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| Nyaung U Early Morning Market |
On our second day in Bagan, we again rented a horse cart, but
decided to deter away from more pagodas.
While they are beautiful – we certainly saw quite a few the day prior,
and wanted to see a different part of the city.
We saw a monastery with monks who lived in caves, the local the big Shwezigon Paya
gold pagoda, and a local village.
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| Brings a whole new meaning to the term "Doggie Bag." Too Cute! |
One thing Suba and I made a point to see – were the tourists that
were entering Myanmar! It is eerie to
wander around the city, as there are some tourists, but not nearly the numbers
that you would expect. Furthermore, most
of the tourists in town are all on organized tour groups and don’t detour more
than three feet from the tour guide holding the bright yellow flag or big
umbrella. So when you venture off the
beaten path – it can seem eerily quiet, empty and barren. We made a point to see the luxurious resorts
in Bagan – analyzing every swimming pool and villa and we even decided to wait
for the luxury liner ferry boat from Mandalay…just to watch rich tourists lug
their huge suitcases off the boat, get into their plush minivans, and drive
away.
It cannot go without mention that while Myanmar has a long way to
go in improving their tourism industry – they certainly have salesmen that will
be able to handle the job once the infrastructure is set in place. In Myanmar – because the government has such tight
control over virtually everything, both internet and advertising are controlled,
making it very difficult to promote certain tourism businesses and due to the
lack of tourists and demand at the moment, it is unreasonable to attempt to
fund such a business. Yet – in the past
few months, since Hillary Clinton’s visit to Myanmar (with many other Heads of
State following soon-after), there has been a surge in tourism. I do not suspect it will be long before
tourism agencies spring up all over Myanmar (which is why Suba and I were so
anxious to get here before!) and I think the industry will experience
significant growth.
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| Applying Thankaka - local Myanmar makeup |
If I were in charge of a tourism business in Myanmar, I would go
to the pagodas and hire some of the young boys and girls selling postcards –
they were outstanding. And when I say
outstanding – I mean, I even learned a
few tricks from them! Their English
was impressive, and they tried every angle to get you to buy silly postcards of
the pagodas. But didn’t matter what they
were selling – it was the way in which they sold things. They would ask you where you were from, and
when Suba and I thought we were being sneaky by saying a different country, they
would rattle off sentences in whatever language we stupidly pretended to understand. We heard Myanmar people speaking perfect
German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and more. I had some children tell me that “You should
write your mother” or “Your grandmother would appreciate this bracelet” or “Not
everyone can see Myanmar – but this is a great opportunity to share your
experiences with them through picture postcards.”
The most ingenious one however, was that, in order to enter the
pagodas, you have to take off your shoes – and you simply leave them on the
side. A few young women, without us
knowing, took our shoes and tactfully placed them in front of their shop. When we came back after climbing the pagoda –
they were waiting for us. “Ah, Miss, did you like the pagoda? Here – I have protected your shoes for
you. Please, look at my shop.” While Suba and I were very poor students with
a very tight budget and had no problem saying no, we quickly could tell how
many other tourists fell for these traps, and learned how successful these
salesmen and women really were!
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| Offerings for Buddha at his feet of one pagoda |
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