Myanmar

For many years I have wanted to go to Myanmar, or as I prefer to say Burma. I have been to 3 border crossings as I’ve travelled along the Thai border over the years and it’s always seemed to have an air of mystery and intrigue. 70 years ago it gained independence from the British which to be honest I’m not sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing for the country because I don’t know the history. But you can still find traces of the British throughout the country and when I was in Rangoon I admired many of the old buildings that date back to the British era. In fact this is what I found most interesting about Rangoon, the old colonial architecture.

 I read many articles on Burma before going and read reviews about the different cities and of course from the information sought you can then try and decide what to see, where to go and what to do. Many reviews said that you could easily spend a week in Rangoon before moving onto your next destination. I spent two days and this was sufficient for me. One of the main attractions was the Shwedagon Pagoda, many reviews said that you could spend at least one day here admiring the design and space. I spent about 1 hour and this is no disrespect to the Burmese people or culture, but I just did not find it that interesting compared to other places I have seen in the world.

I went on the city circular train which takes about 3 hours and gives you a look at the city from the busy inner city to the fringes of the countryside. I was absolutely appalled at the amount of rubbish, mainly plastic that is discarded almost the whole length of the line. At certain spots there are people collecting for recycling and you see them sifting through the mountains of garbage to separate the plastic or cardboard. In other areas they set it alight and the smell of the toxins in the air is atrocious as well as dangerous.

The noise as you walk through the city is constant; there is no respite from the blaring horns and the noise from traffic. The pollution is high; the smell of diesel from the trucks and buses is terrible. There are many street foods but it did not make me feel very confident in eating from them, but I did simply because they were so much cheaper than the restaurants. Burmese restaurants have western prices in many places and to be honest over all the food is not good. The tastiest food I had was Indian or Nepalese and they were mostly good value for money, but the quality of the food is very much a hit and miss affair, I got sick twice in Burma which is unusual because I have eaten in many places and have had little or no problems but I lost two days in Burma due to poor food. I had two weeks in India and suffered no ill effects from any food I ate there.

I moved on to Mandalay and I had big expectations about Mandalay but again I was left feeling disappointed and maybe a little cheated. I lost a day here due to some gastric bug. I found one thing in Mandalay I liked and it was a very small temple that was painted white and covered in gold leaf reliefs and it resembled a catacomb. As a bonus I was the only visitor so the experience was all mine. 

Mandalay was also very dusty and the roads were a lot worse than Rangoon but I did like it a little better here because it was quieter in some ways. I also came here to see the world famous Moustache Brothers which as I said before I’m not sure what it was all about and I think it’s a moment in time that’s been captured and perseveres to this day, I had fallen into a worm hole for an hour to a different time and place.

I got the boat from Mandalay to Bagan as this is the best way to get there, well that’s what they say and they were right. It was so good to not have to go to the airport and so it was just a simple case of going up a very narrow gangplank and on to the wee boat. The journey took 10 hours but it was ok.  The small boat weaved across the river to avoid the many sandbanks that it encountered along the way, in fact we did come across a rather large barge that had become grounded and two tugs were having a battle to try and shift it to deeper water.

When we arrived in Bagan it cost me $3 to get my case off the boat and up the very large sand dune. This was the start of the money grab. The taxi was $8 for 5 km’s. You’re no sooner into the taxi that you have to stop at the Ministry of Tourism and pay $25 so that you can enter this area. I’ve not even got to my hotel yet and I’ve parted with $36.

Bagan is so dry and so dusty, everything is covered in a fine layer of dust and there are mounds of it at the side of the road. The road is narrow with potholes; generally the roads in Burma are terrible. My hotel was on the main street and although a little noisy and dusty during the day, the nights were ok. I rented an E bike from the place across the road for two days which was great to go and see the many Temples and Stupa here. I did enjoy Bagan.

I got the bus to Kalaw after Bagan and the only reason for stopping here was so that I could do a bit of trekking. I wanted to trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake which would have taken 2 days but unfortunately the rains came and put a stop to that. So I spent two days here in limbo before moving on to Inle Lake.

Inle Lake was nice as its set in between two large mountain ranges and once again after we got dropped off at the bus terminal we had to get a taxi and pay an entrance fee to the area, this time it was $3 for a shared taxi and $13 entrance fee. Inle Lake town is very dry and of course the dust is everywhere once more. All the rivers are running fast and are swollen due to the rains over the past two days in the mountains but no rain has fallen here. The highlight of this part of the trip is the boat ride on the lake. You can hire a boat for $20 for most of the day but you have to tell the boatman not to take you to all the side show activities such as the cigar making factory or weaving factory because they are just an excuse to get more money from you.

I flew to the border crossing with Thailand at Mae Sai and was very happy to finally leave Burma. I did meet some nice folk and had some good experiences but overall I did not enjoy Burma. It’s way too expensive. Compared to Thailand, well you can’t compare really. Everyone I spoke to in Burma about the cost of things blame it on the government and say they have to charge such high prices, I don’t know if that’s true. Without sounding too harsh, my experience here was no more than mediocre. Maybe I have travelled too much to really appreciate Burma, maybe I expected too much I really don’t know. I usually make my mind up quickly about people and places in life and I’m prepared to be proved wrong or be surprised at a later date but for me this will be my only trip to Burma. Maybe if this is your first experience of Southeast Asia then you may find it exciting and exotic or whatever, but for me I did not enjoy it that much, in fact it felt that I was going through the motions just to get to the end, maybe it was a bit like having bad sex.