Second, should one call the country Myanmar or Burma? It's complicated. Myanmar is the name of the country used in print and formally, while Burma is the spoken name...so, they have always both been used. However, the British colonizers went with Burma so the government chose to change the name back to Myanmar to break from their colonial past in 1989. But, the thing is, this government has been pretty nasty and has killed a lot of people unjustly. So, some countries, such as the US and the UK, and many individuals refer to the country as Burma as a statement against the unjust government. Also of note, scholars well versed in the history of the country usually refer to it as Burma, so there's that. Interesting documentary, I recommend watching to learn more about what happened in 1998 and 2008.
Next thought after watching this documentary, is it wrong to visit Myanmar/Burma? The Pro-Democracy movement advocated boycotting tourism to Myanmar from the 90s to around 2009 but have since gone back on that boycott because it had no effect on the government. Currently, Myanmar is bordering on genocide, read more here. Obviously, we went to Burma/Myanmar, but we still feel torn. Like I said, it's complicated.
We spent 2 weeks in the country and after our first day of going out in Mandalay (second largest city in Burma), Joely and I both thought we'd had our favorite stop to date. And the thing about Burma is that half the time we were amazed and the other half the time we were ready to leave. We looooooooved the sights, but the rest was trying. Let me start at the beginning...leaving the airport in a taxi:
How to drive in Myanmar
1. Steering wheel on the right, drive on the right side of the road.
2. Every time you see a pedestrian, or another car, or a bicycle, or motorcycle, or dog, or intersection honk.
3. Repeat step 2 EVERY time, day or night.
At first I was like, what the fuck, but then it all made sense. You see, most roads aren't paved, and there is usually one road with one lane for cars (in both directions), bikes, motorcycles, and pedestrians. There usually aren't traffic signals, street lights, or sidewalks. Thus, everyone honks to let you know they are there and to not crash into each other. I must say, it takes a while to get used to all the mad honking. I have been to more rural and undeveloped places before but Burma is in a transition and infrastructure hasn't yet caught up with how many cars there are which makes crossing the street sometimes feel chaotic, especially at night.
Side note: Myanmar has shit internet. It's not just your hotel, sometimes it's the entire city. We had a lot of down time in between sights and when you have one carry-on bag there just isn't much to do. We've become so reliant on the internet for entertainment that we were a bit bored. Weaksauce, I know!
Okay, I know it sounds like I am griping so much, let me move on to the good stuff. Check out these beauties!
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| They are applying gold leaf to the statue |
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| Head, tbd |
Oooooooh
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| Fishing |
Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhh
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| Badass balance |
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| Wood-carved |
Side note: Redheads are super novel in Burma. Like, follow-Joel-around-to-take-sneak-photos-novel. My guess, Joel Webb is the Instagram sensation sweeping the nation. Several incidents of people directly asking Joel to take a photo with him. Below I captured a school group who asked Joel to take a photo with them. Once one brave teenager asked no less than 10 photos were taken with various students.
Next stop: Bagan
Bagan is the place in the country for tons of temples and stupas. Currently, it has about 2,000 but had around 10,000 at one point. We got the party started late because we got food poisoning here, luckily it was mild and only took us out of commission at the beginning of our visit. P.S. this incident still makes me wary of cauliflower and 3 weeks later I still fear fried rice.
We are suckers for crumbling old pagodas and stupas. Somehow they are more impressive than the pristine new ones. Joely and I agree that our favorite day so far has been the day we rented bikes and rode around Bagan. I'm not sure how to put this experience into words except to say that at the end of 8 hours of riding bikes around we had huge smiles on our faces. And now, pictures!
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| Reclining Buddha |
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| Traditional Burmese umbrellas |
Excursion out to Mount Popa, a monastery at the top of a 2400 foot high volcanic plug. This is the second time we have been around a lot of monkeys and they sure aren't as cute in person. I'm sure this is colored by having to walk over dry feces barefoot and avoiding urine puddles. (In Burma you have to be barefoot on the long walks up to temples not just once you get inside.)
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| In my opinion, a very cool-looking alphabet |
Next stop: Lake Inle
Why Lake Inle? Over a year ago, Joel saw some photos of the Indien/Indein (spelling varies) pagodas on a blog, which planted the seed for Joel really wanting to visit Burma one day. Check it off the bucket list, Joely. Crumbling beauty!
Here are some pics from our boat tour around Lake Inle.
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| How everyone gets to the market |
Last stop: Yangon (sometimes formerly known as Rangoon)
Yangon is the largest city in the country and being there feels quite different than the rest of Myanmar. How? For example, in the other parts of the country we visited, almost everyone, men and woman wore the longyi but in the big city, it seemed like half the people wore them. I guess you can call Yangon far more westernized than the rest of the country with lots of fast food touting American food and lots of shopping. The internet works better in the big city, right? NO. But the thing that really stood out to me about Yangon was the traffic. To date, the most intense traffic I have ever seen (even more than Mexico City). It's gridlock traffic, every day, all day, no crosswalks, people zooming by in scooters all over the place. I've never been so intimidated crossing the street as I was here.
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| A street that isn't very crowded in Yangon |
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| A street in Chinatown |
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| Shwedagon-THE temple in Yangon |
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| Named "People's Park" in the wealthy neighborhood of Yangon, mostly filled with tourists |
- Food is REALLY cheap in Burma. We went to a fancy restaurant, ordered 3 dishes and 2 drinks, it cost $6 including tip.
- Lodging is expensive, for southeast Asia. A decent hotel room costs twice as much as say, Thailand.
- I was told I look like a Myanmar girl. I can see the resemblance.
- You have to get a $50 visa to enter the country and pay a $20 tourist tax to enter some cities.
- When the sun goes down, the locals come out and use the exercise equipment placed in front of lakes/bodies of water.
- Make a kissing sound to get someone's attention, like the waiter. Note: I rarely saw locals do this so we avoided doing this.
- It is all the rage for French retirees to visit Burma. No joke, there were buses full of these retirees all over the place.
- Burma Superstar makes an authentic tea-leaf salad.
AND...
A big thank you to G.F.O.B (Great Friend of the Blog) Alexis. Thanks for reading, commenting, and texting, It warms our hearts!
