Myanmar and How I fell in Love

Well this certainly isn’t the first time I have gushed about foreign, undiscovered and breathtaking Myanmar.  If nothing else, this trip confirmed my fascination, love and obsession for the country and its people.

While it is impossible to summarize or stereotype the people and their country, part of its beauty is how different and unique it all really is.  Six months ago, I climbed archeological masterpieces and marveled at the natural beauty of Inle Lake.  This trip, I spent nearly three weeks at the beach, and through researching tourism – I heard of hundreds of other places worth visiting in Myanmar.  And while the people are different based on ethnic groups, language and culture, like the country, whether you marvel at pagodas or catch the sun setting on the lake, they are all just as amazing.

The people of Myanmar are without a doubt the best part of the entire country, and the thing that sets it apart from every other place I have ever visited.

They are risk-takers.  They are strong.  They are tough, they are loving, and they are ready for change.  They are proud to be from Myanmar and look towards a brighter tomorrow.

Their smiles are intoxicating, their strong hearts are inspiring and their motivation is contagious.  Every single person I interviewed, whether they be a fisherman, hotel manager, teacher, monk, housewife, waiter, farmer or police man – regardless of whether they made less than $1 per day or over $8 per day said they were proud of their job and it was a respected and desired job within the community.  They were proud of their work, proud of their lifestyle, and genuinely happy.

What was most humbling was how hard each parent worked to give their child a better and brighter future.  And they worked hard.  Parents were happy to share their children’s graduation photos, certificates and marks and gushed when sharing what they hoped their children will be when they grow up.  We interviewed parents with less than a primary education level who were supporting their children in high school and spoke of Harvard, PhDs and university.  Parents contributed up to 40% of their income towards the education of their children and understood the importance of investing in their children, and their children’s’ futures.

 

A sports team can only be as strong as the players within it, as a country can only be as strong as its people.  Myanmar has the strongest and sturdiest people I have ever met.  I truly believe that the country, as a whole, will soon see the successes that I have been lucky enough to witness from its individuals.

Bago and The Delta

The train ride to Bago

I had a few days left in Yangon before I returned to Bangkok and as luck would have it, one of my dear friends from Rotary happened to be in town!  Ann Marie and I met at our Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship Orientation – in San Jose, two years ago.  She is on scholarship in Malaysia during the same year that I am in Thailand.  We’ve met in Viet Nam and at the Rotary Convention in Bangkok, but this was the first time we had a chance to travel together.

Beautiful golden pagodas in Bago

We took two day trips, the first of which was from Yangon to Twante – a small village on the Delta where the journey to Twante was an adventure in itself.  We took a beautiful rickety ferry ride across the Yangon River, past large freight ships and tiny fisherman boats.  Then, we spent over an hour sitting in the back of the pickup being hustled by local people for rides.  We were the only foreigners and it appeared it had been several days since the last ones (we were told later that last week there were two Australians…) and it was apparent that people were not accustomed to random tourists hanging around.  We wandered around town and realized that there really wasn’t much to see.  We documented the trip to Twante as an interesting interaction with local people, and turned around and came back!

Can you see the three chickens in this snake's stomach?!

But the following day, we took the two hour local train to Bago.  Lonely Planet describes it as a “Disney-flavored theme park of gaudy religious sites” and they couldn’t be more accurate.  As we climbed the first pagoda and stared out into the tree line, beautiful massive pagoda tops grazed the green.   But unlike Bagan, where the skyline was filled with ancient brick and sand tops of pagodas that had been weathered down, this skyline sparkled in gold.  The highlight of Bagan was the snake monastery, where a 124-year old Burmese python lives.  Legend has it that the snake told its owner the exact address he needed to go to in Bago in order to complete the construction of the stupa begun in a previous life.  Every year, tons of pilgrims come to pay homage to the snake, who chows down on 11 pounds of chicken every ten days…we could even see the three chickens in three huge blobs in his stomach.