Myanmar - The Golden Land...

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It took me much too long to finally set my feet on Burmese soil. Myanmar has been on top of my travel list for many many years, but for some reason, I always ended up skipping Myanmar while travelling in Southeast Asia. So this time I had to visit this country at all costs.

In the past travellers could enter Myanmar by land from Thailand, but due to some tensions between the Thai and the Burmese government, all landborders are currently closed and the only way to get into „The Golden Land“ is by taking a plane to the capital Yangon.

For the past 10 years Burma is called Myanmar. Travellers who step down at Yangon Airport for exploring this country will find golden stupas, picturesque lakes and unspoiled mountain scenery along their way. Myanmar’s arid central plains gave rise to some of Southeast Asia’s greatest civilizations, and the country’s jewel, the ancient city of Bagan, is rivaled only by Angkor as one of the most breathtaking sights in Southeast Asia. But perhaps, the greatest treasure in Myanmar, however, is the grace and friendliness of the Burmese people amidst the fierceness of their repression.

- Yangon -

When I landed at Yangon International Airport the very first thing that I noticed was that the main clock in the arrival hall was somehow out of order… my arrival time was something like 8:00 AM in the morning but the clock was trying to tell me that it’s 3.00 PM in the afternoon.
Myanmar is one of the few countries which is not either several FULL hours behind or ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, but 6 and an HALF hours ahead.

But for some mysterious reason, time doesn’t really seem to be of importance in this country. Every clock showed me a different time and many didn’t run at all. So, instead of „The Golden Land“, Myanmar was much more „The Land of no Time“, which is a kind of romantic and as I should find out later on my journey, actually sums up a lot of what this country is all about.

The Burmese capital Yangon is like most Asian cities a place of vivid streetlife, filled with smells and colours and interesting faces, but in comparison to all the other bustling Asian cities, Yangon is rather small and laid back and got much less traffic.

When you walk around the city the first you will notice is the friendliness of the people, I was impressed by the warmth of the Burmese right away. People look at you and smile and just walk on. Some few others, the curious or chatty ones, love to chat with foreigners. They recite the always-in-order standard list of questions: “where are you from, are you married, do you have children”? They laugh at my few words of Burmese and Burmese kids have some of the cutest smiles.

When you sit in a coffeeshop, bar or riding on a long distance bus you will hear very familiar music as the Burmese have re-recorded almost every popular pop and classic rock song into Burmese. I’ve been told that it’s actually not just the same melody, but the same lyrics as well, just translated into Burmese… like Madonnas „Like a virgin“ in Burmese, which quite painted a smile on my face while listening to the familiar melody but unfamiliar Burmese lyrics. Frankly speaking, I truely doubt that they use the same lyrics, especially when they played the Burmese version of „I want your sex“ by George Michael.

Then Yangon is a great mix of old and new, east and west, here and there you’ll see a big part of its neighbour India. In some quarters of the city I’ve just felt like walking through an Indian city… the typcial Indian scent in the air, of curry, instant sticks, different Indian food from Indian restaurants, and on the streets all the Indian people, women wearing their colourful Indian clothes… the only thing I couldn’t find anywhere were holy Indian cows - and I wasn’t too sad about that.

But Burmese look neither Indian, the neighbour in the west, nor Thai, the neighbour in the East…much more they look rather familiar to Lao people. Burmese women have pretty faces, softer shapes than Thai or Indian and are mostly paler.

Myanmar has one of the most intricate ethnic combinations in the world. The government officially recongnizes over 135 different ethnicities. The largest ethnic group are the Burman (69%) and then there are are several other main ethnic groups including the Shan (8,5%) and the Karen (6,2%) living in the mountain ranges near the border with Thailand. The term „Burman“ refers to ethnicity, wheras „Burmese“ refers to nationality.

So another thing that you will notice is that all of the women and children paint their faces with a pale yellow paste which is called „Thanaka“ and considered as the beauty secret of Burmese people to protect their faces from sun and heat. The paste is made by grinding bark of the Thanaka tree on a circular smooth stone slab and mixing with water. Some put circles on their cheeks with the paste, others put stripes or coat their whole face. Therefore, one can say that Burmese women and kids have a worldwide unique look by using a unique kind of „make up“. Meanwile, most Burmese men wear longyi, which are checked skirts, like Sarongs.

The country is fascinating and unique in several other things. First, it is stupa crazy. These are the pointy or bell-shaped Buddhist monuments that hold Buddhist relics inside them and they are everywhere littering towns, fields and the middle of nowhere. While I have seen them all over Asia, nobody loves goldleaf like the Burmese. Many of the stupas and Buddhas get a daily coating of gold making them seem like they have a bad case of mold. I guess, if you stand still for too long they’ll cover you in goldleaf and stick you inside a stupa. Perhaps the best, though, is the addition of a Las Vegas-like neon halo, complete with starbursts, behind Buddha’s head.

The golden Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon is the country’s most famous stupa and one of the biggest in the world, it is surrounded by other pagodas, temples, worshipers and tourists. It definitely has an unique atmosphere about it. I enjoyed to just sit there and watch the people. I went there just before sunset and stayed until deep in the evening. In the sky you could see an almost full moon smiling down on the world, while listening to the prayers of the worshipers echoing through the night.

I should mention that Myanmar has an above average share of monks; in particular there are a lot of little monks. I have passed by several monasteries which hold more than 500 young boys ages between 5-10. I have also made my small share of “donations” to the young monks and received a “blessing” in return, so that I guess that my journey gonna be a safe and blessed one.

In the big cities you will even see some nuns, with shaved head and dressed in pink. I have never seen any nuns dressed in such a pretty, girlish colour, so if you bump into a group of young nuns they rather look like a group of lifely highschool girls than what you usually expect to be nuns.

Later someone told me that there are so many stupas spread over the country because it’s a way for the military-government to keep the people calm. Burmese are deeply religious and worship whenever they can, many people are rather plain and non educated, leading a simple life. A life that is hard and difficult but generally noone is suffering hunger, they have a roof over their heads and enough to eat for themselves and their families, so politics are an issue they don’t spend much thoughts on, even though the military government in Myanmar is considered to be one of the most corrupt and baddest in the world. But nevertheless, the government is smart enough to build stupas and stupas and stupas everywhere, so when travelling around the country you will pass by a golden stupa even in the most remoted areas. On the other hand, money is not spend on infrastructure, roads are mostly bad, electricity is rare on the countryside, so Myanmar is definitely one of the most backwatered countries in the region and according to some statistics the poorest one in Southeast Asia.

The standard of living is like the poor people in India (the ones with a home - not the homeless) but with no middle or upper class - except some few rich corrupted government people in control of the natural ressources like jade and crystals and lately gas. Everything is very basic and simple. The economy is in ruins, part because it is has always been so and part because international sanctions put on the country to punish the military Junta.

Anyway, talking about politics and criticizing the government in Myanmar is a delicate issue and due to some reasons, should be avoided in public. I’ve heard some terrible stories from locals about what the military did to the people. Well, that’s the bad side of the coin when it comes to Myanmar, but as a traveller you usually don’t really have any mentionable contact with the military while travelling through the country.

I stayed in Motherlands Inn 2 and spoiled myself with an airconditioned twin room for 15USD (instead of a single with AC 10USD or with fan and shared bathroom for 7USD) with own bathroom, TV and 2 beds, one for me and one for my backpack. I love to have my backpack on a seperated bed right next to me just to put all my stuff all over the bed so that I can reach them by just spreading out my arms and without standing up from my own bed - I know I am a lazy bloke. The hostel got a good restaurant and terrace where all guests gather for breakfast or dinner, so that I ended up meeting some fellow travellers. I strolled through the city with Nicki, an Australian girl from Sydney, Aiko and Tsugumi from Japan, and Richard, a 50 something Englishman with an Yorkshire accent which I found tremendously difficult to understand. It took me an half day to get used to his English so that I could understand like 80% of what he said without kindly asking him to repeat it. It was a kind of odd, he spoke English as a native speaker but no Burmese or other non English travellers could understand him so that I had to be functioning as a kind of translator… so the native English speaker spoke something in native English and I, the one with the (in comparison) „broken English“, had to repeat his words in my "broken English" so that the people in the restaurant, shop or the Burmese on the street could understand what he was saying or asking - how frustrating this must have been for him.

I kind of liked Yangon. I enjoyed walking through the city having a cup of tea here, a chilly coke there and some Indian food here and some Burmese food there, or having some chats with friendly locals and fellow travellers.

One day I had an interesting encounter with a young Burmese woman. She was earning her money by rolling Burmese cigarettes, flavoured tobacco in a piece of leaf. When I asked her how much money she is making a day, she told me that when she is happy (but I think she meant „when she is lucky“) she can roll up about 500 cigarettes a day, for 1 rolled and sold (!) cigarette she will get 1 Burmese Kyiat which would make 500 Kyiat a day when she is good. So, the latest exchange rate was 1290 Kyiat for 1USD. Now you make the maths yourself.

Nevertheless, I generally had the feeling that people in Myanmar were quite sadisfied with their lifes, simple and sometimes hard as it was, they still seemed to be happy… and considering all the issues mentioned above, it’s such a miracle that Burmese treat each other and travellers (=foreigners) with such a genuine warmth, respect and friendliness.

So, for me Myanmar is not "The Golden Land" nor "The Land of no Time" and much less "The Land with the bad military regime"... but much more I will remeber Myanmar as "The Land of friendly people"...

To be continued… next: Myanmar - The Fishermen of the Inle Lake...

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Photos

Yangon
Monk at the Shwedagon Pagoda

Bored Monk
Waiting for Godot?

Lost in the city
Monks in Yangon

Streets of Yangon
Burmese men having a chat

In the shadows
Praying

Watching you
Buddhas

Enlightenment
A candle in the wind

Woman in pink
A Burmese nun

Sunset
In Yangon

Yangon Airport
Finally Myanmar