Fri, 12 Apr 2002

Hello,

I have just arrived back from Myanmar (the country formerly known as Burma) and what an experience. I hadn't originally planned to visit there, but I had spoken to several other travelers who had just come from there so I decided to include it, and I am so glad that I did. Even the name "Myanmar" is not fully accepted by the people since it is a military term (means fast + strong) from a military government. This dual nature really describes Myanmar in more ways than one. The invalid government tries to paint a glossy picture, but there is so much tension underneath the surface.

It is the first time that I have ever visited a country where you can really feel the oppression of the government. For example there is no internet. There is restricted access to use email in some of the bigger cities, but you have to use someone else's account and you can be pretty sure someone in the government is reading it. I heard about one place in Yangon (Rangoon) where you could access the web, but you had to tell them the URL first so they could make sure it was acceptable; so much for freedom of expression. So that is why I have been so out of touch for the past month.

The people are the real reason to visit Myanmar. Almost everywhere you go people are waving and saying hello. It is as if I was a movie star and everyone is excited to see me. This is because they see the freedom we experience and are like a beacon of hope that one day they might have a similar freedom. Also they see the relative wealth that we have and we are like the "rich and famous" to them. I also met so many people who just wanted to talk to practice their English. I didn't mind since it was a great chance to get to know the locals better and to help them out (since tourism is a good business for them to be involved with). I was also so impressed with how helpful, friendly and protective the people are.
One day I was in Yangon and was standing by the road looking lost and a local man helped me find my bus, got on the bus with me, paid for my ticket, got off the bus with me and then walked me to the door of the place I was trying to get to. Another time we were about to go swimming by a waterfall and several of the locals told us not to swim because there were Burmese signs saying that it was not safe. I felt very protected while traveling there. Locals have an extra responsibility when a foreigner gets on their bus or arrives at their guesthouse. The government wants to increase tourism and puts up signs “Please provide assistance to the international foreigner”. If anything bad happens to a foreigner the locals can get punished and/or jailed. This can also happen if a foreigner tries to break the rules. (A local bus driver had to stand in the sun for 3 hours because foreigners would not show their passports to a non-uniformed man).

Even if the government legalized Internet Service Providers then it would still be difficult to establish technology here since the power is going out almost all the time. Almost every shop and restaurant owns their own generator since they are so used to the power going out. Some towns only have scheduled electricity from 6-9pm. The phones are also hit and miss. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. It was the first time I walked into a telephone office and my first question was “are the phones working right now?”

I am so glad to be Canadian. We really take so much for granted. The freedom to go to University, the freedom for peaceful demonstration, the freedom of speech (I read the government paper, quite a propaganda machine), and freedom of movement. Getting a passport is out of reach of many people, some are confined to their town, and som e cannot even leave their house.

It is so refreshing to be back in civilization (by this I mean Thailand). Right now I am sitting in an Internet cafe in Bangkok near Khao San road and am soaking wet because today is the first day of Songkran, the water festival. It is a real free-for-all where anyone can dump water on anyone else. There are lady-boys dancing in the street, loud music is playing, and there are so many people.

Last time I emailed I was in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Between then and Myanmar I also visited Angkor. I spent three days climbing over the ruins and enjoying seeing the old temples. My favorite was definitely “Bayon”. You have probably seen pictures of the faces carved into the 4 directions of every tower; there are over 50 really large faces. I did a few sketches, and went back a couple times to see the carvings under different light. I also really loved “Ta Prohm” where elegant old trees are embedded and growing out of the centuries-old ruins. It is such a cool demonstration of the power of nature over the stone.

There are so many ruins at Angkor; I only saw a small fraction even though I spent three full days there. My best day was when I bicycled and saw some of the smaller ruins where there were almost no other tourists in sight and I could stop along the way whenever I wanted to see something.


The next day I took a 4.5-hour boat ride to Battambang and threw up the whole way. I really felt horrible; it was the first time this trip that I felt bad. I even tried to find a clinic, but the doctor just handed me some pills without even checking if I had a fever. I just handed them back and took a re-hydration solution. I don’t know if it was motion sickness or not, but I decided to head back to Thailand and the comforts of my cousin’s house in Bangkok. Then I spent a relaxing few days in Bangkok, recovering from whatever was wrong with me, and sorting out my visa and flight to Myanmar.

I flew to Yangon (formerly Rangoon) and after a couple days of sight-seeing took an overnight bus up to Mandalay. The 18 hour bus ride was not as bad as I expected it to be. We left at 4:30 in the afternoon and arrived at 9 the next morning. The bus was full and there were even people sitting in the middle aisle on pull-down seats and the air-con did not work. It was not until later did I realize how luxurious the bus actually was.

I spent two days in Mandalay seeing the sights. One problem with Myanmar is that they charge so much to go see many of the sights. Most travelers are following a common policy to try to keep as much money from going to the government as possible so this means we are not going to see everything that there is to see. But then once you have seen one teak monastery and several temples they all start to look the same after a while. I did go and see some things like Mandalay Hill and the market which I really enjoyed.

After Mandalay I got a shared taxi to Pyay U Lwin. (A share taxi is a taxi that sits at the station until there are enough people that want to go, usually they fit 6-7 people in one small car). Met Yvonne, a German girl who also took the shared taxi and we traveled together for around a week. We spent the day at the waterfall nearby. It was an hour hike down and an hour back up; very beautiful. The next day we headed to Hsipaw where we stayed at "Mr. Charles" guesthouse.
Mr. Charles takes people on 3 hour walks every morning. We walked around the nearby Shan Villa ges and met lots of local people and saw a rice mill and lots of fields. They still use pairs of oxen to do most of the farming. The "Antique" plow is still very much in use and it is amazing to see how much work goes into manual farming.

Spent 4 nights in Hsipaw so that we could catch the “Bawgyo Paya Pwe” festival at the Pagoda.
We saw the opening ceremony. I can't wait to get those photos developed. Then back to Mandalay for another two nights (only wanted to spend one night, but the buses were all full since the students are on holiday). Then to Inle Lake where we had a great day going around the lake on a hired boat (with driver and guide) and saw lots of silk weaving and umbrella making and boat making and silver smithing, etc... Of course every factory also had a shop to sell things.
Then Yvonne and I booked a three day trek around Pindaya. Yvonne does not speak English very well, so I knew it would be a quiet three days, but I could not find anyone else who wanted to trek. The trek was really good. The first day we saw the festival at Pindaya where there were so many people buying things and gambling and eating. We stayed at a Buddhist monastery the first night and then a local families house on the second night.

Lots of walking and seeing the fields and homes of the local tribes. At the end we saw the cave at Pindaya where there were thousands and thousands of Buddha sculptures. I thought it would be boring (I had see so many Buddhas already), but the sheer volume really was impressive and it was like walking through a maze.

Then we went to Kalaw. I climbed up the hill to the monastery at the top and met a nice old monk who loved to talk to travelers (as I could tell from the many photos and letters he had collected from travelers).

Then a short 7 hour bus ride to Bagan. (Yup, that is right, I now consider a 7 hour bus ride to be short). It was great to travel on my own again for a bit. Especially since you don’t meet as many people when you are traveling with someone. Hired a horse cart with an American and Canadian and spent the day visiting the major sites.
Bagan is an interesting place, but it really does not come close to Angkor Wat. The temples are just not as awe-inspiring. Even though there are so many of them and you can actually see more at once since the land is so desert-like. The next day shared a taxi with a Swiss couple and went to see Mt. Popa, which is like the Mount Olympus of the local spirits (called Nats). Lots of small temples on the way up, and it is quite a pilgrimage site for the locals. There were dozens of monkeys on the walkway all the way up. They are not tame, but they live off the food that is given to them by all the visitors (locals and foreigners alike). After a lunch siesta, I rented a bike to see more Bagan temples. Kept visiting the bigger temples, but just to discover that I had seen them already. I biked over 20k that day in the heat, and was quite glad to get back to the hotel after.

Then took a bus to Pyay and arrived at 2 in the morning. I got up again at 5 to go buy my bus ticket to Ngapoli, but all the seats were sold already so I had to take a spot in the middle (no seat). The day in Pyay wasn’t too bad after all; I met some nice people, but would not want to spend more time there. There were 5 of us on the bus from hell. It was supposed to leave at 9pm, didn’t leave until 10 (not unusual) and didn’t arrive until 10ish the next morning. I could not get comfortable for the whole entire trip. I was sitting on a bag of large round nuts and was leaning against several odd shaped bags. At least I was lucky enough to have something to lean against. I thought the trip would never end. One form of relief was the numerous passport checks, which gave us a chance to move around and stretch our legs every few hours. It also become quite comical, especially due to a Belgian guy who kept joking with the officials and kept us laughing (after two nights with almost no sleep).

We arrived in Ngapoli and the rest of the day was spent in such comfort that it really made the bus trip worth it. I just lay on the beach in the shade under some palm trees, swam occasionally and just did nothing. Actually that pretty much describes the next few days. All I did was eat, sleep, swim, and relax. I ate some great seafood, (you would be so proud of me); I even ate seafood from the shell and fish that was served with head, tail, skin… everything.

After relaxing on the beach for 3 days I got on another bus (this one only 14 hours) back to Yangon. I got a seat this time, but it was on a seat like those on a school bus, except that the seat cushion wasn’t attached and kept sliding around. I managed to contrive a sling using backpack straps so that it wouldn’t move anymore.

Spent my last day in Yangon visiting the markets again and going to see Swedegon Paya at night time. Met a really nice monk and his friend and we chatted for hours and I helped them with their English grammar and pronunciation.

There is a big debate about whether or not people should visit Myanmar since it does give money to the invalid government. However it also brings in much needed income through tourism to the average Myanmar citizen. Most travelers that I met were following the same philosophy of trying to spend money that only went to locals, not government, but that is not always do-able. It is quite possible to avoid the government trains and boats and to travel on buses, and to stay at locally owned guesthouses, but the entry fees for places like Bagan and Inle Lake still end up supporting the government. If you are thinking about travelling to Myanmar let me know and I can recommend some books.

I am heading to Vietnam next, and then North into China. I am thinking that I will spend a month in Vietnam and maybe two months in China. Except that I hear China is fairly expensive, so my plans might change. After that, I will probably head South for some beach time in Thailand, Indonesia and/or Malaysia.

Anyway, I have to go now and will probably get soaked as soon as I leave the Internet café. As usual, feel free to forward this email on to anyone else who may be interested. Let me know if you want to be added to the mailing list.

Hope you are all doing well. I love to hear from you.Take CareJen

p.s. for IT gurus: when designing web sites please remember the internet-café international user. This means do not use 128 bit encryption unless you have to (US/CDN only), use few images (I still surf with images turned off; sorry to disappoint the graphic artists), keep the html short, and do not have too much JavaScript that needs to be downloaded - Thanks