Myanmar or Burma?:
When I told people I was going to Myanmar most people wouldn’t understand which country I was talking about and just after mentioning Burma they would seem to get an idea. So which name is correct, Myanmar or Burma? Well, in 1989 the military junta decided to get rid of the name Burma (including other names remaining from the British colonial-era) and replacing it by Myanmar. The name Myanmar is officially recognized by the UN but most opposition groups in the country (as well as the US) still refer to the country as Burma, as the name was changed without any reference to the will of the Burmese people.
Edit: I just had a conversation with a local guide and he had a different opinion on that matter. He explained to us that the term Burma actually only refers to the Burmese people and calling the whole country Burma is therefore wrong, as there are many other ethnic groups living in it. In fact Burma is only a state within the country and Myanmar comprises all ethnic groups, no matter if Burmese, Shan or Kayin etc.
Considering this I will refer to the country only as Myanmar from now on.
Some Facts:
As most people seem to know little about this country as it was (and still is) quite isolated from the rest of the world, I decided to begin with a short introduction to Burma itself, just to give you an idea of what this country is all about.
Population: ca. 60 million
Capital: Nay Pyi Taw (since 2006)
Ethnic Groups: Bamar (69%), Shan, Kayin, Rakhain, Mon, Chin, Kachin, Wa
Religion: Buddhist (89%), Muslim (4%), Christian (4%), Animist & Others (3%)
GDP: $435 – $1200 (depending on source)
Internet Users: 0.1% of the population
History in a few words: Country divided into several kingdoms -> 3 Burmese empires -> Colony under British rule -> world’s longest running military dictatorship -> elections (1990), military refuses to accept results -> elections (2010) which are flawed -> officially moving towards democracy, but the military is still pulling the strings
I can only compare Myanmar to Iran, but as far as I can tell the country shows the typical symptoms of a strict dictatorship. Oppositional movements are suppressed and thousands of political prisoners occupy the country’s prisons. The media is strictly controlled by the government (as is the internet to some extent) and most western countries have embargos against Myanmar making international trade mostly impossible. The only countries Myanmar is really trading with are China and Thailand. International Bank Cards don’t work, in fact Myanmar is a cash-only economy, and neither do international mobile phones.
On top of that Myanmar is a very poor country. Most people earn less than $2 a day and even well-educated teachers would earn far less than $200 a months. Considering how much money people earn it is shocking how expensive many things are in this country. A long distance bus costs around $10, a train ride $5-$35, hotel rooms at least $10 in many places and a local SIM-card sets you back a staggering $230. Basic products such as food or washing powder on the other hand are fairly cheap.
Furthermore the whole country has major electricity blackouts (at least a few times a day) even in the bigger cities and I’ve been to mountain villages without any electricity whatsoever. Internet is rare (even though not hard to find in any mid-sized city) and very slow.
Myanmar is rather new to tourism as the government just opened the borders for tourists in recent years and as the newcomer in South East Asia Myanmar is still far behind most other countries in this part of the world in terms of visitors, but it seems that there are more and more people coming every year (so now is the time to go 😉
Despite of all their problems and their government Myanmar people are very friendly and welcoming and Myanmar is a great country to travel in.
My travels so far:
I flew into Yangon which is the former capital and the biggest city in Myanmar with 4.35 million inhabitants. As most big South-East Asian cities it can be described as loud, dirty and polluted. Nonetheless Yangon is a good starting point to get familiar with Myanmar culture and food and there are some beautiful sights in and around the city. By far the most amazing sight in Yangon is the massive Shwedagon Paya (Paya means pagoda/Buddhist temple), which is built on a hill and completely covered in gold, so lit up at night in can be seen already from quite far away. Despite being very impressive and beautiful itself, the whole temple-complex also has bit of a tacky Disney-like feeling to it (which is the case for many temples in Myanmar). Buddha statues are backlit by flashy neon lights and buildings covered in fairy lights. These tacky “accessories” in contrast to the historical and religious significance of these buildings create a rather unreal atmosphere. We made the same experience in Malaysia already and I will encounter many more temples like this in the following weeks; I will state my opinion about all of this in a future post dealing with Buddhism in modern times.
Besides the very impressive Shwedagon Paya, there are many smaller temples scattered around town (one in the centre of a roundabout) and a few museums which I didn’t visit, mainly because the entrance fee goes to the government. So after 1.5 days in Yangon I decided to head on to Bagan, around 12 hours north of Yangon. A girl staying in the same guesthouse (Claire) happened to travel the same way, so we ended up sharing many taxis (and horse-carts) etc. during the following days, which is always a big financial advantage compared to traveling on your own.
The Bagan area is the area around the town of Bagan which is scattered with thousands of temples and temple-ruins. Around the 11th century the Kings of Bagan decided to go a little bit over the top and commission 4000 temples in a period of only 230 years. Therefore the whole area is like a massive playground for temple fanatics. Some are still actively used, some are just ruins, some areincredibly big and some are so small that they look like fancy garden sheds compared to the big ones. There are so many temples, that when standing on a hill or on top of one of the temples one can see dozens and dozens of temple-roofs peaking up from the landscape in any direction right up to the horizon, which creates a magical atmosphere. The best time to stroll around the temples seemed to be 5am (I am actually used to getting up that early by now, who would have thought) when Buddhist monks start walking down the streets in order to collect donations and when the temperatures are still pleasant. During the afternoon the temperatures in this area went up to 44 °C, which is almost bearable from the back of a horse-cart, but cycling through that heat (as I did on the second day) comes close to self-inflicted torture.
Even though one could spend a week in Bagan in order to visit all the temples, I reckon 2 days are enough as there is not much to do in that area besides temple crawling. Therefore I decided to catch the bus to Mandalay after 2 full days of heat and temple mayhem. Before leaving Bagan however we got invited for dinner by a local family. As usual this was one of the more fascinating evenings, as we could get an insight into local life and discuss national matters including politics. And even though the parents were well educated and worked as teachers it was shocking how basic the standards of living are in this country even for those who are not considered poor in Myanmar. The house was a simple wooden structure, the whole family sleeps in one room, fire is used for cooking and when the electricity went off (as it does very often) we used candles to light the room.
In the end it was an enjoyable evening with good food and informative conversations, and I really hope that things in this country are going to change for the better, so that all those people can actually use their smart minds to achieve some of their dreams.
After another long bus ride without getting much sleep I arrived in Mandaly in the morning. It appeared to be another big city with the same amount of pollution, noise and dirt as Yangon. It was worth however to hang around for a couple of days, as there are quite a few things to see around the city. One temple with a particular significance was Mahamuni Paya, which is covered in a particularly thick gold layer. Sticking very very thin leaf-gold onto a Buddha statue is common in many temples, but in this temple it is so popular, that the whole statue is covered in a 6 inch thick layer of real gold.
In the evening we were planning on visiting a teak temple, but unfortunately the temple was closed at night. Instead we happened to wander around the Mandalay suburbs and observed hundreds of monks sitting in front of a TV watching stupid action movies. Unfortunately it was far too dark to take a picture of that quite entertaining scene.
The next morning I met up with three other travelers at 5am in the morning in order to share a taxi to visit a few sights which are further away from the city. We went to U Bein’s Bridge for sunrise, which is the longest teak bridge in the world which is quite scenic especially at sunrise and sunset.
Unfortunately the light conditions haven’t been good for amazing photographs during my whole stay in Myanmar, as it is rainy season and even when it is not rainy the sky is cloudy and grey most of the time. Nonetheless the bridge is an amazing spot in the morning to watch monks crossing over the lake when the place is the least crowded. Afterwards we went to Sagaging Hill, again a place which is covered in temples, and to Inwa, a small rural village which takes you away from the busy city into an area of small villages, horse-carts and wooden houses. I will finish this blog entry here as it seems very long already. The next entry about my journey into rural mountain regions and villages off the beaten track will be following soon. As usual, comments, questions and criticism are highly appreciated.
Stay tuned, Rock’n Roll, Nico
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Sehr interessanter Bericht und tolle Fotos, Nico! Besonders das neue Bild ganz oben und der ” smiley monk”! Wie ein Fotomodell! 😉