Burma part 1

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March 24th 2006

Published: April 1st 2006

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JDR

yangon

The latest movies in Yangon. probably took them 10 years to censor them form "negative foreign influence"

Burma Introduction

Travelling to Burma (or Myanmar official name) is rather controversial these days.
The country is run by a military regime (the Slorc or junta) which took power over 40 years ago after ethnic struggles had caused chaos in the post independence years.
After years of mismanagement and corruption the economic situation got really bad in the late 80's. 8-8-88 is one of the milestones in the recent history of Burma. This was when large peaceful demonstrations were organised all over the country. The regime reacted by firing into the crowds. In a couple of weeks more than 2000 people (mostly students and monks) were killed.
In the early 90's elections were held. These were won with a majority of over 80 pct by the opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi. The regime never handed over power. Instead the majority of the opposition party leaders were put in jail. Aung San Suu Kyi (The Lady) became the international face of the opposition. She is currently under house arrest for the 3rd time. She hasn't seen her kids since the beginning of the 90's and wasn't allowed to see her husband on his death bed. The regime refused

yangon 2

his visa and Suu kyi does not want to leave the country because she will never be allowed back in.

Currently the US and the EU have very severe economic boycotts against Burma in place. However these seem to miss their target. The problem being that the Asian countries (China, Thailand, etc) still keep economic relations with Burma and the regime is still getting rich on oil exports. The ones suffering from the boycotts are the people. A small example: Burma used to be one of the biggest exporters of rice in the world. Because of the boycotts now they can only export to the Asian countries around, which buy at very low prices and than export themselves at higher prices. The farmers have their income go down the drain.

There is also a tourism boycott (officially announced by Tony Blair in 2005), asking people not visit the country in order to not support the government. This boycott also is missing the target. The result has been that independent travellers have started to avoid Burma. In 2005, independent travel was down to 20 pct of the number in 2002-2003. Organised travel (tour groups) on the other hand has

shwedagon

Around shwedagon pagoda

gone through the roof.

The government loves it: Tour groups stay at government hotels and use their transportation (flights, trains, boat cruises) and so basically spend all their money with the government. As a bonus for the government these travellers are isolated from the locals. So they are not able to have a ' negative influence' on them.
Again the locals are suffering: less independent travellers means that a lot of small places are going bankrupt, people lose their jobs, there is no more information from the outside world. If there are no annoying travellers around the regime can easily continue its human right violations (the way they are going on in the restricted areas till today).

I decided to go anyway and my goal being to spend as little money with the government as possible and spread my money among the locals as much as possible. I avoided all government transport (1 small exception) and accommodation plus I skipped government entrance fees wherever possible (making direct donations instead). All in all (including all VAT and taxes) only about 65 USD of my budget went to the government (includes 25 usd visa and 10 usd exit tax). The

shwedagon

estimated average government income from a tour group member on a 3 week trip would be 500 to 750 usd!

Yangon

Arriving in the capital Yangon was yet another culture shock. Because several border zones are restricted for travel by the Regime, the only way to get to the central zone is by air.

It really felt like I landed in another part of the world. Because of the isolation the country is in it hasn't evolved the way the neighbour countries have, resulting in some strange scenes.
Here are some things that really struck me:

The arrival hall of the 'Yangon International Airport' is the most run down Int. airport I ever saw. Just 1 big hangar with some desks and something that looks like a luggage belt.
The immigration officers here are not the usual serious looking men but beautiful smiling girls (the regime's way to make a good first impression on the tourists?).

Men are not wearing pants. Instead almost all wear longyi, a kind of sarong/ skirt (Partly the result of a government order, but also because of the heat). This is a bit funny at first but after a couple

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shwedagon by night, taken from the roof of my guesthouse.

of days one hardly notices.

Most girls are wearing Thanakha: some kind of make up that looks a bit like mud and serves as decoration and sun block.

Burmese people look more Indian than Asian. They have a very dark skin. There is also a large Indian population in the country. The Indian food was a great variation from the noodles.

Traffic in Burma drives on the right side of the road but almost all cars have the steering wheel on the right as well. This is due to the fact that one general's fortune teller told him one night he should "move the country to the right". So the next day he ordered that all cars should drive on the right side. This creates some dangerous traffic situations and made that from the start I never felt safe on busses here.

There are no banks in Burma. Travellers need to have USD cash which they can exchange for Kyat. The official exchange is about 1 USD/ 450K but everyone (except the very uninformed tourists) exchanges on the black market where the rate is 1 USD /1100 K (or more depending on the town).

Horse

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Monks talking to travellers on Mandalay Hill.

cart or ox cart are still very common means of transportation in Burma.

The government needs to know exactly where every traveller is at all time, so all the hotels need to send 12 copies (!!!) of their guest lists to the government before 6 pm each day.

The main attraction in Yangon is the Swedagon pagoda a huge gold covered stupa that can be seen from all over town. The stupa is not only gilded with gold but also has loads of diamonds incorporated in the building.
Even for the people who have had a temple overdose (including myself) it is an amazing building. I spent an afternoon there checking out the building, reading and talking to the monks.

The rest of my time in Yangon I spent cruising through the old colonial downtown and the Indian and Chinese markets.
I also met some really interesting characters:
A local who had been driving around the country with the founder of the Lonely planet guide books in the 70's.
A British guy who was visiting the country for the 6th time and was talking very silently as soon as we discussed politics. He advised me

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the moustache brothers

never to talk politics with taxi drivers as they are often questioned by the police and might be informants.

Mandalay

I decided not to hang around Yangon to long and got on an overnight bus to Mandalay. On the ride over there I was the only traveller and it was cool to see how the locals were taking care of me; showing me how and where to get food and drinks, shaking hands and talking...

After that 1st bus ride I found out that travel in Burma was not going to be as fast as in the rest of South East Asia. The day after the bus ride I was not in shape to do much. I met a cool Belgian couple and we were talking for a long time after which I went for a walk to the Mandalay hill for sunset. Sitting there I was approached by several locals wanting to talk politics /practise English with me...
That was going to be how I passed most of my time in Mandalay: talking to the locals. There aren't so many travellers around so every chance they had they jumped on me. I was invited to English

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Mingun. Base of a never finished stupa. Cracked by an earthquake.

classes, celebrations, Siamese football tournaments, etc. I went swimming and think I talked to every person in the pool ("just a second, now I am doing a couple of laps and than we'll talk").
These conversations start very basic (where from? how long stay? family?, etc) but a lot of them really want to find out 'what Europe is like' and 'if we really want to destroy their country and culture' ( as the governments propaganda is saying). It was difficult to explain them that most people in the West don't even know Burma exists or think it's a Thai island.
People want to talk politics but it is a bit difficult. As a traveller you shouldn't ask them questions about politics as to not put them in trouble. So they need bring up the subject but they usually need a long way to get to the subject. I found a short cut though by asking them what they studied and telling them I studied International politics after which most of them jumped on the topic.
It's really strange to hear that people have no idea that there exists something else than military regimes.

I missed most of the

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sightseeing in Mandalay. I was too busy hanging out with the locals and you needed a government ticket to get in the sites (some of which were recently rebuild for tourism by means of forced labour!!).

I also went to see a performance of the 'Moustache brothers' in Mandalay. The Moustache brothers are three guys that had a comedy show which they performed all over the country until two of them made some jokes about the government in the capital. They were arrested and sentenced to 7 years forced labour (they served 5). After that they weren't allowed to do public performances. Instead they started to do private shows for foreigners in the garage of their house. After government agents attended to some shows these shows were forbidden too. So now they just do a "demonstration of a real show".
The show is basically some stand up comedy, slapstick and a lot of dancing. Since only one of them speaks English the shows are not really what the Burmese versions used to be. It was entertaining though. A crowd of locals was looking in from outside the house while the father of these guys was sitting outside to see

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Mingun. Huge bell.

if there were any government agents around.
The guys invited us to drop by to chat if we wanted. So the next day I bought some cake and went to have tea with them.
It's pretty amazing that these guys after having served 5 years, are still taking the risk, night after night of being arrested for doing their show and giving their opinions on the government. On the other hand Mu Law (the English speaking one) admitted that the foreigners visiting their shows provide them with some protection. The government realises that the Moustache brothers have become pretty famous in the rest of the world and they are now hesitant to intervene as this might cause an international reaction. He also told me he expects to be arrested again if travellers stop showing up for their shows.... Amazing to meet these people that are prepared to go to jail (or worse) for their freedom of speech, something all of us take for granted.

Bagan

After 3 days I caught a local bus (one white guy and 40-50 Burmese people in bus designed for 30 people) to Bagan where I planned to make up for the missed sightseeing

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in Mandalay.

No way of avoiding the government entrance fee here. I was hiding/ pretending to be asleep in the back of the bus with a sarong covering my face but to no avail. They got on the bus and walked me to the ticket counter. At least 5 of the 10 USD ticket is going to the conservation of the ruins. So I only contributed 5 USD to the building of a private pool for some general.

In my pre departure research I had seen a lot of pictures of Bagan but I was not really impressed. But I guess Bagan just doesn't work on picture. Walking around there did impress me... a lot. My guide book describes it as "All the European cathedrals put in one big plain the size of Manhattan Island". I think that's a pretty good description.

The first day I rented a horse cart and driver to take me to the main sights and some off the beaten track sites. We first arrived at 3 impressive buildings and when I wanted to look them up in the Bagan guide book they weren't even in there, because they were too small!!!

Bagan

detail of Bagan temple

I spent almost the whole day in awe going from one site to the other. The next day I rented a bike and went to go check some of the sites I rushed through the day before and some off the beaten path places.
Bagan was incredibly hot 35-40 C and I could only bear to be out from 6 to 11 and from 16 to 18 and even than I was near exhaustion after haven bicycled for 2 km.

I decided to go look for some cooler weather in the mountains.

Still to come: bus travel in Burma and the highlight of SEA so far.

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