Advertisement
Published: September 5th 2014
Edit Blog Post
Hello Everyone,
For many years I have wanted to visit Burma/Myanmar, precisely because I know so little about the country. Of course we all know about the lengthy house arrest of the political leader Aung San Suu Kyi and we are aware that there is a military government, but what about the country itself and its people? The mention of the name Burma conjures up visions of splendid gold-covered pagodas and ....poor people. That’s about it.
I know a Burmese man in Ireland and he often urged me to visit his homeland. So when I finished the teaching job in China I decided that it was “now or never.” I gave myself three weeks in May 2014 to discover all that I could about this mysterious land.
I flew from Hong Kong to Yangon visa Singapore on the Asian budget airlines Tiger Air. It was fine – no frills, like Ryan Air. My Burmese friend had arranged for a driver to meet me at the airport and take me to the guest house I had booked, so that was a nice way to begin my visit. The White House Hotel had been recommended by a friend in Hong
Kong but when I got there I realised that, although it was cheap at $15 per night, it was a little too basic for my needs. When Nature called at night I would have had to go down a winding staircase to use the toilet. No thanks. It was great that my driver knew of another guest house, the Hninn (it means “rose”) Hotel in Banpangoyan Pagoda Road. At $18 my private room was very basic but clean and convenient, with free breakfast. (I soon learned that almost all rooms in Burma come with breakfast included.) The Hninn also had a “backpackers” feel to it as the helpful staff arranged bus and plane tickets, etc. while guests swapped travel tips in the lobby.
I found Yangon to be a big, hot (40°C+), dusty city with few charms. Yes, there are the golden pagodas but I was so hot and dusty I could hardly appreciate them. I have done a lot of travelling, including Asia, Africa and South America, but I found Burma to be the most "Third-World-y" of all the places I have been. It is quite incongruous to see huge golden pagodas in the midst of such poverty.
Shwedagon Paya
young Buddhist nuns Although it is a poor country, backpackers will be surprised at how expensive Burma is for food and accommodation, especially those who have traveled from Thailand which is super-cheap.
The day after I arrived in Yangon I walked and walked from one beautiful pagoda to another. En route I took special interest in the food being cooked and sold from roadside stalls. It was at one of these stalls that I discovered the Burmese habit of chewing betel nuts, a mild stimulant. You may remember the song “Bloody Mary” from the movie South Pacific where the sailors sing, “She is always chewing betel nut.” The “bloody” refers to the blood red juice that they spit out and that stains all of their mouths and teeth. Yuk! Not to mention the red splats on the roads.
A young girl rolled pieces of betel nut in a green leaf, rolled it and gave it to me to take a bite. It tasted like eating a leaf - and then there was a soapy taste. I had a few chews and then she said, “OK, now spit out” which I did – leaves, soap and all. “No!
Shwedagon Paya
golden rooftops Just spit out your saliva and keep chewing” and she demonstrated for me. Hmm, no thanks. The long term effect of betel nut chewing is that the teeth rot. One of the worst sights to see in Burma is a middle-aged man with red lips and tongue and a mouthful of rotten teeth. I think that people who want to work in the tourism industry will have to give up that practice. I was lucky yesterday that I stopped myself short just before a betel juice red rocket shot across the sidewalk inches in front of me!
My first full day in Yangon, Wednesday, 30
th April, I was only out for a few hours but the heat was so great I finally took refuge under a big tree in a city centre park. The Burmese people love to read and as I relaxed I glanced through some of the paperbacks I had bought from a street stall, including Orwell's "Burmese Days", of course. Later I met the same young man who had collected me at the airport for a Q/A session about travelling in Burma. We went for dinner with his student friends, which was fun.
My mobile
phone SIM cards from China and from Hong Kong wouldn’t work here but luckily I managed to make contact with my Burmese friend’s family on Day 3. They were fantastic and brought me to their home. It was wonderful for me to be invited into to see how ordinary families live their daily lives. Too often that is something a traveller doesn’t get to see first hand because we spend most of our time in hostels, tourist venues, restaurants or in the street. In the evening we visited the greatest of all pagodas, Shwedagon Paya, a gilded masterpiece. It was a delight to see it floodlit. I couldn’t get over all the Burmese people who were there praying, viewing the shrines, and socialising. It was obviously the thing to do and everyone seemed to be in good spirits. I was amused by the Buddhist monks with their digital cameras and Smart phones.
The next morning my friend’s parents took me to see the work of their adult children. The youngest son is a successful artist with his own shop. Another son is building a modest seven-storey apartment block in a Yangon suburb. I learned that a building boom is
underway in Burma and there are plenty of opportunities for hardworking tradesmen who have private funders. My hosts kindly drove me to see Aung San Suu Kyi’s house on Inya Lake in the University area of Yangon. Of course the gates are always closed but it was great to see it after watching the film “The Lady” and hearing about all the historic events that have taken place there. By the way, Aung San Suu Kyi was asked about the name of her country – “Burma” or “Myanmar”? She said that she prefers “Burma” because the military government changed the name to Myanmar without consulting the people of Burma. So that’s good enough for me, “Burma” it is.
I had wanted to escape the heat of Yangon and go to one of the beaches on the west coast of the country. Unfortunately those plans got mixed up. I then discovered that 70%!o(MISSING)f the hotels in the most famous beach, Ngapali, had closed by 1
st May in anticipation of the rainy season. I just went to Yangon Airport and asked what flights were leaving that afternoon. A young airline official took me in hand and was determined to get
Burmese family at home
note the Ireland football team jersey! me sorted. He said that the little airport I was in would be replaced by a new, big Yangon International Airport in two years. Luckily, for only $105 he found a flight leaving shortly that hopped to a few airports before landing in my next destination, Bagan, which is in the middle of the country, north of Yangon.
Yippee - my travels in Burma were on a roll!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.104s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 17; qc: 60; dbt: 0.0569s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Burma
We really enjoyed our time in Burma. So glad to see you traveling again and blogging. You've got some great photos. Sounds like you are having a great time. Keep those blogs coming.