Burma/ Myanmar

For me, Myanmar was wondering whether to call it Burma or Myanmar; asking if the water was safe to drink; trying to figure out if that cute dog across the street was rabid – not worrying about traveling alone, especially as a woman – being jealous of a man taking a shower (as I hadn’t showered for 5 days) – leaving my bags on the floor for hours, as I played with the children on the street – being the first locals to ever set foot in a village (and the experience of awe in their eyes as we greeted) – where kids trade empty glass bottles for ice cream – probably one of the only countries where the cars have a right-wheel drive, and also drive on the right side of the road…

The moment that we ported in Rangon, I left on a tour planned by my friend Aurora – and from the moment we got on the bus, I knew it would be a great trip. All 12 of us just had great energy, which resonated throughout our 12-seater van. We had a great personal tour guide, sleeping in schools, visiting and seeing people from the local villages, who had not seen more than 10,000 foreigners at that time.

Fun/ Cool / Enlightening Stuff done:

Day 1

Have you ever been to a place that just makes you happy? Without even having done anything, I felt content just being in Burma – the sights, the smells – everything just seemed so raw

As we drove overnight to our hotel, this is pretty much all that I would be exposed to, through the dismal fog that enveloped the roads in the nighttime I was able to notice a slower pace of life than I would be accustomed to, people actively selling things and conducting business at 1am, and eventually, having sight of our super –quaint, family run hotel.

Day 2

At the hotel, I met a retired French lady who’s now traveling the world; she’d been to every country in Asia but China because she didn’t feel safe traveling alone; I introduced her to Couchsurfing, so hopefully she can use it to accomplish her goal

We had a scenic drive to the elephant village where we’d be staying for the night, but before getting to the jungle, we stopped at this unofficial temple on the side of the road to pray to the ‘Spirit of the Jungle’

Once there, I was surprised to see that the mayor of the village is a female

We got to see women getting water from a well – those who repeat the process of carrying the bamboo-filled water jugs 4-5 times a day

We also saw a lady weaving a blanket from outside of her window, which takes her 3 weeks to a month, and only sells for about $20

We were served moose for dinner, which to them was not as exotic as it is for us

Day 3

We spent the day relaxing, riding elephants, which was literally more scary to me than the time I sky dived – needless to say, I think that the elephant that I was on really felt my fear, being the only one that was having trouble climbing up one of the steep hills that we needed to overcome

All the while, I realized that I’ve never been such a spectacle, with villagers coming out to see us and laugh at us riding elephants

Day 4

Before heading back to the ship, we go up to watch elephants at work, mostly consisting of pulling logs and lifting heavy items – we were reminded that most of the reasons why the wild elephants are angry is because humans are cutting down the trees that create their habit; it was really ironic to see them working to cut down these very trees

Before heading back to the ship, we ran out of gas, making us have to wait for an hour until another bus came to give us some more. This would’ve never happened in the States, at least not so casually, which reminded me yet again of the difference in pace of life.

In the meantime, I saw children trading bottles for ice cream (alcohol companies’ methods of recycling) and shared an amazing watermelon with my friends and the people of the village who sold it to us – as we were walking, we happened to stumble upon the ‘watermelon man’, who led us to his convenience store where we ended up eating it

Day 5

My friend and I walked through the Yangon/Rangoon during the day, venturing through the bustling city, which surprised us with dozens of donut shops…

After being amazed by the Shwedagon Pagoda (the largest Pagoda in Myanmar), we wanted to find a restaurant that was recommended for us in the city, but we ended up being drawn by really loud music in the middle of a side street. We held back at first because we thought it was a protest, but we were surprised to see that it was actually an Indian wedding.

Among the beautifully/brightly colored saris, there we were, sweaty and casually dressed, but dancing among the hundreds of people that populated the street. They even invited us into the wedding ceremony (where we got to shake the hands of the bride and groom) and then for dinner, which was probably better than the restaurant that we would’ve found.

Lesson of the day: when/wherever there is music, follow it

Day 6

I went to watch a monk’s convocation and invocation ceremony, which was incredible!

To avoid being in traffic, the government paid for a police on a motorcycle to escort us to the monastery…

Because our program donated about $5,000 for the ceremony, we were able to take part in the procession. Some of us were given gold chalices to present to the Buddha, but I was given a silver one with small monies and candy… not as cool, or so I thought before I realized that I was actually a walking piñata! Throughout the ceremony, I was told to randomly through the money and the candy into the street (no wonder the kids kept were only standing next to me).

During the procession, I had two little girls holding my hand. Seeing a ditch ahead of us, I tried to avoid them falling in by picking them up before the ditch and pointing downwards… but guess who ends up falling into the ditch, breaking her shoes, and bringing the little girl down with her? Haha, that’s right. The director of the monastery graciously bought me new flip-flops.

After the procession, we were able to feed over 1,000 monks (both male and female), who did this each day for food. The food was both vegetarian and non-vegetarian and all combined in this wooden bowl that they’re given upon becoming monks.

Best Food Had: Coconut Rice!

Favorite City: — The places we were in Myanmar were pretty undifferentiated, except for Yangon, which was interesting, but I did not spend enough time there to truly get to know it.

Favorite Thing Done: Rode an Elephant – Watched a Lady Practice her Afternoon Weaving

Interesting things learned about Myanmar:

On Politics:

China helps the country, particularly in the development of the country’s infrastructure, but they don’t help for free. In exchange, they take Myanmar’s natural resources, such as their copper mines and natural gas; they also support the insurgence against the government.

The army still controls the government

The government allows people to name their kids or to have American names

The government really attempts to separate tourists from locals; our tour guide needed to get official documentation from the local government to be able to get us to the village we were going to. Ask locals about politics? This puts them at risk of imprisonment.

The country is slowly, but progressively transitioning from a dictatorship to a democracy

Ethnic cleansing still exists — the US just counted its 50,000th Burmese refugee

2 weeks before my arrival, the constitution was amended to say that the military would not hold the majority of the power, at which point all political prisoners were released from jail

Myanmar was military ruled from 1962 to 2010

Myanmar has friendly relations with China

Politics are not allowed as common conversation – even in a ‘tea house’

The country just resumed foreign relations in January 2012

There is still heavy fighting because the north of Burma wants to break away

The government is buying weapons from India

The country was socialist until 1988; now, it’s 1/2 socialist and 1/2 democratic, with the ultimate goal of it being fully democratic by 2015

On Society:

People only live to be 65? The thought that I would only live to be this old is beyond me – there is so much I want to accomplish, and I can’t imagine what it would be like to have to accept the fact that you won’t be able to because of an inevitable, societal timeline

In Burma, kids sleep in bed with their parents even when they’re older

Some of the shrines won’t let women go all the way in or all the way up where the men are allowed to go

Smiling all the time isn’t perceived to be weird or crazy

Women and men alike still use face paint made from Thanat Khar, a tree, which is mixed with water on a stone and put on the face to create ‘smoothing, cooling, refreshing and good-smelling’ effect

Many kids can read but not speak English, since they don’t have anyone to practice with

People don’t have a (hereditary) last name – one is named based on one’s birth date, which is usually one name only, preferably a ‘lucky name’, which is important for a good life

People gift each other and receive gifts with two hands

Cursing is frowned upon; tattoos are also frowned upon, since it’s seriously hard to get a job w/ tattoos, although young people tend to think they’re ‘sexy’

Myanmar drives on the right side of the road but with the steering wheel on the right side of the car as well; they also use the US metric system

I found that people speak more English in Burma than they do in China and in Japan

Men are way more touchy-feely towards each other than we’re accustomed to: our tour guide and the driver had just met, and they were cuddling together in bed and gave each other kisses on the cheek as well as a slap in the butt goodbye

Economics/Infrastructure:

Women are paid $2.50/day and men $3/day for working on the side of the street

The country has a heavy embargo system

Thailand, China, and India are its largest trading partner. Myanmar imports a lot, especially medicine and plastic

Unemployment is only 5.4%; rice is its biggest export, along with jade and gems, which big companies like Tiffany’s refuse to buy because of the country’s political history

Only 32% of Burmese have access to electricity

March 2012 the date when foreigners could start businesses without needing local partners

The country has the lowest healthcare expenditures in the world – the country only spends 3% on healthcare; healthcare is ‘free’, but the individuals need to spend money for the necessary medications and supplies

Only 1% of people have access to Internet — most of which are hotels

Teachers charge extra for tutoring/ extra learning, meaning that they often don’t fully teach what they need to, in order to receive payment for the respective lesson

1/4 of the population lives below the poverty line

Myanmar is one of the world’s largest producers (and exporters) of opium

Myanmar has no middle class- it used to, but corruption caused it to dwindle

Companies are lined up to do business in Myanmar in 2015

Wherever I went, everyone gave me the local prices, meaning that they were not trying to rip us off

50-60% of all tourists in Myanmar are French tourists

Most of the time, Burmese people can understand each other’s language but they can’t speak to each other

On Monks:

Monks are part of a ‘royal family’– people in royal families put on makeup, so the monks, even the boys put on lipstick and blush.

Monks here don’t eat from noon to 5:30 am

For many children, being a monk helps them get our of poverty, as after they go through the monk ceremony, they can ask for free food and can have a free place to live. Otherwise, the other option is to go into the police academy, which is free – but school isn’t?? This goes to show you where the government has its priorities…

Boys stay in a monastery for a week; they wake up at 4:30am, collect free food on bare feet for 2-3hrs, and once they have breakfast and lunch, they can not have anymore meal. For this reason, many monks are caught hiding snacks around the monastery to eat at night

Every Buddhist boy needs to be changed into a monk at least once in his life

Miscellaneous:

Obama wasn’t allowed to go to the Shwedagon Pagoda (Myanmar’s largest pagoda) because everyone there needs to take of their shoes, and his security guards thought that this would be a threat, should he need to run away at any given point. He went anyway.