Home »

Final Thoughts On My First Trip To Myanmar (Burma)

Posted by Stuart at 10:10 PM on September 05, 2006

So now I am home in Bangkok, in my palatial 2-bedroom air-conditioned apartment with drinkable water in the pipes, three Starbucks just down the road and pizza that can be delivered if I make a call with my cell phone...

Yes, I am experiencing a bit of culture shock coming back to modern Bangkok from the streets of Yangon.

I think I wrote more on these pages over the last four days than I ever have done on any trip before. Looking back it is easy to see that I was very touched and affected by what I experienced on this trip. There were many things that I observed that didn't quite make it into my journal entries so far. For example:

• There are a lot of female monks (nuns) in Burma in addition to the usual red-robed male monks. They shave their head and wear two-tone pink (yes pink) robes. Seeing the young girls in pink with shaved heads and shy smiles walking along the street on their morning alms rounds was one of the highlights of the trip.

• On the walk to the top of Golden Rock, there were tiger teeth, tiger claws, and tiger skulls for sale. They say that there are still quite a few tigers roaming the jungles of Burma.

• Unfortunately, Myanmar is a very trashy place. There are no trash cans anywhere, and so people just throw their trash on the ground. On my trip from Golden Rock to Yangon, I was sitting in the back seat and was horrified to watch people throw trash out the windows the entire trip. I tried to convince my monk friend that this was a bad thing. He didn't agree, but I noticed that by the end of our time together, he wouldn't throw his trash on the ground. At least not in front of me.

• The electricity supply in Yangon is not very stable, to say the least. We were in a taxi at one point waiting at a stop light when all of the lights around us went out. The traffic light went dark as well, at which point ALL FOUR directions of traffic thought that they now had the right-of-way.

• In Hanoi, all you see on the streets are motorcycles. Here in Bangkok, taxis and busses are added to the heavy traffic mix. But in Yangon, there is hardly any traffic at all, and almost zero motorcycles. Instead, everyone is walking. It's odd to me to see sidewalks and the edges of the streets full of walking people, even in the blistering heat of the day. It just doesn't happen here in Bangkok.

• Speaking of traffic, I don't think I ever saw a car that was made after 1990. The taxis have no air conditioning, no radio, no electric windows, the speedometers and odometers never work, and often times you can see the road below you through holes in the rusted floorboards.

My friends here in Bangkok all want to know how the trip was. I sum it up by saying that it was better than I expected, and worse than I expected. I don't think I was ever in physical danger or in danger of being harassed because of the passport I carry. But the infrastructure is so lacking that it makes travel very difficult and tiring.

So do I recommend that people visit Myanmar? I think that everyone has to make their own decision on this tricky issue. It is an easy trip in some ways, but very difficult in others. The country and it's people are very poor, yet are very rich in culture and heritage. So travelers are advised to do a little research beforehand to find out what they are getting themselves into.

As for me, though, all I know is that I can hardly wait to go back for more!