Burma...voila!

Today is October 11th, it is now 7:45pm. I am sitting on bus to get from Yangon to Mandalay...a 10 to 15 hr ride...the music presently playing in the bus is strangely very much sounding like African music. I asked my neighbor, it is actually not music but Buddhist prayers. Ahahaha!

My first impressions of Burma, but mainly Yangon for now are beyond any expectations!

Everyone I had met had raved about Burma and how it had been spectacular for them...

So far, I must say that there are two countries in the world that stay true to their reputation and that only amaze you more the minute you step in the country: Brazil, and now Burma.

I think I want to rename Yangon the Havana of Asia (you can even drink a glass of fresh sugar cane juice at ever street corner!!!),. It exudes such a similar vibe in terms of architecture and infrastructure. People piled on top of each other in cages. Very old and washed off buildings. Except that the street life in Yangon is way more active and busy.

But let me rewind a bit...

After spending a very short but delightful afternoon with Olivier and Sybille in their new apartment in bangkok, I made my long way, yet once again to bkk international airport.

Annoying process to do my check in with Burmese airline...which ended up costing me $5 for two photo copies of my return flight!!!

And so I am sitting in the boarding room, eating for my flight to board. I try to spot out the other few foreigners, in order to anticipate and see if maybe I find someone to share a cab ride and perhaps a guesthouse room once landed in Yangon. (All the books and forum repeat so often how expensive it has gotten to travel through Burma). The first person I spot is a going girl reading a book. OK, why not.

She seems to have a cold and to be looking for tissues, so I quickly land a hand and give her my pack of tissues. We start chatting.

She is actually american, her and her boyfriend have been living and working in Yangon for a year. She currently works for the International Refugee Center (not totally sure about the acronym IRC). Her name is Karen, she is 24, from Chicago. I ask her for tips and advice in terms of destinations and logistics. Just in case...

We land, and meet up again right in front of the door to exit the airport. I was waiting for her while chatting in Spanish with a local guide. Lol funny moment...

I ask if she wants to share a cab, and she offers to crash at her place. Hell yeah!

It's funny, she reminded me so much of Heather, Jonathan's wife, back in Toronto.

And so we spent te whole ride chatting about NGOs and the industry. Exciting!

They live in an area (Tamwe) where only locals live, a bit remote from the downtown core where all foreigners hang out. So even better...some great local experience, yet with the comforting experience of a foreigner who knows the city. My luck!!!

I spent my first two days and two nights at Karen and Marc's place.

One of the main signs proving that Yangon, despite its fast pace of development, is still quite a preserved and authentic not a on touristy place is the fact that I barely saw any foreigners (maybe 8 max in a 4 hour span) on the site of the main tourist attraction of he city as well as the most important religious site of the whole country. Further to that, in two days of walking just about all over te city, I have only seen two small tourist offices. Which is just unbelievable! In Ubud, Bali, you see more tourist offices than places to buy a bottle of water.

Oh, and for the first time ever in my traveler's life, no one, but really no one in the streets, speaks a word of English.

It really shows that Yangon is still very far from being a tourist oriented city. Fantastic! I arrives at the right time! Yay!!!

Funny though, because on the cover of one of the local English magazines it says "tourists are coming, get ready!".

The street food in Yangon is simply amazing. A mix of Indian, Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, and culinary creativity. Never mind Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur, just check out Yangon!

Burma has a strong tea culture. Very much like Morocco or Paris with their coffee culture, more so for men, on both cases. The funny thing though is that al the common tea houses have low plastic chairs and tables, kind of like the ones kids use in the west because they are at the right height for children. The teas served, with different degrees of sweetness, are delicious. A mix between the Indonesian and Indian teas.

One of the most positively shocking observation thus far, and especially compared to Indonesia, is that here no one smokes. Seriously, in two days I have not seen more than a dozen people with a cigarette. The might be due to cost, (not sure yet if Burma produces tobacco), and the fact that every male chews on bethel nut. Or simply perhaps Buddhism says something against tobacco. Some more research awaits me I suppose...

I was also shocked to observe that here, contrary to Indonesia, bethel nut is only chewed by men. While in Indonesia, it was 100% a women's affaire where each woman, especially in the villages, would have a little velvet purse containing all the equipment to arm a complete dose of bethel nut to masticate, here, it is sold, ready to chew, pretty much at every street corner. And men of all ages consume it on a permanent basis. Such a strange contrast...

One of the most beautiful sights when walking around in the morning is the groups of girl monks, all dressed in light pink, and carrying traditional umbrellas, going around the neighborhoods collecting food and money. All with shaved heads, and are usually very very young, between 7 and 15 years old!

Throughout the whole day you can see flocks of monks, male and female, but never male and female together, hovering the city its different neighborhoods, to collect food and money from people and businesses. It is so strange because the more I observe this daily practice and the more I get the feeling that becoming a monk is not a spiritual choice but rather an easy and finance free solution to live for people with financial challenges. Furthermore, my naive and relatively poor exposure and education about Buddhist monks thus far handled me to strongly believe that monks were receiving a superior education on top of their high spirituality, and that all strived to interact as much as possibly with foreigners in order to further that education. Well, I now realize I was totally wrong. I asked so many monks today for simp,e direction in order to try and kick start a conversation or at least some sort of social interaction, and none, absolutely none tried to make an effort to help or communicate. So disappointing...but I will persist...28 days in this country to learn more. :-)

So far Burmese people appear to be quite full of beauty. Both men and women exude not only physically but also personality wise, something I did not observe in either Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Furthermore, everyone initially looks at you in a strange way, worth a serious and suspicious face (a bit normal given the extremely low quantity of foreigners around), but as soon as you smile at them, their fave lights up and they smile back.

Dis you know that there is a motorcycle ban in the city of Yangon? It is apparently due to the fact that years back, the relative of a high official died in a moto accident. So since then, motos have been banned in the city. This leads to a high flow of bicycle throughout the city.

Another 'fun' fact is that cars in Burma drive on the right side of the road...despite the fact that a good 95% of all cars have the steering wheel on the right side of the car. Burmese used to drive on the left side of the road during British occupation, but one day, the opposing government decided, over night, to switch from left to eight, just to make a statement and symbolically part from the British. Since then, local car dealerships have not really updated their stock I suppose. And neither have the bus dealerships, which, as a consequence, and to prevent from accident, leads buses to need one of the two driving crew to peak through the windows to alert other cars that the bus is turning to the left.

The traffic in Yangon is just insane! I thought I had seen the worst between Sao Paolo and Bangkok, but Yangon reaches a whole different level. At least with the rarity of traffic light, the total absence of police officers, and the partial presence of street light at night, it create an atmosphere of stillness. Walking tends to be faster than taking a car. However the heat is so disgustingly unbearable that taking a seems yet the better option.

The public transportation is amazing here. Options are train (very slow, unreliable, and only looping around the city), trishaw (an old style bicycle with a side seat), standard sort of modern buses, very old fashioned buses all made of wood inside, pick up trucks arranged with seats on the sides in the back, and huge cargo trucks, arrange the same way as the pick up trucks. And classic taxis. The biggest challenge making it almost impossible when away from the main axis is that both numbers and destinations are written in Burmese, which even for the number has nothing to do with our usual Arabic numbers, and scripts. So taxis, trishaws, and your legs are usually the best options based on your budget. :-)

Another fun strange fact is that until a year or so ago, if you wanted to buy a SIM card for your phone, it would cost you around $USD2,000! Today it still cost a few hundred US dollars!...yet, all the locals have a cell phone, and most even have a smart phone. Yet another thing I need to research and better understand.

The more pagodas/temples I see, and the more I realize how much gold, literally, tons of gold donated in each temple, when the country's majority of the population is extremely poor. I just don't get it. How can faith be so blind that it makes you put your entire life, hopes, and money in the hands of something so virtual and abstract as religion?! Life is not fair, and your destiny doesn't depend on god's will but on your own. So move your ass and stop waiting and praying. Just get moving and doing. Plus, with all the money that temples get I do far haven't seen a single monk actually do something for the community, I am so confused...

OK, let's end this post on my favorite fun stuff about Yangon: the "buzzer" system at apartment buildings. Very very archaic yet ingenious and efficient: a long string tied to your balcony or window with a little bell at your apartment level, and a hook or bucket at the street level, with the number of your apartment on it. (Most buildings have only one apartment per floor). I love it!

OK...Mandalay is for the next post...but I should warn you that Karen told me that Yangon is just the beginning...every next destination will be better than the previous one...and well...after a whole day in Mandalay, she was sooooo right!!!
(Though I started this post in the bus in Yangon, I am finishing it in the lobby of the hotel I am staying at in Mandalay).

Good night!