Burma for Tet

The Vietnamese New Year is celebrated during the first day of the first month of the Lunar Calendar, this year in early February. The holiday is called Tết and is the most important week of the year for many of the countries in this region. All students get over a week off of school, decorations flood the streets, gifts are received and given for good luck, and traditions fill homes and hearts throughout the country. I had a great experience getting to learn more about this holiday through my students and my Vietnamese teachers. I was even asked to say a sentence of prosperity in front of the whole assembly! I agreed before knowing I was to be dressed up as a giant watermelon (my favorite word in Vietnamese: dua hau, pronounced "you a ho"). 

During the month of February, you know that super short month that leaves no room for blogging, I went to a little place called Burma (or Myanmar, as the government decided to call it in the 90's). Burma was crazy. I had left like I had traveled back in time whilst in India, but Burma put that idea to shame. Burma is the land of landline house phones in a booth on street corners where people pay cash to make phone calls. Burma is the land of rope hung from 4th story windows with a clip at the end to send messages from the streets below. Burma is the land of USA-lovers, one of the first experiences I've had as a traveler being praised for my country's involvement in foreign affairs. Burma is a place experiencing a sudden and jarring increase in tourism, which apparently meant a 50% increase in prices and a 100% chance of getting ripped off. Burma is a place of reconstruction rather that restoration, a conflict that is burning bridges between Burma and UNESCO. Burma is a land so unfamiliar with the tourism industry that no one, even those who had next to nothing, thought to ask for money from foreigners. It was a quite frankly a strange trip for me.

Because Burma has been almost untouched by tourism since, well... forever, it was definitely one of the more challenging trips I've been on. First, foreigners have to go through an agent to get a visa and those agents typically won't grant you a visa unless you agree to book tours and hotels through them as well. Ugh, already frustrating. Second, foreigners cannot purchase domestic plane tickets. Period. This is where those sneaky agents step in once more. Luckily, we were connected with a lady here in Viet Nam who made all our flights and hotels for us and did not force any tours down our throats. In the end, it was quite a costly trip, but one that I had been dreaming about for some time now. It wasn't until we realized that everything in Burma had doubled in price since the previous year that we were starting to wonder just how much money we were spending on this trip.

Burma had experienced a 33% increase of tourism from December to February, just as Burma was "opening" to the world. This was very exciting for the people of Myanmar. They were able to show their beautiful country to the world. They were able to make an income in the tourist industry. They were able to practice their English with all the foreigners visiting their country. They were also able to charge us far more than any other Asian country. Though at times we felt we were being taken advantage of, we had to learn to just bite our tongues and enjoy the incredible views we had around us at every waking moment.

Watching the sun rise over the temples + hot air balloons

Our first stop was a place called Bagan. Bagan looked like an African grassland littered with thousands of ancient temples constructed in the 7th century. In any direction you look, hundreds of stone structures dominate the horizon. We spent several days exploring these "corn-on-the-cob" buildings on bicycle, taking our time to learn the ins and outs of as many of these majestic architectural wonders. Each time you entered a temple, you were asked to remove your shoes to pay respect to the holy grounds on which the stupas were built. Many countries in this region boast temples and pagodas that are impressive in size and beauty. But the sheer number of temples in Burma was spellbinding. We're talking thousands people! We spent our nights watching the sunset over the plains and the mornings watching the city come to life while the sun rose. It was truly a breathtaking experience.

Rita and I getting second degree burns on our feet

It was Bagan where we first realized how much the people of Burma were excited about what was happening to their country politically. We had people constantly asking us if we were from the USA and when we answered they would say, "OH! Obama!" It was awesome. As a traveler, I rarely get this type of response. I never deny my roots, but have found myself having to defend them more than I ever thought I would. But in Burma, we proudly told everyone where we were from and spoke to many locals about what they thought about democracy, Obama's visit, and "The Lady" as all Burmese call Aung San Suu Kyi. It was really quite incredible to see people so far from the major cities informed about what was happening in their country.

after a day of barefoot temple-ing

Next up was a trip to Inle Lake. An entire town built around a lake where residents commute by canoe, gather produce from floating gardens, and fish with giant nets and poles for paddling. This community was definitely less accustomed to toursim. It was one of those situations where you feel like a jerk looking around in a town where everyone is just going about their day-to-day. Can you imagine a group of tourists taking pictures of you planting bulbs in your front yard? Or while you pray in church? Or play with your siblings outside? Sometimes, I just can't handle how awkward it must feel to have people snap pictures of your life, thus why I don't have many pictures from this part of our trip. It was incredibly beautiful and peaceful and a big part of me wished it could stay that way for the people who lived there...

leg paddling on Inle Lake

Yangon was our last stop and it wasn't until our last day did we realize it was not actually the capital of Burma. This was definitely one of the warmest parts of our trip that had us retreating to places with AC as much as possible. Yangon was where I noticed how seldom we saw anyone asking for money. It was hard to decide if the people were just not in as much need as others we have seen or if pan-handling is not allowed or if people genuinely didn't want to ask others for anything. Regardless, it was an interesting observation that I have yet to notice anywhere else in this region. 

I didn't realize how blurry this was until now but here is a glimpse of Burmese communication: rope + clip = message delivery :)

Unfortunately, I am now feeling too tired and forgetful to tell you much more about this trip. I am thankful for it as I feel like Burma is on the verge of "blowing up" in terms of accepting tourism and its likely to change drastically in the next five years. It would be interesting to return in ten years to see how much it has grown and to see if the prices have fallen :) Here's to you, Burma. May you grow in a way that brings freedom to your people but doesn't take away from the pristine, untouched land that you are.