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Published: December 27th 2008
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(Day 261 on the road)From Yangon, we took the train up to Bago, about two hours north-east. Trains in Myanmar are government-operated, and the train ride (at an expense of more than four times the local price, to be paid in USD only, no local money) was our first direct sponsorship of the military dictatorship. The journey was fun though, and it was nice being on a train.
The city of Bago was founded in the year 573. Legend has it, that two princesses saw a female swan standing on the back of a male swan on an island in a huge lake. They took this as a good omen (not sure why exactly), and founded the ancient Burmese capital of Hanthawady here, and establishing many many temples and pagodas in the area. The city grew in importance over the years as an ancient capital, was later destroyed in 1757 and then rebuilt, but never again to its previous glory. Today, Bago city is absolute madness in terms of traffic, with the main road through the town a constant traffic jam, with everything from trucks, buses, bicycles, motorbikes, horse carts, rickshaws and pedestrians all trying to move faster than everyone
else. The result is the biggest traffic chaos you can imagine.
The attraction thus lies in the many temples and stupas that are dotted around the city. Silke and I managed to rent a motorbike for the afternoon (technically forbidden for all foreigners), and explored many of the temples that way, some of them which were quite a drive away. I was especially impressed by a massive reclining Shwethalyaung Buddha. It is a massive 55 meters long and 16 meters high.
In Bago, I also learned a few more interesting facts about Myanmar. For one, the university in Yangon has been relocated away from the city center a few years ago, as the government was afraid of student protests for more freedom or even democracy - so they moved them far out of sight. Second, Myanmar residents residing abroad have to pay 10% of their net income to the Myanmar government. If they fail to do these payments, they are not allowed to visit their own country again. Third, censorship in this country is extremely heavy and stringent. Many popular international websites (even email services like Hotmail or picture sites like Flickr) are blocked and are only accessible
by complicated workarounds, and internal censorship is even worse (a local band wanted was not allowed to call its new album "It's going to be good", but had to rename it "Everything is good"). Four, life expectancy in Myanmar is about 55 years, with one doctor for every 12500 people. Fifth, the official exchange rate for the Burmese Kyat is 1 USD = 6 Kyat. The real exchange rate (what you will get on the black market) is 1 USD = 1200 kyat. Inflation is at 50%!y(MISSING)ear on year. And six, Myanmar has no mobile phone roaming agreements with any other country, and to receive a mobile phone number here costs a whopping 2500 USD. To put this figure into perspective: A teacher earns between 10 and 15 USD a month.
Next stop: Inle Lake (Central Myanmar).
To view my photos, have a look at
pictures.beiske.com. And to read the full account of my journey, have a look at the complete
book about my trip at Amazon (and most other online book shops).
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