint down the main canal. Scenes of life amid the water begin to play out - along the main canal children swim while their parents bathe, wash the dishes, and do the laundry. At the end of the canal, the landscape opens up to the crystal clear shallow waters of Inle Lake with the hills rising on each side creating the perfect natural picture frame. Around the lake, men in their boats, pushing the paddle with their legs while standing (unique to this area), seek their daily take of fish.
Last on the agenda was a trip to the
Yangon
Local market Nga Phe Kyaung monastery - better known as the "Jumping Cat monastery". Bored monks, perhaps weary from the demands of their spiritual endeavors, trained the resident cats to jump through hoops. Ok, some of you might find visiting a mindless tourist trap in bad taste, but admit it -- I know deep down inside you really want to see the cats jump through the hoops. Anyway, it was fun. Live vicariously -- check out the video.
And sadly, that was our last stop. We hope to go back again some day. I hope it will be better times for the Burmese by then and people can openly joke about whatever they like.
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Cessna152
Jason Smart
Very well written and informative account of your time in Burma.