Burma

A note from the author

In July and August 2005 we took a trip to Burma (Myanmar) and I know some people are anxious to see something here. However as my friends and relatives already know I, unfortunately, lost my camera in Thailand with all the Birmese pictures. Luckily Ilke had made some as well, but writing about Burma and seeing the pictures and knowing how beautiful some of the pictures I took were and how many were beautiful because of the emotion behind them, I still have problems starting with this site. However will be assured that it will come !

Henk

Burma

DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate this page to the most friendly, modest and helpful people I have so far met on my journeys : the Burmese people ! Although they are ruled by a dictatorial regime and although human rights are disrespected, the good spirit of these people is of no comparison. The best known human rights activist in Burma is obviously mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, for who I have the deepest respect.

Henk

FOREWORD please read this before you continue.

I'd like to explain here, why, although human rights are disrespected, we decided to go there. It was a tough decision with two sides: 1. by going (and paying) we were helping the regime 2. by NOT GOING this page would not exist and the beauty of the country and its inhabitants would not be known. In the end I hope that by writing this page (and you reading) I might contribute to the downfall of this brutal regime. I hereby put a couple of links. If you agree with me you might want to pay them a visit : http://www.freeburmacoalition.org/ and/or http://www.aappb.net/

Introduction

This page is dedicated to the people of Myanmar, who regretfully live not yet in complete freedom, but who made an unforgettable impression. Although we had been to the south east Asia region, this country and its people made us realize what a crazy world we live in. Although this is one of the richest countries in it is not visible in any way. This is virtually no infrastructure. The roads are about 3 mtrs wide and although with a tarmac surface, very bad. There is something of a hard shoulder, but this is made of stones, which are chopped of big blocks manually. People doing this were the only people I have seen, who did not make a happy impression. These roads then were shared with cars (mainly taxi’s for tourists, pick-ups (figuratively and literally) for local people, buses and mainly for small motorbikes, bicycles, people on foot and dogs. These dogs had a tendency to lay exactly in the middle of the road and made hardly any effort to get out the way.

The railway is even worse. The first time we made use of it was going from Yangon to Mandalay on the night train. We had tickets for the “Mandalay express” which had three classes. The “ordinary class” (not accessible for tourists), the “upper class” (what we would call 1^st class) and the “sleeper class”, with sleeping cabins. We had “sleeper class” tickets. At first sight this looked not too bad, but as we laid down, we noticed that this train hardly had any suspension and as we had no safety belts, laying in our “bunks” was a problem in itself. Next to that was the terrible noise. The second time we used the train was far worse. This was from lake Inle to Yangon. The first 100km was done in about 12 hours! And almost all the way there was the terrible screeching noise of metal against metal in every corner in the track. The next part took another 16 hrs ! and all that time we had to sit.

The best way to get from one place to another is by air. But the service is unreliable and expensive.

But the people ! The first thing you’ll notice is that 99,9% wear longhi’s. Men and women. The only difference is the knot with which this cloth is fastened and the design. The second thing is their footwear. Again 99,9% wear slippers and no socks. Or, outside the cities, even barefooted which is not so strange considering the condition of the “roads”, especially in the mountainous areas, which are no more than mud tracks. But even then it’s strange to see people carrying heavy loads barefooted, where we had only our rucksacks and wearing mountain shoes.

And where we looking at all these things, they were looking at us (especially Ilke, with her fair hair). Tourists are still a unusual site here. But everyone is friendly. The little children waved whole heartedly and shouted “hello – goodbye”, whereas adults always greeted, especially when we said hello in Myanmar (Mingala bah). And occasionally we were asked to pose for a camera. When we went to mount Popa, we met people who had not ever seen a tourist before !

Twice we slept with a local family (during our trekking) and both times we felt like royal family.

All the other people we met, were extremely friendly and although their live seemed hard and strenuous to us, always seemed happy.

In the summer of 2005 we went to Myanmar (Burma) on holiday. This is an account on that.

Through Vamonos travels we made our travel arrangements. The first leg of our trip was with KLM to Bangkok (Thailand) and the second leg –after spending 9 hours on Bangkok airport- was with Myanmar international airlines to Yangon, where we arrived in the evening and were welcomed by a representative from “7 days tour”, which would be our contact over here. We were then brought to our hotel and we received information over the coming days.

July 12th 2005 - So the next day we had for ourselves and we decided to go the the Shwedagon Pagoda, the most important temple in Yangon. At first we had some trouble finding our way and before we knew it we were in a park, which turned out to be the zoo. From there we found our way. Now the one thing less nice in Myanmar is that tourists have to pay dearly to get in sites like this. $10 pp. But what a sight. Hundreds of pagoda’s assembled here and all kinds off structures and Buddha's. Amazing.

July 13th 2005 - The next day we went to the Golden Rock. Not too far away from Yangon, but due to the terrible state of the road (and the width of it) it took some 5 hrs to get there. Which meant we had to get up very early, to arrive early enough to take a ride with the local people. But unfortunately, the weather was bad and arriving at the base village” from where no taxi’s were allowed, there were no locals interested in going to the top. Which let us no choice but to pay the exorbitant price of 25 dollars to go up. Probably mr. Nice noticed our reluctance, because he told us to wait for half an hour. As we sat for a coffee another taxi arrived with tourists and mr. Nice hurried to them. After a while he came back and told us that he had made a agreement with the other people and the truck drivers, but we had to wait while the other people had lunch. And so we did.

After a while there were ready and we paid the driver 12 dollars to take us up.

After half an hour we reached “basecamp” from where we had to walk for 30 – 45 minutes. Unfortunately mist and some rain had set in. Soon after we started our walk we were accompanied by locals with bamboo-poles on which a chair was fitted. For 4 dollars they were willing to carry us. Neither of us agreed (too proud), but they stayed with us and every 100 mtrs they tried to lure us in getting carried. And after every sentence the inevitable “okay?” was followed. But we were all in a good mood and we all laughed. After a while the price dropped and as we were down to “one dollar” we knew we were getting near. But as they suddenly parted, we had to walk through a lane of stalls for another 20 or so minutes. But in the end we reached .......Was this all there was ? No, it turned out that again we had to pay 6 dollars to go further. Okay, we now had reached our target, but unfortunately there wasn’t much to see, due to the mist and rain. When we reached Golden Rock, the clouds disappeared for a brief moment, which gave an uneerie sight, but before the camera had started up, it was gone again. So we stayed there for a little while and then returned. Collecting our shoes cost us 2 dollars again. Going downhill we met our carriers again and the same game developed. Almost back at “basecamp” a bus with tourists had arrived and we had pity for the people, because those tourists were “big”. The next problem was going down to where mr. Nice and the car were. We again sat for a coffee and asked around. NO, 25 dollars was the price. Ilke had no ears for that and she said we would walk the way down. After we had walked some 100mtr we heard some-one call and we were told that for 10 dollars we could get a hitch. Obviously we took the offer and in hindsight I’m glad we did, because if we had walked, we would have arrived in darkness.

Mr. Nice took us to the hotel, some 15 minutes drive from here. We went to our designated cabin and rested for a while, before we went back to the village for diner. After that again back to the hotel where we sat for a while on a very nice, roofed terrace, all furnished with teak chairs and tables. It was here that we found out about the gecko’s for the first time.

July 14th 2005 - Today was our journey back to Yangon. This time we were in no particular hurry. It turned out that mr. Nice had slept in the village, so he had returned yesterday-evening again, after dropping us off. Luckily, the weather had changed again. We stopped at ...... to watch the pagoda with a lying Buddha. But after Shwedagon this wasn’t new. We had some stops at places, but as they kept charging tourist, we didn’t enter any more pagoda’s.

As we reached Yangon again we had some time to spare and mr. Nice brought us to the ....market, where Ilke wanted to see some gemstones. Thousands of them lay in all kinds of stalls. How can anyone make a choice ? Well, Ilke couldn’t either and after a while we went back to mr. Nice, who then brought us to the station for the night train to Mandalay. He dropped us off and we said goodbye, tipping him nicely. After we had sat for a while he returned with two bottles of water and bananas and gave it to us. Then he told some guy to watch over us. Again we said goodbye and he assured us things were going to be okay, and he had tipped this guy already. At about 6pm the train entered the station, but we had to wait for another hour before we could enter. Our “guy” carried some of our luggage to our compartment and then asked for 2 dollar. We had an argument, because mr. Nice already tipped him. But he refused to go. After we gave him 1 dollar and looked very angry and almost pushed him out of our compartment, he left. In hindsight the 1 dollar was an enormous amount of money. We closed the door of our compartment, but after some minutes there was a knock. A train “official” of some kind asked us whether we had carried our own luggage. Yes, we said, but in the window was a someone who claimed money. At first we thought it was “our guy”, but this time it was someone strange. I almost exploded and shut the door immediately. This was the first and last time we were sort of harassed. But this was the “big city” of course.

Okay, the train left the station at the right time (!), and slowly went its way. The first hour or so, it stopped frequently at some stations, but in the end it took up speed. This was not nice, because it seemed there was no suspension. Sitting upright it was doable, but after I laid down in my (upper) bunk, I was almost thrown out again. I missed the safety belt. And this was just the beginning of the night. And of course there was the heat. We had a fan alright, but it was just centimeters from me and every time it was directed to me a flow of (too) cold air was coming towards me, but as it turned the other way the temperature rose again. This was not nice. Luckily I found a way to get it fixed in one position.

July 15th 2005 - After a dreadful night we arrived at Mandalay. Warned by things last night I first found out what a reasonable price was for a taxi to our hotel. Then we found someone who would bring us there and last but not least we checked in.

July 16th 2005 - So as agreed we went to the bicycle rental and we rented to bikes. With the GPS hanging around my neck we headed to the north. Target today ....bridge. Easy peddaling we found our way. We were soon accompanied by another bicyclist. After some time he drew our attention to a monastery on the left side of the road. Probably it was worth looking at, because it was not after we made our move towards the opposite of the road, that he rode on. We had to announce ourselves and take of our shoes and then the keyholder went with us to the main temple. In there were hundreds of Buddha’s. After that we were taken to the cellar to look at some scrolls with verses of Buddha’s life. These are written on ????leaves and stored at a cool and dark place. Finally we were taken to the carpenter and we were “tricked” into buying something (in our case a fisherman fishing for a moon).

Next we went on and we came to ......... where a couple of pagodas were. We parked our bikes and sat down at a “terrace” for a cold drink. As always this was served with tea. And of course we were the sight of the day. After we had finished we continued our trip to the bridge, which we reached in no time. We “parked” our bikes and went up the bridge, soon to be accompanied by a lovely young woman, who tried to sell Ilke some homemade necklaces and things. She stuck like glue to us even as we were addressed by an old man, who spoke some Dutch. He had some Dutch friends and now he gave us a couple of old Burmese coins as present (it was only after later that we learned that Burmese people like to give presents. For tourists it is important to know that when they want to give something it must always be done as a present !). In return I gave him a couple of euro coins, which he asked for. Then the three (!) of us continued our walk to the other end. Near the end of the bridge we decided to buy something of the girl. We then sat down for a while and had a drink. We then had two options: or we walked to the end of the bridge and go back by boat or walk back the same route. We decided for the last one. This time we walked alone. Back at the end again we decided to have a drink (because it was HOT). There was a nice terrace with bamboo chairs, that looked very inviting. Of course the prices were double the normal. But we sat nicely in the half sun and we didn’t mind.

After a while we then headed back to Mandalay. Unfortunately this was slightly uphill, so it took more effort now, also because it was so hot. On the way up Ilke had seen a Buddha stone carving shop and she wanted to make some pictures. (in hindsight it was good she did).