Summing Up

I just want to say a few things about Myanmar as a summing up.  Even though it was hot and humid, the roads were terrible and the licensed-to-accept-foreigners hotels were few and far between.  However we loved our time in Myanmar.  It is, in short, my favorite country.  The people are its national treasures and they make up for all the difficulties a traveler might encounter.  I’d go back in an instant.

We paid more than we are used to paying for accommodation however the quality of hotels has risen quite a lot and I don’t know if it’s because we are getting old but we also stayed in slightly nicer places than we have in the past.  

The food, as well, has risen in quality, variety and cleanliness and we didn’t get sick from it.  I had a slight one day thing but it hardly counts.  A tourist still must be careful and of course food poisoning can happen anywhere.  Maybe we were lucky.  I know we were lucky in Hpa An.  Our hotel was just around the corner from a famous Burmese restaurant, San Ma Tau Myanmar Restaurant, that we were told was clean and a great place to try all sorts of Burmese food.  And we did just that for three evenings in a row.  We asked if they washed all the greens and raw vegetables in purified water and we were told they certainly did.  We tried ordering their famous tomato salad one night but they were out.  It’s a good thing they were out because we met a young German couple who had just arrived in Myanmar, ate the tomato salad there and spent all night really sick with food poisoning.  I felt bad for them getting hit with food poisoning their first night in the country.  

But overall, we found slightly nicer restaurants and cleaner food throughout our trip.  We spent two hours talking to the chef and owner of Wetherspoons Restaurant in Nyaung U.  He had been trained as a chef and worked in fancy restaurants in Singapore.  He knew how to keep things really clean and his food was amazing.  The restaurant was packed with foreigners every night.  In fact inside his restaurant every night was the largest group of foreigners we ever saw in one place in Myanmar.  Word was out that it was a superb restaurant.  Again, a good place to try Burmese food without worry, a lot less worry than the one in Hpa An because the owner was quite savvy about westerners’ needs.  

Even though we have been to Myanmar many times we managed to see mostly new places.  I figure that roughly our more than 1100 mile trek across the country was 85% new territory for us.  Mawlamyine, Hpa An and Pathein are certainly new favorites.  However, the Burmese people make a place more than anything and in every single region we went through the people were the same great hospitable hosts.  

Myanmar is full of spectacular ancient Buddhist sites as well as unique natural landscapes.  I bet there could be as many as a dozen World Heritage Sites if the government would allow UNESCO to come in and manage the sites.  So far there has only been talk about that happening and the degradation of important ancient archaeological sites accelerates in the meantime.  I was a student of Asian art and architecture and it kills me to see repairs or complete rebuilding of temples without any concern for the past.  Bagan is a prime example but the devastation is going on throughout the country.  I realize that impermanence is one of the main tenets of Buddhism but I still believe in preserving some of the past.  

A rich person might give a chunk of money to rebuild an ancient pagoda in Bagan for the sole reason of gaining merit in the hopes that he will have a better life next time around.  Preposterous. And the whittling away of ancient treasures goes on and on.  Balloons mar any special sunrise experience you might have out among the peace and quiet of the temples.  A tower built among the temples mars the landscape as well just for a little higher view.  Huge amounts of money are taken in by the balloon rides and the tower and my guess is that the vast majority of it goes to the handful of corrupt men who control the country.  We made sure we took sandy back lanes when we entered Bagan so as to avoid the “Archaeological Zone Fee” which also goes to corrupt men.  

When we travel in Myanmar we have little to no contact with the military or government.  Police are even a rare sight.  We are never hassled (except by those two knuckleheads at Immigration as we exited the country.)

We were able to talk to a few people about the Rohingya mess and all seemed embarrassed by what happened and disappointed in how Aung San Suu Kyi has handled it.  They all want to move forward together with minorities included as an integral part of all aspects of the future Myanmar.  The people do not seem to harbor prejudice.  They simply want to modernize.  They are excited about the future but feel hampered by the government.

My personal feeling about how Aung San Suu Kyi handled the Rohingya genocide and the driving of a million of its citizens into Bangladesh by the military, is that she should have resigned.  If she is truly a brave person who stands up for what is right she should have resigned.  That would have sent the strongest message to the military government any one person or government in the entire world could have sent.  But she not only remained the de-facto President but suggested that the genocide didn’t take place.  By staying on in the military majority government she has essentially sided with the military.    

People told us that she is the only hope for change.  In my opinion, if they pin all hope on one person, even if that person is Aung San Suu Kyi, then there is no hope of significant change in Myanmar in the near future or even the long term.  The generals and other military leaders will continue to control all the resources of the country for the sole purpose of becoming unbelievably wealthy; human greed at it’s worst. They have shown for three generations that they care nothing for their own citizens.  

As an example, if the government cared about its own people they would certainly build better roads.  Roads are a pretty basic thing and actually not all that hard to build.  The government has shown that they know nothing about building roads nor do they care to spend any money doing so.  Instead the people suffer.  Their vehicles are being rattled to pieces.  I’ve never seen so many nuts, bolts and car pieces lying by the sides of roads.  People have a hard time getting their crops to markets and huge amounts of time is wasted trying to get somewhere.  The roads are abysmal.  I think a fifth grade class in any country could figure out how to build roads better than the way the Myanmar government does.  Twenty years ago Cambodia had the worst roads in S.E. Asia but they simply got the Japanese to build them.  The Thais have beautiful roads and are right next door.  Why not hire the Thais to build roads?  Each time I have come to Myanmar I think that the roads will have improved but absolutely nothing ever changes except that they get worse.  It’s just one way the government keeps the people in check preventing them from progressing. 

Because the people of Myanmar are so nice, smart and motivated I still have hope for them but the government must change.  I don’t know how that is going to happen when they have all the power and money and will never give that up.  It’s sad for me to see so many people wanting to do a lot of progressive things but are stymied at every turn by their own government.  But somehow I still have hope.  It’s like that guy many years ago in Kyaing Tung who wanted us to come to see his house.  It was not a normal thing to do so I knew there was something he wanted us to see but could not verbalize.  There on the central beam (a huge tree trunk) was written in white paint, “Hope Never Dies.”  Message received.  I believe in the Burmese people.  

lovebruce

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