Myanmar – Enchanting and appalling

March 14, 2015

We left Myanmar on Thursday, March 12, with mixed feelings. It is not a pretty country. Its roads are terrible, as is the traffic. Along every road, even in the cities, are lean-tos and shacks that are both homes and businesses for most of the people. The 30 years of self-imposed isolation were devastating to the economy, and in the twenty-three years since it has rejoined the modern world progress has been very slow.

And yet the people are friendly, seemingly happy and content. They continue to be fascinated by westerners and love to have their pictures taken. Although the filth and living conditions are appalling, we never felt un-safe. To the contrary, everywhere we went and even just riding down the road in our tourist bus, people smiled and waved. The children are darling, if a bit timid, and you just wanted to take them home. They did not look malnourished, although we suspect many are.

The Buddhist faith is evidenced everywhere. Amid all the garbage and debris magnificent pagodas and temples rise up. Buddha is not worshiped as a god, but rather he is a symbol of a belief that the good that one does is rewarded in the next life and faithful Buddhists hope to achieve nirvana at some point. The bowing we see at the shrines and pagodas is a show of reverence for the tenets espoused by Buddha. We visited a number of Buddhas, pagodas (one of which is said to house a hair of Buddha’s), and a monastery. There are twenty different Buddha poses, including two reclining – one relaxing and one pass over.

We were in Myanmar 2 ½ days and two nights. On day-one (March 11) we visited the World War II Cemetery where over 27,000 Allied soldiers who died in the Burma and Assam campaigns are buried. It was very moving. Then it was on to Bago, the ancient Mon capital. The Mon are the oldest of the eight predominant cultures in Myanmar and are thought to have migrated from China in AD 825. There we visited several Buddha sites, the magnificent, 1000-year-old Shwemawdaw Pagoda; the Golden Palace built in the 15^th century (now restored) by King Binya U; and a Mon village where we watched the traditional wrap skirts for men and women being produced on hand looms. I bought one and wore it to the dinner the next night.

Everywhere we went we saw watermelons for sale. All along the road, stand after stand after stand of watermelons. I have never seen so many watermelons in my life not even in Georgia or Arkansas! Fortunately, at the restaurant where we had lunch watermelon was on the menu. Delicious. This is Myanmar’s “summer” season and the rainy season rice crop has been harvested. That’s when the watermelon crop is planted – between the rainy season and summer season rice crops.

The next day we visited a monastery and Thanlyin Village – not a re-creation but a real village – where we interacted with the people, using our only Burmese expression – min ga la ba, meaning “good morning, good afternoon, and good evening – every chance we got. We were then transported to a local market via pony carts, and then transported back to the bus via trishaw – a bicycle with a side saddle seat attached. Note, these seats are made for thinner people, but we managed to squeeze our over-sized American butts in adequately enough. Not everyone in our group was that lucky.

That evening we had dinner at Le Planteur Restaurant & Bar, a world-class French restaurant housed in the former Australian Embassy. We dined at tables set up next to a lovely lake and were entertained by traditional Myanmar dances. The food and ambiance were excellent and we easily forgot where we were until we left the restaurant and walked down the long, pot-holed, driveway to our bus for the 1 ½ hour ride back to the ship. Across the lake is the home in which Aung San Su Kyi was held in house arrest for 26 years.  We passed her house on the way to the restaurant.

Although we were supposed to have left in the early morning hours on the 12^th, due to tides and other considerations we were unable to sail away until 4:00 that afternoon. Now we are in our second sea day traveling at maximum speed (22 knots) in order to reach our next port – Colombo, Sri Lanka – on schedule.