Myanmar Wrap-Up

This story was posted under the categories: Myanmar

Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma, has been the scene of some rebel actions the last months. Why? Because the price for gazoline is going through the roof and the military regime (who has been voted out already years ago, but refuses to make way for the new democratic regime) does nothing to help its people.

While some might consider this reason enough not to visit this country, we are very happy that we did so and especially that we did so in this period. Tourism was at an all-time low and we had the place to ourselves and a couple of other “brave” travellers. As the regime puts heavy restrictions on travelling inside their country, everybody is roughly doing the same trip: Yangon, Bagan, Inlay Lake, Mandalay and Hsipaw. The order sometimes changes, but this is the way we filled our 3 week journey (we skipped a popular beach destination in the South since we had more than enough beaches in Indonesia).

So what is Myanmar about?

Transport and Infrastructure

First things first, and this is what is most on our mind in the aftermath of Burma: the transportation here is a real adventure. We travelled on a tight budget (there are no ATMs in Myanmar and we arrived with only 450 USD for the both of us) and thus always took the bus instead of flying. The busses here seem to be the kind that served their time in China, then went to Russia, the North Pole, some deserts and then ended up spending their last breath in Myanmar. Of the 9 busses we took, 8 broke down more than once during the trip, going from an exploded tire to blown up engines and broken suspension. Luckily, every bus here comes with an on-board mechanic, who fixes the bus while you stay “comfortably” in your seat. Comfortably however is a big word, as a bus here, literally means: a vehicule used to transport people and goods from point A to point B. So you are stuffed inside the car with 100 bags of rice, 500 bottles of Whiskey and every other item imaginable. Furthermore, the country being roughly the size of France, distances are rather long, roads often in bad conditions and the busses dont go faster than 50 km/h (in the best case). So for example, our trip from Mandalay to Yangon, 700 km, would take 15 hours of bus… if it didn’t break down… which it did and so we ended up spending more than 24 hours on it…

Oh and by the way, forget cell phones, there’s only one network and foreigners aren’t allowed to use it. Internet? If the internet shop has a diesel generator to create electricity and the website you want to use isn’t blocked by the national firewall (all email sites are blocked for example), you might get a page to load within 10 minutes…

People

But the good and gentle nature of the Burmese more than makes up for the crappy transportation. Even coming from Thailand “the land of smiles”, Myanmar feels like the most friendly place on earth. It starts at the airport where everybody is smiling and welcoming you with a hearthly “Hello!Mingalaba!”, accompanied by a grotesque red-toothed smile, caused by chewing too much Beetleroot (a local snack, consumed like a chewing gum).

Popular belief is that Myanmar is a terrible country because of the regime. From what we saw (and of course, we only saw the places that the government allowed us to see) we didn’t feel that this country was in such bad condition compared to the rest of Asia. Yes you have farmers that live in poor conditions and there are some that are filthy rich, but that’s the same in other Asian countries. Don’t get us wrong, a government that forces labour and does random executions is very bad, but it seems like people here aren’t unhappy, or at least not unhappy enough to really take action against it…

Food

Lonely Planet says “compared to the rest of South-East Asia, Burmese food will be a disappointment to most travellers”. Well they are wrong! We meet a lot of people who tought Burmese food wasn’t good, but when we asked if they tried the Tea Leaf Salad, they hadn’t. If they had tried the Peanut Curry? No, they didnt. The countless cakes on the markets? Mohinga (fish soup curry)… There is plenty of great food in Burma, it’s too bad that – due to the limited number of Burmese living in Europe – we’ll never be able to eat it in Belgium. That is, unless you come over to our place as we were lucky enough to be instructed in some of the culinary delights by the friendly people of Sam’s Family Restaurant in Kalaw (warmly recommended!).

Sights

Burma is mostly about temples, pagodas and stupas. The country is literally flooded with golden shiny tops of pagodas and stupas. It is simply amazing! Bagan, is the climax of religious buildings, with over 4000 of them located in an area of only 10 square kilometers!

Nature-wise, the country is very diverse, with seas in the South, desert in the center and mountains in the North. We did some trekking around Inlay Lake, walking into mountains for 9 hours and only passing by 5 people. Hiked up to a giant waterfall near Hsipaw and bathed with the locals in natural hot springs.

But there’s plently of other things to discover. The money from the train goes in a leather bag that is still sealed by a wax stamp and then sent of by courier (we didn’t see if he used a horse or not . Sewing is done by those good old Singer machines (the ones that you operate with your feet). Oh and we forgot to mention, electricity is mostly non-existant in this country. We often spent 3 consecutif days without having any electricity, heating or warm water… Made us wonder what would happen in Belgium if we didn’t have power for this long a period of time. Here, life just goes on…

See the pictures in the photo gallery under the set “Myanmar”.

PS: in these times of holidays, we’re sure you are all enjoying your Christmas turkeys and New Year drinks. Don’t worry about us, we also celebrated Christmas, with a plate of French Fries, a bottle of Mandalay Rum and a self-made Xmas Tree

MERRY XMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR