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Myanmar (Burma), January 2003

We decided to visit Burma again, after many years. The country had left us with vivid impressions. We had booked a cruise out of Singapore and decided to spend a week in Burma before boarding the ship because a port call of only two days just isn’t enough.

I am going to use the "new" names: Myanmar (Burma), Yangon (Rangoon), Ayeyarwady River (Irawaddy River) which are actually not new at all but the historic names before the British, who were unable to adjust their linguistic tools to the Burmese language, distorted them. The word "Burma" itself is what the English thought they heard when they heard "Bamar" which is the name of the predominant ethnic group.

We arrived in Yangon - the capital - by Silkair (a subsidiary of Singapore Air) on January 11, after spending two nights in Singapore. An aerial view of the glorious Shwe Dagon pagoda greeted us as the plane approached. Customs and immigration formalities were brief and efficient (quite unlike our experience 25 years earlier). We were expected by "Desmond" (not his real name), the guide from Diethelm, who at once told us we could forget about the requirement of exchanging $200 per person into the so-called Foreign Exchange Certificates which every guidebook says is mandatory - well, it isn't, but a whole plane load of foreigners were patiently waiting to comply with this silly “requirement”, and we didn’t have to, another advantage of having a private guide. We checked into the Savoy Hotel which is not quite the London Savoy, but clean, friendly, and it has good food, though no elevator, The better Pansea Hotel was not available, but the Savoy had been checked out and approved by our good friend and agent Rex Fritschi from Chicago who had visited Myanmar by coincidence just prior to our trip.

We spent the afternoon at the Shwe Dagon pagoda. This complex of a golden main pagoda and seemingly innumerable smaller pagodas and stupas is simply overwhelming and cannot be described in words and not even adequately in photos. We walked around it several times, amid worshippers, tourists, monks, nuns, ear-deafening chanting, and all the
while "Desmond", an educated man of about 28, and I (with my limited knowledge) talked about Buddhism. Clearly, this non-religion has evolved into a religion in these countries, but the more educated classes continue to regard it as a life philosophy whose tenets should be
followed. And then, there is "Nat" worship everywhere. Nats are spirits that may dwell anywhere, in a river, on a mountain, in a forest. The people "love the Buddha but fear the Nats" and even our guide despite his education feels uneasy about Nats. We also managed to see the Sule Pagoda same afternoon: an elegant golden stupa in a round square surrounded by fierce car and bicycle traffic.

Incidentally, all pagodas and holy sites must be visited barefoot, not even sox! We had just enough time to get to the giant reclining Buddha - 236 feet long - a stupendous sight. Back to the hotel for dinner, and then off to a cultural show featuring Burmese dances which seemed related to Indian dancing but the music is more melodic.

Next day, Sunday, wake-up call at 3:45 AM to make the 6:45 flight on Yangon Air to Bagan (Pagan). Yangon Air flies prop craft, clean and efficient. Huge crowd at airport, but everything went smoothly, and we arrived in Bagan after an hour's flight. Our Bagan guide, U Than The, was waiting for us.We were pleased that we had not been booked on Myanma Air which is owned by the Myanmar government - which we, for obvious reasons, don’t want to support – and which has a poor safety record. The drive from the airport to the Bagan pagoda zone with the sun rising was incredible: hundreds, no, thousands of pagodas of all sizes left and right of the road scattered over about 5 square miles. We didn’t know which way to look, there were so many. Some tall, others low, some with golden domes, some white, most of them brick color, many in good condition (the holy sites are maintained by the government) others damaged by earthquakes or the ravages of time  ----  a truly unique and unforgettable sight!

We were put up at the Tiripitsaya Sakura hotel on the banks of the Ayeyarwady (Irawaddy) River. The hotel is very nice, with a few spacious bungalows of which we were lucky to get one, good food, and everywhere the friendly Burmese attitude. The Burmese people are lovely and welcoming and very eager to please. U Than The took us to an (illegal) money changer in a small room near a market where we got a little better than 1000 Kyat to the dollar. Theoretically, the Burmese are not allowed to accept dollars, but they all do. Forget pounds, euros, francs etc. - here only the U.S. dollar is king (like in Vietnam). And then we went to the temple area. And walked, and walked, around the temples and in the temples. I am not going to mention the names of all the temples we visited - but our very helpful guide U Than The wrote them down for us along with the Burmese alphabet. A word about the temples: A stupa is generally a solid spire on a round or square base, crowned by a "hti" umbrella-like ornament, and, being solid, cannot be entered, but sometimes it contains a Buddha relic. Temples that are hollow and can be entered are known as "patho" and contain Buddha statues, wall decorations in bas-relief or painted, usually depicting "Jataka" scenes
from the Buddha's life. Stupas are called "jedi" here (from the Indian "Chedi"), and both jedi and patho are also called "paya". But Westerners usually lump all of these names as "Pagodas" or "Temples". - I'll just mention the Ananda Temple because it contains four 35 ft standing
buddhas facing in four directions and, a rarity, statues of the Buddha's father and mother.
That day we skipped dinner and slept 12 hours!

Next day, Monday Jan 13, U Than The picked us up again, and we went again from pagoda to pagoda. Does this become repetitive? Not in the least! They are all different, each with its history and meaning. The area where most of them are located is wide open, flat, very little vegetation, on the East side of the Ayeyarwady (Irawaddy). There used to be a village amidst the pagodas but the government moved it to the periphery where there are actually several small villages and towns. I went to a bank which looked like an American bank of a hundred years ago to exchange dollars for FEC's. This bank was government-owned and I would gladly have avoided it but there is no private bank in Bagan. Anyway, the bank manager assured me that he was happy to see an American, filled out numerous long forms for this simple transaction, all the while assisted by a very unnecessary employee, and before sending me on my way he said, thru an interpreter "Tell your friends in America they are very welcome in Myanmar!"  Indeed, we are. The government, though repressive and obnoxious, is very eager to encourage tourism after many years of virtual isolation. Visas are still necessary and costly at $75 a person, but this requirement will be dropped in the near future. People here tell us over and over that Myanmar is not what foreigners think. Well, depends how you look at it. Who knows when it will ever become a democracy, but the
military are no where to be seen. Certainly in terms of personal safety, we felt safer here than back home. We had read about the ill-famed "Tatmadaw" military - but they are nowhere in evidence......Anyhow, where's there a true democracy in Asia aside from Japan and India?

In the afternoon we took a small boat up the Ayeyarwady, very peaceful, a few fishing boats. Saw the tourist boat "Pandaw" which regularly plies the route from Bagan to Mandalay. (We had decided against that trip as it would have taken three days, which we felt were better spent on land). Dinner on hotel terrace (good buffet), later the hotel put on an open-air marionette show (the Burmese are famous for their expert puppeteers) and an elephant show to music which, I must say, was hard on our ears. Large noisy Italian group at the hotel, no Americans.

The following day we went by car to Mount.Popa, about 1-hr. drive. At the foot of the mountain we saw a shrine containing statues - somewhat gaudy - of the 37 most important Nats. Near Mt.Popa there's a 400 ft steep rock crowned by a cluster of temples and stupas - it seemed like a mirage. We forewent the temptation of climbing the 777 steps up that rock! Good Bamar cuisine lunch at the Popa Mountain Resort run by a Singaporean. Talking about food, we ate repeatedly at local restaurants, and found the food very satisfactory, and we never had a stomach problem. It's simple > but tasty, and not spicy like Indian food. The menus feature most mainly rice, fish (always very delicious!), chicken, meat (not so good and we avoided it), potatoes, and fruit for dessert. Usually three courses, starting with a very good lentil soup.

January 15 Early morning departure to make 7:50 AM flight to Mandalay (still called Mandalay). Again that incredible drive thru the vast temple area, this time mysteriously shrouded in the early morning mist. We said good-by to U Than The who was extremely well-informed and helpful. He is a museum guide (and we sent a letter of recommendation to his employer, Diethelm). Arrival in Mandalay after only 30 minutes, again on Yangon Air (this is the continuation of the Yangon-Bagan flight). Guide Thant Zin at airport in a van that provided a very rough ride over a bad road into the city, but Diethelm gave us a better car for the rest of our Mandalay stay. Hotel Sedona is very excellent and probably ranks with the best world-class hotels. We were assigned a suite with kitchen and 2 TV sets in the residents' section because all other rooms were taken by a large delegation of VIPs who turned out to be the Chinese Deputy Premier and his entourage. Because of these visitors we saw a lot of military, police and security people here. After checking in we at once set out on rounds of the city and the various pagodas. Mandalay is Myanmar's second largest city with close to
a million inhabitants (Yangon about 3 million, all of Myanmar about 50 Million). Went first to Mahamuni Pagoda with its large Buddha statue covered with gold leaf to which people keep adding more leaf all the time (This is only shrine where women are not permitted in the inner sanctum).

Lunch good, as always, at local restaurant. Afternoon to several other pagodas, the Kyaung Monastery whose interior is covered in gold leaf, and the world-famous Kuthodaw Pagoda which is surrounded by the "World's Largest Book"  which is pretty incredible: It consists of a collection of 729 marble slabs 6 ft high engraved with Buddhist scriptures on both sides. Excellent dinner at hotel featuring international cuisine.

January 16 - the hotel is now full of Chinese security guards. Thant Zin picked us up in the morning for the one-hour drive  to Amarapura on the other side of the Irawaddy over a British-built 1-mile long bridge. We visited the Mahagandayon Monastery housing over 1000 Buddhist monks ("Bikkhu")living in medium size 2-story buildings. The monks wake up at 4 AM, have breakfast provided by the monastery, meditate, worship and then attend classes in Buddhist teachings. At 10 AM they go out to beg for food. It’s traditional to give them food, they are not turned away anywhere. They have 2 meals per day, classes twice a day. A Burmese man is expected to enter a monastery once in his lifetime, if only for a little as one week but most spend one year, and they can leave any time. They practice celibacy so long as they are monks. -- There are also nuns ("Bikkhuni") whose only distinguishing feature seems to be the color of their robes which is pink while monks wear maroon robes (not saffron like in Thailand). Nuns like monks shave their heads once a week.

Same morning on to Sagain pagoda complex consisting of some 500 pagodas scattered over the Sagain hills. Then the Bagaya Monastery containing over 250 wonderful Buddhas. Had excellent view over the hills all the way to the Shan hills and into China (as told by our guide), including Mandalay Hill, scene of bitter fighting between British and Japanese in WWII. The old royal palace area in Mandalay was destroyed during the war, but it is still surrounded by a long square wall and moat 2 km long on each side. We also went to a tapestry workshop. The people do beautiful work, highly intricate (occasionally this kind of work is claimed by the Thai to be made there, but it is usually from Myanmar).

Lunch at a Chinese restaurant, (but we like Bamar food much better), and then on to Inwha (Ava). Very bumpy horse-drawn cartride to another monastery and a watchtower - not really worth it.

Boat trip on Ayeyarwady River on Friday, 17 January, to Mingun. One hour in a small open boat where the two of us sat in chairs on top of the covered area, no railing, no life-vests, but we felt like celebrities. It was rather chilly like mornings in La Jolla. Mingun boasts the world's largest bell, and the Mingun pagoda which was intended to become the world's largest, 550 ft high, has been left unfinished. Return trip down river took only a half hour. We saw water melons being handed up the steep embankment by hand from man to man for transfer into a truck bound for China.There's a great deal of trade with China with which Myanmar has a very long border. Myanmar exports mainly teak wood, but is rich also in gems, mineral deposits, oil and natural gas. Much remains to be developed.

Saturday, 18 Jan - return to Yangon by Air Mandalay (private line), met again by guide "Desmond" and put up again at Savoy Hotel. Rest in the afternoon and thinking about our many impressions. Dinner at hotel – as always good Bamar food.

January 19 flight via Silkair back to Singapore and again at the Shangri-La Hotel where we had stored our suitcases containing our clothes for the cruise which was sailing the next day. The cruise stopped at several Malaysian and Thai ports not interesting enough to mention> here, but we also took a bus to Kuala Lumpur where we saw the now completed Petronas Towers which are at this time the world's tallest buildings.

And....the ship docked also in Yangon for two days and here we were back in Myanmar for the second time on this trip feeling by now like "old Burma hands"!  This was, by the way, a very fine ship, as we had every reason to expect from a Seabourn ship.

The ship then returned to Singapore, and we spent one more night at the Shangri-La, and flew Feb 2 back to Los Angeles, again via Tokyo, arriving back in San Diego after almost 24 hours including the drive from LAX to La Jolla. A long trip but it was well worth it.

Should one go to Myanmar? Our answer is YES! It is certainly true that the country is run by a nasty repressive junta. But the people benefit from tourism. To the cab driver who earns between $5 and $10 a month the $1 or $2 he makes for driving a foreigner means a lot and enables him to raise the living standard of his family. Isolationism solves nothing (see Cuba). Of course, one should avoid government-run hotels, Myanma Air, etc. which we did, but the budding private enterprise after years of failure of the "Burmese Road to Socialism" ought to be encouraged. After all, thousands of Americans visit China without giving a thought to its repressive regime! It’s fashionable to bash Burma which is not very important for the U.S., but our government avoids condemning China. We see no reason not to visit Burma.

And it is an unforgettable experience!

34. Bagan

35. Nats (spirits)

36. Monks

37. Monks

38. Worshipper

39. Bagan Temple

40. Bagan Temple

41. Bagan temples

42. Worshippers

43. Buddha

44. Burmese girl

45. Bagan

46. Female monk

47. Monk

48. Ayeryawady River

49. Burmese girl

50. Kuthodaw Pagoda

51. Yangon Street

52. Bagan Pagoda