Where 8 - Yangon, Myanmar --OR-- Dictating a World of Culture

HI Peeps,

What a month in Myanmar (formerly Burma) - I hardly know where to start or
what to write ........ OK I do know ... as little as possible.

After leaving Lao spent a few days in Chang Mai and then a couple of days in
Bangkok before flying to Myanmar where I spent 4 weeks travelling around.

A few things you should know about Myanmar
- It is a Military State.
- The military lost the elections in 1990 but quashed the result and have
absolute power (there appears to be no ACTIVE opposition and whilst almost
everyone is strongly against the military government they appear to be
content to just wait for something [anything] to happen and bring change
rather than trying to force anything themselves).
- There is no freedom of press or expression of adverse views allowed, and
state informants are everywhere (one comedian was sentenced to 7 years
prison with hard labour in 1996 for telling jokes about the government - and
he is still there). Locals are reluctant to talk to foreigners about
certain issues unless well away from prying ears.
- Corruption is absolutely endemic and is quite open (and therefore all the
top military people are incredibely rich).
- The rest of the population are poor although not desperately poor -
perhaps similar to Vietnam.
- In the rural areas the main forms of transport are pony and trap (for
people) and ox cart (for goods).
- Culture is very traditional - e.g. virtually all men wear longyis (a type
of sarong) - though this is also enforced by law.
- Buddhism is very important - some poor people give up to 70 percent of
their income to Buddhism (this is probably why they are poor whilst the
temples are covered in gold and jewels). In one village the villagers paid
for a monastry to be built rather than spending the money on a water pump to
save them having to collect water from the bottom of the valley !
- The people are very friendly towards foreigners.
- Draught beer is 15cents US (10p) a glass !

The best bits:
- Bagan (Formerly Pagan) - A plain containing over 2,000 temples built
between the 11th and 13th Centuries in brick. A mix of sizes, styles and
colours - majestic in the early morning light - interspersed with farmland
and cart-tracks. A marvellous sight - (although it has be to said that it
does not match up to Angkor, in Cambodia, in size, beauty or detail).
- Inle Lake - A beautiful lake 22km long upon/around which 100,000 people
live from the lake. Most people live on stilt houses and farm the floating
gardens which are staked to the lake floor. Most of the longboats are
paddled standing up using the leg to power the blade through the water.
- Trekking around Kalaw (near Mandalay) - the minority tribes are very
interesting and willing to let you make a fool of yourself joining in the
daily chores such as removing the rice husks with a huge wooden mortar and
pestil (enough said). Stayed at the house of the medicene man in one
village - he gave us some pills which he said contained local herbs,
although on closer questioning it turned out that local herbs included 30%
hash and 10% opium. The're for diahorrea he said ! After that we all had
upset stomachs !!
- There are hardly any foreigners/tourists anywhere !
- Down in the south eastern part where they rarely see foreigners (and the
only bit I did by myself) just walking along the street attracted a huge
amount of attention - everyone saying hello, wanting to shake my hand, buy
me a drink, get me to join in their games etc. After an hour or two it gets
so tiring that I just wanted everyone to go away and stop staring !
- The larest Buddah in the world - still under construction but it will be
160m long when finished in 4 years time (taken 8 years so far and has got
from head to about the knees). I wandered inside (through the missing legs
and up a few floors)to discover in the dim light some newly moulded concrete
statues depicting disturbingly grotesque and realistic scenes of people
being ripped apart by ogres and other animals - apparently a depiction of
hell (it fits into Buddhism between death and rebirth).
- The Golden Rock - An amazing bouldersomehow perched on the top of a cliff
- it should have rolled off ages ago. If Isaac Newton had seen it he would
have reworked his theory about gravity !
On the way up there were stalls selling two main things - religious
artefacts (this is one of the most religious shrines in the coutry) and huge
bamboo guns with rocket launcher attachments that would have had even Rambo
cringing with embarresment at the excess of it all !! And the reason for
this apparent violent tilt at a Buddhist (pacifist) shrine ? I asked one
man - 'It's for the kids' he said !??!


The worst bits:
- The Golden Rock - It's a 4 hour trek - 3.5 if you are fit. So I left at
11am (I had caught the bus at 5am and arrived at the bottom at 10am)and
started to climb but it was so humid I had to stop every 100 yards else I
would have drowned in my own sweat. It was 13km long, all uphill with 1000m
vertical ascent and after walking in cloud and enduring the rain, 5.5
hours later I made it to the top. And then they charged me US$6 to get to
see the boulder !!
The last truck down was at 6pm - BUT they cancelled it because I was the
only passenger. Waited an hour in the then cold rain and eventually was
allowed on the truck carrying all the stall holders down. When I finally
made it back to the guesthouse I told the manager about my day and all he
said was 'You were lucky' ..... er .... How's that then ?
- The heat. Most of the month it was scorching hot - up to 40 degrees C and
it was difficult to do anything between 11am and 3pm.
- At all temples (including ruins) nothing can be worn on the feet anywhere
in the grounds. So whether the path was too hot to walk on or covered in
spikey plants you either suffered or didn't go in (although after the first
time I burnt my feet I cheated a couple of times - much to the annoyance of
my travelling companions who just didn't go in !)
- Being woken up at midnight by the local police who wanted to know what I
was doing there, where I was going and who insisted at looking through all
the visas in my passport - he was particuarly interested in the one from
Egypt 2 years ago !
- Western Pop music is allowed BUT the lyrics have to be in Burmese. So
whilst the music is exactly the same and the words sound very similar, they
have all been sung in Burmese by local artists ! Apparently the words do
make sense but the meaning is not the same. Better than the local music
though..........


Just in cae you thought I was having a holiday here I should just add that
during the last 4 weeks
- I have spent 120 hours travelling (mainly on buses on terrible roads) and
- 30% of the days I have had to get up before 5am either to catch a
bus/train or being chucked off a bus arrived at it's destination - why they
arrive so early no-one could explain !

Now I'm back in Bangkok for the 3rd and hopefully last time (it really is
like coming home !) Anyway after 6 months of travelling at last I'm off for
some relaxation on some remote Thai island (unfortunately the monsoon is
just starting and so I might not get much sun time after
all................)

See ya soon

Luv Pete