The Two Faces of the Golden Lands

There isnt much in the way i can do my trip to myanmar justice as it was purely and simply incredible and i think the best month i have ever had. Considering even up until the day before i was still unsure whether to proceed and actually continue with my plans, im so glad in the end i did.

This is all well and good now and so easy to look back on, but myanmar is one of those places where reliable information is nearly impossible to come accross and nearly everything is hearsay or complete guesswork. So sat in Bangkok airport in an empty departure lounge did nothing to improve my confidence in the decision i had made. Fortunately more people did turn up before the plane took off but the only topic of converstation was a)what do you think if anything will happen and b)what your emergency plan was should the worst come to the worst during the election.

Arriving in Yangon was one of the more unusual aspects of the trip as having taken off from the bright lights of Bangkok i was confronted by a wall of darkness. The taxi ride down town did not reveal much of anything apart from a confusing mess of streets and market stalls and i really did wonder if i had bitten off more than i could chew, which by the looks of the others in the car i wasnt the only one. Yangon is probably the only place that can call itself cosmopolitan in Myanamr and that really is quite a stretch. Basically the infrastructure in the country is archaic or non existent. Anything that does work was built by the british a hundred years ago and so the electricity grid system is unreliable and is turned off anyway at around 9pm which means only those few number of buildings with generators actually provide any light. The matter is not helped by the numerous missing manholes, broken slabs, dogs etc all of which can conspire to spoil your day. It really does take a bit of getting used to which is why i decided to change some money at the hotel rather than take on the money changers on my first day. I think Myanmar is the only country where you have to do your reading thoroughly before you go as well as do your sums as there are no banks, atms etc and the money you have on you is all that you have for your stay. Changing money is a bit of a headache as it has to be done on the blackmarket which everyone does, but at the same time it is still illegal. So when walking around many times someone will whisper at you in there best undercover way 'change money' which if the answer is yes means being led down some winding dark lanes to there 'shop' where the deal can be done. Another complication is that the official exchange rate is 6 kyat to 1 dollar which results in the highest note available being 1000 kyat. The unofficial exchange rate is 900 kyat to the dollar which means that if you change a decent amount of money you end up needing a rucksack to cart it all back to the hotel. Also counting out large numbers of notes in poor light makes for some easy swindling so having been warned about what to look out for i managed to get some changed. Headache over.

I had planned for three days in Yangon. The first one disappeared rapidly as i spent nearly the whole day visiting the Shwedagon pagoda which left me lost for words. There is more gold on the Stupa than in the bank of england and accompanying this is over 3,000 precious stones, with one of the biggest diamonds the world has ever seen to cap it off. I went during the day but made another trip for sunset and to see it lit up at night. It was pretty amazing but unusually the monks who are normally so reserved in the rest of asia were outright demanding money off people which i have never seen before, yet i met a number of people who remarked on how non monkish the monks were here.

The thing with burma is this it has little variance in the type of sites to visit, if you dont like buddhas, pagodas and stupas then there is little else to see which is why i held off in Laos and Thailand knowing i would get a lifetimes fix in the few weeks i was going to be there. As a result after exploring the downtown area the rest of yangon was spent checking out two or three more pagodas as well as the biggest reclining buddha i have ever seen before getting a taste of burmese life and people. This involved going local so for one day i ate at all the street stalls, drank tea in the street cafes and accepted when it came along the chance to chew betel nut. Most people in Burma do this both young and old and it is the main reason why many people have little or no teeth and the fact the pavements are covered in red stains. Anyway when in rome i thought ill try it. It consists of the betel nut itself, wrapped in tobacco leaf with something else included that i have no idea about. Firstly it tastes horrible, disgusting in fact and so after a few seconds of chewing i had to spit it out. Thinking that was it and slightly disappointed i stood to leave before nearly keeling over as the effect of the drug near knocked me out. I then spent the next hour or so in a lazy chair at the side of some nameless street being fanned by a very concerned looking old lady who kept shoving different antidotal remedies down my neck. The feeling was awful and as a result my one dabble into this field laid ruin to my afternoon which i had to spend asleep after somehow stumbling back to the hotel much to everyones amusemet.

I had already decided before i went that the main part of interest for me would be the far north as it is definately comes under the category for roads less travelled, which in burma means you get stared at alot as a complete novelty item. The best thing about this is that the local population havent been corrupted by tourism and the money it brings in. With this in mind i boarded the smallest plane i have ever seen for a slightly nervous two hour flight to Myitkina a small town on the irewaddy river near the chinese border. This is essentially as far north as a foreinger can go without buying a permit as most of the border territories are rebel controlled and strictly off limits. Whether this is actually for our safety as the police continue to insist or to cover up the no doubt attrocities comitted against the tribal people that inhabit these areas remains to be seen.

Fortunately for me i met Anya on the plane up north who had a very similar plan to me. She did however change my plans a little after suggesting a trip to Indawgi lake which would take two days as the transport links serving the area did not link well with each other. The jounrey consisted of a five hour train journey, followed by a stopover in Hopin from where we could take the 6 hour bus the next day. Not bad but considering the lake was only 100 miles away not that great either. Fortunately for us despite Hopin having the worst accomodation known to man, our stroll around the town resulted in us being invited to the house warming party of the daughter of an 80 year old lady called nora who spoke perfect english. I love these chance encounters and despite hopin being a dump i will always remember it fondly for the sheer generosity of the people. Whilst in the town we also ate at the restaurant of a family that refused all payment, gave us gifts galore and took it upon themselves to make sure all of our transport and needs were taken care of. Honestly it is something to behold.

Here i want to make a clarification. I sometimes call it myanmar and other times burma and this reflects on the two faces of the country that any visitor will recognise. On the one hand the modern political and completely corrupt and failing state of myanmar that will make you jump through hoops and try and block your way at every opportunity and on the other hand burma a land of truly amazing and generous people, as well as the most incredible sights and experiences that you will remember for ever. As i spent a month in the country i have alot to write about and will finish off the blog when i next get a chance, plus the suns out here in malaysia and i want to go trekking.