Two weeks ago Sue and I got back from seven days in Myanmar, our fourth trip, and I finally have some time to write about it. The theme of this blog is coming to Thailand and the things that happen here, but one great thing to do when coming here is to take a side trip to Myanmar. The flight from Bangkok to Yangon (Rangoon) takes only an hour, and getting a visa is easy if you do it the right way.
Sue and I were there with to other board members of the Nargis Library Recovery project, John Badgley, Hector Rivas and Dr. Thant Thaw Kaung. John is an “old Burma hand”. He has been in and out of Myanmar almost since I was born. He knows a lot about the country and has many friends there. He also has a keen insight into the problems there and what can practically be done to help. Hector is CEO of the largest used book company in the world. He has a number of warehouses throughout the U.S. and sells on the internet. If you have ever ordered a used or out of print book through Amazon, chances are his company fulfilled your order (plug: you can get a better deal if you go direct – www.thriftbooks.com). Thant is our main Burmese board member, John’s counterpart in Myanmar. He manages our activities there.
From left to right, Jack, Sue, Hector, Thant and John. The Bogale, Myanmar library board is behind the table.
This was Hector’s first time to Myanmar and he said he was a bit concerned about safety and what the government there might do to him if anything went wrong. After having been there a few days he realized that the problems he had imagined were simply not there. Those of us old enough to remember the grey pall that hung over the old Iron Curtain countries, how an American talking to a local person could result in that person being questioned or arrested, will be relieved to see that at least the appearance of Myanmar is completely different. The atmosphere appears very free and open, and will be that way if you follow a few rules that are easy for most of us: do not openly oppose the government, hand out anti government leaflets, etc. If you see some sort of political demonstration (we never have) go the other way. While the press has some limits, conversations between individuals is generally quite free and open.
The greatest danger to life and limb in Myanmar is the same as when traveling in any other country – a road accident. For Myanmar you are likely safer than most other places because there are fewer cars. When traveling south of Yangon it was common for us to be the only four wheeled vehicle on the road, with maybe one or two motorcycles within view and about fifty bicycles.
So what is Myanmar like? I think of it in contrast to Thailand. I was talking to a tourist who was just back from Koi Samui, a southern beach tourist place. He lamented that it was not like he saw it twenty years ago. Now it is high rise condos and high real estate prices. What if you could visit Thailand fifty years ago? That is what Myanmar is like.
Shwedagon at night. You cannot come to Myanmar without seeing this.
The people are invariably friendly. The only place they might be a bit testy (one waved me off when I tried to take a photo) might be around Shwedagon, the greatest pagoda in Myanmar. I can see that since one hundred percent of the Myanmar tourists go there it may get a bit old to some of the locals. Even there any problems are minor compared with anywhere in say, Tokyo or France. The Burmese people are uniformly thrilled to have Americans visit. There certainly are few of us that I have seen. I have run into a few Germans and other Europeans, but in my four trips cannot offhand remember any Americans that I ran into on the streets or at any of the major cultural sites.
The trip was only six days, but a lot happened. I will tell more in future posts.
