Travelling Myanmar 1996

This year's holiday led me to Myanmar (Burma). It was most interesting and also very safe. Safe, because I was travelling with Lisa, Chinese girl from Laos who has been in Germany for 20 years, now. She is the daughter of my favourite Chinese Food dealer. And she wouldn't let me enter the forest to meet tigers.

Lisa is small and strong, hardly ever afraid of something. She didn't mind to go by bike. She often changes her mind about things (and about me). She loves Thai food whereas I rather prefer Malay food and also enjoyed the Burmese food. Lisa is a businesswoman, whenever there is a chance, she tries to make money.

Our bikes do not arrive with the airplane and so we wait 2 days in Rangoon, then buy mountain bikes. With these, we get on a ship out to the West, bringing us through the river delta to Pathein. The ship was crowded, as all transport in Burma. After a 24h trip, we arrived. Many areas in the delta were flooded, even parts of Pathein. 

In Pathein, we visited Pagodas and Monasteries. People in Pathein were very nice. We met several wealthy students who showed us around and introduced us to Burmese food.

Most people in Burma wear the traditional longy (= sarong), even businessmen in Rangoon. I preferred my non-traditional shorts, longy was not so nice for cycling, walking through water and climbing stairs.

Travelling north was difficult because of the floods and very bad roads. We managed to get on with trucks, busses and bikes, but it was slow and not very convenient though there was never a real danger. In one case, an armed soldier traveled on the roof of our bus for protection. Wherever we arrived, people were very helpful and friendly. They were never trying to overcharge us though they were poor and we had money. Travel in these remote areas was very cheap, but food and hotels were very simple and I had to burn mosquito coils every night. On the way, we often came into quiet monasteries, very relaxing, cool and clean places with Buddhism being really alive. In these villages and in the countryside we have not seen any of the bad things that human rights activists often complain about but maybe things were not so obvious and folks were afraid to talk.

Next big place was Prome. They have a huge sitting Buddha there, 10 storeys high ! Right opposite is a wonderful Pagoda on a hill, an elevator taking the people up. There are many nice things to see there, many golden Buddha, golden rooftop and huge bells. Most of this place was decorated with tiles, mirrors, or gold. In such religious places, one has to take the shoes off. Often, we were walking barefoot all day long. I think this is very nice but Lisa's feet hurt after a while. In Prome, we had lots of sugar cane juice and Lisa liked it very much. One glass with ice cost 7 cents (US).

Further on our trip we went to Bagan, a place with hundreds (!) of old and abandoned pagodas. Most have been built between the years 1200 and 1500. Some are in a fairly good condition and in use by monks; some have been repaired, but most are ruined and have been looted years ago. We went across the sandy and dry area and looked around. Basically, all structures contain one or more Buddha, some carry drawings on the walls, some allow access to the roof. The Burmese government uses forced labour to repair the old structures. Bagan is a major tourist spot, with many guest houses around and the government making sure that everyone pays dollars so they can take the money and buy arms to suppress minority groups elsewhere in the country. Of course, they say the money would be used to restore the Bagan structures but this is, as everyone knows, done with forced labour. People previously living in the area of Old Bagan have been relocated and their villages leveled in order to leave an untouched area for tourists.

From Bagan we did a trip to Mount Popa, a monastery on a hill. Very nice view, lots of stairs to go up, many monkeys, real tame ones. The monastery is alive and clean, with a lot of gold and artwork. There is always a fresh wind on the hill and plenty of food for sale at the bottom.

Our next stop was Mandalay, a real nice town in the centre of Burma. There are many Chinese and Indians in this town, many foreign products were available. Food there was excellent. We found what they call martabak india in Indonesia, we found a Wild-West bar, and excellent Thai restaurant with real western-standard drinks at eastern prices, and you won't believe it - there is an ice-cream bar serving all kinds of desserts excellent quality ! Durian were nice and cost just a bit over $1. Mandalay has a palace that has been rebuilt mainly to attract tourists. Mandalay also has a wonderful pagoda on a hill overlooking the town. This place is called Mandalay Hill. It is very nice, clean and big. It takes well over half a day to walk through it all, barefoot of course.

In Mandalay, I catch a cold (now as I edit this text in 1999, I need to mention that this "cold" was Malaria Falciparum, diagnosed in January 1998 and treated at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok) and have to see a doctor. He gives me antibiotic and we continue travel further north to Maymyo, where we reside in Candacraig Hotel, a place that was built by the English over 60 years ago. It cost us US$28 for a night, really not cheap, but it was all the old English style. Food was not as they promised, their cooking had gone worse over the years. Maymyo is an interesting place, the architecture is showing a British past, many signs are still English and good quality Chinese products are easily available. The government's control is less in the North and sometimes there are rebel attacks on vehicles between towns. There is not too much to see apart from the town with its many horse carts and the historical hotel, but the air is fresh, temperature is cool and nice.
From there we continue to Inle Lake, a highland lake in the centre of  Burma. It is popular amongst tourists and again the government asks for toll when we enter the area.
We take a boat ride on the lake where people grow food in floating gardens. Everything grows on this water. They take it home and put it in your soup.

In the Inle Lake area, there is a small airport (Heho) and we fly straight back to Rangoon after we have sold our mountain bikes. This saves us the troublesome bus trip over poor roads.

Back to Rangoon, we find our German bikes at the airport and take them. We stay at the YMCA and visit Shwedagon Pagoda. This costs $5 because it is a major tourist object but it is worth it. This pagoda is perfectly maintained and very wealthy with lots of gold and artstuff. We also do some shopping, it is very cheap in Burma. A best quality Indonesian sarong costs $5, cheaper ones go for $3 and local products as low as $ 1.20. Gold and jewellery are always a bargain but workmanship is not as good as in Thailand because of the lack of modern machines. Food is not expensive, for $3 we get a whole lobster at the restaurant. We enjoy spending money, because there is no other place in the world (maybe Bangladesh) that gives us the same value for money. Though basic products are easily available in Rangoon, high technology things are hard to find. Not easy to buy a computer and if, then it is expensive. The day before we leave, we sell our bikes for $60 each. Though the bikes are old, we get a good price because such things are hard to come by in Burma.

We are allowed to stay 4 weeks in Burma, so we spend the last one of our five weeks in Bangkok, Thailand. The air plane takes us there.

In Bangkok, we stay in the Kao San area, all tourists go there and it is not too expensive. We don't like it too much, because people are extremely unfriendly and prices are high, in Bangkok. If you want a drink at the guest house, the lady just points to the refrigerator meaning that you have to get it yourself. If you want to see a room in a hotel, they give you the key and send you up alone, because they are too lazy to walk up. We really longed to be back in Burma.

Hi-tech shopping and fashion is not bad in Bangkok, we get some clothes, electronics and computer stuff. Personally, I think Indo or M'sia is better and cheaper for many basic products. Food can be very nice in Bangkok, but good places are only known to insiders. We take a channel trip, the Bangkok channels are always nice and cool, even when there is the worst traffic jam on the roads. Roadwise, motorised trishaws (tuc tuc) are our favourites. In heavy traffic, these are faster than taxies though a roller-coaster nightmare every time. We are glad when we leave noisy Bangkok after a week and return to Germany.
After all, Burma is a country that I really love like Indonesia and Malaysia. I like everything: The food, the people, the scenery, the religion, the customs, the clothes, the language. Just not the government.

So far our trip to Burma.

EOF